Obtain a list of refresh information programatically

[PaisleyPrince]

Hi,

Is it possible to obtain the following information across a list of workspaces programatically rather than manually

1. a list of latest semantic model refresh dates
2. a note of whether notifications are set up and if so, who they are sent to ? 

thanks

Scott

[Poojara_D12]

Hi @PaisleyPrince 

Yes, it is possible to retrieve this information programmatically using the Power BI REST APIs or PowerShell cmdlets, rather than collecting it manually. Through the Power BI REST API (specifically the Datasets - Get Refresh History and Datasets - Get Datasets In Group endpoints), you can loop through a list of workspace IDs and extract details such as the latest semantic model (dataset) refresh date, status, and duration. This allows you to build an automated inventory of refresh histories across all workspaces. However, Power BI currently does not expose notification recipient details (refresh failure or success emails) directly through the API or PowerShell — these are configured at the dataset level in the Power BI Service UI and stored internally. As a workaround, some administrators maintain notification settings externally (for example, in an Excel or SQL reference table) and align them with datasets via scripts. For enterprise-scale monitoring, organizations typically combine these API outputs with Power BI Activity Logs or Admin APIs (accessible only to Power BI Service Administrators) to capture refresh metadata across all workspaces, and then visualize them in an internal Power BI “Refresh Tracker” report.

[v-tejrama]

Hi @PaisleyPrince ,

Thank you @tayloramy  for the response provided!

Has your issue been resolved? If the response provided by the community member addressed your query, could you please confirm? It helps us ensure that the solutions provided are effective and beneficial for everyone.

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[v-tejrama]

Hi @PaisleyPrince ,

I wanted to check if you had the opportunity to review the information provided. Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions.

Thank you.

[grazitti_sapna · Accepted solution]

Hi @PaisleyPrince 

Yes, you can programmatically obtain refresh information across multiple workspaces using Power BI REST APIs. Here’s how:

1. Listing Workspaces and Datasets: Use the Get Groups API to list all workspaces you have access to. For each workspace, use the Get Datasets in Group API to fetch all datasets.
2. Getting Refresh History: For each dataset, use the Get Refresh History API to retrieve the latest refresh dates, statuses, and timestamp details. This allows you to compile a list of the most recent refreshes for all datasets across your workspaces.
3. Notifications Setup: Currently, Power BI REST API does not expose details about whether refresh notifications are set up and to whom they are sent. Notification settings are typically managed within the Power BI Service UI, but they are not accessible via API for automation or auditing.
4. Automating the Process: You can write scripts in PowerShell, Python, or other scripting languages to automate these API calls. Using scheduled runs, you can generate a report of refresh statuses and last refresh times across many workspaces and datasets.

Additional Resources:

• Power BI REST API - Get Refresh History
• Power BI REST API - Get Datasets in Group

While you can't directly pull notification recipient info via API, you can keep track of refresh statuses programmatically and manage notification preferences manually within the Power BI portal.

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[tayloramy]

Hi @PaisleyPrince, 

You can get this most of this info fromt he admin REST APIs: 

• Latest refresh per semantic model (dataset): Iterate workspaces -> datasets -> call Get Refresh History with $top=1 to get the most recent refresh record (status, start/end). Docs: Get Refresh History In Group or Get Refresh History.
• Is email notification configured for scheduled refresh? Call Get Refresh Schedule and read the notifyOption field (MailOnFailure or NoNotification). Docs: Get Refresh Schedule.
• Who are the notification recipients? Not exposed by the REST API today. The service supports adding extra recipients in the UI (“Email these contacts when the refresh fails”), but there’s no documented endpoint to read that list. Microsoft’s data-refresh article confirms only that owners get failure notifications by default and others can be added in the UI. Docs: Data refresh in Power BI – notifications.
• Tenant-wide monitoring: If you need fleet-level oversight, the Admin – Get Refreshables endpoint surfaces refreshable items and attempt info, and Admin – Get Activity Events gives audit events you can pipeline into your own alerting. Docs: Admin – Get Refreshables, Admin – Get Activity Events.

There's not a nice single endpoint to get all of this data, but you should be able to piece together GetRefreshHistory and GetRefreshSchedule to figure all of this except for the notification recipents out. 

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