Marketo data import failing due to access token expiring

[mthierba]

I'm experiencing an issue with the Marketo content pack where the data import takes so long that the Marketo access token is expiring (after one hour) while data is still being fetched, which fails the entire import. This happens even when I select the minimum data range of just one month. I can see in the Marketo interface, though, that calls are indeed being made, several thousand in fact.

No one else seems to ever have reported something similar, so I'm almost wondering if there could be something special about our Marketo account which makes the data fetch take so long? If this was commonly expected, then a token refresh call would surely have been integrated into the Content Pack.

Would appreciate any insights and help!

[v-haibl-msft]

@mthierba

Did you get any error message while the data fetch failed? If yes, could you please post it here?

Best Regards,

Herbert

[mthierba]

No problem, that's the error:

Many thanks for look at this; we're eagerly awaiting a resolution!

Mathias

[mthierba]

Just to confirm, the above error happens consistently one hour after starting the import - after a few thousand API requests.

Either the Marketo content pack needs to be updated to include token refreshes, or something else is wrong here, and the entire process should never be taking that long.

[v-haibl-msft]

@mthierba

There are some requirements and API limits mentioned in this document, could you please check with your account?

Best Regards,

Herbert

[mthierba]

@v-haibl-msft

I have studied that document carefully, and I can confirm that I am successfully able to make REST calls to the Marketo enpoint using the same credentials that I provided to Power BI. Furthermore, the Power BI data fetch does actually work in principle; I can see in our Marketo admin interface that some 4,000+ API have been made with that account once I trigger the Marketo content pack data refresh.

The issue here is quite simple - it seems that the content pack retrieves an access token only once at the start of the process. It then makes a large number of API requests using that same token -- until it exceeds the expiration time of the token, at which point the entire data import will simply fail.

Hope that makes sense,

Mathias

[mikehbrown]

Still no solution?

[mthierba]

I had raised the issue with Microsoft Support, and they effectively told me they weren't interested in doing any work on this. So, I had to build my own ETL pipeline. Advantage, obviously, is that this gives a lot more control.

If someone wanted to see the M code the built-in Power BI Desktop connector for Marketo uses, that can be extracted from PowerBIExtensions.dll in the PBI Desktop bin folder. Might be useful as a starting point if you wanted to go down the M route.

[Dustin_R_MA]

I am running into the same issue.  It looks like the data is successfully importing from Marketo into PowerBI as I can see the number of rows generated, but after about an hour and about 6k API calls, the import fails and I get the following message in PBI:

Failed to save modifications to the server. Error returned: 'OLE DB or ODBC error: [DataSource.Error] Access token expired. '.

I don't know how to build a workaround for this.  I'm really hoping there's an answer from MS or someone in the community.  Connecting to our Marketo platform is the primary reason we are choosing PowerBI and if it doesn't work we will have to find another provider.

[Anonymous]

I'm having the same issue as Mathias and Dustin. Has anyone found a workaround for this?

I timed it, and it's the same thing - after an hour, this error shows up:

I can't figure out why it takes so long to get this info from Marketo, as it is only loading at most a couple hundred thousand rows. We're not talking millions of rows or anything.

And I've also confirmed that the REST API calls (about 7-8k calls each time it tries) are way below our account limit (50k per day).

Any ideas or workarounds?