Do cloud data sources need a Gateway?

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

Please help me understand this. My understanding about data sources on cloud was that cloud datasources dont need to be configured on Data Gateway at all. My understanding was that it would work just like a OneDrive online or sharepoint online data source.

However i recently tested this with a report i created with a SQL DB hosted on Azure, when i tried to schedule the refresh it was greyed out. So after that i went to manage gateways added the info like usual and it worked fine. I did not have to thing others things on the Gateway servers e.g. getting the ports open etc.

Could someone please help me understand this better. I feel like all this while my understanding about data gateway was incomplete. 

[ibarrau · Accepted solution]

Hi. The answer is "it depends". There are services that can be directly connected and other that can't. It will also depend if you have only one cloud source or a mix with onpremise data.

Regarding databases in Azure it depends if you are talking about a service or a VM hosting the server. The VM will request a Gateway because it's not a cloud service. It's a machine hosting a server. If you don't want a gateway you need a Database as a service. The SQL Server and Postgres DB services won't need a gateway, but MySQL wil request one.

I hope that helps,

[Anonymous]

You are right and now it makes more sense to me, i checked with the databse owner and he said that the SQL server is hosted in a VM on Azure, . However the fact that i did not have to do any configuration for this on my Gateway servers on VM and just had to add the datasource in Manage Gateways in PowerBI service is still confusing me. is it really going through the Gateway or going directly to the DB server.

[ibarrau]

Yes it's ok. Consider the Gateway installation in a server as the bridge between data and PBI Service. Once it's installed, the account logged in or any other admin added to manage can define what how the bridges looks like in the service. Manage gateways in Service is the definition on where should the gateway look for data. It's ok to just install the gateway and then configure all in PBI Service under Manage gateways.

I hope that make sense.

[Anonymous]

ok, so in my case the data will anyways pass through the on premises gateway, even though i did not configured it on the on premise gateway because i just added the datasource to the gateway cluster via Manage gateways on Power BI service, i say this because the scheduled refreshes worked fine.

[ibarrau]

Kind of. There are no much configurations in Gateway. It's almost install and log an account that will be the admin of the gateway. Then you can add admins. The gateway admins are the users that can add sources in Power Bi Service to make refreshes work.

Regards,