Unable to create Data Source Connection (no values in Gateway Cluster dropdown?)

[alanc]

I'm trying to create an On-Prem connection for Power BI and it doesn't show any values in the dropdown, I had a previous connection (Personal mode) and I couldn't update it as the connection name was incorrect, so I did a rookie mistake and deleted it hoping I could recreate it with proper connection string. I am doing this so I can use Direct Query against SQL.  I'm going going crazy here digging through all this doco... what do I need to do get a new connection created?  I have a free account with plans to upgrade soon.

[v-tianyich-msft]

Hi @alanc ,

Please download the standard gateway, the personal gateway cannot create a connection and it only supports import mode, which creates the connection when the desktop publishes to the service. You can refer to the details:On-premises data gateway - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

Install an on-premises data gateway | Microsoft Learn

Hope it helps!

Best regards,
Community Support Team_ Scott Chang

If this post helps then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[alanc · Accepted solution]

It seems the crux of my problem was the connection string, when using Import mode and specifying the SQL port my string was this... myserver\mysqlinstance:50560;myDB and it worked fine for many months. However when changing to using DirectQuery it wanted the string to be myserver\mysqlinstance,50560.  That is a comma instead of full-colon. So now I can access my local datasource using DQ (desktop) without a gateway, no issue, and also now understand when and how the gateway needs to be setup.

[Greg_Deckler]

@alanc I guess the first question is do you have a gateway installed and signed-in to the Service?

[alanc]

I do not have a gateway installed, my understanding was a gateway is not required when accessing a local DB instance, the problem was I blew away the existing default and now I can't recreate it.