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[Power BI] Address ARG payload size errors - #1849

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[Power BI] Address ARG payload size errors#1849
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Copilot AI commented Oct 10, 2025

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Problem

Users with large Azure environments are encountering payload size limit errors when attempting to load the Governance and Workload Optimization Power BI reports. The error message appears as:

Response payload size is 48439993, and has exceeded the limit of 16777216. Please consider querying less data at a time and make paginated call if needed.

Error screenshot showing 15 queries blocked by payload size limit

This occurs because both reports use Azure Resource Graph queries with [resultTruncated = false] to retrieve comprehensive resource details. For organizations with millions of resources, the response payload exceeds Azure Resource Graph's 16 MB limit, preventing the reports from loading.

Root Cause

Azure Resource Graph enforces a 16 MB (16,777,216 bytes) response payload limit per query. The Governance and Workload Optimization reports are designed to show detailed resource-level information and are optimized for small to medium-sized environments. When used in large enterprise environments with millions of resources, the unfiltered queries exceed this limit.

Solution

This PR includes both a functional fix and documentation. The functional fix paginates Azure Resource Graph queries by subscription so a single query is split into multiple smaller batches that each stay under the 16 MB limit, then combines the results. The documentation gives users manual mitigation options (filtering by subscription/tags, trimming columns) for cases where the default batching still isn't enough, or where they want more control.

Functional changes

  • Added ftk_QueryARG and ftk_ARGBatchSize (in Shared.Dataset/definition/expressions.tmdl, both the kql and storage datasets) — a shared M function that queries Resource Graph for the tenant's subscriptions, splits them into batches (default 100 subscriptions per batch, user-configurable via ftk_ARGBatchSize), runs the caller's query once per batch with a subscriptionId in (...) filter, and combines all batch results.
  • Adopted ftk_QueryARG across the Resource Graph-backed tables used by the Governance and Workload Optimization reports (Advisor recommendations, disks, network interfaces/security groups, policy assignments/states, public IPs, resources, SQL databases, virtual machines).
  • Hardened ftk_QueryARG against invalid ftk_ARGBatchSize() values (null, non-numeric, non-integer, or less than 1 — falls back to the documented default of 100) and against the subscription-list Resource Graph query failing or returning an unexpected shape (falls back to an empty batch list instead of throwing).

Documentation changes

1. Enhanced Error Documentation (help/errors.md)

Expanded the existing "Response payload size exceeded" error section with detailed, step-by-step mitigation strategies for cases where the built-in batching isn't sufficient:

Option 1: Filter by Subscription

| where subscriptionId in~ ('subscription-id-1', 'subscription-id-2')

Option 2: Filter by Tags

| where tags.Environment in~ ('Production', 'Staging')
| where tags.CostCenter == '12345' and tags.Environment =~ 'Production'

Option 3: Remove Unnecessary Columns

  • Guidance on identifying and removing columns that aren't used in report visuals

Option 4: Disable Problematic Queries

  • Instructions for disabling specific failing queries while keeping others functional

Each option includes step-by-step instructions, KQL code examples, and links to official Microsoft documentation.

2. Updated Report Documentation

Added "Known limitations" sections to both affected reports (power-bi/governance.md, power-bi/workload-optimization.md) explaining the 16 MB Azure Resource Graph payload limit and linking to the error reference guide.

3. Changelog Entry

Added an entry to the v15 Power BI reports section of changelog.md (the next unreleased version).

Impact

  • ⚠️ Includes functional Power Query (M) changes to the Shared.Dataset expressions and Resource Graph-backed tables — not documentation-only.
  • No breaking changes — batching is transparent to report consumers; existing table schemas are unchanged.
  • Improved reliability — reports in large environments no longer fail outright on the 16 MB payload limit.
  • Self-service guidance — users can further tune batch size or apply manual filters if their environment still needs it.

References

Testing

  • Verified all documentation links are valid
  • Confirmed markdown formatting follows repository standards
  • Validated KQL syntax examples against Azure Resource Graph documentation
  • Traced the M (Power Query) batching and error-handling logic against the M language specification since there's no local Power BI Desktop/CI harness to execute it directly
  • Merged current dev and resolved conflicts, restoring a review-flagged regression (a dropped reserved-instance-specific filter in AdvisorReservationRecommendations) in the process

Known limitations / follow-ups

  • Subscription-list batch size (ftk_ARGBatchSize) is user-configurable but has no upper cap; an extremely large custom value could still hit the 16 MB limit in very large tenants.
  • Per-batch Resource Graph query failures (e.g., mid-refresh throttling) still propagate for that table, matching pre-existing behavior for the inner batch loop.

Fixes: #1768

Original prompt

This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>Governance Report is not loading says payload size limit is exceeding the limits.</issue_title>
<issue_description><!--
⚠️⚠️⚠️ BEFORE YOU SUBMIT ⚠️⚠️⚠️

  1. Confirm there isn't an issue already. If so, vote it up (👍) and add comments.
  2. Complete all TODO items below and remove the TODO lines after.
  3. Internal: Add applicable labels: Type, Micro PR, Area
    -->

🐛 Problem

TODO: Governance report is not loading - With payload size limits exceeding the limits. Currently using V0.11 version of Finops hub. MCA customer with billing account admin privileges is trying to pull out data in the governance report, below is the error reported.

