Manage datasets in Power BI 

 32 min
 Module
 11 Units
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Intermediate
Data Analyst
Power BI
Microsoft Power Platform

With Microsoft Power BI, you can build multiple reports from a single dataset,
meaning that if you change the dataset, all reports will be updated with that change.
Additionally, you can clean and prep data once rather than repeatedly for each
report.

Learning objectives
In this module, you will:
 Create dynamic reports with parameters.
 Create what-if parameters.
 Use a Power BI gateway to connect to on-premises data sources.
 Configure a scheduled refresh for a dataset.
 Configure incremental refresh settings.
 Manage and promote datasets.
 Troubleshoot service connectivity.
 Boost performance with query caching (Premium).
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Prerequisites
None

This module is part of these learning paths

 Manage workspaces and datasets in Power BI
 Introduction2 min
 Create dynamic reports with parameters6 min
 Create what-if parameters3 min
 Use a Power BI gateway to connect to on-premises data sources 2 min
 Configure a dataset scheduled refresh4 min
  Configure incremental refresh settings5 min
 Manage and promote datasets3 min
 Troubleshoot service connectivity1 min
 Boost performance with query caching (Premium) 2 min
 Check your knowledge3 min
 Summary1 min

Introduction
Completed100 XP
 2 minutes

When your datasets are published to your organization's workspace in Microsoft

Power BI service, everyone who needs access to those datasets can find them in a
central location, which provides opportunities for collaboration between teams. It
also reduces the duplication of effort because one dataset can be used by multiple
users for different business reasons. For instance, one dataset can be used to create
multiple Power BI reports. Because preparing and cleaning data can be time-
consuming, sharing datasets can be a productivity boost for report authors.

The sharing of datasets needs to be actively managed for optimal organizational

performance. For example, you can automate the refresh process so that it becomes
more efficient and users always have access to the latest data. You can also promote
certain datasets over others so that users can clearly identify the best datasets to use.

Management of datasets also involves the implementation of parameters within

those datasets to help with decision making and solving business problems. For
example, you can use parameters to change the server or database name of your
dataset or a file path for a data source. You can also use parameters to configure
incremental refreshes of your data and to run "what-if" scenarios and conduct
scenario-type analysis on the data.

Another key area of dataset management is setting up and maintaining a gateway so

that you and other users can access your on-premises data source from the cloud.
You also need to prepare for potential issues that might arise regarding this gateway,
which could interrupt user access to the datasets. The effect of a service connectivity
issue could be detrimental to user productivity; if they can't access the data, they
can't do their jobs, and the organization's decision-making capability will be at a
standstill. Being prepared to deal with such issues in a timely manner is critical.

For this module's scenario, you work as a Power BI developer for Tailwind Traders.
You have created reports for multiple teams across the organization; however, your
work is not yet completed. Report users have asked you to make the reports more
dynamic so that they can filter the data themselves. Additionally, they want you to
find a way for them to run what-if scenarios. Management has also requested that
you help guarantee the coherency and integrity of your datasets. They want the
datasets available in one place, for future use, and they want you to automate the
refresh process to ensure that the data is kept up to date.

By the end of this module, you'll be able to: 

 Create dynamic reports with parameters.

 Create what-if parameters.
 Use a Power BI gateway to connect to on-premises data sources.
 Configure a scheduled refresh for a dataset. 
 Configure incremental refresh settings.
 Manage and promote datasets.
 Troubleshoot service connectivity.
 Boost performance with query caching (Premium).

Next unit: Create dynamic reports with parameters

Create dynamic reports with

parameters
Completed100 XP
 6 minutes

Dynamic reports are reports in which the data can be changed by a developer
according to user specifications. Dynamic reports are valuable because a single
report can be used for multiple purposes. If you use dynamic reports, you'll have
fewer individual reports to create, which will save organizational time and resources.

You can use parameters by determining the values that you want to see data for in
the report, and the report updates accordingly by filtering the data for you.

Creating dynamic reports allows you to give users more power over the data that is
displayed in your reports; they can change the data source and filter the data by
themselves.

