Question

What is the best way to deploy Power BI reports and connect them to a single Power BI dataset?

I am working on deploying multiple Power BI reports that all need to connect to a single, centralized dataset. I want to ensure that the deployment process is efficient and that all reports can easily share the same dataset without duplicating it. What is the best approach to achieve this, and are there any considerations or potential issues I should be aware of during the deployment?

Answer 1

Deployments of Power BI reports connected to a single centralized dataset are best managed using the shared dataset approach in the Power BI Service. Here is a granular step-by-step guideline:

Create and Publish the Centralized Dataset: Construct your dataset in Power BI Desktop, making sure that all the transformations, relationships, and calculated measures are in it. Publish this dataset to a workspace in the Power BI Service dedicated to holding shared datasets. Use an identifier that is clearly descriptive of the dataset so that it can be easily identified.

Create Reports with Live Connection: For every report, connect to the centralized dataset via a Live Connection in Power BI Desktop. This way, all reports will refer to one source, thus avoiding redundancy and hassle when managing data. From here, create the report visuals and layouts without duplicating the data model.

Deploy Reports to the Service: Publish the reports to the same or different workspaces depending on organizational needs and ensure the permissions on both the datasets and the reports are properly configured to control access.