Excel on Local Drive - Refresh

[RekhaG]

Hi,

I have an excel on my local drive( it is a simple dataset , data I just typed in, NO Power Queries or Pivots ).Do I need a personal gateway to refresh it or to schedule refresh?

When I published this report and try to refresh or schedule , it says

"We couldn't refresh because your data gateway (Power BI – personal) is offline. Make sure your computer is on and the gateway is up and running"

&

"Your data gateway (Power BI – personal) is offline. To set refresh scheduling, make sure your gateway is online."

Per the contents of this page( I copied below), I dont need a gateway.

https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/powerbi-personal-gateway/

Power BI Gateway - Personal | Microsoft Power BI

Question: What if my Excel workbook just has rows of data I typed in?**

Answer: A gateway is not required. You only need to install and configure a gateway if your workbook uses Power Query or Power Pivot to query and load data to the data model from a supported on-premises data source

If I install a personal gateway, will the other users I share with, able to refresh the report?

If I need to refresh/schedule refresh of a report that has data sources of 1) Excel on local drive & 2) SQL Server, what all do I need to install and do?

Thanks,

Rekha

[RekhaG · Accepted solution]

I was able to resolve this issue. 

PowerBI service, for any refresh request looks for a gateway if the data source is on-premises(anything not on cloud).

So, in my case when Excel is on local drive and the report involves other data sources like SQL server, I had to add a data source for each of the excel files and SQL Server. This could be either on Personal Gateway or On-Premises Gateway.