PowerBi - Attaching a Common Data Model Folder to a DataFlow - Error: path doesnt contain model.json

If you get the "The path doesn't contain model.json. Please provide the full path to the CDM folder including its definition file (its Model.json file) and try again." error, there can be many reasons for it.

Here are some things to try:

1. Make sure your url doesnt contain blob.core.windows.net.


1. When I used the desktop app StorageExplorer and copied the path to the model.json file, then the path looked like: https://xxxxxx.blob.core.windows.net/cds-crmuat1/model.json
2. The same file, the path through Azure portal's storage explorer was: https://xxxxxx.dfs.core.windows.net/cds-crmuat1/model.json.
   The 2nd path worked, but the first one didnt.
2. Make sure your permissions are correct:
   
1. In the screen shot above, what I had missed were:
1. Adding myself to the owner role on the storage account directly. Its not enough to be in here via inheritance, you need to add yourself directly.
2. Also I had to add myself to the "Storage Blob Data Owner" role.
2. The ones in blue are what the documentation asks you to do: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/service-dataflows-connect-azure-data-lake-storage-gen2#grant-permissions-to-power-bi-services

Some other gotchas:

1. The storage account used for CDM needs to be the exact same storage account used by PowerBi. As of writing this blog, this is a limitation of PowerBi that I hope they will remove.
2. The storage account needs to be in the same tenant and also hosted in the same region as PowerBi.
3. If you encounter an error when trying to save a DataFlow, make sure that there is a container/filesystem named PowerBi in that storage account.

Useful resources:

Informatica's documentation is helpful: https://docs.informatica.com/integration-cloud/cloud-data-integration-connectors/h2l/prerequisites-to-use-cdm-folders-connector/prerequisites-to-use-cdm-folders-connector.html