Connecting to datasource via VPN?

[Account123]

For reasons I dont fully understand powerbi will randomly stop working when I remotely try to access my dashboards via VPN, it gives this error:

Error Message:
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: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 - Error Locating Server/Instance Specified). The exception was raised by the IDbConnection interface.

Im thinking maybe its trying to connect via the local LAN and not going through my companys VPN, is that possible? I tried changing creditenials to validate based on database but when i tried to refresh my data I instead got an error saying I couldnt combine direct query and imported data (I have no imported data in my dashboard)

Any tips?

[v-yulgu-msft]

Hi @Account123,

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Error Message:
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: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 - Error Locating Server/Instance Specified). The exception was raised by the IDbConnection interface. 

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For above error message, if you have provided correct instance name and valid credential, it looks like more related to SQL server configuration. You should make sure the SQL data source allows remote connections. Here are some similar threads for your reference to troubleshoot this problem:

SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 - Error Locating Server/Instance Specified

provider: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 - Error Locating Server/Instance Specified

Not connecting to SQL Server over VPN

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I instead got an error saying I couldnt combine direct query and imported data (I have no imported data in my dashboard)

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So, everything worked fine after fetching data from remote SQL DB until you refreshed data, right? Did you make any modification to data? Any unsupported operation by Direct Query will result in above error. 

Best regards,
Yuliana Gu