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Michael986's avatar
Michael986
New Member
4 years ago

Understanding licencing and gateways

We have just a single user in our company who has a Power BI Pro licence - he creates reports which access data on an Azure SQL server (connected by VPN, so technically 'local'), and sends the links to other users in the organization so they can view the reports. To do this, he has installed the On Premise Gateway on his PC.

 

This all works fine, except when this user shuts down their PC. This stops any of the other users accessing the reports - I assume because the Gateway is no longer running.

 

I don't know much about Power BI, but is this the way it's supposed to be set up? I assume in a large enough setup we'd get the Premium licence and a dedicated Power BI server where all reports would be stored / accessed from. But in a small setup like this, what would be the recommended setup?

 

Need Help

6 Replies

  • Tutu_in_YYC's avatar
    Tutu_in_YYC
    Icon for Super User rankSuper User
    4 years ago

    If the data is in Azure SQL Server, he should access the datasource directly using the server cloud address ( not using the vpn ) when creating the report in Power BI desktop. This way, he doesnt even need to install a gateway and Premium is not required to set this up. 

  • Michael986's avatar
    Michael986
    New Member
    4 years ago

    Thanks.

     

    So if he accessed the data using the cloud address, would he still be able to share his reports with other users? And without using the gateway?

     

    But if we assume that the data was on a local SQL server, what would be the correct setup then? The way he's currently done it?

     

     

    • Tutu_in_YYC's avatar
      Tutu_in_YYC
      Icon for Super User rankSuper User
      4 years ago

      Accessing the data through cloud and sharing reports are separated, so yes he can still share the report to others (assuming licensing requirements are fulfilled, changing the way he access the data source doesnt change the licensing requirements)

       

      If it is local (on-premise) SQL server, the current setup is correct, just have to make sure that the computer is not turn off when the report refresh is being done. Servers usually are on 24/7. 

       

      • Michael986's avatar
        Michael986
        New Member
        4 years ago
        Tutu_in_YYC wrote:

        If it is local (on-premise) SQL server, the current setup is correct, just have to make sure that the computer is not turn off when the report refresh is being done. Servers usually are on 24/7. 

         

        This is what I'm not understanding - you say 'servers usually are on 24/7' as if the gateway should be running on a server. But the setup I have (which you say is correct for on-premise SQL) has Power BI and the gateway running on the user's PC. It's when the gateway is switched off that the other users cannot access the reports.

         

        So how do I get around the problem (in the on-premise SQL server scenario) of the reports being unavailable when the user shuts down his PC (and therefore the gateway)?

        So what