Managing Gateways and Scheduled Refreshes While Away

[Anonymous]

My understanding is that for scheduled refreshes to work, my pc must be 'awake' and connected to internet. I have a report that I would like to refresh daily. I would also like to go on vacation occasionally and not have to babysit my laptop.

Best solution?

Would it be possible for a co-worker to save a copy of the desktop file and publish/refresh the same report through their own gateway?

[edhans · Accepted solution]

Install the gateway on a PC that never goes to sleep. Work with your IT department. There may be a PC, VM, or server the gateway can run on. MS's web page on gateways recommend to not install on laptops or any machines that may access data over WiFi or go to sleep.

If the report in the service changes to their gateway, you'll have to reconfigure it to your gateway. This is why enterprise vs personal gateways are preferred for reports others use. One gateway, (or multiple, depending on how admins set it up) will work no matter who publishes the report. 

Personal gateways are only useful for reports you and you alone use. Once it becomes a company report that many use, the shortcomings become obvious. 

[shugh · Accepted solution]

It sounds like you need to add a virtual machine (probably easiest to do this from Azure) and install an on premises data gateway on that machine. There will be a cost involved but this will probably be the best way to do it. The following links should help with this process:

Creating an azure virtual machine - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/...

Installing the data gateway - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/connect-data/service-gateway...

[edhans · Accepted solution]

Install the gateway on a PC that never goes to sleep. Work with your IT department. There may be a PC, VM, or server the gateway can run on. MS's web page on gateways recommend to not install on laptops or any machines that may access data over WiFi or go to sleep.

If the report in the service changes to their gateway, you'll have to reconfigure it to your gateway. This is why enterprise vs personal gateways are preferred for reports others use. One gateway, (or multiple, depending on how admins set it up) will work no matter who publishes the report. 

Personal gateways are only useful for reports you and you alone use. Once it becomes a company report that many use, the shortcomings become obvious.