Forum Discussion
Power BI Desktop With Azure VM SQL DB Data On One Drive Requires Gateway?
PaulBFelix The difference in what "online" means is this. If you are using a VM hosted in the cloud, this is an Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas) and is treated as on-prem. If you are connecting to Azure SQL Database or Azure SQL datawarehouse these are Platform as a service (Paas) offerings and are considered "online". there are only certain situations that are completely dependent on what your datasource is where a gateway is not/is not required for powerpivot, and if you are connecting to a VM in an Iaas setup I would assume that would still require a gateway.
Here is a long list of scenerio's describing when a gateway is needed.
https://support.powerbi.com/knowledgebase/articles/474669-data-refresh-in-power-bi
Anonymous If this is the case then how come I was able to schedule refresh reports with data source as SQL Server in Azure Vm somewhere in July 2015 without the need to install Personal Gateway and still it refreshes daily without any error.
But now when I tried the same by creating new report, it asks for Personal Gateway. Are things changed?? Any update from Power BI team on the same?
When using Azure SQL Database as the Data Source is a bit different. It will allow for refresh without a gateway if you are a Pro user. All you need to do is enter your credentials.
If you are a Free user, it will want the Personal Gateway present to do a refresh.
In both cases, when i tried it, the file on OneDrive for Business, where it originated from, was not updated.
If you are getting an error saying the gateway was not reachable, it is because you are a Free user.
PaulBFelix Are you sure you don't have a Personal Gateway installed. I've reproduced your scenarios and in all instances have been asked to install a personal gateway. Do you use a personal gateway for any other of your datasources? I don't see how storing a PowerPivot file in one-drive connected to a on-perm SQL server would bypass the need for a gateway.
Hi PowerBIGuy. I agree, something doesn't add up. I sent a private message with my email address. Let me know when you can meet, and I'll send a goto meeting invite. I have never installed a gateway on any of the systems I am using to test with.
Hi GuyInACube, Are you talking about Azure SQL Datbase or Azure VM running SQL database. This thread is about the latter. I'm a pro trial user, and I get the gateway required message.
Sorry, was talking about Azure SQL Database. Didn't see the VM part.
Although that made me think of something. It could come down to what you are putting in the Server name piece. I'd have to validate, but we use the same source for Azure SQL Database vs. On-Prem. It really comes down to the server name. Azure SQL Database is a well known domain.
*.database.windows.net
The FQDN for Azure VMs is *.cloudapp.net.
Are you doing something like entering the FQDN within Power Pivot, but the machine name only in PBI Desktop/Power Query?
myserver.cloudapp.net
vs.
myserver
I'm wondering if that is causing the behavior to be different. If it is the full FQDN for both, then i'm not sure. But the FQDN for Power Pivot, and machine name for PBI Desktop/Power Query could explain it. For cloudapp.net we know that is in the cloud.
