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johnmelbourne's avatar
johnmelbourne
Helper V
6 years ago

Connect to off-premises external vendor SQL database

Hi, We have an external vendor providing a database solution and I want to connect to it via Power BI. Can someone direct me to some resources as I am having issues and most help refers to connectin...
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lbendlin's avatar
lbendlin
Super User
6 years ago

This will leave you flying blind, and rather sooner than later will become a maintenance nightmare. I would try to find alternative arrangements.

johnmelbourne's avatar
johnmelbourne
Helper V
6 years ago

lbendlin Why do you say flying blind? If the vendor imports the data into a pbix and keeps relationships, then the vendor sends the pbix to us, then we rework the model to something efficient and publish to the service, which connects via the vendors gateway to the data source and refreshes the data, what is the issue here?

 

What is the 'maintenance nightmare?'.  I note the database structure is highly unlikely to change.

 

Can you elaborate?

 

 

 

  • v-kelly-msft's avatar
    v-kelly-msft
    Community Support
    6 years ago

    Hi  johnmelbourne ,

     

    If you did so,you should first make sure that you have access to the data source provided by the vendor,then you  should also make sure that you can connect to the related gateway for refresh.Both the 2 steps may cause issues during maintenance.

     

    Best Regards,
    Kelly
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    • johnmelbourne's avatar
      johnmelbourne
      Helper V
      6 years ago

      Thanks, I already have a configrued gateway that is connecting to the external database. I think getting them to create a pbix locally and then me uploading to the service is the way forward.

       

      Thanks

       

      • v-kelly-msft's avatar
        v-kelly-msft
        Community Support
        6 years ago

        Hi johnmelbourne ,

         

        Yes,when you get the .pbix file,modify the data source credential,which should be same with the setting in gateway.See below:

         

        Best Regards,
        Kelly
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