Power Pivot and Power View do not work for Excel workbook with external connection

Question

I have SharePoint 2013 with Power Pivot and Power View. It's based on SQL Server 2012.

They seem to be configured properly as they work fine with Excel 2010 workbook that contains tabular model that was created within this Excel file.

Now I have created Excel 2013 workbook with external connection to tabular model on SSAS on other server. Workbook contains PivotTables and PivotCharts that consume data from this external connection (i.e. tabular model). But when I upload this file to Power Pivot Gallery, buttons "Open new Excel workbook", "Create Power View Report" and "Manage Data Refresh" are not visible.

What is more, I cannot refresh the data nor use slicers in this spreadsheet because of the same error as it was described here: SharePoint 2013 Excel Services & External Data Refresh Failed

In the ULS I have found following errors:
PF_CHECK_ERROR returned 'critical hresult error' 0x80004005 ; Stack Trace:NA
OLEDBConnection::InitConnection: An error was encountered in the transport layer.
Failed to create an external connection or execute a query. Provider message: An error was encountered in the transport layer., ConnectionName: [Connection_name], Workbook: [Workbook_url].

What could be the reason? Does Power Pivot and Power View For SharePoint support only Excel files that contain tabular model in the workbook?

Answer 1

There are multiple things you have take into account:

• Only Excel Files created with Excel 2013 are supported. They must be saved in Excel 2013.
• Credentials must be correctly supplied (Unattended PowerPivot Data Refresh Account)
• Secure Store Service must be setup correctly
• If using credentials in your excel file, it must be stored in the excel file.
• Only Tabulars are supported within the Gallery
• PowerPivot cannot connect to other sites or libraries