How to refresh data on Power BI app workspace without Gateway

[rax99]

I have a report that I have published to my app.powerbi.com workspace. 

The underlying data sources are connecting to SQL Server tables/views as well as excel files in located on the windows server which is hosted on Azure.

I need to add the ability to refresh the dataset, but without the need for a gateway manager/connection. (no permissions to install programs on server)

Is it possible to connect the published report to the SQL server and individual files that are located in Azure using a connection string? 

[v-zhenbw-msft]

Hi @rax99 ,

You can install the gateway in the VM.

Please refer this article.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/securing-the-connection-between-power-bi-and-azure-sql-databa...

Best regards,

Community Support Team _ zhenbw

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

[collinq]

Hi @rax99 ,

If you are "cloud-to-cloud" you do not need a gateway.  If you create the report on your desktop, you will have created the link to the data source.  When you publish, the link will remain the same.  Therefore, you will not need anything unique just because it is published.

I would appreciate Kudos if my response was helpful. I would also appreciate it if you would Mark this As a Solution if it solved the problem. Thanks!

[rax99]

Thanks for you response. The SQL server actually sits on an Azure VM rather than an azure sql db. Is this still possible as technically its still within the 'cloud'?

Thanks