👣 Repro steps

TODO: Add repro steps below:

  1. Go to Governance.Pbit
  2. Click on Load
  3. See error

🤔 Expected

TODO: All the ADF pipelines are successful and remaining cost summary, workload optimization reports are loading ok., where-as governance report is not at all loading at this moment.

📷 Screenshots

TODO: Attached is the screenshot.

Image

ℹ️ Additional context

TODO: Governance Reports fails to load in the customer environment due to payload size limits issue.

🙋‍♀️ Ask for the community

We could use your help:

  1. Please vote this issue up (👍) to prioritize it.
  2. Leave comments to help us solidify the vision.
    </issue_description>

<agent_instructions>Triage the issue, research using mslearn, provide proposed solutions along with links/citations to authorative sources.</agent_instructions>

Comments on the Issue (you are @copilot in this section)

Fixes #1768


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Copilot AI and others added 2 commits October 10, 2025 20:34
Co-authored-by: MSBrett <24294904+MSBrett@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: MSBrett <24294904+MSBrett@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot AI changed the title [WIP] Fix governance report loading issue due to payload size limit Add comprehensive documentation for Azure Resource Graph payload size limit errors in Governance and Workload Optimization reports Oct 10, 2025
Copilot AI requested a review from MSBrett October 10, 2025 20:38
@flanakin flanakin added this to the v14 milestone Jan 6, 2026
@flanakin flanakin modified the milestones: v14, v15 Feb 23, 2026

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🤖 [AI][Claude] PR Review

Summary: This documentation-only PR adds helpful mitigation guidance for Azure Resource Graph payload size limit errors. The expanded error documentation is a significant improvement. A couple of items to address before merging.

⚠️ Should fix (1)

  1. Changelog entries are placed under "Implementing FinOps guide v14" but these are Power BI report documentation changes. They should be in their own section (e.g., a new ### [Power BI reports](power-bi/reports.md) v14 section or a standalone ### Documentation improvements section). Entries also missing issue link #1768.

💡 Suggestions (1)

  1. "small- and medium-sized" uses a suspended hyphen that's grammatically correct but unusual in Microsoft docs — consider "small and medium-sized" for readability.

Comment thread docs-mslearn/toolkit/changelog.md Outdated
Comment thread docs-mslearn/toolkit/power-bi/governance.md
@flanakin
flanakin requested a review from Copilot March 11, 2026 16:01
@flanakin flanakin added the Tool: Power BI Power BI reports label Mar 11, 2026

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Pull request overview

This PR addresses Azure Resource Graph (ARG) response payload size limit failures affecting the Governance and Workload optimization Power BI reports by adding end-user troubleshooting guidance and introducing subscription-batched ARG querying in the shared dataset definitions.

Changes:

  • Added ftk_ARGBatchSize / ftk_QueryARG and updated multiple ARG-backed tables to query in subscription batches.
  • Documented the 16 MB ARG payload limit and mitigation steps in the error reference and report docs.
  • Added a changelog entry under v14 for the Power BI report mitigation.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 30 out of 43 changed files in this pull request and generated 7 comments.

