Skip to main content
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Get certified in Microsoft Fabric—for free! For a limited time, the Microsoft Fabric Community team will be offering free DP-600 exam vouchers. Prepare now

Reply
gregoliveira
Helper II
Helper II

Incremental Refresh Policy in Dataflows and Datasets

Hi, friends!

 

I am working with a big table (more than 100 million rows), and to increase the performance, I am configuring the incremental refresh. My structure is:

- Data is extracted from a DB2 database using a dataflow; and,

- Data is loaded into a dataset in Power BI to generate my reports.

I am only setting the incremental refresh policy at the dataflow. However, I would like to hear about your experiences. Is it necessary to apply the same policy in the dataset?

3 REPLIES 3
sergej_og
Super User
Super User

We use often incremental refresh for dataflows as well for datasets.

Maybe you can't download it (but you can by using external tool) but why there is a need to download this file when you're the developer of this report? In other cases I hope you have all organizational .pbix files in a place where you can pic the last version.

 

Regards

The main reasons for me:

 

  1.  Downloading from Service guarantees that any developer will get the latest version.
  2.  Downloading from Service already has the latest data loaded, making quick changes even quicker by not having to refresh locally.
  3.  Having the option to download from Service is a another backup source incase of failures with our other storage options.
cassidy
Power Participant
Power Participant

It just depends on what you need performance wise.

 

Incremental on a Dataflow reduces pressure on the Source, Power BI Service, and reduces Dataflow run time.

  • If you then sourced that Dataflow in Desktop and made that Incremental too, you would reduce pressure on Power BI Service and Dataset refresh run time.

For me, Incremental refresh on Desktop is a absolute no-go because you lose the ability to download the Dataset from Service.

 

If your Dataset refresh time is acceptable to you, I wouldn't turn on incremental as it has downsides along with the upsides.

Helpful resources

Announcements
OCT PBI Update Carousel

Power BI Monthly Update - October 2024

Check out the October 2024 Power BI update to learn about new features.

September Hackathon Carousel

Microsoft Fabric & AI Learning Hackathon

Learn from experts, get hands-on experience, and win awesome prizes.

October NL Carousel

Fabric Community Update - October 2024

Find out what's new and trending in the Fabric Community.

Top Solution Authors
Top Kudoed Authors