Forum Discussion
Take over dataset settings message advice
Hello all, my colleague recently left work and I'd like to shift the ownership of a semantic model/report they created.
When looking to use the 'Take Over' option I get the message 'When you take over the settings for this dataset, you will need to provide credentials for all data sources used by this dataset. Any stored credentials previously entered will be permanently deleted when you take over.
Are you sure you want to take over the settings and delete any stored credentials?'
I am seeking to understand what will happen if i go ahead. Does this mean that any reports and semantic models under their profile would revert to my one? Is there a risk that I could break the reports/models by going ahead and could I revert back if I go ahead with this and it doesn't produce the results I was looking for?
Thanks.
Taking over the semantic model only changes ownership of the model itself, not the reports. Any reports that connect to it will keep working, since they reference the dataset by ID rather than by owner. What actually happens is that the previously stored data source credentials are wiped, so scheduled refresh will fail until you go into Settings > Data source credentials and re-enter them.
There is no automatic revert once you take over. Another user with the right workspace role could take over from you later, but they would still need to re-enter credentials because the stored ones are gone.
One thing worth checking: if any of your colleague's content is sitting in their personal My workspace instead of a shared workspace, that content is not accessible to you at all and cannot be transferred through this dialog.
If this helped, a thumbs up and accepting the solution would be appreciated.
Best,
Shai KarmaniNorthy_77 Your follow-up is the one nobody has answered, so, straight answer: it is per semantic model. Take over acts on the item you are standing on and nothing else. If your colleague owned twelve models, that is twelve visits to twelve settings pages.
The part that makes it much less painful than it sounds is a line in the refresh documentation that is easy to miss: "Each user can only have one set of credentials per data source, across all of the semantic models they own, regardless of the workspaces where the semantic models reside."
Credentials are stored per data source per person, not per model. So if those twelve models all read the same SQL Server through the same gateway data source, you supply that credential once and the rest of them find a credential you already own. The job scales with the number of distinct data sources, not with the number of semantic models. Worth counting the distinct sources first, because that is the real size of it, and it is usually a much smaller number than people expect.
On your original question, since the dialog wording is genuinely alarming: "permanently deleted" covers the stored credentials for that model. Not the model, not the reports, not any data. Reports keep working because they point at the model rather than at whoever owns it. There is no undo button and you do not need one, because ownership can be taken again later by anyone with the right workspace role, and the only cost of that is the same credential re-entry.
Two things worth doing while you are in there rather than afterwards.
Look at the refresh failure notification settings on each model as you take it over. Failure notifications go to the semantic model owner by default, which right now is somebody who has left, so a failing refresh may currently be emailing a mailbox nobody opens. There is a separate box on the same page for additional recipients, and taking ownership is the natural moment to point that at a team alias rather than at a person, so this cannot happen again the next time somebody moves on.
And find out whether any of their content is in their My workspace before you plan the rest. Shai is right that you cannot reach it through this dialog, and that is much better to discover now than halfway through.
Is their account still active, or has it already been disabled?
4 Replies
- Shai_Karmani
Super User
Taking over the semantic model only changes ownership of the model itself, not the reports. Any reports that connect to it will keep working, since they reference the dataset by ID rather than by owner. What actually happens is that the previously stored data source credentials are wiped, so scheduled refresh will fail until you go into Settings > Data source credentials and re-enter them.
There is no automatic revert once you take over. Another user with the right workspace role could take over from you later, but they would still need to re-enter credentials because the stored ones are gone.
One thing worth checking: if any of your colleague's content is sitting in their personal My workspace instead of a shared workspace, that content is not accessible to you at all and cannot be transferred through this dialog.
If this helped, a thumbs up and accepting the solution would be appreciated.
Best,
Shai KarmaniThanks for this, one related query. If you do this does it also take over other semantic models that the same user owns or would you have to take over each of them individually?
Thanks
Chris
PauReisResolver II
Northy_77 Your follow-up is the one nobody has answered, so, straight answer: it is per semantic model. Take over acts on the item you are standing on and nothing else. If your colleague owned twelve models, that is twelve visits to twelve settings pages.
The part that makes it much less painful than it sounds is a line in the refresh documentation that is easy to miss: "Each user can only have one set of credentials per data source, across all of the semantic models they own, regardless of the workspaces where the semantic models reside."
Credentials are stored per data source per person, not per model. So if those twelve models all read the same SQL Server through the same gateway data source, you supply that credential once and the rest of them find a credential you already own. The job scales with the number of distinct data sources, not with the number of semantic models. Worth counting the distinct sources first, because that is the real size of it, and it is usually a much smaller number than people expect.
On your original question, since the dialog wording is genuinely alarming: "permanently deleted" covers the stored credentials for that model. Not the model, not the reports, not any data. Reports keep working because they point at the model rather than at whoever owns it. There is no undo button and you do not need one, because ownership can be taken again later by anyone with the right workspace role, and the only cost of that is the same credential re-entry.
Two things worth doing while you are in there rather than afterwards.
Look at the refresh failure notification settings on each model as you take it over. Failure notifications go to the semantic model owner by default, which right now is somebody who has left, so a failing refresh may currently be emailing a mailbox nobody opens. There is a separate box on the same page for additional recipients, and taking ownership is the natural moment to point that at a team alias rather than at a person, so this cannot happen again the next time somebody moves on.
And find out whether any of their content is in their My workspace before you plan the rest. Shai is right that you cannot reach it through this dialog, and that is much better to discover now than halfway through.
Is their account still active, or has it already been disabled?