Show a summary per file
File Description
src/power-bi/storage/Shared.Dataset/definition/tables/VirtualMachines.tmdl Storage dataset VirtualMachines definition updated/redirected to support subscription-batched ARG querying.
src/power-bi/storage/Shared.Dataset/definition/tables/Subscriptions.tmdl Storage dataset Subscriptions definition updated/redirected (supports new batching approach).
src/power-bi/storage/Shared.Dataset/definition/tables/SqlDatabases.tmdl Storage dataset SqlDatabases definition updated/redirected to use batched ARG querying.
src/power-bi/storage/Shared.Dataset/definition/tables/Resources.tmdl Storage dataset Resources definition updated/redirected to use batched ARG querying.
src/power-bi/storage/Shared.Dataset/definition/tables/PublicIPAddresses.tmdl Storage dataset PublicIPAddresses definition updated/redirected to use batched ARG querying.
src/power-bi/storage/Shared.Dataset/definition/tables/PolicyStates.tmdl Storage dataset PolicyStates definition updated/redirected to support batching (subscriptionId derivation).
src/power-bi/storage/Shared.Dataset/definition/tables/PolicyAssignments.tmdl Storage dataset PolicyAssignments definition updated/redirected to support batching (subscriptionId derivation).
src/power-bi/storage/Shared.Dataset/definition/tables/NetworkSecurityGroups.tmdl Storage dataset NSG definition updated/redirected to use batched querying.
src/power-bi/storage/Shared.Dataset/definition/tables/NetworkInterfaces.tmdl Storage dataset NIC definition updated/redirected to use batched querying.
src/power-bi/storage/Shared.Dataset/definition/tables/ManagementGroups.tmdl Storage dataset ManagementGroups definition updated/redirected (context for governance reporting).
src/power-bi/storage/Shared.Dataset/definition/tables/Disks.tmdl Storage dataset Disks definition updated/redirected to use batched ARG querying.
src/power-bi/storage/Shared.Dataset/definition/tables/AdvisorReservationRecommendations.tmdl Storage dataset AdvisorReservationRecommendations updated/redirected (aligns with batching refactor).
src/power-bi/storage/Shared.Dataset/definition/tables/AdvisorRecommendations.tmdl Storage dataset AdvisorRecommendations updated/redirected to use batched ARG querying.
src/power-bi/storage/Shared.Dataset/definition/expressions.tmdl Adds ftk_ARGBatchSize and ftk_QueryARG batching helper functions (storage dataset).
src/power-bi/kql/Shared.Dataset/definition/tables/VirtualMachines.tmdl KQL dataset VirtualMachines now uses ftk_QueryARG batching.
src/power-bi/kql/Shared.Dataset/definition/tables/SqlDatabases.tmdl KQL dataset SqlDatabases now uses ftk_QueryARG batching.
src/power-bi/kql/Shared.Dataset/definition/tables/Resources.tmdl KQL dataset Resources now uses ftk_QueryARG batching.
src/power-bi/kql/Shared.Dataset/definition/tables/PublicIPAddresses.tmdl KQL dataset PublicIPAddresses now uses ftk_QueryARG batching.
src/power-bi/kql/Shared.Dataset/definition/tables/PolicyStates.tmdl KQL dataset PolicyStates derives subscriptionId and uses ftk_QueryARG.
src/power-bi/kql/Shared.Dataset/definition/tables/PolicyAssignments.tmdl KQL dataset PolicyAssignments derives subscriptionId and uses ftk_QueryARG.
src/power-bi/kql/Shared.Dataset/definition/tables/NetworkSecurityGroups.tmdl KQL dataset NSGs now use ftk_QueryARG batching.
src/power-bi/kql/Shared.Dataset/definition/tables/NetworkInterfaces.tmdl KQL dataset NICs now use ftk_QueryARG batching.
src/power-bi/kql/Shared.Dataset/definition/tables/Disks.tmdl KQL dataset Disks now use ftk_QueryARG batching.
src/power-bi/kql/Shared.Dataset/definition/tables/AdvisorReservationRecommendations.tmdl KQL dataset AdvisorReservationRecommendations updated and moved to batched querying.
src/power-bi/kql/Shared.Dataset/definition/tables/AdvisorRecommendations.tmdl KQL dataset AdvisorRecommendations now uses ftk_QueryARG batching.
src/power-bi/kql/Shared.Dataset/definition/expressions.tmdl Adds ftk_ARGBatchSize and ftk_QueryARG batching helper functions (KQL dataset).
docs-mslearn/toolkit/power-bi/workload-optimization.md Adds a “Known limitations” section referencing ARG payload limits and ftk_ARGBatchSize.
docs-mslearn/toolkit/power-bi/governance.md Adds a “Known limitations” section referencing ARG payload limits and ftk_ARGBatchSize.
docs-mslearn/toolkit/help/errors.md Expands troubleshooting for “Response payload size exceeded…” with mitigation options and batching guidance.
docs-mslearn/toolkit/changelog.md Adds v14 Power BI reports entry documenting the ARG batching mitigation.

Comment thread src/power-bi/storage/Shared.Dataset/definition/expressions.tmdl Outdated
Comment thread docs-mslearn/toolkit/changelog.md Outdated
Comment thread src/power-bi/kql/Shared.Dataset/definition/expressions.tmdl Outdated
Comment thread src/power-bi/kql/Shared.Dataset/definition/expressions.tmdl Outdated
Comment thread src/power-bi/storage/Shared.Dataset/definition/expressions.tmdl Outdated
MSBrett and others added 3 commits July 30, 2026 07:41
…-report-loading

# Conflicts:
#	docs-mslearn/toolkit/changelog.md
#	docs-mslearn/toolkit/help/errors.md
#	docs-mslearn/toolkit/power-bi/governance.md
#	docs-mslearn/toolkit/power-bi/workload-optimization.md
…; restore RI-specific filter in AdvisorReservationRecommendations

- Clamp batchSize to the documented default (100) when ftk_ARGBatchSize() returns null, non-numeric, non-integer, or a value less than 1 (avoids divide-by-zero and type errors)
- Wrap the subscription-list ARG query in try/otherwise so transient failures, permission errors, or an unexpected result shape degrade to an empty batch list instead of throwing
- Restore the reserved-instance-specific filter on properties.shortDescription.solution that was dropped when the query was refactored from bracket to dot notation, so AdvisorReservationRecommendations no longer duplicates all of AdvisorRecommendations

Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
The v15 Power BI reports changelog entry and ms.date bump were edited
after staging during merge conflict resolution and got left out of the
merge commit.

Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
@MSBrett
MSBrett marked this pull request as ready for review July 30, 2026 15:12
@MSBrett
MSBrett enabled auto-merge (squash) July 30, 2026 15:33
@MSBrett
MSBrett requested a review from Copilot July 30, 2026 17:38

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Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 30 out of 43 changed files in this pull request and generated no new comments.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (4)

src/power-bi/kql/Shared.Dataset/definition/expressions.tmdl:158

  • tostring(split(id, '/')[2]) only yields a real subscription ID for IDs that start with /subscriptions/{guid}/.... For tenant- or management-group-scoped policy definitions, it produces incorrect values (for example, /providers/Microsoft.Authorization/... becomes Microsoft.Authorization). Use an extract that returns null when the ID is not subscription-scoped.
		      subscriptionId = tostring(split(id, '/')[2]),

src/power-bi/storage/Shared.Dataset/definition/expressions.tmdl:565

  • tostring(split(id, '/')[2]) only yields a real subscription ID for IDs that start with /subscriptions/{guid}/.... For tenant- or management-group-scoped policy definitions, it produces incorrect values (for example, /providers/Microsoft.Authorization/... becomes Microsoft.Authorization). Use an extract that returns null when the ID is not subscription-scoped.
		        subscriptionId = tostring(split(id, '/')[2]),

src/power-bi/kql/Shared.Dataset/definition/tables/PolicyAssignments.tmdl:372

  • tostring(split(id, '/')[2]) yields incorrect values for non-subscription-scoped IDs (tenant or management group scope). Use an extract that only returns a subscription ID when the resource ID contains /subscriptions/{guid}/... so you don't populate bogus IDs like Microsoft.Authorization.
				    | extend subscriptionId = tostring(split(id, '/')[2])

src/power-bi/kql/Shared.Dataset/definition/tables/PolicyStates.tmdl:347

  • tostring(split(id, '/')[2]) yields incorrect values for non-subscription-scoped IDs (tenant or management group scope). Use an extract that only returns a subscription ID when the resource ID contains /subscriptions/{guid}/... so you don't populate bogus IDs like Microsoft.PolicyInsights.
				    | extend subscriptionId = tostring(split(id, '/')[2])

@MSBrett

MSBrett commented Jul 30, 2026

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tostring(split(id, '/')[2]) only yields a real subscription ID for IDs that start with /subscriptions/{guid}/.... For tenant- or management-group-scoped policy definitions, it produces incorrect values (for example, /providers/Microsoft.Authorization/... becomes Microsoft.Authorization).

Confirmed as a real bug in code this PR introduced (this subscriptionId derivation for the policy tables was added here to support the new subscription batching; it did not exist before). Fixed in all 4 flagged locations (kql/expressions.tmdl, storage/expressions.tmdl, PolicyAssignments.tmdl, PolicyStates.tmdl) by guarding the split so non-subscription-scoped IDs now produce an empty value instead of a misleading label like Microsoft.Authorization or Microsoft.PolicyInsights.

One residual limitation this fix does not solve, disclosed for transparency: ftk_QueryARG appends a | where subscriptionId in (...) filter per subscription batch, so rows with an empty/non-subscription-scoped subscriptionId (tenant- or management-group-scoped policy definitions/assignments/states) will not match any batch and are excluded from these three tables' results, both before and after this fix. That is a consequence of the subscription-based batching design itself, not something a value-correctness fix can resolve. If org-wide policy visibility matters for this report, that would need a separate change (for example, including an empty-subscriptionId branch in exactly one batch). I have not made that change here since it touches the shared ftk_QueryARG function used by every batched table and is a bigger design change than this fix; happy to file a follow-up issue if that is wanted.

…urces

Copilot's automated review flagged that tostring(split(id, '/')[2])
produces misleading values (e.g. Microsoft.Authorization,
Microsoft.PolicyInsights) instead of null/empty for tenant- or
management-group-scoped policy definitions, assignments, and states.
This subscriptionId derivation was added by this PR to support ARG
subscription batching. Guard the split so non-subscription-scoped IDs
now yield an empty value instead of a bogus one, in both kql and
storage copies of expressions.tmdl and in PolicyAssignments.tmdl /
PolicyStates.tmdl (storage copies are symlinks to the kql originals).

Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

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  1. High — subscription batching drops built-in and management-group Azure Policy data

PolicyDefinitions and PolicyAssignments derive subscriptionId from split(id, '/')[2], then call ftk_QueryARG, which appends where subscriptionId in ('<subscription GUIDs>'). Built-in definition IDs use /providers/Microsoft.Authorization/policyDefinitions/<id>, so the derived value is Microsoft.Authorization; management-group IDs similarly derive Microsoft.Management. Neither can match a subscription GUID, so those rows are removed. Keep tenant/management-group records outside subscription batching and union them with batched subscription-scope records, or apply the filter only to subscription-scoped IDs. Add regression coverage for built-in, management-group, and subscription IDs in both dataset copies.

  1. Medium — the reported NSG payload case remains insufficiently bounded and unproven

The issue specifically identifies the NSG query and its mv-expand properties.securityRules as exceeding 16 MB, but NetworkSecurityGroups.tmdl retains that expansion and uses ftk_QueryARG(query, 20). The documented default therefore creates 2,000-subscription batches, and the documented integer minimum of 1 still produces 20 subscriptions. No measurement or validation demonstrates that this stays below ARG’s 16 MB limit. Remove or reduce the multiplier, or expose a true per-table batch setting, and validate the selected bound against a large NSG-rule tenant.

