Get data from QNAP NAS

[Varin]

Hi, I am quite new to Power BI so I have to thank you in advance for your patience. Please also excuse my ignorance. 

I have a few excel files located in a QNAP NAS. I am trying to connect the data to power BI so I can schedule a daily refresh. I can't use the on-premise data connection as the NAS is in remote location and there is no PC that is always on. 

I tried to create share links but they lead to a download page instead of the file. So I grabbed the download link when I click the file from the address bar which lead to the file and use Get data -> Web Anonymous and everything worked - for a day.

I thought the link was static, turned out it wasn't the case. The domain name changed by one digit causing the whole thing to break down. 

The original like -- https://b21.myqnapcloud.com/share.cgi?&tunnel_agent_id=5c38......

The link the next day -- https://b11.myqnapcloud.com/share.cgi?&tunnel_agent_id=5c38......

I am not sure if the domain is going to change again tomorrow.

I don't know if this is the best way to get data from a QNAP NAS. Is there a better way to connect to the data? Or is there a way to generate a static link to these files?

The NAS is on a schedule power on and off and it gets turned on everyday. The PCs however, are not. I can't let the users open the files everyday and hit refresh as the report contain sensitive data. 

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you in advace. 

[v-juanli-msft]

Hi @Varin 

You could push live qnap nas data to Power BI Service.

Create a Power BI streaming dashboards

In addition, there is a tip "How to Integrate Power BI with QIoT Suite Lite" from ONAP support.

https://www.qnap.com/hu-hu/how-to/tutorial/article/how-to-integrate-power-bi-with-qiot-suite-lite/

Best Regards

Maggie

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

[Varin]

Hi @v-juanli-msft. Thanks a lot for your reply. I appreciate your help. However, I don't think this is quite what I'm looking for. I am trying to find a way for Power Bi to get data from excel files in my QNAP NAS. The data is normal data in tables, not live data. Right now I'm synchrinizing data from the NAS to OneDrive for Business Account and let Power BI get the data from there.

I am wondering is there a way to do this without using OneDrive as a bridge?

[Vsmcc1994test]

Hi I'm curious to know if you managed to solve the issue. Thanks!

[Varin]

Nope. NAS synchronizes to OneDrive. It's been working fine though.