Question

A semantic model in Import mode backs an executive dashboard. It reads from a warehouse fact table with 2 billion rows. Scheduled refreshes now take over 3 hours, and the capacity is frequently near its memory ceiling during refresh. Historical data older than the current year never changes, but the current year's data is updated daily. You must reduce refresh duration and memory pressure with the least ongoing maintenance. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Configure incremental refresh on the fact table with a policy that stores several years of history and refreshes only a recent rolling window.

Answer

Switch the semantic model to DirectQuery mode so no data is imported during refresh.

Answer

Increase the refresh frequency to run more often so each refresh processes fewer rows.

Answer

Manually split the fact table into yearly tables and add each as a separate table in the model.