Power Update - Documentation Power Update Manager Power Update Manager gives you the power to define New Tasks, Delete and Edit settings for your current Tasks.

Note: Prior to making a lot of changes or installing updates, please remember to disable all the tasks before starting the maintenance tasks.

The Enable/Disable button gives you the option to pause or start current tasks.

View History provides a log of all the logged items of your current tasks, including starting, stopping and error information.

In Advanced Properties you may define more detailed frequencies on your tasks.

Run Now will start the task immediately.

Under the Options menu, you can register the software, check for updates, and enable diagnostic mode which will open the running Excel window, so you will be able to follow and troubleshoot the tasks. This option should be turned off by default. In addition to those features, we have added UI Automation in Power Pivot and Power BI, enabling and disabling parallel tasks and a few other options that speak for themselves.

Installation

Prerequisites In order to install Power Update from Power Planner, the following components are required and have to be installed before the setup starts:

• Microsoft Excel 2010, Excel 2013 or Excel 2016

• .NET Framework 4.7+ https://www.microsoft.com/net/download/framework

Download The latest version of Power Update is available to download at:

http://www.power-planner.com/Portals/0/Downloads/PU/pusetup.exe

Running the Installation

Once the file has been downloaded, run the installer and follow the steps in the setup wizard. The current licensing model is per user. Multiple users can use the same computer to schedule jobs.

Product Activation After launching the application you might consider upgrading to the full version and activating the product:

• Go to Options -> Activate.

• Enter your license key which is valid for 12 calendar months.

• Checking “Extended activation settings” enables you to enter the username and password provided to

register the product.

Using the Task Wizard

To schedule a task it is required to provide any type of workbook, SSAS Tabular Model or a Power Bi file (.pbix) and information regarding the frequency at which these files should be updated.

For example, if your goal is to update a sales report on hourly basis and your inventory report on a daily basis, you will have to create two separate tasks with different schedule frequencies.

Let’s set up the sales report to refresh every hour. Go to New and enter a task name and description:

Defining the task’s update schedule In order to define the schedule of the task, select the option that is closest to the way you want Power Update to refresh the workbooks. The Daily Option, provides the ability to schedule updates down to every minute of a day.

Setting the Start Time Select the appropriate date and time for the task to start:

Setting the Frequency The next wizard page defines the frequency and the duration of the task.

In the case above, the task will start at 9:00 AM, run for every hour for 12 hours and end at 9:00 PM. These settings may be further refined in the Main Window by selecting Advanced Settings. (You also have the option to type in custom values in these fields e.g. change “1 Hour” to “2 Hours”.)

Selecting type of files

Power Update will allow you automatically update the following file types:

• Power Pivot Models in Excel workbooks on

a local drive or a file share;

• Workbook queries from multiple sources

using Power Query;

• Power Pivot Models hosted on SharePoint.

On-Premise or Power BI on Office 365;

• Power Pivot models hosted on a SSAS

Tabular server;

• Power BI dashboards.

Local and File Share Power Pivot Models – Power Update will open up the Excel workbook file and automatically refresh all the existing workbook connections. Once it is done, it saves the workbook to the target folder.

SharePoint Power Pivot Models – Power Update downloads the Excel workbook from SharePoint (optional local workbooks can be used as well), automatically refreshes all the connections and then it uploads to SharePoint.

SSAS Tabular Models – Power Update opens up the Excel Workbooks that serves as a base model for Tabular SSAS server cubes. This workbook will be refreshed and restored on the Tabular SSAS server overwriting the existing cube, so please make sure that you make all your model changes in the Excel Workbook instead of Visual Studio.

Power Update can now automate the refresh of a Power BI Desktop workbooks, and restore it back to Azure Tabular Server. It connects to the Power BI Desktop file, refreshes all connections, extracts the updated Tabular model and then restores it to SSAS Tabular instance in Azure.

Power BI files (.pbix) – Power BI is automatically opened, your queries are refreshed and you end up with all your dashboards and embeded reports updatd.

