help connecting to database via vpn

[pabeader]

I'm not sure where to start.  I have a program that stores it's data on a third party site.  To access the data I use a VPN client to connect to the site and then to the database.  This works fine from my desktop computer.  I want to be able to make the same connection from the Power BI service.  Do I install the vpn client and confgiuration on the enterprise gateway server?  That's seems the logical place to put it but I wonder if anybody else had done this and what steps were required.

I appreciate any tips or thoughts you all may have.

[lchaplen]

Hi I am very new and need to do this.. can you send me inforamation on setting up the gateway for the desktop and online as I need to create a report off a remote Database using VPN.

[SpartaBI · Accepted solution]

Hi @pabeader,

You are correct. If you must use a VPN connection in order to connect the data, you should install the relevant components on the data gateway server.
A couple of notes:
1. To make sure your connection string is in order, and to perform tests, you should create the connection to the data source, in Power BI Desktop, from the same data gateway server. Then perform a local data refresh on the server. Any future change that relates to PQ should be done from the same server.
2. If possible, use a S2S VPN connection (not P2S). This is more robust and you are much less likely to have problems due to an inactive VPN connection.
3. If you must use a P2S VPN connection you will face problems. I would consider using automating to make sure the VPN connection is active and only then perform the refresh. You can also consider uploading the data to the cloud in stages (using some kind of automation or even separating the chunks of data using data flows). This will allow you to rerun only the failed parts of a refresh. You should really aim to avoid this scenario.