DirectQuery with ClickHouse in Power BI Report Server?

Hi Dimitri_MM,

DirectQuery to ClickHouse is not supported in Power BI Report Server (PBIRS) today.

PBIRS only supports DirectQuery for a specific set of built-in data sources, and ODBC in PBIRS is refresh/import only (no Live/DirectQuery). ClickHouse is not on the supported DirectQuery list, and custom connectors are not supported on PBIRS. See Microsoft’s PBIRS data source matrix for details (note ODBC shows no Live/DirectQuery, and ClickHouse is not listed) (Power BI report data sources in Power BI Report Server). The ClickHouse team also notes their ODBC path is import-only and recommends the native connector for DirectQuery, which targets Desktop + the cloud service via gateway, not PBIRS (ClickHouse Power BI integration). For history on custom connectors and PBIRS, see this Microsoft forum confirmation (Custom connectors not supported in PBIRS).

What you can do instead

1. Use a Paginated Report (RDL) on PBIRS via ODBC.
   Paginated reports execute queries at view time (effectively “live”). You can point Report Builder at the ClickHouse ODBC driver and get near-real-time results without importing billions of rows (ODBC support for Paginated Reports). This is often the best PBIRS option for very large datasets.
2. If the cloud is an option, use Power BI Service with the ClickHouse connector in DirectQuery.
   Build the report in Desktop using the official ClickHouse connector (DirectQuery) and publish to the Service with an on-premises data gateway (ClickHouse Power BI integration).
3. Stage to a PBIRS-supported DirectQuery source.
   Replicate only the required aggregates or filtered slices from ClickHouse into a source that PBIRS supports for DirectQuery (for example SQL Server, Oracle, Teradata, or PostgreSQL as listed here: PBIRS data source matrix). This keeps the PBIRS report interactive while ClickHouse remains your system of record.

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