Steps taken during a PowerPivot data refresh

In this posting we will take a more detailed technical look at how the data refresh facility works and the steps that it takes to accomplish a data refresh cycle. Rather than starting with the "Manage data refresh” page, we will assume that you know how to setup a schedule – in this posting, we will take a deep dive into the cycle itself.

What steps are taken when the data is refreshed?

Now that you have configured your schedule(s) for the workbook, let’s take a step back and examine more closely what data refresh actually means. I think that it is valuable to understand, at some basic level, exactly what the system is going to do on your behalf at 2am in the morning. When a job actually run, the data refresh facility goes through the following steps:

1. First, the system looks for schedules that are ‘runable’ meaning that their schedule time period has come due. As all of the jobs might be scheduled at close to the same time (midnight, for example, is a popular time ), the system tries to run the job as soon as it can. All of the PowerPivot SharePoint servers are doing this at the same time. Ultimately one of them

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