  1. Medium — required validation evidence for the core M change is absent

There is no Power BI test, .tmdl/M CI validation, or reported manual refresh for the new batching behavior. The PR only reports an M-spec trace, while the repository’s build-and-test guidance says Power BI reports require manual build/verification and that manual verification is always expected. Record a Power BI Desktop refresh against a representative large tenant, including NSG expansion and policy scopes, and add a deterministic boundary check for batching and ID scoping if automated Power BI validation remains unavailable.

@microsoft-github-policy-service microsoft-github-policy-service Bot added Needs: Attention 👋 Issue or PR needs to be reviewed by the author or it will be closed due to no activity and removed Needs: Review 👀 PR that is ready to be reviewed labels Jul 30, 2026
@microsoft-github-policy-service microsoft-github-policy-service Bot added Needs: Review 👀 PR that is ready to be reviewed and removed Needs: Attention 👋 Issue or PR needs to be reviewed by the author or it will be closed due to no activity labels Jul 30, 2026
… size

- ftk_QueryARG: add optional includeUnscoped param that unions in one
  unbatched Azure Resource Graph query for rows whose derived
  subscriptionId is blank (tenant- and management-group-scoped policy
  resources), since the per-batch "subscriptionId in (...)" filter can
  never match them and they were being silently dropped from every
  batch.
- PolicyDefinitions (kql + storage), PolicyAssignments, PolicyStates:
  opt into includeUnscoped so built-in policy definitions and
  management-group-scoped assignments/states are no longer missing
  from the Governance report.
- NetworkSecurityGroups: remove the 20x batch multiplier (2000
  subs/batch). It was the largest multiplier of any table despite this
  table's mv-expand of security rules being the highest per-row payload
  expansion in the dataset and the original motivating case for ARG
  batching (changelog #1540). Falls back to the 100-subs/batch default.

Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
@MSBrett

MSBrett commented Jul 30, 2026

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Thanks for the detailed review, @MSBrett. Addressed in cdd13b2c:

1. High: subscription batching drops built-in and management-group policy data

Confirmed and fixed. ftk_QueryARG now takes an optional includeUnscoped flag. When set, it runs one extra, unbatched ARG query for rows whose derived subscriptionId is blank (| where isempty(subscriptionId)) and unions that in with the batched results. PolicyDefinitions (kql + storage), PolicyAssignments, and PolicyStates now pass true for this flag, so built-in definitions and management-group-scoped assignments/states are no longer silently excluded. All other tables are unaffected (the parameter defaults to off), so this doesn't touch subscription-scoped tables that don't need it.

I did not add a union of every possible non-subscription scope pattern beyond "blank subscriptionId" - the fix relies on the existing iff(...) guard that already normalizes any non-/subscriptions/... id shape to '', so it covers tenant and management-group scope uniformly rather than enumerating each scope type.

2. Medium: NSG payload case insufficiently bounded

Agreed the 20x multiplier (2,000 subs/batch default, 20 subs/batch even at the documented minimum) was backwards. NetworkSecurityGroups had the largest multiplier of any table despite its mv-expand of properties.securityRules being the highest per-row payload expansion in the whole dataset, and despite this table historically being the original motivating case for reducing payload size (changelog issue #1540). I removed the multiplier entirely, so it now falls back to the 100-subs/batch default like Resources - a 20x reduction from before, and the documented minimum of ftk_ARGBatchSize() = 1 now genuinely yields 1-subscription batches.

I could not validate this bound against a live large tenant. This sandboxed environment has no Azure Resource Graph access, no Power BI Desktop, and (confirmed by checking Package-Toolkit.ps1) no CLI-based way to refresh or measure a .tmdl dataset - PBIX files in this repo are explicitly a manual "open in Power BI Desktop and save" step. The new default is a reasoned, conservative choice based on the historical evidence above, not a measured one. If you have access to a tenant with a large number of NSG rules, a manual refresh to confirm the new default (or tune it further) would still be valuable.

3. Medium: validation evidence for the core M change is absent

This is a fair gap I can't close from here for the same reason as #2 - there's no automated Power BI/M test harness in this repo (Build-PowerBI.ps1 doesn't validate query correctness, and per Package-Toolkit.ps1, .pbip projects require manual Power BI Desktop steps). What I can offer is: I hand-verified the M syntax (paren/bracket balance, control flow) of every change in this PR, and reasoned through the batching/scoping logic against the known ARG resource ID shapes. I have not performed, and cannot perform, a live refresh against a representative tenant. That verification still needs a human with Power BI Desktop and ARG access before merge.

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🤖 [AI][Claude] PR Review

Summary: The batching approach is sound and the hardening from earlier review rounds (batch-size validation, try...otherwise on the subscription list, restored RI filter) is solid. Three items need attention before merge — most importantly registering the two new functions in the Power BI build script, and the direction of the batchMultiplier argument. A few items are confirmation requests rather than defects.

🚫 Blockers (3)

  1. Build-PowerBI.ps1 needs ftk_QueryARG and ftk_ARGBatchSize added to the Governance and WorkloadOptimization Expressions lists so they survive the build filter.
  2. batchMultiplier scales batches up rather than down, so the heaviest tables issue the largest requests.
  3. Confirm the storage .tmdl → symlink conversion is intentional and works on Windows + the build scripts.