Set Source File of Folder/Document Library For Local files or SharePoint files you can choose to update one file at the time or update all files in a folder or document library:

Setting Source and Target Folder: We advise you to use one source folder and a different target folder. (You can also use the exact same folder, but then it is recommended to create a backup of your original workbook in case any problems that may occur with the model if update the fails). First select the files or folder that you want to be updated, then select the Target Folder for those files, where the end users can find the updated files:

Advanced Settings: The first option adds a timestamp at the end of the newly refreshed file in your target folder. You can also choose to run one or several macros before your workbook updates or after the update is finished. If your workbook or worksheet is password protected, you have the option to provide the password for both read and write.

You can check the option to skip the refresh of your workbook connections.

Email Settings: The following window allows you to send an automated email every time the task is done. This email can contain your target folder, information regarding any errors and custom messages.

Automate restore from Power BI Desktop / Excel to SSAS Azure:

SSAS Tabular in Azure is gaining widespread adoption in the Power BI community. It gives you the possibility to extract the Tabular model and then restore it to SSAS Tabular instance in Azure or on-premise.

After you have selected your Power BI or Excel workbook, choose Local SSAS Server or SSAS in the Azure, provide your Azure credentials and specify the Database and Resource Group. If you do not have a Resource group you will have to define it in Azure.

Once you are done with setting up the task, you can wait for the scheduled time or run it manually. It will refresh all the connections and restore the model to SSAS.

You are now able to recreate the exact same report by connecting to the SSAS tabular model in Power BI or Excel. It retains all your measures and setup. By doing so you will significantly decrease the size of your report and the overall performance of your will increase. Instead of having to share a 900MB file, you will be able to reduce it to just a few KB.

When connecting to the tabular model in Power BI, you can either choose import or connect live to it. The second option will result in an even smaller file size.

You can then save your report as a .pbix or .pbit file.

Power BI Desktop files (.pbix):

Power Update provides the option to refresh Power BI Reports. To get started with this, the first thing you need to do is to create new power update task and follow all the steps already highlighted above. Once you have reached the window below, select the Power BI option:

Choose to update a single .pbix file or a folder containing multiple files:

Select the source path to your file(s):

The following screen provides you with 3 options that we will address individually:

1. Publish through OneDrive – will keep your OneDrive folder in sync with the newly refreshed Power BI file(s) based on the interval of time that you have provided

2. Publish directly – it connects directly to your Power BI Workspace using your credentials and refreshes the report

3. Publish to Embedded App – gives you the option to refresh and upload to your custom built application using the Power BI Embedded App workspace

1. Publish through OneDrive

After you have selected this option, specify the path to your folder that syncs with your OneDrive Account. For more information on how to sync a folder using OneDrive please follow the steps in this tutorial: Choose which OneDrive folders to sync to your computer

Choose any of the options that might apply to your specific case:

Setup you email account and customize your message:

2. Publish directly

This will automatically open your Power BI Desktop file, refresh everything and publish the results to your Power BI Workspace.

Important: You will need to Sign into your Power BI account in order for this to work. (Open Power BI and make sure you are signed in the top right corner).

You have the option to provide a Workspace name. The default one is My Workspace and keep in mind that creating another one is a feature only available to users that have a Power BI Pro license.

Once you are done checking your email settings you can finish this Power Update Task.

3. Publish to Embedded App – this option allows you to upload your report to your custom built application through Azure. For more on this on this please see the official documentation for Power BI Embedded. You will need to provide your Workspace Name, Azure Access Key, Workspace ID, Dataset name and also a connection string, username and password.

Let’s have a look at an actual example on how to update a Power BI file. I have created a simple PowerBI report that contains the date when the file has last been refreshed. There are several ways to display this date in your report and you are free to choose what works best for you. Here’s a simple one:

• Create a new measure as follows: Last Refresh Date = NOW()

• Display the Last Refresh Date in your report

Now let’s create a new task in Power Update. Follow the steps above and choose the publishing option that suits you. For this example I have chosen Publish directly (2). Unlike the other file types that Power Update is able to refresh for you, when your task is scheduled to run, you will be able to see Power BI Desktop open and close while your .pbix file gets updated.

After the update is done you can open up your Workspace and check to make sure your dashboard has been refreshed.

Your published reports that you may have embeded on a website or shared via link are also updated.

SharePoint Settings: If the source files or target files are located on SharePoint, Power Update requires separate credentials to log in to an On-Premise SharePoint installation:

Or Office 365: No Domain is required as it is part of the login information

User Accounts When setting up Power Update Tasks, the tasks will run under the current user account (This account needs to be a local administrator and logged in for Power Update to run). In order to run tasks under different account you need to log into Windows with that account.

Settings in Excel When you open Excel, under your current user account, make sure the Power Pivot, Power Query, and Power SQL Update add-ins are loaded.

Moreover, make sure External Content is enabled in the Excel Trust Center:

Power SQL Update The Power SQL Update Excel Add-in allows saving data tables from the Power Pivot Model back to SQL Server. Tables can be selected by clicking the Update SQL Data button in any Excel workbook with a Power Pivot Model. After setting the SQL Connection, tables from the Model can be selected to be updated using the following options when the Run Update button is pressed or the update is scheduled:

Enabled – Sets whether the table should be stored to SQL Server.

Re-create – The table should be dropped and re-created (useful when table structure might change), if not selected then fields are mapped to existing table fields with matching names.

Truncate – Entire table contents should be cleared before running (faster than delete).

Delete filter – Only table contents specified by WHERE SQL Filter should be deleted before running (advanced option for clearing only part of the table, useful if only part of the table comes from the update task or if contents come from multiple update tasks). This enables a method to partition your Power Pivot model e.g.: only load a specific time frame like current year or current day.

Let’s take a look at the following step-by step example in order to get better understanding on how Power SQL Update can help you. We will start with a simple database table:

The next step is to load data from your workbook into SQL Server using your Data Model and Power SQL Update. After you have renamed your query, select Close and Load to… from your ribbon.

Make sure you check - Add this data to the Data Model and click load. If you open Power Pivot the models name should match the query name.

Important: Your Query and Power Pivot model name has to match your database table name.

I am adding more data to our workbook and see Power SQL Update in action. Notice that I have added more information for the second quarter. Before you go to Update SQL Data, make sure your query/data model is refreshed.

After you open “Update SQL Data” you will have to connect to SQL Server by providing your credentials, select the table(s) that you want to update, Save and Run the Update. Once it’s done you will be prompted with the Ready message box.

Now let’s check our database table again. The table should be updated with the new information added for the second quarter:

Next Steps Now that you have a better understanding of how Power SQL Update works you can use Power Update to automate this process. Create a new task and go through the usually steps outlined at the beginning of this document. Once you have scheduled your task, every time it runs it will update existing data and/or append new rows your database table.

Test run the Task From the Main Window you can test and check if the task will run successfully at the desired schedule. Click the ‘Run Now’ button and the scheduler will simulate what will happen when it is scheduled to run. If the application was able to open the file, log into the data source and run the refresh, the last task result will display ‘Successful’.

After the task runs successfully, if we check the database again, one value has been updated and the third quarter has been added.

Troubleshooting The application logs all events in the Event Log. You can use the View History button to troubleshoot what might have failed during the execution of an update. If you run into any problems, please make sure that:

- All the parameters are set up correctly according to the documentation.

- The user running the task has access to the registry, program files, program data, temp files, SSAS Servers and

Excel Workbooks specified.

- Credentials set up for SharePoint items are correct and valid.

- No running Excel instances are blocking the specified files.

Best Practices – Tips and Tricks – FAQ

Setting up your first work book Power Update has a powerful toolkit to automatically refresh any connection in your workbook. First, open up your workbook, and make sure all credentials are set correctly for Excel and the Data Source(s) to connect to the source of the data relative to the account/service account you want to run the updates under.

All workbooks have to refresh successfully by manually opening the workbook in Excel, and click Data -> Refresh in order for them to work with Power Update.

Tip: use Power Query if you want to do cross domain updates.

What types of files can you automate with Power Update Power Update supports .xlxs, .xlsm and .pbix files. Make sure your macro are able to run successfully before adding them to a Power Update task.

User needs to be logged in For Power Update to run the tasks, it is a requirement that the user is running under is ‘Logged In’ on the computer that will be running the updates. If by accident the user gets logged out by Windows Update, or scheduled maintenance, the account has to be logged back in to run the job. This can be automated on the computer running the job. For an in depth tutorial on how to achieve this, please follow the instruction provided in this tutorial:

http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/how-to-automatically-login-to-windows-and-then-lock-the-workstation/

Enable Plugins When logged in on the computer that will be scheduling the update, make sure Power Pivot, Power Update and Power SQL add-ins are enabled by opening an empty workbook in Excel. If you are update Power BI files, make sure you are logged-in (check top right corner).

Set different Source and Target Folders As a Best Practice we recommend setting different Source and Target folders. If the Power Update computer goes down for any reason, or the update fails, the target files could get corrupted. By setting different target and source folders, only the target folder would be corrupted, and on the next run of the Power Update the target files would be up to date again.

For local or network shares we recommend setting Source folder as c:\users\<MyUser>\Documents\PowerUpdateSourceFiles, and target would be P:\Sales\PowerPivotFiles\Output.

User Accounts When defining the PU Jobs, it is required that you log in as the user that the jobs will actually run under at the scheduled time. PU supports multiple accounts running on the same computer. E.g. you may schedule jobs by logging in as <MyDomain>\Joe and <MyDomain>\Jane. It is important to conduct some resource planning and have Joe’s jobs run from 7AM to 8AM and Jane’s jobs run from i.e. 8AM to 9AM. This will make the jobs finish faster rather than having the processes compete for computer resources during the update.

Configuring Excel Excel needs to be able to run the jobs in the set environment. To test it, make sure Power Planner, Power Pivot, and Power SQL plugins are enabled. Make sure there are no lingering message boxes like Recovering Unsaved files, or Excel Update boxes showing up when starting Excel. It’s recommended that updates are set to “Manual Update”, so deploying new patches is handled in a manual and controlled process.

Logfile structures Power Update provides copious logging of events throughout the update process. If a job fails, jobs can be debugged

by going to Start -> Run (or + r) and then type %TMP% and it will open up the logging directory for in-depth troubleshooting of the current jobs. You will find everything in the PU.log file.

Test the Workbook and test the Excel installation. Before scheduling the job in Power Update, always open up the workbook, go to Data tab in the Excel Ribbon and click “Refresh All Connections”, to make sure there are no errors thrown in the Power Update job.

Diagnostic Mode – How to Troubleshoot By opening the Power Update Manager, you have the possibility to set a Diagnostic Mode in the Options setting of the server. The Diagnostic Mode will open up Excel as the job is running and display on the console what message you may be receiving. Remember to turn the Diagnostic Mode off for a Production Environment as it does take more resources than running it in ‘Hidden’ mode.

Does Power Update support Excel 2010 and Excel 2013/2016 to be installed on the Power Update Server? Excel 2010, 2013/2016 can live side-by-side on the computer where Power Update jobs are running. However this is not recommended by Microsoft, due to the fact that 2010 may be the default Excel version and the job may fail. To fix the issue, go to Control Panel\Programs and Features. Then locate Office 2013/2016, Right Click and select ‘Change’, and opt for a ‘Quick Repair’ to make sure Excel 2013 is the default version on your Power Update computer.

Common Support Issues and Solutions

Power SQL Update fails to load in Excel

The reason why you might encounter this error is due to the way the add-in is loaded when Excel is launched. To avoid this you will have to change its load behavior:

1. Open you registry editor. + r and type in regedit.

2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Office > Excel > Addins > PPSQLConnector

AND

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > Software > Microsoft > Office > Excel > Addins > PPSQLConnector 3. Set LoadBehavior to 3 for both. This can apply to any other add-in that you might have a problem

loading when Excel is opened.

Once you have changed the LoadBehavior in both HKEY_CURRENT_USER and HKEY_LOCAL _MACHINE your task will run successfully.

Excel 2016 No model found, or XMLAClient error

When using Excel 2016, Power Update uses a different set of libraries to connect to the Excel Data Model. Normally Power Update sets this automatically, but in some cases it fails to do so due to lack of permissions or multiple Excel versions installed.

In this case you will have to:

• Navigate to C:\Program Files\PowerPlanner\Power Update\xl2016

• Copy the contents to C:\Program Files\PowerPlanner\Power Update (back up the files to a C:\Program Files\PowerPlanner\Power Update\xl2013 folder before overwriting them)

In some cases installing the following Microsoft components also resolve the issue:

https://download.microsoft.com/download/8/7/2/872BCECA-C849-4B40-8EBE-21D48CDF1456/ENU/x64/SQL_AS_ADOMD.msi

https://download.microsoft.com/download/8/7/2/872BCECA-C849-4B40-8EBE-21D48CDF1456/ENU/x64/SQL_AS_AMO.msi

https://download.microsoft.com/download/8/7/2/872BCECA-C849-4B40-8EBE-21D48CDF1456/ENU/x64/SQL_AS_OLEDB.msi

Power Update does not start or is unable to create tasks

If Power Update crashes during opening, the issue is most likely:

• Power Update is not run as Administrator. Open Power Update using Right click\Run As Administrator.

• Not all components of .NET Framework are installed. In this case install .NET 4.7 or turn on all features and subfeatures of the .NET Framework under Control Panel\Programs\Windows Features.

• (Make sure ALL .NET 3.5 components are enabled too, in case they can't be enabled in control panel, uninstall the current .NET Framework enable those, then re-install the latest .NET)

If you are unable to create tasks, check if the user logged on to Windows has access to the following folders (add the Everyone user with Full Access to these folders by right clicking > Properties > Security):

• C:\Program Files\PowerPlanner\Power Update

• C:\Users\[USER]\AppData\Local\Power Update

• C:\Users\[USER]\AppData\Local\Temp

• C:\ProgramData\PowerPlanner\Power Update

• C:\Windows\System32\Tasks\Power Update

Task erases SSAS roles

If you notice that your roles have been erased what you will have to do it to script all roles and objects that you would like to preserve from the SSAS model and add it as a roles script. Here is an article that details the process: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms174794%28v=sql.110%29.aspx

You can find more useful articles by heading over to: https://support.poweronbi.com/portal/kb/power-update

The current list includes:

• Tasks not appearing

• Task List refreshing too fast

• Speed up opening large files

• Task creation automation

• Power Update Command Line Parameters

• Backup, Restore or Migrate jobs with Power Update

• Troubleshooting Power BI UI Automation

• Power BI Embedded "Conflict"

About Power ON Power On was founded in 2011 by a group of Business Performance Management executives with deep background in Budgeting, Planning and Forecasting Solutions, all with 20+ years’ experience regarding the Microsoft BI stack.

Power Planner core functionality provides users the ability to change numbers in Excel PowerPivot Tables, and have the numbers and allocations written back to a SQL server.

The technology of choice for a planning product was Excel, as it is the de-facto solution for Business Analysts. Excel is also how small-business get started with setting up the initial business plan, and with Power Pivot and SSAS tabular support. Excel is now a solution that companies may grow with and turn into a cost effective Budgeting, Planning and forecasting tool.

Power On has also added support for Power BI features and the web based user interface that Microsoft Office 365 offers.

Power On has quick start kits for Microsoft Dynamics AX, Dynamics GP and Dynamics NAV.

Contact

Sales Power Planner Office: 402 W Broadway #400 San Diego, CA 92101 http://www.power-planner.com sales@power-planner.com +1 (424) 229-2346

Support Power Planner Office: 402 W Broadway #400 San Diego, CA 92101 http://www.power-planner.com support@power-planner.com +1 (424) 229-2346

Corporate – Admin – Payments Power Planner Office: 8547 E Arapahoe Rd #J-147 Englewood, CO 80112 http://www.power-planner.com support@power-planner.com +1 (424) 229-2346

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