Solved: Re: Cannot connect from Power BI Desktop to on-pre...

Anonymous · ‎10-07-2022

Hey there!

A customer has requested to make their on-prem analysis server cubes available by the use of power bi gateways. I have configured the power bi gateway on the same server as the analysis server which hosts the cubes. I was able to create a dataset connecting to this analysis cube (by using live connection and troubleshooting with a import connection) and upload the set in the power bi service. I configured the gateway in the service to correctly map the sources. Which allowed me to make reports on this dataset in the service and see the data. So far so good.

But at this point i expected to be able to connect to this dataset from my local device by using Power BI Desktop. But everytime i try to connect to the dataset it returns the error:

"Unable to connect

We encountered an error while trying to connect.
Details: "Power BI service live connection is invalid. Please try again.
Details: We could not connect to the analysis Services server because the connection timed out or the server name is incorrect.""

I double checked the documentation. And confirmed the following:

- The Gateway in the PBI service is configured with Server Admin account on the analysis service server.
- The Gateway is using EffectiveUserName

- I am using a Domain account in Power BI Desktop which has access to cube in the resource. (It's the same account i used to log onto the power bi service and try and develop a report there, which worked.)

- If i install power bi on the same server as the Gateway and the Analysis Server i can use this Dataset to load data into the Power BI Desktop.

Yet my local device with Power BI Desktop returns the error above if i try to use the Dataset in the service (i repeated the process on other devices as well which led to the same results). The only thing i can think off (but could not find any confirmation for) is that my local device is not in the same domain as the server with the gateway and the analysis server.

Can anyone help me with finding the issue?

aj1973 · ‎10-08-2022

Hi @Anonymous

Check with Power Bi Administrator to allow you to connect to the source with your desktop

Regards
Amine Jerbi

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View solution in original post

wafabenaissa92 · ‎06-13-2024

I'm having the same issue. Any updates please ?

Anonymous · ‎10-09-2022

Hi @Anonymous ,

Have you tried using the Azure AS server name as the server name from Power BI Desktop to see if it works?

According this article which describes how to get data from Azure Analysis Services:

Before you connect, you need to get the server name. In Azure portal > server > Overview > Server name, copy the entire server name. If other users in your organization are connecting to this server too, you'll want to share this server name with them. When specifying a server name, the entire path must be used.

You can review the following links to help resolve the question.

Solved: Connecting PBID to SSAS Tabular when not in domain - Microsoft Power BI Community

POWER BI Desktop connectivity analysis server (microsoft.com)

Best Regards,

Neeko Tang

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

Anonymous · ‎10-10-2022

Hi @Anonymous ,

Thank you for your response!

We don't have a Azure Analysis Server, we're using a Azure VM which hosts our SQL Server Analysis Services. This VM is blocked from most outside connections therefore we opted to use the Power BI gateway to allow us a connection to the data. This connection has been established inside the power bi service and confirmed to be working in the Power BI Service.

We managed to create a Dataset in the Power BI Service which connects over the gateway to the SQL Server Analysis Services instance. We can use this dataset to create reports as long as we do this inside the power bi service on app.powerbi.com. And to our understanding we should be able to use Power BI Desktop to connect to this dataset and create reports on a local device. With the same user account, i am able to view the data and create reports in de power bi service. But i am unable to use that account to connect to the same dataset from Power BI Desktop.

The dataset is using a live connection. Changing this connection to import allows us to work with the data and create reports in Power BI Desktop, but we want to use Live connections.

Thank you for your time!