Dataflow or DataSet with Gateways

[Quentin]

Hello everyone,

As new administrator in powerBI i have to understand the best technique for my organisation to automatically refresh the published reports we have. 
I can see that there was before my arrival there was a gateway constructed and installed in someone's computer. Is there a way to easily install a gateway in a virtual computer? (i'm definitly not an expert in this field so i would need some very simple explanation...) 
On the other hand, when i use PowerBi Dataflow, i can reconstruct the databases and change connexion of the reports (manually) to connect to this dataset and republish them, the planned refresh seems to work in this case.

What would be better? Pass always through DataFlow o install a gateway somewhere? What are the pros and contras of the two techniques? 

Thanks for your help in this topic!

Quentin

[Quentin]

Thanks for your answers, we are trying to develop this entreprise gateway in a virtual machine but as i'm just a powerBi administrator and not a global admin for the organization it doesn't rely on me enaymore therefore... 

That's why i would have liked to pass by flow.. 

Thank you for your answers!

[v-lili6-msft · Accepted solution]

hi  @Quentin 

If the datasource is in on-premises, you need use an Enterprise Gateway to refresh for both dataset and dataflow.

Since power bi couldn't connect to on-premises data source, it needs Enterprise Gateway as bridge to get the on-premises data source.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/data-integration/gateway/service-gateway-onprem

So you'd better keep the Computer is always on to keeo the gateway is online.

In effect dataflows are an online data collection and storage tool.

• Collection:  It uses Power Query to connect to the data at the source and transform that data as needed.
  • You will need to be able to access the data either through a cloud service (such as Dynamics 365) or to your PC/Network via a gateway.
  • You can also use Power Query to write queries from scratch, such as my Power BI calendar table.
• Storage:  Dataflows then stores that data in a table in the cloud so it can be used directly inside PowerBI.com, but more importantly (from my view) directly from Power BI Desktop.

Then use power bi desktop to get data to import it and use it create a dataset.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/service-dataflows-overview

https://radacad.com/what-are-the-use-cases-of-dataflow-for-you-in-power-bi

Regards,

Lin

[GilbertQ]

Hi there

Firstly if your data is sitting on-prem then you would need an Enterprise Gateway installed. Ideally this should be installed on a Virtual Computer as you suggested.

With regards to datasets or dataflows they do different things.

A dataset is a complete data model with relationships and measures which other users can connect to to create reports.

A dataflow is data that has been shaped into the right format, but is basically just a data table. You will still have to import the dataflow into a dataset to create the dataset.