Virtual Host not working for SAP HANA DB Connection

[Hoggie]

Hi all,

We have 2 SAP HANA DB servers which allow failover should lan issue occur.  There is then one alias / Virtual Host that redirects connections to whichever DB server is running. 

If i create a connectionon my Power BI Desktop, i can create that connection  that works either using the specific HANA DB name or i can use the virtual alias. 

If i publish a report to the service using a connection to the specific server, it works fine, however if i publish a report using the alias and then try to create a simlar gateway connection using that alias,  it fails.  Our admin says that virtual alias's do not work and we have to manually reconfigure the connections to the new server should we failover.   I find this very hard to believe that something as critical as using an alias to enable failover would not be possible. 

Is there known onfo on this or has anybody previously done this or looked into it. 

Thanks. 

[Hoggie]

Hi Aniya,  

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I appreciate it since i'm quite new to this area. 

In relation to your suggestion,  i had noted that datasoruces must match so in my testing, i found below. 

Desktop connection using Server name  / Gateway using Server Name   = Working

Desktop connection using IP address  / Gateway using IP address   = Working

Desktop connection using failiver server name  / Gateway using failiver server name   = Working

Desktop connection using Virtual Alias  / Gateway using Virtual Alias = NOT WORKING  (dispite the connection working on the desktop, the same connection on the gateway does not work. 

I'm waiting on further response from our central PBI platform support team but so far their response is that PowerBI does not work with virtual aliases.   This just seems bizarre.  Their solution was to create failover versions of the gateway connections so that if the DB had cause to fail over, we'd have to be notified and then manually swap over all connections to the failover connection.   This seems like a huge gap. 

Regs,

H

[v-yueyunzh-msft]

Hi ,  @Hoggie 

Thanks for your quick response and deatiled test result ! 

For your test results, I checked the relevant documents and descriptions, but found no information about the corresponding virtual hostname/alias. Sorry, in my working environment, there are no test conditions for SAP HANA.

If you are a Power BI Pro licensee, you can create a support ticket for free and a dedicated Microsoft engineer will come to solve the problem for you.

It would be great if you continue to share in this issue to help others with similar problems after you know the root cause or solution.

The link of Power BI Support: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/support/

For how to create a support ticket, please refer to https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Community-Blog/How-to-create-a-support-ticket-in-Power-BI/ba-p/6830...

Best Regards,

Aniya Zhang

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly

[v-yueyunzh-msft]

Hi ,  @Hoggie 

Based on your issue requirement posted, I've made some research for the gateway connector with SAP Hana data source that you are using, actually as mentioned in the official documentation: The server and database names must match between Power BI Desktop and the data source within the on-premises data gateway. And this is because the link between your dataset and the data source within the gateway is based on your server name and database name. These names must match. For example, if you supply an IP address for the server name within Power BI Desktop, you must use the IP address for the data source within the gateway configuration. If you use SERVER\INSTANCE in Power BI Desktop, you also must use it within the data source configured for the gateway.

Here's the official documentation link for your reference:

Manage your data source - SAP HANA - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

So if you are trying to using an alias to enable failover for the data gateway connection, please first consider using the desktop connection for an alias and publish the report//dataset to the service again to enable failover for the data gateway connection using an alias as the documentation mentioned. Many thanks!

Thank you for your time and sharing, and thank you for your support and understanding of PowerBI! 

Best Regards,

Aniya Zhang

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly