Sample public SQL database for learning purpose

[Tom_Y]

This is a silly question, but that's the situation.

I want to have a taste on how Power BI extract data from any SQL database, not just from excel in sharepoint...

Any suggestion where I can find some secure, safe, and easy public SQL database for testing?

ChatGPT suggests this one but it seems my home IP cannot pass through its firewall.

Thanks for the advice.

1. SQL Server Settings:

   • Server: azuresql.database.windows.net
   • Database: AdventureWorks
   • Username: readonly_user
   • Password: readonly_password

[danextian]

Hi @Tom_Y 

SQLBI has a contoso dataset generator which can generate a BAK file. You will need a server in order to access the contents of it.

https://www.sqlbi.com/blog/marco/2024/07/25/announcing-contoso-data-generator-v2/

Google big query has some public databases as well which be added to a model via Direct Query.

https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/public-data 

[hnguy71 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Tom_Y 
You can set up a SQL server locally and connect either SSMS or Power BI to it.

Download the Developer version of SQL Server and install: 
SQL Server Downloads | Microsoft 

Follow these steps to download and restore AdventureWorks locally:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/samples/adventureworks-install-configure?view=sql-server-ver16...

Then all that's left is to connect to the server (once it's ran) and use the server name as LOCALHOST. You may also need to add the port number too but typically you don't have to. And for the DB name it'll be the AdventureWorks db restored version.

It's been a while since I did this but should still be very valid.