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

July 7 - July 17 | Round 2 of the Power BI Dataviz World Championships. Don't miss your chance! 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
FabCon and SQLCon Barcelona 2026

FabCon & SQLCon – Barcelona 2026

Join us in Barcelona for FabCon and SQLCon, the Fabric, Power BI, SQL, and AI community event. Save €200 with code FABCMTY200.

60 days of Data Days Carousel

Data Days 2026

Join Data Days 2026: 60 days of free live/on-demand sessions, challenges, study groups, and certification opportunities.

Power BI DataViz World Championships carousel

Power BI DataViz World Championships - June 2026

A new Power BI DataViz World Championship is coming this June! Don't miss out on submitting your entry.