Certificate Chain Not Trusted Error Effecting PowerBI Only

[heoliv]

Hi,

In a SQL query that I have run several times before I am not receiving the following error: 

Message=A connection was successfully established with the server, but then an error occurred during the login process. (provider: SSL Provider, error: 0 - The certificate chain was issued by an authority that is not trusted.)

However, I am still able to access the databases that I receive this error for on PowerBI via SQL Server Management Studio. 

Does anyone have any insight onto why I would suddenly be running into this issue after not having issues with the databases effected before and how to resolve it?

[Anonymous]

@heoliv,

Make sure that the certificate used by the SQL Server is within the Trusted Root Certification Authorities store of the machine running the Power BI Desktop.

There are a similar thread and a blog for your reference.
http://community.powerbi.com/t5/Desktop/provider-SSL-provider-error-0-The-certificate-chain-was-issu...
https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/ssl-security-error-with-data-source/

Regards,
Lydia

[heoliv]

Thanks Lydia, I saw these threads but since the connection works in SQL Server Management Studio I thought it may be something else? If not how do I locate the Certificate Authority the database I am connecting to uses? Thanks for the insight.

[Anonymous]

@heoliv,

You would need to contact SQL Server database administrator about that where he stores the SSL certificate. Then import the certificate to the client computer that installs Power BI Desktop following the guide in the KB below.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-sg/help/316898/how-to-enable-ssl-encryption-for-an-instance-of-sql-...

Regards,
Lydia

[heoliv · Accepted solution]

This ended up being a fairly easy solution, in order to work around this issue I ended up just having to switch the connection type from MSFT account to Windows for any who encounter this issue in the future. 

[janetleibo]

This was so helpful, thanks! I had to look up how to make this change so i wanted to share with others:

In Power BI Desktop: 

1. Open: Power BI Desktop.
2. Go to File > Options and Settings > Data Source Settings.
3. Select: the specific data source (e.g., a SQL Server instance) from the list.
4. Click Edit Permissions.
5. Change: the Connection Type to Windows Authentication.

[JJensen]

Holy hell!! I have a PBI-report that has been refreshing fine for 2+ years. It gets the occasional update in PowerBI Desktop and is republished. It just decided to not refresh this sql.datasource last week. Today I spent 3 hours on Google to finally find this solution.

Thank you for posting this! By now, this should be a suggestion in the connection error message.
My takeaway - If Microsoft can find a way to f**k up my day, they will! Otherwise they invent a new way!

[chomskyhonk]

Bless you for this.

[Syndicate_Admin]

Hi Syndicate_Admin,

I am having the same problem, before testing this workaround what are the implications of doing this on users trying to access the report across the network?.

Also do you have any idea what the switching to Oauth2 would do?

[powerbisofitec]

This worked for me too, thanks!