Maximizing Power BI Performance with Dataflow Enhanced Compute Engine
Eduard Davidzhan, MCSE, MCT
ex-Microsoft Data & AI Cloud Solution Architect | Power BI SME | Azure Analytics | Azure Data | Synapse | SQL | Leader | Trainer | MCT | Consultant | Product Management | Ontario | Canada
Power BI Dataflow is a powerful ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) tool that enables you to extract data from various sources, transform it using Power Query online, and subsequently?feed that data into Power BI datasets. One of the key features of Power BI Dataflow is the Enhanced Compute Engine (ECE), which allows you to leverage the power of SQL Server to improve performance and scalability of your dataflow.
To enable ECE, you need to host dataflows in a Power BI Premium Workspace and active Enhanced compute engine in the Dataflow Settings.
Once ECE is enabled*, Power BI saves replica of your dataflow data to a SQL Server database, however it is not giving you a direct access to this SQL Server.
Enabling ECE may have some negative impact on dataflow refresh timing as it requires loading and saving data to both CSV files in Azure Blob storage (default storage format for dataflow) and SQL Server database.
But ECE can dramatically improve downstream transformations (joins, distinct, filters and group by) performance and enable new scenarios such as Incremental Refresh and Direct Query from Power BI dataset to the dataflow.
For example, if you need to get 2 tables from a dataflow and then filter and merge them in Power BI Dataset, with ECE enabled, Power BI will fold the query and send T-SQL statement to the dataflow Enhanced Compute Engine to get it processed by SQL Server. This approach can result in much faster refresh query execution compared to when ECE is disabled. Without ECE two tables should be loaded first into the dataset, and both filtering and join operations to be accomplished on the Power BI dataset side.
Similarly, if you have a dataset consuming data from a large dataflow, with ECE enabled, you can set up incremental refresh against the dataflow to load only recent records. That would make your daily refresh operation fast and more reliable.
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In conclusion, ECE is a powerful feature that can significantly improve your Power BI solution performance, especially when dealing with downstream transformations. However, it's impact on dataflow refresh timing and cost (it is a Premium feature) must also be taken into consideration.
Ready to supercharge your Power BI reports refresh performance? Enable Enhanced Compute Engine in your Power BI dataflows today!
For more information on ECE and how to use it effectively, check out Power BI documentation https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/transform-model/dataflows/dataflows-premium-features
?* There is a 3rd option you can choose for dataflow ECE: Optimized. I plan to cover it in my next article.
Note: Are you facing challenges with Power BI performance or need guidance with building reports or setting up your Power BI environment? Contact me for customized trainings, report development workshops, performance optimization, and advisory services. Visit www.BISeminar.com?for more information or reach me on LinkedIn.?