Are PBI Data & Queries Consuming Enterprise Gateway Server Resources?

[captainlaw]

Hello Community,

I am looking to implement Enterprise Gateway to connect to my on-prem SQL Server DB queries.  All PBI are using "Imported" methodology (as opposed to DirectQuery).

Two questions:

1. Are all Dashboard datasets cached on the Enterprise Gateway?

2. When user query the Dashboard on PBI Services, are they consuming Enterprise Gateway or SQL Server server resources?

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Hi @captainlaw,

You can get answers of the above questions from the Power BI Security whitepaper.

Based on the whitepaper, “The data needed by the visuals on the dashboard are usually cached and stored encrypted in Azure SQL Database”.

And when data access activities occur and put data in process, ” the Data Role in the Power BI service creates an in-memory Analysis Services (AS) database and the dataset is loaded into that in-memory Analysis Services database. Whether the dataset is based on a DirectQuery or not, data loaded in the AS database is unencrypted to allow for access by the Data Role, and held in memory for further access until the Power BI service no longer needs the dataset. Once data is acted upon, which includes initially loading data into Power BI, the Power BI service may cache the visualization data in an encrypted Azure SQL Database, regardless of whether the dataset is based on a DirectQuery”.


Thanks,

Lydia Zhang

[captainlaw]

Thank you for your great response! 

To summerize -

1. Refresh - Gateway will definitley be utilized for retrieving data from data source into PBI's in-memory AS

2. End User Accessing Dashboard - Can you confirm whether PBI still requires Gateway resources?  

Much Appreciated.