In this writing, I like to share what I struggled with when working with datasets and reports in the Deployment Pipeline in Power BI, and what is a good solution.
Situation:
My deployment pipeline usually looks like the one below.
In my scenario, most users go to the App in Production Pipeline and create personal bookmarks for their own efficiency when using Power BI reports. In other words, the URL link of Apps in the Production Pipeline is crucial to manage and maintain. So, whenever any changes are needed in the datasets or in the reports, I always deploy datasets and reports from the Dev. Pipeline to the Test Pipeline, and then from the Test Pipeline to the Production Pipeline.
Problem:
Because of unknown reasons, the datasets and the reports are deleted in the Dev. and Test Pipeline.
But, luckily, datasets and reports in the Production Pipeline still operate without any problems.
So, I decided to republish the same dataset and the same report to the Dev. Pipeline and deploy those again from Dev. to Test, and from Test to Production.
However, I faced the below situation.
The name of the dataset and the report are exactly the same, but in the pipeline, the connection is gone.
I need to restore the connection.
Trial and failure:
I tried to just deploy those from the Test to Production Pipeline, however, the result was like the below.
Two datasets under the same name exist, and two reports under the same name exist in the Production pipeline. Later one's URL link is different than the existing one, so if I delete the existing one and make the one connection from Dev. ➡️ Test ➡️ Production, current users' personal bookmarks won't work and produce errors. This may badly influence the reputation of the Power BI reports.
There is an option to operate backward deployment. However, this solution was not for my scenario because there is one pre-operation that has to be done, which is emptying the previous stage pipeline, and I am not allowed to empty all in the Dev. Pipeline and Test Pipeline.
Solution:
A solution to this is very simple. I just could not find it easily. It took me about 2 weeks to find this solution, and I like to share this with you.
Perhaps, it took me so long to find the solution because I did not search for it with the right word. The right word is "Unassign a workspace from a pipeline stage". Now, you can also search, "restore a connection in deployment pipeline in Power BI", because it is the title of this blog post.
The first step is to unassign the Test Pipeline workspace.
The second step is to reassign it back to the Test Pipeline. It is a kind of turn it off and on again.
And then, you can see the connection between the Test Pipeline and the Production Pipeline is restored. The most important thing here is that the URL link of the report in the Production Pipeline is still the same.
Limitations:
There are some limitations, and those are well described in the link down below.
Summary
Even though the solutions are already documented by Microsoft, sometimes I struggle a lot to find the correct solution because it rarely happens, and not many people search for the solution. So, I really need to use very precise words to search for the correct solution. In this case, if I did not use the word, "Unassign" or "Assign", I might still struggle to find it until now.
I hope this helps to find the correct solution when facing a situation of "Restore a connection in Deployment Pipeline, in Power BI". And now, you can use the word, "Restore", when you face the same problem as above because it is a part of this blog post's title.
Enjoy Power BIing!
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