Power BI Gateway Installation issues

[DaleJohnson]

Good Afternoon,

I am trying to install the latest version of PowerBI Data Gateway onto Server 2022 running RDS services.

The server uses User Profile Disks.

The install fails with the error that the PBIEgwService cannot be started.

I am not sure what is causing the issues.

[v-tsaipranay]

Hi @DaleJohnson ,

Thanks for reaching out to the Microsoft fabric community forum. Also thank you @tayloramy  and @vivien57  for your helpful response.

Since the gateway installs correctly on a clean Server 2022 RDS host with the same settings, it looks like the problem is specific to the production server’s environment, rather than being caused by permissions or the installer itself.

The PBIEgwService startup failure typically points to a system-level conflict, such as a corrupted service profile, leftover registry entries, or interference from a local security or endpoint agent that blocks the gateway from initializing its necessary components. Since you have already tried all the troubleshooting steps, it would be best to open a support case with Microsoft so their engineering team can perform a more detailed trace on the affected host.

You can open a support ticket using the following link:

Power BI and Fabric support overview - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

Hope this helps. Please feel free to rech out for any further questions.

Thank you .

[tayloramy]

Hi @DaleJohnson,

The on-premises data gateway is a machine-wide Windows service, not per-user, so RDS user profiles/UPDs shouldn’t be involved. Use the Standard (enterprise) gateway installer and run it as an administrator. See Microsoft’s install guide: Install an on-premises data gateway.

Verify the service account has “Log on as a service”. By default the service runs as the virtual account NT SERVICE\PBIEgwService. Confirm Group Policy isn’t stripping this right on RDS hosts:

• Open secpol.msc > Local Policies > User Rights Assignment > Log on as a service and ensure NT SERVICE\PBIEgwService is present.
• If your domain GPO overwrites local settings, add it (or switch to a gMSA/domain account) centrally. Docs: Change the on-premises data gateway service account.
  Tip: If you do change accounts, do it in the Gateway app, not just services.msc, so permissions are applied correctly.

Start the service and check Event Viewer.

• Start: services.msc > On-premises data gateway service (PBIEgwService).
• Event logs: Event Viewer > Applications and Services Logs > On-premises data gateway service for precise startup errors. Microsoft’s troubleshooting article shows where to look and how to export logs: Troubleshoot the on-premises data gateway.

Best practice (optional but recommended): Consider hosting the gateway on a dedicated utility VM instead of an RDS session host to avoid contention and GPO/profile hardening side-effects. Background and guidance: RADACAD gateway overview and Using the gateway with Fabric.

If you found this helpful, consider giving some Kudos. If I answered your question or solved your problem, mark this post as the solution.

[DaleJohnson]

The issue is I cannot get the gateway to install.  It gets to the end of the installer then it bombs out and reverts the install.

As much as it is running on RDS, we have no GPOs that impact RDS services.  When I look at the secpol.msc, I do see the NT SERVICE\PBIEgwService user in the list.

I cannot change the service account to anything else as the appication will not even install.

In these instructions, I cannot get past Step #2

Install an on-premises data gateway | Microsoft Learn

[vivien57]

Hello @DaleJohnson ,

Do you have more information in Event Viewer under Windows Logs → Application for more detailed error message

Vivien 

[DaleJohnson]

Log Name: Application
Source: MsiInstaller
Date: 10/3/2025 2:18:24 PM
Event ID: 11920
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: ESCSEC\sec_djohnson
Computer: SECRDSP001.escsec.local
Description:
Product: GatewayComponents -- Error 1920. Service 'On-premises data gateway service' (PBIEgwService) failed to start. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to start system services.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="MsiInstaller" />
<EventID Qualifiers="0">11920</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2025-10-03T20:18:24.5888689Z" />
<EventRecordID>121762</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="0" ThreadID="0" />
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>SECRDSP001.escsec.local</Computer>
<Security UserID="S-1-5-21-4222912542-1287919725-14415386-1103" />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>Product: GatewayComponents -- Error 1920. Service 'On-premises data gateway service' (PBIEgwService) failed to start. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to start system services.</Data>
<Data>(NULL)</Data>
<Data>(NULL)</Data>
<Data>(NULL)</Data>
<Data>(NULL)</Data>
<Data>(NULL)</Data>
<Data>
</Data>
<Binary>7B30323338313244332D304135372D343638312D383333412D4338393735363336343045357D</Binary>
</EventData>
</Event>

Log Name: Application
Source: Microsoft-Windows-User Profiles Service
Date: 10/3/2025 2:18:24 PM
Event ID: 1501
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords:
User: NT SERVICE\PBIEgwService
Computer: SECRDSP001.escsec.local
Description:
Windows cannot create a temporary profile directory. This problem may be caused by insufficient security rights.

DETAIL - Element not found.

Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-User Profiles Service" Guid="{89b1e9f0-5aff-44a6-9b44-0a07a7ce5845}" />
<EventID>1501</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8000000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2025-10-03T20:18:24.3472474Z" />
<EventRecordID>121763</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="1944" ThreadID="3600" />
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>SECRDSP001.escsec.local</Computer>
<Security UserID="S-1-5-80-1835761534-3291552707-3889884660-1303793167-3990676079" />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="Error">Element not found.
</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

[vivien57]

Hello @DaleJohnson ,

- Ensure PBIEgwService is added to the Administrators group.
- Grant full control permissions to the folder where the gateway is installed.
- Confirm that the service is set to Automatic start, not Delayed Start.

Vivien 

[DaleJohnson]

Thank you for your reply.

As the application will not install, I cannot change the service.  The installer bombs out trying to start the service, then it roles back and uninstalls everything.

[DaleJohnson]

I rant the installer by right clicking on the .exe and running it as Administrator.  If it helps, my account on the server is a Domain Admin, so I have full admin access on the server.

[tayloramy]

Hi @DaleJohnson, 

Both the error logs you posted above seem to suggest missing permissions or some sort of group policy blocking the creation of tempoary user profiles and system services. You mentioned you are a domain admin, so permissions shouldn't be a problem I think. 

Just to completly rule that out, are you able to make a local user with administrator rights and try using that user instead of your network user?

If that doesn't work, are you able to test the install on a different device (even a temporary VM) to see if there are some environment settings somewhere in your environment that are blocking this?

If you found this helpful, consider giving some Kudos. If I answered your question or solved your problem, mark this post as the solution.

[DaleJohnson]

I did create a local user account and made it part of the local admin group and tried to run the installer with that account with the same negative result.  So I am not sure it is with my user accounts.

I did create a temp test server, with identicle specs as my production server.  It was in the same OU so has the same GPO's applied.  I was able to successfully install the application on that server.  The big difference is that my test server never had any third party applications on it.  It was a clean install of Server 2022 with RDS installed and configured to use User Profile Disks.

So there is something on my existing server somewhere that seems to be blocking the initialization of the service, I just do not know what would be causing it.

We do not use any third party AV, just use MS Defender, I have even tried to disable that JIC that was the issue.

[tayloramy]

Hi @DaleJohnson, 

At this point I'd recommend opening a ticket with Microsoft support. You're doing everything right, and even able to install it on a different machine, so something wonky is going on and Microsoft's support engineers might have more capabilities to troubleshoot than we do. 

If you found this helpful, consider giving some Kudos. If I answered your question or solved your problem, mark this post as the solution.