In the following example, you've created a report for the Sales team at Tailwind
Traders that displays the sales data in the SQL Server database. The report gives a
holistic view of how the Sales team is performing. While the report is useful, the Sales
team members want to be able to filter the report so that they can view their own
data only and track their performance against their sales targets.
Create dynamic reports for individual values
To create a dynamic report, you first need to write your SQL query. Then, you will use
the Get data feature in Power BI Desktop to connect to the database.

In this example, you will connect to your database on SQL Server by following these
steps:

1. After you have entered your server details, in the SQL Server

database window, select Advanced options.
2. Paste the SQL query into the SQL statement box and then select OK.
 When the connection is made, the data will be shown in the preview
window.

3. Select Edit to open the data in Power Query Editor.

Next, you will create the parameter by following these steps:

1. On the Home tab, select Manage parameters > New parameter.

2. On the Parameters window, change the default parameter name to
something more descriptive so that its purpose is clear. In this case, you
will change the name to SalesPerson.
3. Select Text from the Type list and then select Any value from
the Suggested value list.
4. Select OK.
 A new query will now be shown for the parameter that you created.

Now, you need to adjust the code in SQL query to assess your new parameter:

1. Right-click Query1 and then select Advanced editor.

2. Replace the existing value in the execute statement with an ampersand
(&) followed by your parameter name (SalesPerson), as illustrated in the
following image.
 3. Make sure that no errors are shown at bottom of the window and then
select Done.

Though you won't notice a difference on the screen, Power BI will have run the query.

4. To confirm that the query was run, you can run a test by selecting the
parameter query and entering a new value in the Current Value box.

5. A warning icon might display next to the query. If so, select that query to
view the warning message, which states that permission is required to
run this native database query. Select Edit Permission and then
select Run.

When the query runs successfully, the parameter will update and display
the new value.

6. Select Close and Apply to return to the report editor.

Now, you can apply the parameter to the report:

1. Select Edit queries > Edit parameters.

2. On the Edit Parameters window, enter a new value and then select OK.
3. Select Apply changes and then run the native query again.
 Now, when you view the data, you'll see the data for the new value that
was passed through the parameter.

You can now create a report that displays data for one particular value at a time. If
you want to display data for multiple values at the same time, you need to complete
additional steps, as outlined in the next section.

Create dynamic reports for multiple values

To accommodate multiple values at a time, you first need to create a Microsoft Excel
worksheet that has a table consisting of one column that contains the list of values.

Next, use the Get data feature in Power BI Desktop to connect to the data in that
Excel worksheet, and then follow these steps:

1. On the Navigator window, select Edit to open the data in Power Query

Editor, where you'll see a new query for the data table.

2. Rename the column in the table to something more descriptive.

3. Change the column data type to Text so that it matches the parameter
type and you avoid data conversion problems.
4. In the query Properties section, change the name of the data source to
something more descriptive. For this example, enter SalesPersonID.

Next, you need to create a function that will pass the new SalesPersonID query
into Query1:
1. Right-click Query1 and then select Create function.

2. Enter a name for the function and then select OK.

 Your new function will appear in the Queries pane.

3. To ensure that Query1 doesn't show up in the field list for the report,

which could potentially confuse users, you can disable it from loading in
the report by right-clicking Query1 again and then selecting Enable
load (selected by default) to disable the feature.
 4. Select the SalesPersonID query that you loaded from the Excel
worksheet and then, on the Add Column tab, select Invoke custom
function to run the custom function that you created.

5. On the Invoke Custom Function window, select your function from

the Function query list.

The New column name will update automatically and the table that contains the
values that you're going to pass through the parameter will be selected by default.

6. Select OK and, if necessary, run the native query.

 A new column for your GetSalesFromSalesPerson function will appear
next to the SalesPersonID column.

7. Select the two arrows icon in the new column header and then select the
check boxes of the columns that you want to load. This section is where
you will determine the details that will be available in the report for each
value (sales person ID).
8. Clear the Use original column name as prefix check box at the bottom
of the screen because you don't need to see a prefix with the column
names in the report.
9. Select OK.
You should be able to view the data for the columns that you selected,
for each value (sales person ID).
 If necessary, you can add more values (sales people IDs) to
the SalesPersonID column in the Excel worksheet, or you can change
the existing values.

