Connecting to a SQL server instance from PBI desktop with out having SQL server installed on the pc

[Ardio]

HI everyone,

I have a user who wantes to connect an instance of SQL server from their Power BI desktop but they get following error:

"A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: Named pipes provider, error:40-Couldb't open a connection to SQL Server"

I have tried two generic solution: 

1. the server name is typed correctly so it is not the issue in this case

2. I couln't find the SQL server in their Services, services.msc running because they doesn't have SQL server installed on their because they are not allowed to have one

is there any other possible solutions

Thank you for your help

[sergej_og]

@Ardio 
To access on-prem SQL Server you have to enable communication between your lokal host (e.g. your notebook) and the SQL Server. Maybe you have to make a firewall rule etc.
Enable port 1433 for access - it is default port for SQL Server

[sergej_og]

Hi @Ardio,
I guess mentioned SQL Server is cloud-hosted.
If yes, one approach is to add IPs which are allowed to connect to SQL Server.
Server admin should configure the internal firewall for these IPs. This should enable remote connections.

Maybe you can provide more information.

Regards

[Ardio · Accepted solution]

Thank you for your reply @sergej_og 

However, it is not the case for us because all servers are local and we don't have any instance of SQL in cloud!

On the other hand the DB admin confirms that they added this user on the "allowed" list to access all the DBs under this instance of local SQL Database, but as I mentioned the error yet persists!

can you please suggest more solutions other than what we tried as per my above message?