Working with Large Datasets / Enterprise

[trevorgermain]

It seems that the proper way to work with enterprise data will be to:

1. Work with database matching schema of production data, small sample dataset

2. Publish the dataset

3. Configure gateway for production database

4. Update the connection string to match the server name and database name of the gateway to connect to production data

Currently, it seems that the Power BI service requires me to connect directly to the production database. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY NOT PERMITTED in my environment.

The REST Api call Default.SetAllConnections doesn't appear to work for import mode data.

What do I do?

[v-yulgu-msft]

Hi @trevorgermain,

Currently, it is not supported to update the connection string of a dataset which has been published to service. You could submit your idea at this page: https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas

Best regards,
Yuliana Gu

[trevorgermain]

This is a tremendous gap in the embedding story. There is no way that my organization will let me connect Power BI Desktop to our production database and pull all of that confidential information onto my laptop.

With the old Power BI embedded, I could work on a local test database, then publish it and update the connection string. That would allow me to work on fake data, but publish the report against real production data via the gateway.

There is currently NO WAY for me to publish a production database without first doing a full import of customer data into my desktop application. Absolutely a missing requirement for enterprise applications!

[v-yulgu-msft]

Hi @trevorgermain,

Sorry for inconvenience. You could submit this problem on idea page, your feedback is valuable to improve the level of our products.

Regards,
Yuliana Gu

[Greg_Deckler]

Can you only use the Service? Seems to me that you could address these issues in Desktop.