10. Save your changes and then return to Power Query Editor.
11. On the Home tab, select Refresh Preview, and then run the native
query again (if necessary). You should see the sales from the new sales
people IDs that you added into the worksheet.
12. Select Close and Apply to return to the report editor, where you'll see
the new column names in the Fields pane.

Now, you can start building your report.

Next unit: Create what-if parameters

Create what-if parameters

Completed100 XP
 3 minutes

You can use what-if parameters to run scenarios and scenario-type analysis on your

data. What-if parameters are powerful additions to your Power BI data models and
reports because they enable you to look at historical data to analyze potential
outcomes if a different scenario had occurred. Additionally, what-if parameters can
help you look forward, to predict or forecast what could happen in the future.

You can use what-if parameters in multiple situations, such as to determine the effect
of increased sales to deeper discounts, or to let sales consultants see their
compensation if they meet certain sales goals or percentages.

In the following example, you want to enable the Sales team to find out how much
growth (percentage), from a sales perspective, that they need to make to earn USD 2
million gross sales each month.

Create a what-if parameter

To create a what-if parameter, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Modeling tab and select New Parameter.

2. On the What-if parameter window, configure the new parameter.
3. For this example, change the parameter name to Sales Forecast
Percentage.
4. Select Fixed decimal number as the Data type list because you are
using currency in your forecast.
5. Set the Minimum value to 1, the Maximum value to 1.50, and
the Increment value to 0.05, which is how much the parameter will
adjust when it is interacted with in a report.
6. Set the Default value to 1.00.
7. Leave the Add slicer to this page check box selected so that Power BI
will automatically add a slicer with your what-if parameter onto the
current report page.
8. Select OK.
 Note

For decimal numbers, make sure that you precede the value with a zero (as
in 0.50 versus .50). Otherwise, the number won't validate and the OK button won't
be selectable.

The new slicer visual will appear on the current report page. You can move the slider
to see the numbers increase according to the settings that you applied. You should
also see a new field for the Sales Forecast Percentage table in the Fields pane, and
when you expand that field, the what-if parameter should be selected.
Similarly, you should see that a measure was also created. You can use this measure
to visualize the current value of the what-if parameter.

After you have created a what-if parameter, the parameter and the measure will
become part of your model; therefore, they will be available throughout the report
and can be used on other report pages. Additionally, because the parameter and
measure are part of the model, you can delete the slicer from the report page. If you
want it back, you can drag the what-if parameter from the Fields list onto the canvas
and then change the visual type to a slicer.

Use a what-if parameter

If you want to use the what-if parameter after you've created it, you will need to
create a new measure whose value adjusts with the slider. You can create complex
and unique measures that let your report users visualize the variable of your what-if
parameter. However, to keep this example simple, the new measure is the total sales
amount, with the forecast percentage applied, as illustrated in the following image.
Next, you will create a clustered column chart with the MonthName field on the axis
and the GrossSales and Gross Sales Forecast measures as the values.

Initially, the bars are similar; however, as you move the slider, notice that the Gross
Sales Forecast column reflects the sales forecast percentage amount.

To enhance the visual, you can add a constant line so that you can clearly see how
the organization is performing against a particular threshold or target. In this
example, you will add a constant line with USD 2 million as the threshold value. Then,
you will use the slider to find out what percentage of gross sales needs to increase
by, each month, to reach that threshold. In the following image, the gross sales need
to increase by 1.40 percent to reach the USD 2 million threshold.
Next unit: Use a Power BI gateway to connect to on-
premises data sources

Use a Power BI gateway to connect to

on-premises data sources
Completed100 XP
 2 minutes

Gateway software acts like a bridge; it allows organizations to retain databases and
other data sources on their on-premises networks and access that on-premises data
in cloud services, such as Power BI and Microsoft Azure Analysis Services.

