do more mature pbi installations keep pbix and paginated reports backed up somewhere?

[db042190]

Hi, assuming a company is using the pbi service, are items like pbix's and rdl's generally backed up somewhere?  Maybe in the file system or some kind of source control?

[db042190]

thx vanessafvg, just to be clear, and if you know are most installations backing these items up somewhere beside the service?

[vanessafvg]

i am not sure what you mean about installation, the power bi service is a saas.     which means it is software as a service, not platform or infrastructure, the only place power bi will keep a copy of your pbix is if you have uploaded it to the service.    Otherwise it will be your local copy of your file which is not managed by power bi service, it needs to be managed by you.  

[db042190]

thx vanessafvg, by installations i mean IT departments.  I already understand what the service saves.  I'm asking if you've been around to different companies and witnessed if they also keep source control or other forms of backups somewhere beside the service.

[vanessafvg · Accepted solution]

yes most of the companies i have worked with either use a repo via devops in git,  or sharepoint / onedrive as their source control.  Depending on your environment, generally It is not a good strategy to leave it up to the service in Power BI as someone could delete it, alter it etc. 

[vanessafvg]

if your power bi admin allows you can download pbi's / rdl's from the service - in terms of file system / source control, it is up to you to store your pbix/pbit/rdl in source control or in another location.  The only other way to get your power bi related file object is by downloading it from the service (if its enabled).

If you do not have source control, then using something like sharepoint / onedrive is recommended as it will store versioning of the file.  

otherwise there are more formal source control like git etc.