⚠️ Should fix (3)

  1. AdvisorRecommendations changed resultTruncated from true to false.
  2. In-query subscriptionId filtering trims results but doesn't reduce Resource Graph's scan scope.
  3. Confirm the AdvisorReservationRecommendations column/typing additions are intended to ship in this PR.

💡 Suggestions (2)

  1. Reference the default batch size instead of duplicating the 100 literal.
  2. Apply the same try...otherwise guard to the UnscopedSource query.

Comment thread src/power-bi/kql/Shared.Dataset/definition/expressions.tmdl
Comment thread src/power-bi/kql/Shared.Dataset/definition/expressions.tmdl Outdated
Comment thread src/power-bi/storage/Shared.Dataset/definition/expressions.tmdl
Comment thread src/power-bi/kql/Shared.Dataset/definition/tables/AdvisorRecommendations.tmdl Outdated
Comment thread src/power-bi/kql/Shared.Dataset/definition/expressions.tmdl
Comment thread src/power-bi/kql/Shared.Dataset/definition/expressions.tmdl Outdated
Comment thread src/power-bi/kql/Shared.Dataset/definition/expressions.tmdl Outdated
…entries, batch size inversion, and Advisor sort/type regressions

- Revert 13 storage/*.tmdl symlinks to real duplicated files; git checks
  out symlinks as literal path-text on Windows without core.symlinks=true,
  which corrupted local builds and Power BI Desktop sessions for most
  Windows contributors.
- Add ftk_QueryARG and ftk_ARGBatchSize to the Governance and
  WorkloadOptimization Expressions allowlists in Build-PowerBI.ps1; both
  were being stripped from the shipped .pbit even though ~10 tables call
  ftk_QueryARG, which would break refresh in the built report.
- Reduce batchMultiplier on VirtualMachines (3 mv-expand blocks, widest
  row) from 5 to none, and on AdvisorRecommendations,
  AdvisorReservationRecommendations, and SqlDatabases from 5 to 2, so
  batch size roughly tracks per-row payload weight instead of being
  inverted (heaviest tables previously got the largest batches).
- Restore the lookbackPeriod Int64.Type transform in
  AdvisorReservationRecommendations that this PR had dropped.
- Re-sort AdvisorRecommendations/AdvisorReservationRecommendations by
  SortOrder after Table.Combine, since combining per-batch results only
  preserves sort order within each batch, not globally.
- Wrap ftk_QueryARG's UnscopedSource query in try...otherwise so a
  transient ARG failure on the optional unscoped-rows query degrades to
  batched-only results instead of failing the whole table.
- Extract defaultBatchSize as a named constant and add a comment
  explaining the in-query subscription filter vs request-level scope
  tradeoff.

Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

@RolandKrummenacher RolandKrummenacher left a comment

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Overview

The batching approach is sound and ftk_QueryARG is correctly written M. My concerns are about failure modes, request volume, and scope rather than the core idea.

I've left inline comments on the specific lines. Summary of what I think blocks merge:

  1. A failed subscription enumeration silently produces an empty report rather than an error — strictly worse than the error it replaces.
  2. ~6x more ARG requests with no retry, in exactly the large tenants this targets. Trades a deterministic 16 MB error for a nondeterministic 429.
  3. Resource-group-scoped readers lose data, because they can't see the subscription containers the batch list is built from.

And a scope request: this is at least three PRs. Beyond batching it rewrites AdvisorReservationRecommendations' schema (+16 columns, lookbackPeriod string→int64, coalesce(…,0) on savings amounts, a new recommendedActions fallback), switches properties['category'] to properties.category, converges the entire storage dataset onto the kql dataset's content, and churns several hundred lineageTag GUIDs. Those may all be wanted, but they're unreviewable next to the batching change and will make bisecting a future refresh regression painful. I'd like the AdvisorReservationRecommendations schema work split out.

Note that every finding on src/power-bi/kql/.../expressions.tmdl applies identically to the duplicated copy in src/power-bi/storage/.../expressions.tmdl — I only commented once per issue to keep this readable.

Verified as fine

So these don't come up again: changelog placement is correct (v15 is still 15.0.0-dev.0; the "Released June 2026" header is a placeholder). The errors.md anchor resolves. Every batched query either uses extend-only against resources/advisorresources/policyResources — which carry subscriptionId natively — or explicitly projects it, so the appended filter always resolves; I checked all twelve. The broken symlinks flagged earlier are gone. ManagementGroups correctly stays unbatched. {0..-1} is a valid empty range in M, so the zero-subscription path doesn't throw.

Testing

@MSBrett's note that none of this ran against a live tenant is the crux. Pester passes but never touches these files, and findings 1–3 are all runtime-only failure modes that no static check would catch. A manual refresh against a genuinely multi-batch tenant (>100 subscriptions, ideally >500) is the real gate here — specifically watching for 429s during concurrent partition refresh, and confirming the tables aren't silently empty.

requestedBatchSize = try ftk_ARGBatchSize() * (if batchMultiplier <> null then batchMultiplier else 1) otherwise null,
batchSize = if requestedBatchSize = null or not Value.Is(requestedBatchSize, type number) or requestedBatchSize < 1 then defaultBatchSize else Number.RoundDown(requestedBatchSize),
subQuery = "resourcecontainers | where type == 'microsoft.resources/subscriptions' | project subscriptionId" & ftk_DemoFilter(),
Subscriptions = try AzureResourceGraph.Query(subQuery, "Tenant", null, null, [resultTruncated = false]) otherwise null,

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Blocking — this silently turns a failure into an empty report.