A gateway facilitates quick, behind-the-scenes communication that flows from a user

in the cloud to your on-premises data source and then back again to the cloud.

Two types of on-premises gateways are:

  Organization mode - Allows multiple users to connect to multiple on-
premises data sources and is suitable for complex scenarios.
 Personal mode - Allows one user to connect to data sources. This type
of gateway can be used only with Power BI and it can't be shared with
other users, so it is suitable in situations where you're the only one in
your organization who creates reports. You will install the gateway on
your local computer, which needs to stay online for the gateway to work.

Use an on-premises gateway

Before you can connect to your on-premises data source, you need to install the on-
premises data gateway, and then configure it to suit your organizational needs.
Usually, this task is completed by an admin in your organization.

When the on-premises gateway is installed and configured, you can start the
gateway and then sign in by using your Microsoft 365 organization account.
When you are working in the cloud and interacting with an element that is
connected to an on-premises data source, the following actions occur:

 The cloud service creates a query and the encrypted credentials for the
on-premises data source. The query and credentials are sent to the
gateway queue for processing.
 The gateway cloud service analyzes the query and pushes the request
to Microsoft Azure Service Bus.
 Service Bus sends the pending requests to the gateway.
 The gateway gets the query, decrypts the credentials, and then connects
to one or more data sources with those credentials.
 The gateway sends the query to the data source to be run.
 The results are sent from the data source back to the gateway and then
to the cloud service. The service then uses the results.
Troubleshoot an on-premises data gateway
Troubleshooting a gateway is an ever-changing topic. Refer to the following
documents for the latest troubleshooting guidance:

 To learn how to run a network port test, see Adjust communication

settings for the on-premises data gateway.
 To get information on how to provide proxy information for your
gateway, see Configure proxy settings for the on-premises data gateway.
 To find the current data center region that you're in, see Set the data
center region.

Next unit: Configure a dataset scheduled refresh

Configure a dataset scheduled refresh

Completed100 XP
 4 minutes
The Scheduled refresh feature in Power BI allows you to define the frequency and
time slots to refresh a particular dataset. Scheduling the refresh of your data will save
you time because you don't have to manually refresh the data. It also ensures that
users can access the most up-to-date data.

In this example, you are creating a report, but then realize that the version of the
sales data that you're using isn't the most up to date. You check the refresh status
and notice that it was last refreshed 10 days ago, and no refresh is scheduled to take
place.

Considering how important it is to have accurate sales data, you need to find a
solution. Usually, the data is updated weekly, but you don't want to return to the
report every week to manually refresh the dataset, and you know that you
occasionally forget to do so. Therefore, you decide to use the Scheduled
refresh functionality in Power BI to solve this problem.

Set up a refresh schedule

Before you can set up a refresh schedule, you need to have created a gateway
connection.

To set up a refresh schedule for your dataset, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Datasets + dataflows page.
2. Hover over the dataset for which you want to set up the schedule and
then select the Schedule refresh icon.
 3. On the Settings page, turn on the Scheduled refresh feature.
4. Select the Refresh frequency and ensure that the correct time zone is
selected.
5. Add the time(s) that you want the refresh to occur. You can configure up
to eight daily time slots, if your dataset is on shared capacity, or 48 time
slots on Power BI Premium.
6. When you have finished configuring the scheduled refresh, select Apply.

 Note

While you can set a time for the refresh, be aware that the refresh might not take
place at that exact time. Power BI starts scheduled refreshes on a best effort basis.
The goal is to initiate the refresh within 15 minutes of the scheduled time slot, but a
delay of up to one hour can occur if the service can't allocate the required resources
sooner.

In this example, you want the system to refresh the sales data on a daily basis, at 6:00
AM, 10:00 AM, and 3:00 PM, as illustrated in the following image.
When you have configured a refresh schedule, the dataset settings page informs you
of the next refresh time, as shown in the following image.

Perform an on-demand refresh

In addition to the scheduled refreshes, you can refresh a dataset at any time by
performing an on-demand refresh. This type of refresh doesn't affect the next
scheduled refresh time.

