Split up an existing Power BI report into a Golden Dataset and a thin report

Edit 24thJune 2021: Unfortunately this method is currently not working any more.

The other day I discovered a neat way to split up an existing Power BI report into a Golden Dataset and a thin report file with very few adjustments to the existing setup. Imagine you have a Power BI report published for some time already in an app with row level security. Now, you want to create other reports from the dataset as well and decide it’s time to create a golden dataset from which multiple other thin reports can also be fed from as well. But ideally you want to keep your published app, that many users are working with already, unchanged.

Concept to split up existing Power BI Report to Golden Dataset

Simply follow these steps in meticulous order and the world is yours 🙂

Steps to split up existing Report to Golden Dataset

  1. Create a copy of your existing pbix and give it the name for your new Golden Dataset.
  2. Go to the Power BI service and rename the dataset (!) of your original file to the new name of your Golden Dataset.
  3. Publish your Golden dataset pbix to the service. Make sure that you will be prompted with a warning that you’re going to overwrite an existing dataset (!). (Otherwise your new names haven’t matched 😉 )
  4. Next open your orginal pbix and delete all data sources as Rui has described in his post. That includes DAX tables and calculation groups in Tabular editor as well. This will create warnings in all your visuals but eliminating all data sources is actually a prerequisite for the next step.
  5. Click “Get Data” and choose “Power BI dataset” and then connect to the new Golden dataset in the service. If all went according to plan, all visuals should work again.
Spit up Power BI report to Golden Dataset

Bind report to Golden Dataset

  1. Publish this report to the service. Again, a warning that you’re about to overwrite an existing report (!) should appear that confirms you’re at the right track.
  2. Publish the pbix with the golden dataset a second time. That will create another report in the service with the same name than the one from the existing app as what looks like a duplicate. (But they have 2 different IDs)
  3. Rename this “duplicate” report (“MyReport”) to the name of your golden dataset (“MyGoldenDataset”). Otherwise you will get problems with trying to upload another version of your “thin” report file. Take care not to rename the original file. You can identify them by their Report IDs, which are the last part of their URLs (as report and as app):

    Report ID as the last part of the URL for repot and published app

That’s it! No copy-pasting visuals, rebinding or re-doing of security settings – quick and fast.

Enjoy and stay queryious 😉

Comments (6) Write a comment

  1. Hi Imke, I have tried this option before. Struck at step 6, it always says , “A report has already been published with this name. Please rename your file and publish again.”

    Reply

    • Sorry to hear.
      It worked for me and I have currently no idea what the reason could be, unfortunately.
      /Imke

      Reply

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  4. “Edit 24thJune 2021: Unfortunately this method is currently not working any more.”
    Imke, hello, is there an alternative way to do that? This would have exactly been the solution I’ve been looking for to cut down my 25 pages report in smaller thin reports. Golden Dataset is promising. But how to get this done in practice with a complex report?
    Best, Marold

    Reply

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