Forum Discussion
Organizing lineage flow & publishing process
Hi zenghost22,
This is 100% doable.
Start by making your master semantic model (can be done along side the first report, or made directly in the service)
From there, instead of copying it and publishing a new file each time, in Power BI Desktop use the OneLake connection and connect to existing Power BI semantic Models:
Once that is connected, you are now connected to the existing semantic model. Publishing this report will not create a new one, but will link to the existing one exactly like you are wanting.
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Hi zenghost22
Or would further recommend is making sure that the semantic model sits in a different workspace to where all the reports are going to be hosted. This will allow you to make sure that the workspace where the semantic model resides you are the only person who has access. You can then create another app workspace where the users have. And Contributor or Member role. Don't forget to also make sure that the semantic model has build permissions enabled for those users who want to create the reports of that semantic model. Build Permission for Shared Semantic Models - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
Thanks for this tip. Now if my master semantic model already exists in the same workspace as my reports, how do I move it to another workspace without breaking any connections?
Hi zenghost22,
You can do the steps I posted in my previous message, and then after you have made a report that connects to your master semantic model, you can publish that in a different workspace.
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Gotcha. I was able to figure out the instructions from your other message. However, I have a report that is already connected to a semantic model in workspace A. Even though I'd be connecting it to another semantic model in workspace B with the same exact data, it doesn't let me reselect the source.
I would prefer to not have to rebuild the report from scratch if possible.
Hi zenghost22,
You can only change the semantic model a report is using when it is connected via OneLake. You can't change the model on a traditional report to my knowledge.
If you want the reports to be entirely seperated from the semantic model, then the model needs to be built not attached to a report initially.
I don't know of a way to keep the model and delete just the report when they were built together in power bi desktop.
What you might be able to do is:
Upload your report to your semantic model workspace, that will create the model. Just ignore the report that sits there beside your model.
then open two copies of Power BI Desktop, one that is blank, and one that is your report. On the blank one, connect to the live semantic model that you just uploaded.
Then as long as the tables have the same names, and they should, you should be able to select all elements of the existing report and copy-paste them into the new report.
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