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EvanYates's avatar
EvanYates
Helper I
9 years ago

Linking Power BI Desktop to a Data gateway defined in Azure

We use our Azure tenancy to define resource groups with a number of Data Gateways to our on-premise SQL Server databases. These are currently being used for LogicApps flows and seem to work well. Now what I would like to do is re-use those Azure Data Gateways to feed data into our Power BI environment. However I cannot seem to find a pathway in the "Get Data" option in Power BI Desktop that allows me to find that Azure based gateway and pull data through it.

 

Can anyone give me a method/path for discovering Azure based gateway resources within the Power BI Desktop environment? When I look at Azure via the Azure Portal I see that I have been granted access to the gateway itself via my Office 365 ID and should be permitted to use the gateways. I log in to Power BI with the same credentials that I use for Azure.

 

All the articles online talk about using Power BI Online to Install a new gateway. I don't need to do that. We already have gateways defined and configured correctly in Azure. I just need to able to link them to Power BI Desktop to define the queries that wil power the visualisations.

 

I'm sure I'm not doing anything particularly special, I just can't find any hints as to how it works (or how it is intended to work) getting data through Azure Data Gateways and into Power BI Desktop.

 

Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

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4 Replies

  • EvanYates's avatar
    EvanYates
    Helper I
    9 years ago

    I haven't seen anyone post a comment or potential answer to this issue. Does that mean that it isn't possible in PowerBI? ...or is it just that I am asking the wrong question?

     

    I assume that Microsoft would not build Azure Gateways and PowerBI Desktop as products that can't talk to each other so I assume I'm asking the wrong question. Any advice as to what I should be asking or doing? 

     

    Thanks.

    • v-qiuyu-msft's avatar
      v-qiuyu-msft
      Community Support
      9 years ago

      Hi EvanYates,

       

      After you installed the Azure data gateway and signed in with your Power BI service account, the registered data gateway will display when you signed in Power BI service -> Manage Gateways.  You can create data sources under data gateway, see: Manage your data source - SQL Server.

       

      The data gateway doesn't work with Power BI desktop. Desktop is a Power BI authoring tool, we can get data from on-premise data sources in Power BI Desktop to create a report, then publish the report to Power BI service, we need utilize the data gateway to build connection between Power BI and on-premise data sources.

       

      Best Regards,
      Qiuyun Yu

      • EvanYates's avatar
        EvanYates
        Helper I
        9 years ago

        Thanks v-qiuyu-msft for the reply regarding Power-BI Desktop not needing to access the gateway. I think I understand what you are saying. Design the reports internally using a direct connection to the internal SQL Server but re-direct to the gateway when in the Power BI Service. Cool. Got it. So I built my reports and connections to the SQL Server database. Works perfectly and I can refresh the data in PowerBI Desktop. I then publish the PBIX file to PowerBI Service.

         

        However when I go into PowerBI Service and try to update my dataset to use the existing Azure gateway, it says "You don't have any Gateways" and only offers to Download and Install one. I can't find a way of referencing my pre-existing Azure Gateway in Power BI Service for the data my report needs.

        None of the "Get Data" options seem to allow the use of a pre-existing Azure Gateway either...

         

        I'm confused as to how I am suppose to make this seemingly simple connection work. I don't want to install a Gateway, I want to link to an existing one in Azure.

         

        Regards


        Evan