Power BI — backup and restore datasets

Today I show you, how you can create backups of your datasets. In order to do this, you need an ADLS2 (Azure Data Lake Storage) connected to the Power BI Service on a workspace or a tenant level.

So that, the first point is to create a Data Lake Storage.

Create a Storage Account with a Hierarchical Namespace.

In the Power BI service, you can assign the ADLS2 to a workspace or to a tenant. In this case we assign the storage account to a workspace.

After your storage is successfully connected to the workspace. You notice that inside the Data Lake are two new containers: power-bi-backup and power bi.

Azure connection information in the workspace settings section should look like bellow:

Now, we can connect to our workspace by XMLA endpoint.

I’ve created one dataset:

And without any surprises, the same dataset is visible in SQL Server Management Studio. Select a Back Up… option.

You can adjust some options like a compression, an encryption, etc.:

You can check if a backup has been created. Head over to the storage account and inside the power-bi-backup folder you find an .abf file.

If you want to restore a dataset. You need to choose a backup file, a name for a new dataset or decide if an existing file should be overwritten.

As you can see, the dataset has been restored.

And it is visible in the Power BI Service.