For example, you might want to refresh now because you need to view the most
recent data and can't wait for the next refresh time, or you might want to test your
gateway and data source configuration.

To perform an on-demand refresh, on the Datasets + dataflows page, hover over

the dataset that you want to refresh and then select the Refresh now icon.

Check the refresh status and history

You can check the refresh status and history at any time. This feature is useful if you
want to find out when the last refresh occurred and when the next one is scheduled.
It is also good practice to check the status of your datasets occasionally to check if
refresh errors have occurred.

 Note

Power BI deactivates your refresh schedule after four consecutive failures or when
the service detects an unrecoverable error that requires a configuration update, such
as invalid or expired credentials. It is not possible to change the consecutive failures
threshold.

A quick way to check the refresh status is to view the list of datasets in a workspace.
If a dataset displays a small warning icon, you'll know that the dataset is currently
experiencing an issue. Select the warning icon to get more information.

You should also check the refresh history occasionally to review the success or failure
status of past synchronization cycles. To view the refresh history, open the dataset's
settings page and then select Refresh history.

Next unit: Configure incremental refresh settings

Configure incremental refresh settings

Completed100 XP
 5 minutes
The Incremental refresh feature in Power BI is a popular feature because it allows
you to refresh large datasets quickly and as often as you need, without having to
reload historical data each time.

 Warning

Incremental refresh should only be used on data sources and queries that support
query folding. If query folding isn't supported, incremental refresh could lead to a
bad user experience because, while it will still issue the queries for the relevant
partitions, it will pull all data, potentially multiple times.

Traditionally, complex code was required for running incremental refreshes, but you
can now define a refresh policy within Power BI Desktop. The refresh policy is applied
when you publish to Power BI service, which then does the work of managing
partitions for optimized data loads, resulting in the following benefits:

 Quicker refreshes - Only data that needs to be changed gets refreshed.

For example, if you have five years' worth of data, and you only need to
refresh the last 10 days because that is the only data that has changed,
the incremental refresh will refresh only those 10 days of data.
Undoubtedly, the time it takes to refresh 10 days of data is much shorter
than five years of data.
 More reliable refreshes - You no longer need to keep your long-
running data connections open to schedule a refresh.
 Reduced resource consumption - Because you only need to refresh the
smaller the amount of data, the overall consumption of memory and
other resources is reduced.

In this example, the Sales team has come to you with a dilemma. The data in their
report is already out-of-date. It isn't feasible for you to manually refresh the data by
adding a new file because the refreshes need to happen regularly to match the
frequency of the sales transactions that are occurring. Also, the manual refresh task is
becoming more difficult because the datasets have millions of rows. Consequently,
you need to implement a better data refresh solution.

You can define an incremental refresh policy to solve this business problem. This
process involves the following steps:

1. Define the filter parameters.

2. Use the parameters to apply a filter.
3. Define the incremental refresh policy.
4. Publish changes to Power BI service.
Define filter parameters
Whether you are using incremental refresh or not, large datasets are commonly
filtered when they are imported into Power BI Desktop because the PBIX file is
limited by the memory resources that are available on the desktop computer. For
incremental refresh, the datasets are filtered by two date/time
parameters: RangeStart and RangeEnd. These parameters have a dual purpose. In
Power BI Desktop, they are the filtering window because they restrict the used data
to the range that is listed in the start and end dates. After they have been published
to the service, the parameters are taken over to be the sliding window to determine
what data to pull in.

To define the parameters for the incremental refresh, follow these steps:

1. Open your dataset in Power Query Editor.

2. On the Home tab, select Manage Parameters.
3. On the Parameters window that displays, add two new
parameters, RangeStart and RangeEnd, ensuring that for both
parameters, the Type is set to Date/Time and the Suggested Value is
set to Any value.
4. Regarding the Current Value, for the RangeStart parameter, enter the
date on which you want to begin the import, and for
the RangeEnd parameter, enter the date on which you want the import
to end.
Apply the filter
When you have defined the new parameters, you can apply the filter by following
these steps:

1. Go to the applicable Date column and then right-click that column and

select Custom Filter.
 2. In the Filter Rows window that displays, to avoid the double counting of
rows, make sure that you keep rows where OrderDate is after or equal
to the RangeStart parameter and before the RangeEnd parameter.

