Forum Discussion
Personal Gateway
The documentation for Personal Gateway doesn't clarify what credentials will be used to authenticate against the data source. Will it be the credentials the gateway is running under or the credentials used to log into Power BI online (assuming Windows Authentication was selected).
My situation is that some user's devices are in a different AD domain than the data source. The user is logged onto their device using the credentials for the domain the device is in. The user then logs onto Power BI using their credentials that are in the same domain as the data source. When the gateway is installed, it is configured to run using the user's credentials that are in the domain of the data source. When the user goes to refresh the dataset for the first time, they are challenged to sign in using Windows Authentication. What isn't clear is which credentials Power BI is now using to connect to the data source; the credential's used to log onto the device, the credentials used to log onto Power BI, or the credentials that the gateway is running under.
rl_evans, after you deploy your model in the service, you will need to go to schedule refresh section and specify credentials for each connection used by your model.. it is these credentials that the gateway will use to make connections to data sources.
If you pick Windows authentication, then the credentials that you entered into your Gateway are used to connect.
6 Replies
It will prompt you for credentials and it needs to be a "Microsoft or Work/Organization" account, the one that is tied to your Power BI service.
Yes, when installing Personal Gateway it prompts for credentials. These are the credentials under which the service runs. However, when one first attempts to schedule a refresh or refresh on demand, Power BI asks whether you want to use Windows Authentication or Basic Authentication. This potentially implies that the gateway uses a credential other than the one it is running with. If this is true then, which credential is it using? Since there are three different Window Authentication credentials at play:
- one for logging onto device
- one for logging onto Power BI
- one for launching Personal Gateway
Which one is the gateway using when it connects to the on-prem data source? The most logical is the gateway will connect to the data source using the credentials it is running under. I'm looking for confirmation.
There is a limitation to this approach. All reports that are refreshed using this device are forced to use this single credential. If other credentials are needed to refresh other reports, a different device needs to be set up with the gateway.
rl_evans, after you deploy your model in the service, you will need to go to schedule refresh section and specify credentials for each connection used by your model.. it is these credentials that the gateway will use to make connections to data sources.
If you pick Windows authentication, then the credentials that you entered into your Gateway are used to connect.
