Cubes Showing Blank Fields and Data (Temporary AAS Server Reboots)

Overview

Occasionally, some Analysis Services (AAS) cube servers are automatically rebooted by Microsoft. When this occurs, users may notice their cube content in Excel appear blank—no fields or data show up in pivot tables.

This is a sporadic event that:

• Typically lasts 5–10 minutes

• Resolves on its own without requiring user action

• Can impact multiple AAS instances at once

• Has been observed to occur approximately once every 2–3 months

While we have monitoring and alerting in place, these events are often first noticed by end-users working directly in Excel cube files.

Symptoms

• Opening a cube-connected Excel file shows a blank cube

• No fields or measures appear in the PivotTable 

• Refreshing during the outage does not resolve the blank cube

• Data reappears without intervention after several minutes

(Insert your attached screenshot here as a reference example.)

Why This Happens

• Microsoft occasionally reboots AAS servers automatically for maintenance or stability.

• During the reboot, cube connections may appear unavailable, leading to a blank view in Excel.

• The outage window is short, so by the time the server is fully back online, the cube repopulates automatically.

From Microsoft: 

Recommended Actions

If you encounter this issue:

1. Wait 5–10 minutes and then try refreshing your Excel cube file again.

2. If the cube is still blank, wait another 5–10 minutes and retry.

3. Notify EBM Support so we can log and track the occurrence.

Submit a ticket here: 👉 Submit a Request

Please include:

• The time the issue was observed

• The cube you were working in

• A reference to this article

These intermittent blank cube events are caused by Microsoft-managed server reboots. Although disruptive, they are self-resolving within minutes. The best action is to wait briefly and retry, while also notifying Support so we can maintain awareness and continue raising the issue with Microsoft.