Power BI refresh job task

alesventus
Contributor

I have tried Databricks job task to refresh power bi dataset and I have found 2 issues.

1. I set up tables in Power BI Desktop using Import mode. After deploying the model to Power BI Service, I was able to download it as an Import mode model. However, after running the first Databricks job with a Power BI task, I could no longer download the report in Import mode—only as a copy with a direct connection. I suspect this happened because the Databricks job modified the Power BI model via XMLA.

Databricks job setup

alesventus_0-1765874332890.png

2. I was unable to refresh a Power BI model that included a Rename Column step in Power Query. When I removed this step, the refresh completed successfully.

alesventus_1-1765874393964.png

 Error message:

alesventus_3-1765874486812.png

Column month_number was renamed in the Power BI Desktop (Transform data - Steps) to Month Number.

Does anybody have the same experiences? Is there any workaround for this?

Thanks

 

emma_s
Databricks Employee
Databricks Employee

Hi, 

1. In your job did you update the power bi query mode to import mode before you ran it?

emma_s_0-1765877468938.png

2. If changing to import mode doesn't fix this issue, have you tried renaming in the semantic model rather than in the transform data steps?

I set this option to Import before the first job run. I tested the scenario again and observed the same result: before the job runs, the option to download in Import mode is enabled; after the run, it becomes disabled.


Regarding renamed columns in Power BI Power Query, I couldn’t find any mention of such a limitation in the documentation. It might be an undocumented feature/bug.

 

emma_s
Databricks Employee
Databricks Employee

Can you send a screenshot of the refresh power BI task in the jobs UI within Databricks please?

 

Databricks job contains just one task.

There is only one source of the data - view based on delta lake table in Unity Catalog.

Cluster is serverless sql warehouse.

alesventus_0-1765912592090.png

This is the result of the job:

alesventus_1-1765914081644.png

 

 

Problem solved. I was downloading report instead of dataset. When I download dataset and open it, the connection is still Import mode.

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