The previous version of the gateway, Data Management Gateway, the one that was required to load on premises data into sharepoint 365, also had problems when installed on a domain controller. I won't say it's the same problem, but the symptoms are strikingly similar. Given that installation on a Domain Controller should be fairly rare and I recieved absolutely zero help regarding the problem, I'm guessing microsoft hasn't changed the install, so the problem still exists. The gateway installer creates a user on the local machine to run as, but the local users on a domain controller are domain users and the installer doesn't have enough permissions to create a domain user, so the service fails to start.
You may be sucessful by changing the user the service is running as, or you may run into idiot checks like I did. In the end, our solution was to just not use gateways on domain controllers.
I've attached the last email I sent to Microsoft support in case there's any helpful details, but mostly just to get as much attention as possible for this problem. It's completely avoidable if they changed their installer.
The current status of this the Data Management Gateway doesn't have sufficient permissions
to function properly. I'm 99% sure that is because it was installed on a domain controller.
The service is running as NT Service/DIAHostService, but that user doesn't exist in the
Active directory users and groups. There is a Data Management Gateway Users group, but the
only member of it is me, which must have been added when I installed the DMG because I
didn't add myself to the group.
To be clear, the problem is absolutely permissions; the service times out unhelpfully when
running as NT Service/DIAHostService, but runs correctly when running as Local System and
this can be REPRODUCED EVERY TIME.
We have moved completely over to the Power BI Pro service, so understanding what the
problem is with the DMG is purely academic. I'm done messing with this since you seem to
be completely incapable of understanding the problem no matter how clearly I state it for
you.
Close the ticket. I'll write the summary for you, since most of the time I was rehashing
what was already done:
Problem: DMG is installed and running on a local server, all indicators state connections
are good and active, but refreshes, timeout every time.
Every part of the convoluted system was scrutinized and analyzed except for the DMG. We
checked that the server was listening, that the datasource was configured properly, that
the Excel document was too big or querying too much data. Finally, we set up a parallel
configuration with another Power BI account and another DMG and that worked correctly.
Since the problem was now clearly the DMG, we changed the registry to log all messages in
the event log and found a tiny WARNING, not an error even though it stopped the DMG from
WORKING, a warning that stated insufficient permissions. Changing the service to run as
Local System allows the DMG to work as expected even though it complains about not being
configured correctly. This lack of proper permissions can only be because the DMG is
installed on a Domain Controller. User requested assistance in configuring the
DIAHostService account with the appropriate permissions for running the DMG on a Domain
Controller, but none was provided.
Resolution: Install DMG on a server that is not a Domain Controller or ditch the whole
convoluted system and switch to the Power BI Pro service which supports connecting
directly to Azure Tables the way it should have been done in the first place.
