Adding Databricks as a Data Source?

[skylarbpayne]

Hey folks,

We are evaluated potential BI tools and PowerBI came highly recommended. However, I'm a bit puzzled as to how to realistically even trial. The only way we can figure out how to connect is to schedule a data flow in Fabric. This is needlessly expensive & operationally complex (i.e. we don't need to schedule yet-another ETL -- we can just query the database directly). All modals we can find don't seem to have an option to add a query source, and some modals point us to download PowerBI Desktop. We use mac development machines, and it seems PowerBI Desktop is only supported on Windows.

Am I missing something simple or is this just not supported? Connecting a BI tool to a SQL warehouse is such a basic requirement of a BI tool that I really feel I must be missing something simple.

Thanks!

[skylarbpayne]

Thanks for the response. I suppose this will work, but candidly feels a bit absurd to have to spin up a Windows VM just to add a data source.

We may just explore other BI tools instead.

Thanks!

[TomMartens]

I feel you and your organization will get the BI tool you deserve!

[TomMartens]

Hey @skylarbpayne ,

you do not need to develop another pipeline to connect to Databricks. You can use the Azure Databricks connector that comes with Power BI Desktop. Connect live (or in import mode) to your tables available in your Databricks catalog - Done.

In regards, to your MacBook Pro developer machines, use Parallels to spin up a Windows 11 Pro virtual machine. I use this setup and it works like a charme.

There is no need for Premium/Fabric capacities!

But the nature of the interactive user behavior will most likely require a Databricks compute environment that is capable of high-concurrency and complex queries. But this is not at the core of your question.

Hopefully, this provides some additional ideas.

Regards,

Tom