Skip to main content
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

The Power BI Data Visualization World Championships is back! Get ahead of the game and start preparing now! Learn more

Reply
Anonymous
Not applicable

Scheduled refresh of SQL source but with R script transformstions

Hello.

 

I am exploring using PBIRS as the server to host Power BI reports, which will extract/source data from a SQL Server Database, and which will subsequently use R scripts to transform the data in various ways.

 

Per the link below, as far as I understand R scripts themselves are not a source which can have PBIRS scheduled refreshes applied to them.  As such, I'm wondering the following:

 

1.) Is there a way to work around this so that I can in fact schedule refreshes of a single R script which will hold the code for the entire ETL,

 

2.) If SQL Server Database is the source and transformations are applied using R scripts, does scheduled refresh work in this scenario?

 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/report-server/data-sources#list-of-supported-authenticatio...

1 REPLY 1
lbendlin
Super User
Super User

Using R for ETL seems like a bad idea - it's rather slow.  You should be able to run R scripts from within Power Query (it is possible for the regular Power BI) or you could also consider running your R scripts directly on your SQL Server data source (assuming you use a new-ish version of SQL Server).

Helpful resources

Announcements
Power BI DataViz World Championships

Power BI Dataviz World Championships

The Power BI Data Visualization World Championships is back! Get ahead of the game and start preparing now!

December 2025 Power BI Update Carousel

Power BI Monthly Update - December 2025

Check out the December 2025 Power BI Holiday Recap!

FabCon Atlanta 2026 carousel

FabCon Atlanta 2026

Join us at FabCon Atlanta, March 16-20, for the ultimate Fabric, Power BI, AI and SQL community-led event. Save $200 with code FABCOMM.

Top Solution Authors