“The parameter is incorrect” error when adding Amazon Athena ODBC DSN to Enterprise Gateway

[RicardoFW]

Hello everyone,

I’m trying to connect Power BI Service (app.powerbi.com) to Amazon Athena via our on‑premises enterprise gateway. My setup works perfectly in Power BI Desktop, but when I add the same DSN under Manage Gateways → Data Sources in Enterprise mode, I get:

Unable to create connection for the following reason: There was an error in the data gateway.
Details:
Data Science: The parameter is incorrect.
Status code: 400

When I click “Create” on the new data source, I immediately get “The parameter is incorrect.” Desktop refresh works; gateway status is Online and passes all network tests.

Has anyone seen this error adding an Athena ODBC DSN to an enterprise gateway? What specific parameter might be invalid, or what else should I check? Any guidance or troubleshooting steps would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance,

Ricardo Fajardo

[RicardoFW · Accepted solution]

I finally resolved this error by re‑creating my Athena data source after changing the gateway service to run under the Local System account so it could decrypt the stored credentials. Steps:

1. On the gateway machine, open services.msc.

2. Find On‑premises data gateway service (usually PBIEgwService).

3. In Properties → Log On, switch from NT SERVICE\PBIEgwService to Local System account.

4. Restart the gateway service.

5. In Power BI Service → Manage gateways → [Your gateway], remove the broken Athena data source.

6. Click + New data source, choose Amazon Athena, enter:

   • DSN = your System DSN name (e.g. AmazonAthena)

   • Authentication method = Anonymous

7. Click Create, then Test – you should see “Connection successful.”

8. Finally, in your workspace dataset Settings → Gateway connection, re‑map to the new Athena source and test again.

After these steps, scheduled refresh works without the “parameter is incorrect” error.

[lbendlin]

you need to use the 64 bit ODBC control panel, set up the exact same system DSN, and make sure it connects successfully - on each of the gateway cluster members.  

[RicardoFW]

I’m already using the 64‑bit ODBC driver and the connection test succeeds. Additionally, I’m the sole member of the gateway cluster. As you see, I'm using the same system DSN 

[lbendlin]

Create a new connection, of type ODBC.  server is   

dsn=AmazonAthena

and then specify the credentials.

[RicardoFW]

Tried but had the same error (using access key as username and secret key as password, also tried with Anonymous Auth):