automate refresh ODBC database

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone, this is the first time posting in the Service forum.

I have build some dashboards. And have published it to the Power Bi service. Now I would like to have a automate refresh every night so that the client I am building it for has up to date information everyday. For data connection I have connected to a ODBC database. I have been looking in the documentation a bit but I couldn't find any good solution. The client is also working on Mac computers if that is worth mentioning. 

Having a gateway installed on a personal computer isn't a solution? Is there a way to do this without installing a gateway or? 

PS: I am very new to all the technical parts so yeah, I am a bit lost with this. Client is thinking on moving to another dashboard service if things are too hard to install which I think is a pity cause Power BI is suh a great tool.

Thanks in advance

[v-diye-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous 

In order to refresh your dataset on the service, you can either select the ellipse (...) for the dataset, and click "REFRESH NOW" to manually refresh the dataset immediately, or you can follow steps from this article to configure a schedule refresh for it.

Note that you can add a gateway A on the computer1, and add another gateway B under this cluster from a different computer2, if the computer1 is turned off, and data source can be refreshed using the gateway B.

Official document refer to:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/data-integration/gateway/service-gateway-install#add-another-gateway-to-create-a-cluster 

[Greg_Deckler]

I am fairly certain that you will need a gateway for an ODBC data source, especially if it is on-premises. Can you provide any more detail about the ODBC data source? It comes down to having the right ODBC driver installed. It simply isn't possible for Microsoft to have every conceivable ODBC driver installed and accessible to the cloud gateway for refresh.

[Anonymous]

Hi @Greg_Deckler. the ODBC databse is connected to a PostgreSQL database. But the sollution can"t be that you have to install a gateway on a personal computer right? What happens when the computer is turned off the moment u have your refresh is scheduled?

[Greg_Deckler]

See this: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/gateway/

and this:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/guidance/gateway-onprem-sizing

There is lots of documentation on the data gateway, you want the Standard gateway, not the Personal gateway.

[Greg_Deckler]

No, typically you install a Data Gateway on a server. Plus, you can install multiple gateways on multiple servers and cluster them together so that you have redundancy.

The Personal data gateway is just for users tinkering around, it is not an enterprise solution.