topic Re: Power BI Embedded connected to local SQL Server instead of SQL Database Azure? in Developer

Power BI Embedded connected to local SQL Server instead of SQL Database Azure?

shds — Fri, 06 Jan 2017 10:48:37 GMT

Hi there,

I am looking into ways to most efficiently provide our customer data to those customers and we are focusing on PowerBI. However, it would be too much of a hassle to have our customers sign up for a PowerBI.com account so they can see reports in the cloud.

The next option would be to make use of Power BI Embedded, but from what I am reading in the documentation it seems that the only way to connect your report to a (live) database would be via a populated SQL Database on Azure. Is it possible to use Power BI Embedded in combination with our local SQL Server, just like we are now using the On-premises Data Gateway?

And if not, what other ways would there be to use PowerBI to present our customers with their own data in interactive charts/reports?

Re: Power BI Embedded connected to local SQL Server instead of SQL Database Azure?

Greg_Deckler — Fri, 06 Jan 2017 13:58:33 GMT

If you do not need RLS then you could use the "Publish to Web" option, not the most secure, but simple.

Re: Power BI Embedded connected to local SQL Server instead of SQL Database Azure?

shds — Fri, 06 Jan 2017 14:08:02 GMT

hi smoupre, thanks for your prompt response.

We do require authentication so Publish to Web wouldn't work unfortunately.

Re: Power BI Embedded connected to local SQL Server instead of SQL Database Azure?

Greg_Deckler — Fri, 06 Jan 2017 14:14:18 GMT

You do have the option of using something like Pyramid Analytics Server to publish your Desktop reports to locally. Similar functionality is on the roadmap for SQL Server Reporting Services.

Re: Power BI Embedded connected to local SQL Server instead of SQL Database Azure?

shds — Fri, 06 Jan 2017 14:37:08 GMT

We looked into Pyramid Analytics, but that's not a great match in terms of added functionality and price. Do you have some more information about the SSRS option? This sounds like something we could use.

Re: Power BI Embedded connected to local SQL Server instead of SQL Database Azure?

Eric_Zhang — Mon, 09 Jan 2017 06:57:49 GMT

@shds

So far, there's no gateway or refresh feature in Power BI Embedded, you can vote this idea up.

As a workaround using Power BI, you can either choose

re-fresh and re-import the pbix
Load the data from on-premises SQL Server to Azure SQL database via a regular ETL process, import a pbix in DirectQuery mode then.

Re: Power BI Embedded connected to local SQL Server instead of SQL Database Azure?

shds — Mon, 09 Jan 2017 13:54:06 GMT

Hi ,thanks for your suggestion, have upvoted the idea!