Refreshing from Azure SQL DB

[Phil_Seamark]

Can I refresh data directly from an Azure SQL Database from a published report to the Web Service and have no gateway involved?

Will this be any different between the Free and Pro Licenses?

How frequently will the data refresh?

[Anonymous]

Hi @Phil_Seamark，

Based on my test, it doesn’t require gateway when refreshing data from Azure SQL database, when you publish the Power BI Desktop file to Service, you will find “Connect Directly” in the settings for the dataset. How you connect to Azure SQL database and how you setup data refresh mechanism will determine if you require Free or Pro.

If you connect to Azure SQL database using “Import” mode in Power BI Desktop, set daily refresh for the dataset in Power BI Service and you don’t use other Power BI Pro contents such as RLS, Group, you are able to setup such dataset using Free account and you don’t require Pro license.

However, when you  connect to Azure SQL database via “DirectQuery” mode, and you set refresh more frequently than daily and use other Power BI Pro contents, you will require Pro license.

Thanks,
Lydia Zhang

[dharland]

The options shown in the screenshot are not available for my datasets - the only options involve using a gateway. The data source is an Azure SQL database. Any ideas?

[GilbertQ]

Hi @Phil_Seamark

I have not used the Azure SQL Database yet, but I am planning on getting something running so I can do some tests.

But in a previous contract I did set up Publish to Web, where the underlying data was getting refreshed by the On-Premise Gateway. And the reports were getting updated roughly every hour or less. Sometimes I would do a CTRL + F5 after I know it had loaded and it would refresh the data.

I also have got some information from Microsoft with regards to the Publish to Web that it keeps the cache for up to 1 hour.