Skip to main content

Power BI

Declined

Shared data source connection (live to Tabular SSAS) for reports published on Power BI Report Server

Vote (435) Share
Harsha's profile image

Harsha on 03 Jul 2017 11:21:18

Currently each Power BI report published to the Report Server has its own data source embedded within the report. Any change in the source would require us to change hundreds of published reports individually. Could we have a shared data source/connection similar to SSRS Reports that would help us manage deployment and changes much more efficiently.

Administrator on 01 Apr 2019 23:38:54

We're not planning to make this feature available in Power BI Report Server. We are looking at making available an API to allow you to change the data source programatically, however, to make movement between servers easier.

Comments (87)
Harsha's profile image Profile Picture

e454355b 27d3-ea11-a812-000d3a4e3654 on 31 Jul 2020 12:18:32

RE: Shared data source connection (live to Tabular SSAS) for reports published on Power BI Report Server

It is completely nuts that you cannot have a shared data source on PBI Server. So PBI is now available to far more people under the new licensing agreement and is heralded as a really great feature of SQL Server 2019 ... BUT ... this is a real blocker to migration from SSRS.

Harsha's profile image Profile Picture

1387909b 7525-4f99-adde-78e67fbaedee on 06 Jul 2020 00:18:00

RE: Shared data source connection (live to Tabular SSAS) for reports published on Power BI Report Server

I just ended up here while looking for a solution on how to use shared data sources in PowerBI on prem server.
We do not allow our Data Analysts access to create Data Sources on our SSRS server. We do this so we can better manage what data sources are used, and aid us in easily making changes in the event of a migration or upgrade, as well as the ability to disable specific data sources easily if the need arises. Not having an ability to use a shared data source severely limits what our Analysts can do.
Providing an API to update an embedded data source is not a solution, but a hacky work around for what I imagine is a feature that was purposefully left out in order to get companies on the Power BI Service. How is this feature not available? Is this something that could be added down the road or are we just supposed to grin and bear it.

Harsha's profile image Profile Picture

75a77b75 c5e5-42b6-a825-d9ab99e5b5ea on 06 Jul 2020 00:15:46

RE: Shared data source connection (live to Tabular SSAS) for reports published on Power BI Report Server

a shared data source is good idea to be in Power bi, it;s already exist in SSRS

Harsha's profile image Profile Picture

74b674c3 3894-42cd-b1e0-c75e7cdc789c on 06 Jul 2020 00:06:14

RE: Shared data source connection (live to Tabular SSAS) for reports published on Power BI Report Server

This is kinda silly that it's standard in SSRS and that it's not on power bi server. Kind of a requirement to give access to report developers at a large company. We have done so many clunky things to get around this issue. ODBC connections and keytabs

Harsha's profile image Profile Picture

a3309361 99be-ea11-a812-000d3a8ddfb2 on 06 Jul 2020 00:02:44

RE: Shared data source connection (live to Tabular SSAS) for reports published on Power BI Report Server

With the September 2019 release of PowerBI ReportServer you can now change a SQL Server data source using the API. This means you don't need to download and re-upload the report. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/report-server/connect-data-source-apis As far as I can tell you can only do it programmatically. The manage>data sources connection string box still cannot be edited manually on the report server itself.

Harsha's profile image Profile Picture

a3309361 99be-ea11-a812-000d3a8ddfb2 on 06 Jul 2020 00:02:08

RE: Shared data source connection (live to Tabular SSAS) for reports published on Power BI Report Server

I can only agree with the previous speakers, this function would greatly facilitate our working lives. To have one single point of truth, it is essential to provide shared data sources to our end users.

Harsha's profile image Profile Picture

68f85f75 18f0-4a77-b995-639bbd1b277a on 06 Jul 2020 00:02:05

RE: Shared data source connection (live to Tabular SSAS) for reports published on Power BI Report Server

Dear PBI Team, this feature would be really awesome, in my company we have thousands of users who are asking about this functionality, which was used SSRS. This would persuade many of our customers to move from SSRS to Power BI

Harsha's profile image Profile Picture

687d8623 247d-4721-9266-67adfe591596 on 06 Jul 2020 00:00:43

RE: Shared data source connection (live to Tabular SSAS) for reports published on Power BI Report Server

PBI Team, please consider having the support for Data Sources being available in PBI Server (On Prem).
As indicated by a lot of other users in this post; Shared Data Sources is a feature which allows teams to manage Reports and PBI connection strings thru a singular place.

With enhancements in security, and changes to business processess and policies, changing 3000+ Reports/PBI connection strings manually will be a nightmare.

Putting the onus on developers to redeploy, or exposing an API for the same does not help, as they will have to utilize the API to do the same.
It increases the risk for the developers to erroneously modifying the Data Source connection string per item.

We are doing a POC for Power BI Server. If we have to make the update manually or thru API, it might be a deterrent for adoption.

Harsha's profile image Profile Picture

7f9be0c0 c357-4eb9-93da-49998fbadee9 on 05 Jul 2020 23:59:57

RE: Shared data source connection (live to Tabular SSAS) for reports published on Power BI Report Server

We are in the process of moving to a CI/CD approach for our entire BI team. Power BI reports hosted on-premise have become the limiting factor because we cannot simply point the datasource connection to a shared datasource on the server like we do with RDL files. It has become such a problem that we are revisiting our decision to use Power BI on-premise now and have begun evaluating competing products and they support this type of shared / common data source connection information.

Harsha's profile image Profile Picture

c15215c1 3242-47f5-ad8d-4f6b5b87d822 on 05 Jul 2020 23:59:08

RE: Shared data source connection (live to Tabular SSAS) for reports published on Power BI Report Server

I am also curious when this API will be available?

I'm trying to build a CI/CD pipeline for Power BI reports (Power BI Report Server) and I can't seem to hack around anything to make it work (update the datasources in each environment).