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Helper INeed help deciding if Power BI is The right solution
Need help deciding if Power BI is The right solution
I'm completely new to Power BI
My boss asked me to check it out.
We want to publish reports to our users with data from our internal sql server databases.
If i understand correctly, i would need a gateway server to connect between my Internal network and the cloud.
questions/assumptions:
- is the free license enough for users who wish to view the reports i publish
- user who publishes reports i assume will need pro license
- what are the options for reports i want to automatically refresh (with new updated data from sql DB) say refresh every hour.
Thanks
Yakov,
You need Azure AD, Power BI can only talk to Azure AD. You can review the following blog about how to get users to use Power BI.
https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-active-directory-and-power-bi/
Regards,
Lydia
11 Replies
Yakov,
Gateway is required when you set refresh for the dataset in Power BI Service, you can follow the guide in this article to add SQL server data source within gateway.
1. Users don't need Power BI account or license when you share the report by using "Publish to web" feature. But security is an issue in this case. If you share the report via "share dashboard" method, users would need Power BI pro license.
2. When publishing reports from Power BI Desktop to Power BI Service, it doesn't require pro license. Power BI Desktop is a free tool.
3. You would need to use "DirectQuery" mode in Power BI Desktop to connect to SQL Server database, create report in Power BI Desktop, then publish the report to Power BI Service. In DirectQuery mode, datasets are refreshed approximately each hour or when interaction with the data occurs. For more details, please review this article.
Regards,
