QUESTION: Centralizing All Data in a Single Dataset: Performance and Management Implications

[CaioBaima]

I have a question about the use of datasets. My question is: is it correct to centralize all measures and tables from all my reports in just one dataset? Every time someone opens a report, will it pull all the tables and result in high consumption of my core's performance? Or not?

[aj1973]

Hi @CaioBaima 

You must referring to reports instead of dashboards (dashboard is a collection of many kpi from one or many reports).

The answer to your question is yes, you can build many reports from one dataset.

[CaioBaima]

Hi. I'm from Brazil and I'm using Google Translate to communicate. But I'm actually talking about reports, not dashboards. I think my question got confusing. I have at least 50 reports connected to one dataset. I'm asking if this is a good practice or if this habit will affect the CPU performance of my service. Another question, every time I open ONE, just ONE report, will it consume processing power to fetch ALL my tables? Even if I only use 1 or 2 visuals in a report? Wouldn't that be detrimental to my performance?

I am asking this because here in our company, we are using the P2 tier of the Premium service, but we are reaching its limits and trying to identify potential issues to decide whether to upgrade to P3 or explore other options.

[aj1973 · Accepted solution]

Using thin reports(like you did) is a very good practice. Fetching one or many tables that depend one the queries you use, like DAX for example if you are using to calculate from one or many tables. In power BI service there is the cache that takes over the performance therefore the CPU is not much used.

Please watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipdMRPdXcWA it will help you identify if you really reach limits and what to do.  and this on how to use the App premium :

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmAuABIwhc0&t=745s