Connect SQL Server on Power BI Online

[PaolaFarias]

Hi everyone!

I'm having trouble to understand how the data source from Power BI Online works.

I downloaded the desktop version, on-premise data gateways, attached it to my account on power bi, created a dashboard on desktop and published it. On the online page I configured the data gateway and added a sql server connection, it works fine, the info from it is shown on the dashborad published online.  

So, if the connection with the sql server is made, why can't i use the database directly online? Why do I have to use it on the desktop version then publish it?

Thank you!

[v-yuezhe-msft · Accepted solution]

@PaolaFarias,

It doesn't support to directly connect to SQL Server database in Power BI Service, we need to first connect to SQL database in Power BI Desktop, create reports there and publish report to Power BI Service. However, it is possible to connect directly to SQL Server Analysis Services  databases in Power BI Service.

You can review the following article about data sources in Power BI Service.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/service-get-data

Regards,
Lydia