Trace the failure path: try … otherwise nullSubscriptionIds = {} (line 110) → BatchCount = 0Batches = {}Filtered = {}Combined = null (line 127) → every caller's NullHandling hits Source = null and returns the empty #table.

So an auth failure, a throttle, or a transient ARG outage on the subscription list query yields "0 rows, refresh succeeded" across all twelve batched tables. The user gets a blank Governance report with a green checkmark and no indication anything went wrong. Before this change, the error surfaced.

This is worse than the payload error the PR fixes — that one at least told you what happened. Suggest not swallowing here: either let the query throw, or distinguish "tenant genuinely has no readable subscriptions" from "enumeration failed" and raise explicitly with error Error.Record(…).

// filter within the ARG query itself (rather than the request-level "subscriptions" scope parameter) so batching logic stays entirely in M and behaves the same for every caller regardless of query shape
subFilter = " | where subscriptionId in (" & Text.Combine(List.Transform(batchIds, each "'" & _ & "'"), ",") & ")",
fullQuery = query & subFilter,
Source = AzureResourceGraph.Query(fullQuery, "Tenant", null, null, [resultTruncated = false])

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Blocking — request amplification with no retry.

This call has no try and no backoff, so the first 429 fails the entire table.

Request count per table is now 1 + ceil(N / batchSize). For a 1,000-subscription tenant across the twelve adopting tables that's roughly 84 ARG calls versus 14 today:

  • 1x multiplier (10 batches): NetworkSecurityGroups, Resources, VirtualMachines → 33
  • 2x (5 batches): AdvisorRecommendations, AdvisorReservationRecommendations, Disks, NetworkInterfaces, SqlDatabases, PolicyAssignments, PolicyStates → 44 (incl. 2 unscoped)
  • 5x (2 batches): PublicIPAddresses, PolicyDefinitions → 7 (incl. 1 unscoped)

ARG's quota is 15 requests per 5 seconds per user, and Power BI evaluates partitions concurrently. This will throttle. The PR body lists it as a known limitation, but I don't think it can be deferred — large tenants are the entire target population, so we'd be swapping a deterministic 16 MB error for a nondeterministic throttling error for the same users.

Two things would address it: a bounded retry with backoff around this call (Function.InvokeAfter), and hoisting the subscription list into one shared expression instead of re-querying it once per table (that alone removes 12 of the 84).

defaultBatchSize = 100,
requestedBatchSize = try ftk_ARGBatchSize() * (if batchMultiplier <> null then batchMultiplier else 1) otherwise null,
batchSize = if requestedBatchSize = null or not Value.Is(requestedBatchSize, type number) or requestedBatchSize < 1 then defaultBatchSize else Number.RoundDown(requestedBatchSize),
subQuery = "resourcecontainers | where type == 'microsoft.resources/subscriptions' | project subscriptionId" & ftk_DemoFilter(),

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Blocking — resource-group-scoped readers silently lose data.

The batch list is derived from resourcecontainers, but the queries it filters run against resources. Those have different RBAC surfaces: a principal with Reader at resource group scope can read the resources rows but cannot see the subscription container. Those subscriptions never enter the batch list, so their resources are dropped with no error.

The old unfiltered tenant-scope query returned them. RG-scoped Reader is a common delegation pattern, so this isn't hypothetical. At minimum it needs a documented caveat in the "Known limitations" sections this PR adds; better would be a fallback when the derived subscription list looks suspiciously narrow.

if Table.HasColumns(Source, "Results") and Table.RowCount(Source) = 1 then null else Source
),
// some callers (for example tenant/management-group-scoped policy resources) can have a blank subscriptionId that never matches any subscription batch filter above; fetch those rows once, unbatched, when requested
UnscopedSource = if includeUnscoped = true then (try AzureResourceGraph.Query(query & " | where isempty(subscriptionId)", "Tenant", null, null, [resultTruncated = false]) otherwise null) else null,

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This branch bypasses ftk_DemoFilter().

The batched path gets demo scoping implicitly — the filter constrains subQuery on line 108, so the batch IDs are already limited to the seven demo subscriptions. But this unscoped query appends only | where isempty(subscriptionId) to the raw caller query, with no demo filter.

Result: in the demo datasets, PolicyDefinitions, PolicyAssignments and PolicyStates will pull every tenant- and MG-scoped policy row from the demo tenant instead of the curated scope. Worth appending ftk_DemoFilter()'s intent here too, or explicitly deciding that unscoped rows are always in-scope for demos.

let
defaultBatchSize = 100,
requestedBatchSize = try ftk_ARGBatchSize() * (if batchMultiplier <> null then batchMultiplier else 1) otherwise null,
batchSize = if requestedBatchSize = null or not Value.Is(requestedBatchSize, type number) or requestedBatchSize < 1 then defaultBatchSize else Number.RoundDown(requestedBatchSize),

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not Value.Is(requestedBatchSize, type number) is dead code. requestedBatchSize is the result of a * b evaluated inside try … otherwise null on the previous line — multiplication in M either yields a number or errors, and the error is already caught. So it's a number or null, never another type, and this clause can never be true.

