Power BI Desktop to Power BI online

[nkurian]

Hi,

I am a newbie to Power BI . I have downloaded Power BI Desktop and have been able to get some cool reports done. Now, I am ready to publish the reports and create dashboard online so end users can use the reports. I have a few questions (quite basic, I am sure J but it will be a huge help for me!)

• Currently, I am loading data using “Get Data” from Excel. In order to publish it, do I need gateway install or just need a Power BI account? Is Power BI online account free or it needs an enterprise license?
• In the near future, I will be moving to direct DB (SQLServer) connection with scheduled refresh (instead of data load from excel). I see that SQL Server connectivity is supported.
  1. Do I need Gateway for this?
  2. Do I schedule the refresh on the Power BI Desktop or can that be done only after it is published?
• Data Transformation with scheduled refresh
  1. I would/might need to do some transformation and build manual relationships between tables coming from the DB. How will I do that with automatic refresh?
  2. I would need to get data only from selected tables from the DB. How do I do that?

Thanks,

Ninu

[v-yuezhe-msft]

Hi @nkurian,

Adding to other post, it requires Power BI pro account when you go to Datasets->Schedule refresh to set up schedule refresh. You can try Power BI Pro for 60 days or directly purchase Power BI Pro.

Moreover, please note that if you connect to SQL Server via DirectQuery connection in Power BI Desktop, you will not have the option to use scheduled refresh after publishing PBIX file to Power BI Service. Scheduled refresh is only available for imported datasets. For more details, please review this article.

Thanks,
Lydia Zhang

[nkurian]

Hi again,

A few more questions...

1) Is Power BI online same as Power BI Pro?

2) If we are using csv files in a specific location during the design of the reports and publishing from PowerBI Desktop to online version, will the scheduled refresh work? For the scheduledrefresh , will the Power BI Desktop that designed the report need to be running or power BI online will refresh from Source in Applied steps?

3) Once reports are published online, will each person viewing the reports/dashboard need a license? May I please have some information on licensing models? We might have 200 users with possibly 100 users using it concurrently. 

4) What is Power BI Gateway used for? Is it to implement security of data pulled from datasets and published report?

5) If we embed the Power BI reports/dashboards into another application, what is the licensing model that can be used?

Also, @v-yuezhe-msft, can you please provide some more insights to the statement ?How do we do scheduled refresh in that scenario?

" if you connect to SQL Server via DirectQuery connection in Power BI Desktop, you will not have the option to use scheduled refresh after publishing PBIX file to Power BI Service. Scheduled refresh is only available for imported datasets."

Thanks,

Ninu

[v-yuezhe-msft]

Hi @nkurian,

1. Power BI Online is different from Power BI pro. Power BI Online Service contains three major building blocks: dashboards, reports, and datasets, which helps you design and display visualizations. To sign up Power BI, you can choose to use a free account, a Pro trial account, or purchase Power BI Pro.

2. Schedule refresh will work in your scenario, and Power BI Desktop will not need to run.

3. Users within your organization can gain access to Power BI in two different ways. They can individually sign up for Power BI, or you can assign a Power BI license to them within the Office 365 admin portal. For more details, please check this article.

4. There are two types of gateway in Power BI (Personal and Enterprise), with Power BI gateways, you can keep your data fresh by connecting to on-premises data sources, query large datasets while leveraging your existing investments. For more details, please review the following articles.
https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/powerbi-personal-gateway/
https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/powerbi-gateway-enterprise/

5. Currently, you can embed Power BI reports to other applications by using the “Publish to web” feature. This feature is still in preview, you can use it with a free Power BI account, and you don’t have to purchase Power BI Pro subscription.

In addition, connect to SQL Server via Import mode in Power BI Desktop, then you are able to schedule refresh for the dataset after publishing report to Power BI Online Service.

Thanks,
Lydia Zhang

[ankitpatira]

@nkurian

1. You don't need gateway to simply publish report from power bi desktop file but do need it to setup schedule refresh.

2. You setup schedule refresh on power bi service not desktop after publish.

3. All transformation and relationship building you do in power bi desktop before publishing, you can't do that in power bi service. If any changes there you do them in power bi desktop and republish which will override your report in service.

4. When you connect to sql db from power bi desktop you get navigator which lists all tables. You can manually select ones that you need and load them.