Power BI Service connection to Cosmos DB-> Not supported Online Refresh Data

Gimenez, Miguel 1 Reputation point
2022-10-27T10:37:25.317+00:00

I open this question because I am trying to monitor the data from a Database that is located in Comos DB. I have created a report in my local Power BI desktop and the connection works. However, when I try to uploaded the report to Power Bi service that connection can not be established.

I have read in the documentation that you don't support direct connection between Power BI service and Cosmos DB. I was wondering if that is the case if the use Azure Synapsis Analytics. If we use that resource to connect the data to our dashboard, Does the connection will work in Power BI service?. Maybe it is not supported.

Furthermore, I have seen that there is a DB ODBC connector to cosmos DB. If I configure the driver in my local machine and published the gateway in power BI, Will it work the connection between power BI service with cosmos DB through this ODBC connector?. I can assume that power BI service is compatible with that connector and you have them integrated.

This is a very important issue and will determine the use of Azure.

Thanks

Azure Cosmos DB
Azure Cosmos DB
An Azure NoSQL database service for app development.
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  1. ShaktiSingh-MSFT 13,271 Reputation points Microsoft Employee
    2022-10-27T11:39:16.177+00:00

    Hi @Gimenez, Miguel ,

    Welcome to Microsoft Q&A platform and thanks for using Azure services.

    As I understand your question about connection between Azure Cosmos DB and Power BI.

    You can connect to Azure Cosmos DB from Power BI desktop by using one of these options:

    1). Use Azure Synapse Link to build Power BI reports with no performance or cost impact to your transactional workloads, and no ETL pipelines.

    You can either use DirectQuery or import mode. With DirectQuery, you can build dashboards/reports using live data from your Azure Cosmos DB accounts, without importing or copying the data into Power BI.

    2). Connect Power BI Desktop to Azure Cosmos DB account with the Azure Cosmos DB connector for Power BI. This option is only available in import mode and will consume RUs allocated for your transactional workloads.

    Note: Reports created in Power BI Desktop can be published to PowerBI.com. Direct extraction of Azure Cosmos DB data cannot be performed from PowerBI.com.

    Reference link: powerbi-visualize

    Regarding the ODBC connector, connecting to Azure Cosmos DB with the ODBC driver is currently supported for Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL only. The current ODBC driver doesn't support aggregate pushdowns and has known issues with some analytics tools. Until a new version is released, you can use one of the following alternatives:

    a). Azure Synapse Link is the preferred analytics solution for Azure Cosmos DB. With Azure Synapse Link and Azure Synapse SQL serverless pools, you can use any BI tool to extract near real-time insights from Azure Cosmos DB SQL or API for MongoDB data.
    b). For Power BI, you can use the Azure Cosmos DB connector for Power BI.

    Reference Link: odbc-driver

    Hope this information helps. Let me know you inputs and please reply with your perspective/questions.

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  2. Gimenez, Miguel 1 Reputation point
    2022-10-27T11:51:49.63+00:00

    Thank you @ShaktiSingh-MSFT .

    I know that I have the options of using Azure Synapse Link or Azure Cosmos DB connector for Power BI.

    Tha main problem is that in the documentation says:
    "Reports created in Power BI Desktop can be published to PowerBI.com. Direct extraction of Azure Cosmos DB data cannot be performed from PowerBI.com."

    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cosmos-db/nosql/powerbi-visualize

    So, even if I use one of the two options, it seems that if I want to share the reports with other user with Powe BI service the won't be able to refresh the data. ( only if the download the report and refresh it with power desktop). will that happen if I use Azure Synapse Link? Or DB ODBC cosmos connection?

    Because I can see that in power BI service we cannot use cosmos db data and refresh it. Only with Power Bi desktop.

    Thanks