SQL Server Alias name

[Fcoatis]

Hello All,

I just installed SQL Server 2019 Developer in my laptop and configured an alias name with protocol Named Pipes. Everything seems to work fine since I can access the alias name through SSMS. However I have a lot of samples of pbix files pointing to at his SQL Server (the one I Aliased), when I try to refresh the Source I get this error 40. My question is what am I missing? Once I can access the Alias through SSMS.

Thanks in advance

[Greg_Deckler]

@Fcoatis Have you reviewed this thread? Solved: Re: SQL Connection Named Pipes Provider, error:40 - Microsoft Power BI Community

[Fcoatis]

@Greg_Deckler Yes I did! I even created an outbound rule in firewall to the default port. The odd thing, and that was my question, if I can access alias server through SSMS, why not through Power BI (Desktop). Both Power BI and SQL Server running in the same laptop.

[Greg_Deckler · Accepted solution]

@Fcoatis Well, a SQL Alias is a client setting, right? So you would need to create the alias on your clients and I don't think that is supported with Power BI. You could create a hosts file entry: 

C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc

Problems with alias as Data Source - Microsoft Q&A