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liucpaulpbi
Frequent Visitor

PBI report refresh from R and JSON on Linux machines

My company has JSON data created on Linux, and I transform these JSON with R script into Power BI desktop, and publish to Power BI report for customers. But I do not want to use Windows laptop to install gateway for refresh BI dataset/report in the cloud.

 

Can I put JSON and R in Azure, and use BI Desktop to publish dataset/report? I assume BI report refresh through Azure is seamless.

 

 

4 REPLIES 4
v-qiuyu-msft
Community Support
Community Support

Hi @liucpaulpbi,

 

R data source requires personal gateway to refresh, it's not supported to refresh without personal gateway. As long as you keep the personal gateway to the latest version (now it's On-premises data gateway (personal mode)) and keep it's online, set schedule refresh for the dataset can have data updated smoothly. See: Creating visuals from R script data.

 

Best Regards,
Qiuyun Yu

Community Support Team _ Qiuyun Yu
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

@v-qiuyu-msft thank you for the reply. I did confirm using personal gateway works for R refresh. However, I don't have a MS machine that can be on all the time as required by personal gatey. So my goal is to find a way to put R and its JSON input into Azure cloud service. Is there a way to ask PBI service refresh to look in Azure for R installation and sources?

Hi @liucpaulpbi,

 

When we use R script in Power BI desktop, R needs to be installed on the machine which has Power BI desktop runs. It means R data source always be on-premise, can't be host in cloud.

 

 In your scenario, as the personal gateway can't be online every time, you can refresh the pbix file in desktop then republish, or when personal gateway is online, manually refresh the dataset in Power BI service to get updated data. One more option is installing R and personal gateway, place Json file in Azure VM, but keep Azure VM always online will cost too much.

 

Best Regards,
Qiuyun Yu

Community Support Team _ Qiuyun Yu
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

>>>> One more option is installing R and personal gateway, place Json file in Azure VM, but keep Azure VM always online will cost too much.

 

This was what I was about to experiment, but the Azure VM cost issue seems a deal breaker. So instead, I start a VM Windows Server 2008 on my company's VM host instead, and install R and the JSON data files on the VM. I could successfully install PBI Desktop and publish to PBI Service, and establish 8 refresh time slot (the max allowed daily for PBI Pro license).

 

However after I added more visulation, I ran into a SQL Service msmdsrv.exe crash issue issue upon PBI save. Fault Module Name: StackHash_9bea.  This must be my 2008 Windows Server specific issue because my identical run on Windows 10 laptop is fine.

 

Problem signature:
  Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
  Application Name: msmdsrv.exe
  Application Version: 2016.140.1.374
  Application Timestamp: 595d8571
  Fault Module Name: StackHash_9bea
  Fault Module Version: 6.1.7601.18247
  Fault Module Timestamp: 521eaf24
  Exception Code: c0000374
  Exception Offset: 00000000000c4102
  OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.272.7
  Locale ID: 1033
  Additional Information 1: 9bea
  Additional Information 2: 9bea352d2ce54d8ce9fa855b2a5cfc27
  Additional Information 3: 26e6
  Additional Information 4: 26e6f9a4853f022d5b4b0654e66424b8

 

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