Power BI reports can skip having a local model and instead connect straight to one already published in the Power BI service, Azure Analysis Services or SQL Server Analysis Services. Authors may still write report-level measures; editing the underlying model is possible only after converting it via Make changes to this model.
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In the Ultra Transcenders books
Each book explains Live connection in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- Power BI
Microsoft's analytics and reporting service. It reaches data held on-premises through the on-premises data gateway.
- HAVING
Applies a condition to groups produced by GROUP BY, often on an aggregate such as SUM(). WHERE works earlier, on individual rows before they are grouped.
- LSDOU
The sequence in which Group Policy is processed: the local policy first, followed by site, domain and organisational unit policies. The nearest, last-processed setting takes effect unless Enforced or Block Inheritance alters that.
- CONNECT
In SQL Server, the right to open a connection to a database. Fabric's equivalent is Read permission on an item, which allows connecting to a warehouse or SQL endpoint but not querying anything in it.
- Power BI service
Power BI's browser-based SaaS component: people publish and share reports and semantic models there, create dashboards and apps, and set up scheduled data refreshes.
- Azure Analysis Services
Azure service hosting tabular OLAP models for large numbers of Power BI and Excel users; semantic models in Power BI Premium are its modern counterpart.
- SSAS
Hosts multidimensional and tabular models in Microsoft's own on-premises analysis engine. Through Connect live, Power BI queries it directly, signing in with each person's Windows account details.
- Make changes to this model
Use this on a live-connected report in Power BI Desktop to bolt on a local model. Doing so turns the connection into DirectQuery and the report becomes a composite model, letting you mix in extra data such as spreadsheet tables.
Related terms
- ARM template
JSON file describing Azure infrastructure declaratively. Once deployed it keeps no live connection to the resources, unlike Blueprints, which retires fully on 31 January 2027.