How to set up a Power BI Gateway on an Azure Virtual Machine for scheduled refreshes?

Question

I need to set up a Power BI data gateway on an Azure Virtual Machine to enable scheduled refreshes for my Power BI reports. The gateway should allow data refreshes to happen even if the my system is not connected to the internet, as I intend to use cloud data sources. Could you guide me through the setup process, including prerequisites, configurations, and best practices for ensuring secure and reliable refreshes in this scenario?

Answer 1

Hello @Vikas Madan

To set up a Power BI Gateway on an Azure Virtual Machine for scheduled refreshes, you will need to follow a few steps.

Here are the prerequisites, configurations, and best practices for ensuring secure and reliable refreshes in this scenario:

Prerequisites:

• An Azure subscription
• An Azure Virtual Machine running Windows Server 2012 R2 or later
• A Power BI Pro or Power BI Premium subscription
• A data source that you want to refresh Configurations:
  1. Install the Power BI Gateway on the Azure Virtual Machine. You can download the gateway from the Power BI service.
  2. Configure the gateway to connect to your data source. You will need to provide the necessary credentials and connection information.
  3. Set up scheduled refreshes for your Power BI report. You can do this in the Power BI service by going to the dataset settings and selecting the "Scheduled refresh" option. Make sure to select the gateway that you just installed as the data source for the refresh. Best practices: - Make sure that the Azure Virtual Machine is running at all times to ensure that scheduled refreshes can occur.
• Use a dedicated user account for the gateway to ensure that it has the necessary permissions to access your data source.
• Use HTTPS to encrypt data transmissions between the gateway and the Power BI service.
• Use a firewall to restrict access to the Azure Virtual Machine and the gateway to only authorized users and IP addresses.
• Regularly monitor the gateway logs to ensure that refreshes are occurring as expected and to troubleshoot any issues that may arise.

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