3. Select Close and Apply from the Power Query Editor.

You should now see a subset of the dataset in Power BI Desktop.

Define the incremental refresh policy
When you have filtered the data, you can define the incremental refresh policy for
the data table, which sets up the refresh process.

Right-click the applicable table and then select Incremental refresh.

On the Incremental refresh window that displays, turn on the Incremental

refresh option. Then, configure the refresh as required. In this example, you will
define a refresh policy to store data for five full calendar years, plus data for the
current year up to the current date, and incrementally refresh 10 days of data.
The first refresh operation in Power BI service will load the historical data for the last
five years. The subsequent refresh operations are incremental, and they will refresh
the data that was changed in the last 10 days up to the current date. The incremental
refreshes will also remove calendar years that are older than five years prior to the
current date.

Publish to Power BI service

When you have defined the incremental refresh policy in Power BI Desktop, to apply
that refresh policy, you need to publish the report to Power BI service.

For more information, see Incremental refresh on Power BI.

Next unit: Manage and promote datasets

Manage and promote datasets

Completed100 XP
 3 minutes

Business intelligence involves collaboration, and sharing datasets across workspaces is a

powerful way to collaborate within your organization. However, if your organization has
many different datasets that can be accessed by many users, you might want to take measures
to manage those datasets. For instance, you might want to direct your users to the most up-to-
date and highest-quality datasets in your workspaces, or you might want to restrict the reuse
of datasets across your workspaces.

To ensure that your organization has consistent data for making decisions and a healthy data
culture, it's important to create and share optimized datasets and then endorse those datasets
as the one source of truth. Report creators can then reuse those endorsed datasets to build
accurate, standardized reports.

Power BI provides two ways to endorse your datasets:

 Promotion - Promote your datasets when they're ready for broad usage. Power
BI Admins have permissions to promote datasets.
 Certification - Request certification for a promoted dataset from an admin user
that is defined in the Dataset Certification tenant admin setting. This
certification adds another layer of security for your datasets. Certification can be
a highly selective process, so only the truly reliable and authoritative datasets
are used across the organization.

In this example, you and the other teams are using a workspace in Power BI service to
organize all your reports and dashboards. However, you begin to receive emails from
confused users who expected to see a sales report and are now looking at a product report
instead. You need to make some changes to direct your users to the datasets that they should
be accessing, and you can accomplish this task with the endorsing capability in Power BI.

In this example, the certification type of endorsement is best suited for the Sales team
because it will require users to have special access before they can view the Sales dashboards.
By implementing the certification, you'll lead your users to the most appropriate reports and
dashboards, avoiding the inevitable confusion that might arise with building and sharing a
diversity of reports.

Though you'll soon learn how to certify the dataset, you'll first learn how to promote a
dataset, in case you prefer to use that method.

Promote a dataset
You can only promote a dataset if you're a Power BI admin user or the owner of that dataset.
To promote a dataset, go to your workspace in Power BI service, and then open the settings
page for the dataset that you want to promote. In this example, you want to promote the
Tailwind Traders dataset.

Select the Endorsement setting.

In the Endorsement settings, select the Promoted option, and then select Apply.

When you return to your workspace, a badge in the Endorsement column for that dataset
will appear, indicating that it's ready for viewing by all of your users.

Certify a dataset
You can only certify a dataset if you've been listed as a user in the tenant settings. The
certification option will appear dimmed for other users.

To certify a dataset, you would start the same way as you did to promote the dataset. This
time, however, you will select the Certified option in the Endorsement settings.
When you apply your change, the Certified setting will update to display a message
regarding who certified the dataset and when they did so.

For more information, see Promote your dataset or Certify datasets.

Next unit: Troubleshoot service connectivity

Continue

Troubleshoot service connectivity

Completed100 XP
 1 minute

Cloud services, such as SharePoint, do not require a gateway because the data is
already in the cloud. You only need to provide your authorization credentials to set
up a data source connection.

