How Direct Query Report works

1
votes

I have direct query report on Power BI service and setup on premises data gateway for it in order to access SQL Server database, it works perfectly but one thing I am a little confused is the refresh history table for direct query report (Settings-> Datasets) as below:

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It refreshs around every 20 minutes. I thought in direct query mode, when you change the data on database it will affect the report immediately. But based on that, even in the direct query mode, it has internal cache doing refresh 20 minutes (don't know this number can be controlled).

Please can someone explain in detail how direct query works and why this?

Also, is the direct query on Power BI Embedded works in the same way?

3
sql-serverpowerbipowerbi-embedded
Are you using a personal gateway or enterprise gateway? - JustLogic
@JustLogic: I used on premises data gateway ;) - cuongle
Hmm interesting, last I looked it was called enterprise gateway looks like some things were renamed. However it does say it should be executing a live query against the data source. - JustLogic
The only other thing I see is that not all data sources support the live query for the on prem gateway. Is your data source supported? powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/… - JustLogic
Direct Query in Power BI Embedded works the same way. However direct query does not mean realtime. If data is updated after your report loads the report will NOT automatically refresh with the data. If you reload the report then you should see the new data as it is directly querying your underlying datasource. - Wallace Breza

3 Answers

2
votes

Direct Query in Power BI Embedded works the same way. However direct query does not mean realtime. If data is updated after your report loads the report will NOT automatically refresh with the data. If you reload the report then you should see the new data as it is directly querying your underlying datasource.

0
votes

For performance it will cache the data.

David Iseminger from Microsoft published an article on Wednesday, August 10, 2016.

When the data necessary to service the request has recently been requested, Power BI Desktop uses recent data to reduce the time required to display the visualization. Selecting Refresh from the Home ribbon will ensure all visualizations are refreshed with current data.

Refresh from the ribbon and see what is in the refresh log.

0
votes

The DirectQuery scheduled cache refresh is not for reports but "enables extremely quick loading of dashboards".