How To Connect Power BI to Read-only Replica of Azure SQL Database directly?

[KylanJin]

I want to use the read-only replica of Azure SQL Database as the data source of Power BI report directly. And make sure it will not connect to the primary database to avoid affecting the primary database.

But I understand that ApplicationIntent=ReadOnly is not supported in PBI report. 

How can I achieve the purpose? Thanks

[SamsonTruong · Accepted solution]

Hi @KylanJin ,

I was able to find a similar request to this in the forums: https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Desktop/PowerBI-Connect-to-ReadOnly-Replica-of-Azure-SQL-D...

The solution in this post links several articles with methods to connect to your Read-only Replica of Azure SQL Database.

If this helped, please mark it as the solution so others can benefit too. And if you found it useful, kudos are always appreciated.

Thanks,

Samson

[Kavya_Mu]

Can we connect Power BI to READ ONLY SQL database now? Is this feature available now?

[v-mdharahman]

Hi @KylanJin,

Thanks for reaching out to the Microsoft fabric community forum.

It looks like you want to use read-only state of Azure SQL DB instead of actual Azure SQL DB as data source for your report(s). As @BhavinVyas3003 and @SamsonTruong both already responded to your query, please go through their responses and check if your issue can be resolved. If resolved please mark the helpful reply as solution so that other community members facing similar issue can find the solution easily.

I would also take a moment to thank @BhavinVyas3003 and @SamsonTruong, for actively participating in the community forum and for the solutions you’ve been sharing in the community forum. Your contributions make a real difference.

If I misunderstand your needs or you still have problems on it, please feel free to let us know.  

Best Regards,
Hammad.
Community Support Team

If this post helps then please mark it as a solution, so that other members find it more quickly.

Thank you.

[v-mdharahman]

Hi @KylanJin,

As we haven’t heard back from you, so just following up to our previous message. I'd like to confirm if you've successfully resolved this issue or if you need further help.

If yes, you are welcome to share your workaround and mark it as a solution so that other users can benefit as well. If you find a reply particularly helpful to you, you can also mark it as a solution.

If you still have any questions or need more support, please feel free to let us know. We are more than happy to continue to help you.
Thank you for your patience and look forward to hearing from you.

[v-mdharahman]

Hi @KylanJin,
Hope everything’s going smoothly on your end. We haven’t heard back from you, so I wanted to check if the issue got sorted. If yes, marking the solution would be awesome for others who might run into the same thing.

Still stuck? No worries just drop us a message and we can jump back in on the issue.

Thank you.

[v-mdharahman]

Hi @KylanJin,
We noticed there hasn’t been any recent activity on this thread. If your issue is resolved, marking the correct reply as a solution would be a big help to other community members.
If you still need support, just reply here and we’ll pick it up from where we left off.

Best Regards,

Hammad.

[BhavinVyas3003]

Hi @KylanJin ,

Use the readable secondary’s server name directly from geo-replication:

Go to Azure Portal > SQL Server > Replicated Databases.

Copy the secondary replica's server name, e.g.,
your-db-secondary.database.windows.net

In Power BI Desktop:

Go to Home > Get Data > Azure SQL Database.

Enter:

Server: your-db-secondary.database.windows.net

Database: <your-database-name>

Click OK and provide credentials.

Avoid any server or listener address that points to the primary (e.g., your-db.database.windows.net or failover listener).

To ensure Power BI connects only to the read-only replica, connect directly to the secondary replica’s server name.

[KylanJin]

Thank you for your reply.

If I connect to the read-only replica directly, will the performance of the primary database be effected? is there a official document talk about it?

Is the server name of the read-only replica different with primary database?

[BhavinVyas3003 · Accepted solution]

Will connecting to the read-only replica affect primary database performance?

No, connecting to a read-only replica does not impact the primary database’s performance because read-only replicas handle only read workloads, offloading queries from the primary.

Is the server name of the read-only replica different from the primary?

Usually, yes. The read-only replica often has a different server or listener name configured for routing read-only connections. In Azure SQL, you connect to the primary server’s read-only listener endpoint or a specific read-only replica endpoint.

You can refer to the following official Microsoft documentation,

• Azure SQL Database Read Scale-Out
• Offload Read-Only Workload to Secondary Replica

[SamsonTruong · Accepted solution]

Hi @KylanJin ,

I was able to find a similar request to this in the forums: https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Desktop/PowerBI-Connect-to-ReadOnly-Replica-of-Azure-SQL-D...

The solution in this post links several articles with methods to connect to your Read-only Replica of Azure SQL Database.

If this helped, please mark it as the solution so others can benefit too. And if you found it useful, kudos are always appreciated.

Thanks,

Samson