Power BI Service creating duplicate unused datasource when deploying with deployment pipelines

[cstopher89]

I've noticed some strange behavior with Power BI service when using deployment pipelines to change datasource between env i.e. Development -> Test -> Production type of flow. I have SQL connections as well as connections to One Drive connected via OAuth2 and a web connection.

I setup all these connections in the Manage Connections and Gateway -> Connections tab and set the model published to Development workspace to use the named connection that I setup. All this works fine. The problem comes in when I deploy from one stage to the next in the pipeline and change the datasource. If it hasn't already Power BI creates its own personal connection associated with my user. The model still has the named shared connection that I made and uses it but I'm confused as to way there is a mirrored connection created if one doesn't exist when deploying in the pipeline. Escpically since this connection is not used at all for anything. I can delete it and everything works fine. This happens to SQL connections as well as Web. There doesn't seem to be a way in the Data source rules of the deployment pipeline to say go from this named connection to another named connection. I'm thinking this is why if there doesn't exist a personal connection Power BI creates one even though it still uses the appropriate shared connection in the model so it seems like there is a bug where data sources are getting created when they shouldn't in Power BI service.

Any help with this would be appericated. Thanks!

[v-nuoc-msft]

Hi @cstopher89 

Can you tell me if your problem is solved? If yes, please accept it as solution.

Regards,

Nono Chen

[v-nuoc-msft]

Hi @cstopher89 

I understand that you are experiencing some strange behavior with Power BI service when using deployment pipelines to change data source between environments. Based on your description, it sounds like Power BI is creating a personal connection for you when you deploy from one stage to the next, even though you have already set up a named shared connection for the model.

This is not a bug, but a feature of Power BI. 

When you deploy a model to a different workspace, Power BI creates a personal connection for you so you can test the model using your own credentials and settings. This personal connection is only visible to you and does not affect the shared connections you configure for your model. You can delete the personal connection if it is not needed or keep it for testing purposes.

Regards,

Nono Chen

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