Power BI Errors – they happen. This unique error came directly from a client who is utilizing Datamarts in Power BI Service. Said Datamart had many connections to Dataflows and many queries were constructed using SQL. In December 2024 after many months of utllizing the Datamart and connected report with ease, the following error message was presented:

Issue Description: 

Datamart began to fail refresh with the following Error(s)

A connection could not be made to the data source with the Name of ‘{“protocol”:”tds”,”address”:{“server”:”[ServerNameHere.datamart.pbidedicated.windows.net”,”database”:”datamart”},”authentication”:null,”query”:null}’.

Correlation ID: 4597e320-0cff-8012-37f3-e46abbf8a1fb

The Server Name provided does not match the server name on the SQL Server SSL Certificate 

Solution

To solve this, many big picture solutions were crafted including credential check, testing the SQL Server Connection, and doing an overview of all Dataflows connected. After troubleshooting, it was found that the connection string in Power BI Service/Fabric had changed, thus prompting the mismatch error.

TL/DR Version: The SQL connection mismatch error was occurring because there was a misconfiguration in the connection string or endpoint for the SQL Server oriented query on the Datamart side and what was presented within the Power BI side (.PBIX).

To fix the error:

1. Access the connection settings in the Datamart:
   • Go to settings within the Datamart in Power BI Service
   • Copy the Connection string
2. Find the incorrect connection string in the PBIX:
   • Open your PBIX file
   • Transform Data > Advanced Editor > Paste the connection string from Service into your file. It will look like the next step.
3. Update the connection string within your PBIX:
   • Locate the connection string or endpoint that’s currently pointing to datamart.pbidedicated.
   • Replace it with datamart.fabric.microsoft.com. Ensure that the full address is correct, including any protocol (such as https:// or tcp://).
4. Verify credentials and permissions:
   • After updating the connection string, ensure that the credentials being used are valid for the new endpoint.
   • Make sure the necessary permissions are granted for the connection to work successfully.
5. Republish to Service to Solve the mismatch error.

To be honest, I am unsure of why this error has emerged. I speculate that it has something to do with the emergence and implementation of Fabric into Power BI Service (perhaps an update or bug?). I will make the Power BI Product Team aware of this and update the blog upon any response.