Real time dashboards in Power Bi service using data from Azure SQL database

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I am new to power bi and microsoft azure. I want a real time dashboard inside Power Bi service. 

My data resides in Azure SQL database and i want to move data from Azure SQL database to Power BI service so that i will get the real time dashboard. 

I see there are different ways to do it. But i want to figure out the best way to do it.

I found azure stream analytics. Can i move data from Azure SQL database to azure stream analytics and to power BI service to acheive real time dashboard? If so how? 

Or is there any other best way to do it? If so can anybody explain or attach a link?

Thank you

[Greg_Deckler]

Depends. Easiest way to get a real time dashboard is to connect to your Azure SQL Database using Direct Query.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your reply,

Yes i used direct query before to get data inside Power BI desktop from Azure SQL database. Using this method i could only acheive data refresh, with a gap of 15 minutes.

But i need real time dashboard and i need the data in dashboard to be refreshed every 30 seconds. Is it possible with Azure stream analytics or any other way?

Thank you

[Greg_Deckler]

OK, let me understand things a little better. Direct Query is a live query of the database. Meaning that when things are displayed on the page, it goes out, queries the database live and returns results. In this respect, it is 100% up to date live information. When you say you couldn't get the data refreshed except every 15 minutes are you saying that is how long it took you to get data into your Azure SQL Database from your source or where does the 15 minutes come from because there is no "refresh" when you use direct query, it is live querying the data. https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Desktop/Options-for-near-real-time-dashboards-reports/td-p/305759

Second, I have used Azure Stream Analytics to create demos of things but its use within Power BI for real production things is a bit iffy. The reason is that Power BI only utilizes streaming data on dashboard tiles. This may be OK for you, I have no idea how your data model is constructed or how complex your calculations. But, you would have to do all of your calculations in Azure Streaming Analytics. It integrates very easily with Power BI. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/service-real-time-streaming

One other question, do you have Premium? Because I thought that there was some feature in Premium for "near real time". Ah, yes, here it is: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/power-bi-desktop-december-2019-feature-summary/#APR

[Anonymous]

Hi again, 

Sorry for the late response and thank you for your fast response.

My final aim is to visualize real time dashboards in POWER BI SERVICE because i want to visualize data inside Microsoft Hololens from POWER BI SERVICE.

Since u talked about direct query and real time dashboards, could you maybe explain the workflow? If i undertsand correct, u are moving data to power bi desktop using direct query and publishing that to power bi service? Or is it some other way?

I want to create real time dashboards in power bi service. I tried direct query and moved data from the Azure SQL database to power BI desktop and i published that to power bi service. In power BI service,there is an option called sceduled cache refresh and we can set that to minimum of 15 minutes. But again, i want data to be visualized/updated in dashboard, in lets say a 10 seconds. 

The data is data from the production line about the machines, so data should be visualized/updated as soon as possible.

I have a POWER BI PRO ACCOUNT. I am not using premium and yes i read about automatic page refresh and this can be acheived in power bi service as well, but only for premium account users.

The data flow is from machine  to Azure SQL database to power BI desktop and to power BI service. And there is this above mentioned sceduled cache refresh of 15 minutes. Is there any other way to have real time dashboards with data update in every 10 seconds?(without premium account)

Instead i can see options for azure stream analytics which i dont know if that could be a better option for power BI real time dashboard?

Thank you