If your report fails to refresh, ensure that your data source credentials are up to date.
If your data source credentials are not up to date, you'll need to take further action
to investigate and resolve the issue.

For more information, see Troubleshooting refresh scenarios.

Next unit: Boost performance with query caching

(Premium)

Boost performance with query caching

(Premium)
Completed100 XP
 2 minutes

With the Query Caching feature, you can use the local caching services of Power BI to
process query results. Instead of relying on the dataset to calculate queries, which when
overloaded can reduce performance, you can use cloud resources on your Premium capacities
on Power BI service to load your report and, thereby, ensure constant performance. 

To continue with the module scenario, as you begin collaborating with more teams to build
reports and dashboards, you notice that some of your datasets are causing the reports to load
more slowly than before, an issue that is starting to annoy your users. The Sales team wants
to know how they can improve performance and make these reports load faster. You decide
to use the Query Caching ability in Power BI to help solve this problem.
Query caching 
Query Caching is a local caching feature that maintains results on a user and report
basis. This service is only available to users with Power BI Premium or Power BI
Embedded.  

When using query caching, the query results are only specific to a user, and you can only use
query caching on a specific page of a report. Several benefits to using query caching
include:  

 Improvement of the performance of reports, dashboards, and dashboard tiles by

reducing loading time and increasing query speed; this notion is especially true
for datasets that are not refreshed often and are accessed frequently.  
 It respects bookmarks and default filters, so even if you enable query caching,
any bookmarks that you have created still exist. 
 Cached query results are specific to the user. 
 All security labels are followed.   
 It reduces the load on your dedicated capacity. 

To access and configure query caching, follow these steps:

1. Go to a dataset in your workspace and open its Settings page. In this example,

you will enable query caching for SalesDataset.  

2. Select the Datasets tab and expand the Query Caching options, as shown in the

following image.  
 3. On the Query Caching page, choose one of the available options. The default
option is that query caching is turned off; however, you can also select Off,
which turns off query caching for the specific dataset in question. If you
select On, query caching will be turned on for this specific dataset only. For this
example, you will select On for your dataset because you want to apply query
caching to your specific dataset.  

 Note

Switching from On to Off will clear all previously saved query results. When turning off
query caching (either through the default or the Off option), a small delay will occur in query
loading because the report queries are running against the dataset and it does not have saved
queries to fall back on.

 Warning

If many datasets have query caching enabled, and a refresh occurs, a reduction in
performance might occur because a large number of queries are being processed at once.  

For more information, see Query Caching in Power BI.

Next unit: Check your knowledge

Continue

Check your knowledge

200 XP
 3 minutes

Answer the following questions to see what you've learned.

1. 

Where are dataset-scheduled refreshes configured?

Power BI service

Power BI Desktop

AppSource
2. 

What reserved parameters configure the start and end of where Incremental refresh
should occur?

Start and End parameters

StartRange and EndRange

RangeStart and RangeEnd

3. 

What is the difference between Promotion and Certification when you are endorsing
a dataset?

Promotion requires write access while Certification requires permission from the
dataset owner to access to the dataset.

Promotion is for broad usage while Certification needs permission granted on the
Admin Tenant settings.

Promotion is for specific users while Certification needs permission granted on the
Admin Tenant settings.
Check your answers

Summary
Completed100 XP
 1 minute

This module allowed you to take advantage of the following features of Power BI to
help you manage your datasets:

 Parameters that are stored in a Microsoft Excel workbook that help you
create dynamic reports in Power BI service. These dynamic reports help
you provide your users with the ability to filter data for specific values.
  Parameters to create what-if scenarios for more in-depth analysis of the
data.
 Two data refresh options to help you automate the refresh process and
make it more efficient.
 Endorsement features for your most critical datasets to help your users
identify the datasets that they should use.
 The on-premises gateway and ideas on how to troubleshoot potential
connectivity issues. 

These dataset management techniques will help you to increase the ease of access
and up-to-date nature of your datasets, and will help you build high-quality reports
and dashboards so that your users can make real-time decisions.

Module incomplete: