Table of Contents

Avoid Provider Partitions with Structured Data Sources

  • 2026-01-09
  • Morten Lønskov

Overview

This best practice rule identifies partitions that use legacy provider-based queries (SourceType = Query) with structured data sources in Power BI models. This combination is not supported in Power BI Service and will cause deployment failures.

  • Category: Error Prevention

  • Severity: Medium (2)

Applies To

  • Partitions

Why This Matters

Power BI Service requires structured data sources to use Power Query (M) partitions rather than legacy provider partitions. Using provider partitions with structured data sources causes:

  • Deployment failures: Models fail to publish to Power BI Service
  • Refresh errors: Scheduled refresh operations fail in the service
  • Compatibility issues: The model cannot be shared or deployed properly
  • Migration blockers: Prevents moving from Analysis Services to Power BI

When This Rule Triggers

The rule triggers when a partition meets all these conditions:

  1. SourceType = "Query" (legacy provider partition)
  2. DataSource.Type = "Structured" (Power Query/M data source)
  3. Model.Database.CompatibilityMode != "AnalysisServices" (Power BI or Azure AS)

This combination indicates a structural mismatch that Power BI cannot process.

How to Fix

Manual Fix

  1. In TOM Explorer, select the affected partition
  2. In Properties pane, note the existing query
  3. Create a new Power Query partition with M expression
  4. Delete the old provider partition after verifying the new one works

Common Causes

Cause 1: Migration from Analysis Services

Models migrated from SQL Server Analysis Services retain legacy provider partitions.

Cause 2: Mixed Partition Types

Mixing partition types during model development creates incompatible configurations.

Example

Before Fix

Partition: Sales_Partition
  SourceType: Query
  Query: SELECT * FROM Sales
  DataSource: PowerQuerySource (Type: Structured)

Error: Deployment fails to Power BI Service

After Fix

Partition: Sales_Partition
  SourceType: M
  Expression: 
    let
        Source = Sql.Database("server", "database"),
        Sales = Source{[Schema="dbo",Item="Sales"]}[Data]
    in
        Sales
  DataSource: PowerQuerySource (Type: Structured)

Result: Deploys successfully to Power BI Service

Compatibility Level

This rule applies to models with compatibility level 1200 and higher when deployed to Power BI or Azure Analysis Services.