Question about how Power Bi Gateway works

[Francisco_G_Cal]

Hi! 🙂

I've installed Power BI Gateway,  and added a data source (a local SQL Server). How can I access to its data (tables and views) through the gateway?

I supposed that once I have installed the gateway, added the datasource, and gave permission to an user to access it, you could access all tables and views in Power BI Desktop form outside my local network, the same way as if I would have connected locally using IP/user/pass, but selecting gateway/datasource instead. But I see no option like gateway/datasource when clicking in 'Get Data'.

What am i missunderstanding? Could you help me, please? 😞

[Anand24 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Francisco_G_Cal ,

Gateway acts as a bridge between the on-prem database(SQL Server in your case) and Power BI Services for transfer of data. You seem to be misunderstanding Gateway as a data source. Gateway is just a a carrier we set to reflect latest data from our on-prem database to Power BI services.

The way of connection remains the same, i.e., you will still have to connect Get Data > SQL Server. Gateway comes into picture when your data change in On-Prem(your local machine or server) Database has to be reflected in the report you published in Power BI Services which the users view.

These links might help you to achieve further clarity:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vlv1tbuZNcM

2. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/connect-data/service-gateway-onprem

Give a Thumbs Up if this post helped you in any way and Mark This Post as Solution if it solved your query !!! Proud To Be a Super User !!! LinkedIn

[Francisco_G_Cal]

Ok. I knew it was a bridge, but I though it worked on a different way.

So, in my example:

• I am in the cloud.
• No direct access to SQL server.
• I'm creating a new project.
• I need to get data (a table) from that SQL Server I can't directly access, but wich I have registered in the Gateway as a datasource.
• If I go 'Get Data -> SQL server, it prompts for local IP/credentials, no optionfor Gateway.

That's not the use for the gateway, isn't it?

So, you mean I must create my projects with direct access to the SQL Server (Get Data -> SQL Server), publish it in Power BI Service (in any work space), go to the data set configuration, and set access and refresh through gateway. This way the user in the cloud can allways get 'up to date' info. That's the use for the gateway.

Confirm me this another use case, please. When creating a new project in Power BI (service or Desktop) I can use any existing dataset that is published in my Power BI Service. In this case, I can use that SQL dataset published in my worksepace for a new report: 'Get Data -> Power Bi Datasets', having in mind that:

• This project can only use that dataset. Cannot add any more datasets (local nor Power BI)
• It's read only (can't make any modifications or transformations)

Is that corrrect?

Thanks 🙂

[Anand24]

@Francisco_G_Cal , Spot on regarding both the scenarios you stated.

Give a Thumbs Up if this post helped you in any way and Mark This Post as Solution if it solved your query !!! Proud To Be a Super User !!! LinkedIn