Power BI Refresh Failed – Trouble shooting

Issue: Few Power BI datasets have been successfully refreshed but recently have some inconsistent refresh failures

Possible Problems and Solutions:

a. License level: Power BI Premium license has different level and Power BI Premium capacity is shared within a Tenant and can be shared by multiple workspaces.The maximum number of models (datasets) that can be refreshed in parallel is based on the capacity node.  For example, P1 = 6 models, P2 = 12 models and P3 = 24 models.  Beyond that, you must understand how memory is managed by the capacity.  If memory is consumed by interactive processes (users interactive with reports)  the refreshes will go into a queue or possibly fail depending on resource utilization.  The best recommendation I can provide is to read this whitepaper https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/whitepaper-powerbi-premium-deployment, which provides much more detail.  In addition, I would recommend to install the Power BI Premium Capacity App and begin to analyze the model refreshes.  This should assist in identifying and building a model refresh pattern that minimizes/eliminates refresh failures.

1. So to solve the issue, try limit parallel refresh or
2. Increase the Power BI premium license level through O365 admin portal. Or, purchase Power BI Embedded Capacity through Azure Portal then assign the dedicated capacity to workspaces

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/service-premium-what-is#subscriptions-and-licensing

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/service-premium-what-is

b. Source Database Activities: check on the source database activities during the time datasets are been refreshed. There are might be database locks or database backups going on.

c. Network: Network communication through data source server to Power BI server which is in Azure cloud might be another reason. Please check on this community link for trouble shooting https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Service/Power-BI-dataset-refresh-failing/td-p/196905 . If network is the issue, we can further explore other network related solution such as adding Azure Express Route.

Thanks,

Your friend Annie.