Edit

Configure semantic model scale-out

  • Article

You can enable scale-out in Power BI service, or using the Power BI Datasets REST APIs. Before configuring semantic model, read the Power BI semantic model scale-out overview.

Enable scale-out in Power BI service

To enable scale-out for your semantic model in Power BI service, follow these steps:

  1. In Power BI service, open the workspace with the semantic model you want to enable scale-out for.

  2. Select the semantic model's more options (...).

  3. From the menu, select Settings.

  4. In the setting's page, enable the Large semantic model storage format if it's not enabled.

  5. Enable Query scale-out and select Apply.

    A screenshot showing how to enable scale out in Power BI service.

Enable scale-out using the Datasets REST APIs

This section describes using the Power BI Datasets REST APIs to configure semantic model scale-out.

Get datasetId

To get the datasetId, use Get-PowerBIDataset. You must specify a workspaceId and semantic model name.

Login-PowerBI | Out-Null

$workspaceId = '<enter workspaceId>'

$datasetId = Get-PowerBIDataset -WorkspaceId $workspaceId `
    | Where{$_.Name -match "<enter semantic model name>"} `
    | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Id -First 1 `
    | ForEach-Object {$_.Guid}

Write-Host
Write-Host "Workspace Id: $workspaceId"
Write-Host "Dataset Id: $datasetId"

Get current scale-out configuration

Before configuring semantic model scale-out, determine the current configuration.

###
# Get current scale-out configuration
###
Login-PowerBI | Out-Null

$workspaceId = '<enter workspaceId>'

$datasetId = Get-PowerBIDataset -WorkspaceId $workspaceId `
    | Where{$_.Name -match "<enter semantic model name>"} `
    | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Id -First 1 `
    | ForEach-Object {$_.Guid}

$response = Invoke-PowerBIRestMethod -Url "groups/$workspaceId/datasets/$datasetId" -Method Get | ConvertFrom-Json

$response.queryScaleOutSettings | Format-List

if ($response.queryScaleOutSettings.maxReadOnlyReplicas -eq -1 `
    -or $response.queryScaleOutSettings.maxReadOnlyReplicas -gt 0)
{
    Write-Host "Semantic model scale-out is enabled."
}
else
{
    Write-Host "Semantic model scale-out is disabled."
}

Enable semantic model scale-out

To enable semantic model scale-out, set maxReadOnlyReplicas to -1, or any non-0 value. A value of -1 allows Power BI to create as many read-only replicas as your Power BI capacity supports. You can also explicitly set the replica count to a value lower than that of the capacity maximum. Setting maxReadOnlyReplicas to -1 is recommended.

###
# Enable scale-out
###
Login-PowerBI | Out-Null

$workspaceId = '<enter workspaceId>'

$datasetId = Get-PowerBIDataset -WorkspaceId $workspaceId `
    | Where{$_.Name -match "<enter semantic model name>"} `
    | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Id -First 1 `
    | ForEach-Object {$_.Guid}

Invoke-PowerBIRestMethod -Url "groups/$workspaceId/datasets/$datasetId" `
    -Method Patch -Body '{ "queryScaleOutSettings": { "maxReadOnlyReplicas": -1 }}'

Invoke-PowerBIRestMethod -Url "groups/$workspaceId/datasets/$datasetId" -Method Get `
    | ConvertFrom-Json | Select-Object -ExpandProperty queryScaleOutSettings `
    | ForEach { 
        if($_.maxReadOnlyReplicas -eq -1)
        { 
            Write-Host "Success! Semantic model scale-out has been enabled."
        } else
        {
            Write-Host "Something went wrong! Semantic model scale-out is still disabled." -ForegroundColor Red
        }
     }

Disable semantic model scale-out

To disable semantic model scale-out, set maxReadOnlyReplicas to 0.

###
# Disable scale-out
###
Login-PowerBI | Out-Null

$workspaceId = '<enter workspaceId>'

$datasetId = Get-PowerBIDataset -WorkspaceId $workspaceId `
    | Where{$_.Name -match "<enter semantic model name>"} `
    | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Id -First 1 `
    | ForEach-Object {$_.Guid}

Invoke-PowerBIRestMethod -Url "groups/$workspaceId/datasets/$datasetId" `
    -Method Patch -Body '{ "queryScaleOutSettings": { "maxReadOnlyReplicas": 0 }}'

Invoke-PowerBIRestMethod -Url "groups/$workspaceId/datasets/$datasetId" -Method Get `
    | ConvertFrom-Json | Select-Object -ExpandProperty queryScaleOutSettings `
    | ForEach { 
        if($_.maxReadOnlyReplicas -eq 0)
        { 
            Write-Host "Success! Semantic model scale-out has been disabled."
        } else
        {
            Write-Host "Something went wrong! Semantic model scale-out is still enabled." -ForegroundColor Red
        }
     }

Related content