Power BI imports millions of rows when my model only have less than 20,000

[reneincer]

Hi there, need your help!

I have a tabular model with 4 dimensions and a Fact Table with 17,000 rows, I processed it and deployed.

When I import them to Power BI it imports like 10 millions rows, so my question is, how Tabular model works on importing?

Is it a normal behavior?

Thanks!

[GilbertQ]

Hi @reneincer, I think the difference is that in your Tabular Model the data is being aggregated from the source possibly?

Whilst in Power BI Desktop it is just getting the raw source data?

[reneincer]

When I imported just my fact table, it imported it ok!  20K rows and consumes like 300 MB of RAM

But when I added a related dimension just with 10 rows, the memory of my SSAS Tabular instance consumes like 8 GB of RAM and my computer gets freezed, because it is importing millions of millions rows.

I dont know why if my data is just 20 MB it consumes more than 8 GB of RAM, and Why is importing millions of rows?

Does Power BI or Tabular Model do something heavy with tables related on importing? Or maybe a configuration I forget to set up?

I have a dimension table with 9 rows, one with 32, and another one with 30 rows. Does it multiplies 20,000 * 9 * 32 * 30 ?

[reneincer]

I realized that Power BI in import mode import all my tabular model in just one table with n * n * n ... * n rows depending on how many tables do I choose to import.

I wanted the import mode in order to use DAX and create calculations, but in live mode I can not use them, and with Import mode Power BI ignores relationships of my tabular model.

So now my question is, do I need to configure something in SSDT to my tabular model so Power BI can interpret my relationships in import mode? Or is a design problem in Power BI that are going to implement in the future?

[v-shex-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @reneincer,

>>I wanted the import mode in order to use DAX and create calculations, but in live mode I can not use them, and with Import mode Power BI ignores relationships of my tabular model.

Perhaps you can calculate at original model side, then connect to desktop and use these in visuals.

Regards,

Xiaoxin Sheng

[v-shex-msft]

Hi @reneincer,

AFAK, power bi desktop not has size limit when you import the data from ssas. (size limit of publish to service is 1Gb)

For power bi reports, even if you import all the data to power bi desktop, it still show the top N records.(I haven't find the document which clearly mention the size limitation)

Regards,

Xiaoxin Sheng