Same pattern on line 110 with Value.Is(Subscriptions, type table): AzureResourceGraph.Query returns a table or errors, and the error is caught by the try.

Harmless, but it reads as defensive coverage that isn't actually covering anything.

recommendedActions = strcat(properties.extendedProperties.displaySKU, ' virtual machines in ', properties.extendedProperties.location),
recommendedActions = iff(isnotempty(properties.extendedProperties.displaySKU), strcat(properties.extendedProperties.displaySKU, ' virtual machines in ', properties.extendedProperties.location), tostring(properties.shortDescription.solution)),
SortOrder = case(properties.impact == 'High', 1, properties.impact == 'Medium', 2, properties.impact == 'Low', 3, 9)
| order by SortOrder asc

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This order by should go now. ftk_QueryARG appends the batch filter after it, so each batch sorts its full result set and then filters — wasted work per batch — and the ordering is discarded anyway when Table.Combine concatenates, which is why the new Table.Sort step exists below.

Same applies to the order by in AdvisorRecommendations.


" & ftk_DemoFilter(), "Tenant", null, null, [resultTruncated = true]),
",
Source = ftk_QueryARG(query, 2),

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Unflagged behavior change: this table previously ran with [resultTruncated = true], and ftk_QueryARG hardcodes false. So the one table that was explicitly protected by truncation now returns complete results.

That's probably the outcome you want, but it isn't in the changelog or the PR description, and it cuts against the PR's goal — it increases per-batch payload for the table that had a payload guard. Worth calling out explicitly so it's a decision rather than a side effect.

> _OLE DB or ODBC error: [Expression.Error] Please provide below info when asking for support: timestamp = {timestamp}, correlationId = {guid}. Details: Response payload size is {number}, and has exceeded the limit of 16777216. Please consider querying less data at a time and make paginated call if needed._

This error means that you have more resources than are supported in an unfiltered Resource Graph query. This happens because FinOps toolkit reports are designed to show resource-level details and are not aggregated. They are designed for small- and medium-sized environments and not designed to support organizations with millions of resources.
Azure Resource Graph enforces a 16 MB response payload limit per query. FinOps toolkit reports automatically paginate queries in batches of subscriptions (default: 100 per batch) to stay within this limit, so most environments should not encounter this error. If you still see it, it means the resources in a single batch of subscriptions exceed the 16 MB limit.

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"default: 100 per batch" is only true for three of the twelve tables. The effective batch is ftk_ARGBatchSize() × batchMultiplier — 200 for most tables and 500 for PublicIPAddresses and PolicyDefinitions.

So a user who follows Option 1 below and drops the value from 100 to 20 still gets 100-subscription batches on those two tables and 40 on most others — not the 20 the docs imply. Either document the multiplier or state the effective range.

Related: nothing in the code or docs records why each table got 1x, 2x or 5x. Given NSG already had to be walked back from 20x during review, it'd help to write down the reasoning (or drop the multiplier entirely and let one number mean one thing).


## Related content

Related resources:

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This restructure is unrelated to the fix — ## See also was removed and its two links relocated here under a new "Related resources:" list. governance.md keeps its original structure, so the two report docs now diverge.

Suggest reverting unless @flanakin specifically asked for it; it adds review surface to an already-large PR.

requestedBatchSize = try ftk_ARGBatchSize() * (if batchMultiplier <> null then batchMultiplier else 1) otherwise null,
batchSize = if requestedBatchSize = null or not Value.Is(requestedBatchSize, type number) or requestedBatchSize < 1 then defaultBatchSize else Number.RoundDown(requestedBatchSize),
subQuery = "resourcecontainers | where type == 'microsoft.resources/subscriptions' | project subscriptionId" & ftk_DemoFilter(),
Subscriptions = try AzureResourceGraph.Query(subQuery, "Tenant", null, null, [resultTruncated = false]) otherwise null,

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Flagging for tracking: ftk_QueryARG is duplicated verbatim between the kql and storage datasets, so every finding I left on src/power-bi/kql/.../expressions.tmdl applies here too — the silent-empty-result path, the missing retry, the resourcecontainers RBAC gap, the includeUnscoped demo-filter bypass, the dead Value.Is guards, and the Table.Combine shape assumption.

Not asking to deduplicate in this PR (the two datasets are separate by design), just make sure fixes land in both copies.

@microsoft-github-policy-service microsoft-github-policy-service Bot added Needs: Attention 👋 Issue or PR needs to be reviewed by the author or it will be closed due to no activity and removed Needs: Review 👀 PR that is ready to be reviewed labels Jul 31, 2026
@microsoft-github-policy-service

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@@copilot: you have some new feedback!

Please review and resolve all comments and I'll let reviewers know by removing the Needs: Attention label. If I miss anything, just reply with #needs-review and I'll update the status.

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Governance Report is not loading says payload size limit is exceeding the limits.

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