The Hammer for your Power BI Report Server Issues

For many IT admins, troubleshooting a Power BI Report Server can be a daunting task. With so many potential sources of error and so much data to collect, it can be difficult to know where to start. Fortunately, the Power BI Report Server Troubleshooting Tool is here to help.

Think of this tool as a giant hammer in your toolbox, ready to take on any nail that needs to be driven down. The hammer I provide is certainly not the right tool for all issues with Power BI Report Server but, I hope you will be able to address many of the nails / issues needing to be fixed. To be clear “the tool is not fixing anything, it is just collecting data”. This troubleshooting tool is designed to make your life easier with automating a majority of the collection of data you would do either way. This data is coming from various sources, therefore might also give you an idea about things to investigate which you have previously not considered.

The best part? It’s incredibly easy to use. All you need to do is download the script and execute it on your report server machine. Assuming you have the “reportserver” database on your localhost, everything should work just fine. Even if that’s not the case you will either way get prompted for various variables you could modify or not.

One important caution to keep in mind is that the script is designed to collect everything. Depending on the number of log files and rows in your executionlog, it may take some time to finish. However, the good news is that all of the scripts included in the tool are a great starting point for troubleshooting a wide range of scenarios.

So, what exactly does this tool collect? Here’s a quick rundown of what you can expect to be collected:

• Executionlog3 view: This view provides a wealth of information about the execution of your reports, including data about the report itself, the user who ran the report, and any errors or warnings that were encountered.
• Event table: This table contains a detailed log of all the events that have occurred on your report server. Normally this table should be empty, if that’s not the case you have most likely an issue or at least a backlog most likely with refreshes/subscriptions.
• ConfigurationInfo table: This table contains information about the configuration of your report server, including settings related to email delivery, security, and more.
• Subscription and schedule refresh last status: This script collects data about the last status of your report subscriptions and schedule refreshes. This is incredibly helpful to identify if end users created a subscription potential harmful for your report server, either because of errors or because of potentially unnecessary frequent scheduling.
• Subscription and Schedule Refresh History table: This table contains a log of all the subscription and schedule refreshes that have occurred on your report server, including information about when they occurred.
• Rsreportserver.config file: This file contains configuration settings for your report server, including information about database connections, security settings, and more.
• All “.Log” files, trace and dump files are excluded. Log files are capturing almost every traffic happening to your report server. In the biggest majority of the cases if you see an issue in Power BI Report Server you will find here more details about this. Since the log files are an unstructured log file, having a timestamp is essential.
• Timestamp of error from user input: This allows you to focus on specific errors or issues that you have encountered and make sure you focus during your troubleshooting on the right issue.

While this collection of data is certainly comprehensive, it’s important to note that the script could be elaborated to further scenarios, such as troubleshooting Kerberos, SSRS, or performance issues. This is just the start of this tool and I looking forward if someone takes it further with a different hammer or makes this hammer even bigger.

In conclusion, the Power BI Report Server Troubleshooting Tool is a valuable addition to any IT professional or developer’s toolkit. It simplifies the process of collecting data and provides a great starting point for troubleshooting a wide range of scenarios. So why wait? Download the script and give it a try today.