Refresh of each applied steps in Service?

[MossyD]

Hi

Need some advice regarding a refresh of a semantic model in Power BI Service...

Whenever I create a new applied step Power Query within the desktop it appears to reconnect to the original data source to download after each step as a preview. I have now enabled the Data Load >> Background Data >> "Never allow data previews to download in the background". Hopefully this will stop the preview download for each applied step 🤞

Does this mean when a refresh is in progress on the Power BI Service for each separately applied step it is connecting to the data source to download into the semantic model before moving on to the next applied step?

I am asking because my semantic model contains over 2m rows.

This may mean, although I am unsure, that the semantic model within the Power BI Service may be...

• Taking a long time to refresh
• More importantly, may be incurring a cost for each applied step as a refresh

My data source is Azure Cost Analysis data using the "Azure Cost Management" connector.

Hope this makes sense.

Any advice would be helpful

Thanks in advance...

[ibarrau]

Hi! Power Query running over a Power Bi Dataflow or a Power Bi Semantic Model (datasets) won't add any extra charge. You can use them with a pro license or premium. The costs won't change if you use or not. Don't worry about extra charge because it won't change for that. You could only worried for performance if you are using a dedicated capacity and it takes a lot because you might be overloading it. Otherwise, take it easy.

Regarding the steps issue, when you are working, each step represents a change like layers and the tool tries showing it to make the user experience friendly. That doesn't mean it works like that later. When a refresh is triggered for a dataflow or dataset, all the steps are consolidated in a single script. That is run once for each table. All the steps of a table are run once in a refresh.

If it's taking to long, you can read about downsizing or power query practices that can help reduce the timing.

I hope that helps,