Something's wrong with one or more fields

[dar100111]

Hi Everyone.  I'm managing an On-Prem Power BI Server Version 1.6.7327.3007 (January 2020).  I'm having this occuring issue with the service where this error pops up with templates that have just recently been modified on the server.  This error is resolved when restarting the service it seems like.  It's becoming an ongoing problem, since i have 200 dashboards on this with several users making updates and changes on the Dashboard Datasets daily.  Looking for help in trying to figure out why this is happening but I think it could be queries getting cached in the powerbi/api or service that could be causing this.  Trying to prevent this being the new normal.  It's causing a lot of confusion and tickets to our dev group.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated in troubleshooting this!

[GilbertQ]

Hi there

Could you please clarify if you are using Power BI Report Server or the cloud service?

It would appear that you talk about dashboards, which do not exist in Power BI Report Server.

[dar100111]

Hi Gilbert!  I'm using internal Power BI Server, not the cloud version.  Thanks!

[GilbertQ]

Hi there

Could you please clarify when you say templates have been updated to the server, do you mean new Power BI PBIX files?

Can you confirm that the PBIX files are created using the correct version of Power BI Desktop specifically for Power BI Report Server?

[dar100111]

Hi Gilbert.  Correct.  Users are updating the PBIX files.  The nice Report Server actually, will not let you save a desktop version and yes, we make sure the users have the correct version installed on their machines through our IS department as well.  In the past, we have had to migrate some templates into the newer versions.  However, all of the versions we are using currently are matching also.  I just created a brand new dashboard to test this theory using Power BI Optimized for Report Server (January 2020).  Same exact problem.  I saved it to a new file then went back today, added another dataset in there and a new visual, and ran into the same problem.

I did these two scenarios to fix the problem and encounterd these findings.

1. Saved the PBIX over the old existing PBIX (Same exact name) and everything visualized fine (No Service Error).  When I ran the scheduled refresh, I then encountered the same error I've been having the issue with:  "Something is wrong with one or more fields, please try again later or contact support".  These were the fields on the new dataset, but strange.  It worked fine when I uploaded it, but the schedule broke it.
2. I deleted the whole PBIX from the Power BI Server and the schedule this time.  Uploaded the changed PBIX as the same name of the old PBIX and created a new schedule.  I kicked off the refresh schedule and problem solved.  A lot of steps that seem unnecessary and also very dangerous for the users if that goes wrong.

I've also had luck with restarting the service by resetting the service account credentials which stops and restarts the service.  The problem suddenly went away on some of the reports that I hadn't tried to go fix yet and discovered this unintentionally (or this just happened to be a coincidence).  I don't think it was coincedence because these issues had been happening on a new dashboard a user was trying to get up and we were struggling to find out why this issue was happening.  Trying to isolate what is actually happening though has been really challenging.  I've been looking through the logs on the actual server and I don't see anything that sticks out to the RequestId reference that it gives to the user with this message, so it's tough to troubleshoot.

[GilbertQ]

Hi there

Yeah what happens is when a PBIX is uploaded it just uploads the file and does nothing else with it.

1. When a refresh happens that it will test that it can connect to the data source. It will also run through the refresh steps and if something has changed it could then error. I would ask the report developers to make sure that the refresh works.

2. It sounds like by restarting the service is like restarting the server? And I have not had issues with updating existing PBIX files as long as it has been tested with all data sources and refresh steps.

[dar100111]

Hey Gilbert.  Yeah we've been manging this server for a year now and are understanding more about it all the time.

The odd thing is, the scheduled refresh hasn't failed, only the inability to display the visual to the user and it's definitely service related.

I don't know if the service runs seperately than the server.  The service I'm referring to is the API that power bi uses to push the data to the front end of the user's browser.  There could be lots of services running for Power BI Server itself.  I am still trying to understand what this problem is stemming from.  It hasn't been happening until recently after upgrading to the (January 2020) version but it didn't start right away either.  There could be other factors.  It's moving a lot of data now but our server doesn't seem to be struggling, but maybe the API is having a hard time keeping up too.  Trying to see how to monitor that.  Next step is contacting our rep for support.  Just trying to see if anyone else is experience issues with managing the Power BI Server Internally regarding this issue.

[GilbertQ]

Ahh thanks for the clarification.

Then yes if column names change or get added or removed the visuals associated to those visuals will break and will need to be fixed.

If you still run into issues I would suggest logging a support ticket, would be the best way to get issues resolved. And a lot quicker too.