Import Analysis Services Tabular model into Power BI or Power Pivot

[tljthree]

I have a need to take the Analysis Services Tabular model (Measure definitions, Calculated Column definitions,

relationships between tables, etc) from SSAS Tabular and import into Power BI or Power Pivot, so that the Power BI

or Pivot model can be established, consistent with the model in SSAS Tabular.

Please note: this is *not* asking:
- How to *access data* in Analysis Services Tabular from Power BI or Power Pivot
- How to import a Power BI or Power Pivot model into Analysis Services Tabular

Also, I am aware of the following blog post that describes an un-supported way to do this. However, I have tried

that method, and it will not work for me. The resulting Power Pivot model is not usable - it registers as being

"damaged".

http://blog.gbrueckl.at/2014/05/restoring-a-ssas-tabular-model-to-power-pivot/

Here are the software versions in play for me:

Excel 2013/Power Pivot or Power BI

Analysis Services Tabular 2012 (11.0.3349.0)

Does anyone know of a way to do this?

Thanks,
Tom

[sarsbilal84]

Hello everyone,

Did anybody find a luck with this? I am also suffering with the same problem, I want to import the whole SSAS tabular model (with it's accurate metadata) into Power BI so that it shows exactly the same in Power BI "model" tab as it shows in SSAS tabular (Visual studio).

Please comment if you have had any positive experience and will appreciate if you can share the way you did it.. thanks.

[tljthree]

I apologize for not answering sooner. No, I have not found a solution to this.

[ismaelumpierrez]

No problem, I believe we won't have luck on this, @sarsbilal84, @tljthree I have spent several hours trying to find the best ways to work with imported multidimensional and tabular cubes, even when I cannot import measure definition, I have faced other set of problems, so if you have any question please feel free to ask me, ismael.umpierrez@gmail.com

Regards!

[ismaelumpierrez]

Hello Tom, have you found a workaround on this?

I'm now facing the same problem with my customers, they want to work with the models imported on their machines, I believe it's a very valid way to analize data, so I really can't believe it's not supported.

Just to know, I have very similar issues with my multidimensional cubes on powerBI, I have searched for some best practices document on this or something similar but I haven't had luck yet.

If you can throw me some ideas I will be very thankful

regards!

Ismael,

[v-sihou-msft]

@tljthree

No, it's not possible. Ethier Power BI or Power Pivot is just a reporting and modeling tool, it's not a Analysis Services server which can host a Tabular database. They must "connect" to SSAS Tabular model to get data. 

Regards,

[tljthree]

Simon,

Thank you for the answer, but I'm not sure it is accurate.

Yes, both Power BI and Power Pivot are reporting and modeling tools. But, both tools also run an instance of the SSAS engine underneath the covers.

I was *not* asking for the import so that I could have Power BI or Power Pivot to do the exact same job as SSAS Tabular.

Rather, I was asking, so that the model structure, including all of the measure formulas, could be shared with someone via a Power BI or Power Pivot model that was imported from SSAS Tabular.

There are valid use cases for this feature. 

[vickyd]

@tljthree Did you manage to find a way to do this. I have a SSAS model that I'd like to convert to a Power BI Model just like you described and then continue development in Power BI. I'm basically struggling with development in Visual Studio using the latest SSDT (17.3) and SQl Server 2017 and planning to move to Power BI and then import it back as a SSAS Model using method decribed here.