Forum Discussion

Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
Not applicable
1 year ago
Solved

Issue with Power BI Service Refresh for PostgreSQL (SSL certification GCP postgres sql)

Hi Power BI Community,

I’m facing an issue with Power BI Desktop and Service when connecting to a PostgreSQL database hosted on a GCP VM with PgBouncer. In Power BI Desktop (on Windows), manual refresh works fine when I uncheck "Encrypt connection" (non-SSL), as SSL is disabled on the server. However, the automated refresh in Power BI Service fails, likely because it expects SSL. When I tried enabling SSL on the server and checked "Encrypt connection" in Desktop, I got an "800 something" error, possibly due to certificate issues.
Error : Last Refresh Failed 

Error : Data source Credentials

Error : After Entered The Right Credentials

 



 

 

Need Help
  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    11 months ago

    Solution Summary: Connecting Power BI to a DB on Ubuntu VM in GCP

    We successfully resolved the connectivity issue to a database hosted on a Ubuntu OS inside a VM on GCP (Google Cloud Platform). Here's a step-by-step breakdown of what worked, both in Power BI Desktop and Power BI Service.

    ✅ Power BI Desktop Configuration

    1. Open Power BI Desktop

    2. Go to the Home tab > Click Transform Data

    3. In the Power Query Editor, go to:

      • File > Options and settings > Data source settings

    4. Select your data source and click Edit Permissions

    5. In the Edit Permissions window:

      • Uncheck the "Encrypt connections" box (if applicable)

      • Set the Privacy Level to Organizational

    6. Click OK, close the editor, and publish the report to the Power BI Service

    ✅ Power BI Service Configuration

    1. Go to the relevant Workspace in Power BI Service

    2. Find the Semantic Model (Dataset) you just published

    3. Click the three dots (···) > Settings

    4. Under Data Source Credentials:

      • Select Authentication Method as OAuth

      • Enter your DB credentials and Sign in

    5. Scroll to Gateway and Cloud Connection

      • Enable "Use an On-premises or VNet data gateway"

    6. Under the Gateway section:

      • Click the dropdown under Action > Choose "Add to gateway"

      • Create a new data source connection that matches the configuration used in Power BI Desktop

    🧩 Final Outcome

    Now, you're able to successfully refresh the data in Power BI Service.
    This setup solved our issue connecting to a database hosted in an Ubuntu VM on GCP.

10 Replies

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Not applicable
    1 year ago

    Hi Anonymous,

    Thanks for reaching out to the Microsoft fabric community forum.

     

    It looks like your issue is when Power BI Service enforces SSL for PostgreSQL connections, while your database does not support encrypted connections. There can be multiple reasons for that like:

    * Power BI Desktop works when "Encrypt connection" is unchecked, as your PostgreSQL server does not have SSL enabled.

    * Power BI Service fails because it requires an SSL connection by default.

    * When you enabled SSL, you encountered an error, likely due to certificate issues.

     

    Here you can follow these solutions depending on whether you want to enable SSL or allow unencrypted connections:

    * Enable SSL in PostgreSQL by updating "postgresql.conf" then update the "pg_hba.conf" to allow SSL connections. After this restart PostgreSQL and ensure the certificates are valid. Now in Power BI Desktop, check "Encrypt connection" and re-publish your report and in Power BI Service, re-enter credentials and test refresh.

     

    * In this option you need to modify the connection string in Power BI Service to explicitly disable SSL. If Power BI Service still enforces SSL, you may need to use an on-premises data gateway to manage the connection.

     

    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.

    • Anonymous's avatar
      Anonymous
      Not applicable
      1 year ago

      HI Anonymous ,
      Thanks for your valuable insight, BUT..
      we did all the procedure in the postgres as well as pg about the ssl cretificate, After we did this configuration we are getting the error like this.

      THIS IS WITH THE ENCRYPTION ENABLED

       

      • Anonymous's avatar
        Anonymous
        Not applicable
        1 year ago

        Hi Anonymous,

        Thanks for following up with the conversation. Based on your new error message, "The remote certificate is invalid according to the validation procedure," it looks like Power BI is rejecting the SSL certificate from your PostgreSQL server. There can be multiple reasons for this to occur like your Certificate must be trusted and if you are using self-signed certificates, Power BI may not trust them. Also if possible, obtain an SSL certificate from a public Certificate Authority (CA) instead of a self-signed one. This ensures Power BI recognizes the certificate without extra configuration.

        Please try these solutions and let us know if the issue persists. If possible, provide details on how the SSL certificate was generated or the exact SSL mode used in your Power BI connection

         

        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.