processing aas tabular model in visual studio results in two tabular databases with a model in each

Question

Hi,

when i build, deploy and process my Azure Analysis Services Tabular Model in Visual Studio and connect PowerBI to it, i always see two Tabular Databases. One has the normal expected name and the other one has a string attached to it. It looks like a unique identifier.

I tested both and it seems that only the one with the string attached to it is updated. This is very confusing especially when it comes to deploy dashboards for clients and give them the right connection string to connect with excel and stuff.

It would be very helpful if someone can give me a valid statement which Tabular Database i should use.

Kind regards
Gökhan

Answer 1

Hello Gökhan Demirci,

Welcome to the MS Q&A platform.

The reason for seeing two tabular databases is that you selected "workspace server" and provided the analysis service name during the creation of the visual studio project.

So a new model database was created with a string attached to it(unique identifier). This is expected behavior when selecting the workspace server.

To avoid this database, please select Integrated Workspace.

Please see the screenshot below showing the difference between creating the visual studio project with an Integrated workspace vs workspace server.

Once you have created the visual studio project, please follow the below document to deploy a model from VS

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/analysis-services/analysis-services-deploy

https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/azure-docs/blob/main/articles/analysis-services/analysis-services-deploy.md

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any further questions.