Earn the coveted Fabric Analytics Engineer certification. 100% off your exam for a limited time only!
Well once again, I am faced with an extremely non-intuitive dilemma for something that seems like it should already be incorporated into Power BI. Which seems to be the common theme with this software, by the way. Kinda like the nightmare I went through with Microsoft support before finally getting the correct instructions to use Microsoft Azure (why?), to set up a new domain (why?), organizational account (why?), and blah blah blah (why?) just to be able to use these stupid community forums! I mean seriously, WTF! If i'm already signed into Power BI, let me use the **bleep** forums with those credentials! Why the extra headache?!
And yep, here we go again. I built a monster of a "report" in Power BI desktop that does a lot of stuff, grabbing insane amounts of data from our ERP system's database, as well as from several Excel documents on our network (that's right, on-premises data). Now that this beast is done and working properly (after countless hours of figuring out how to get clunky program to do what I need), I simply want to 'publish' it and be done. Oh but no!!! It could never be that simple with Power BI because I have on-premise data, and Power BI is too under-developed to provide a built-in means to use that data on the cloud-based app. Worst of all, the instructions on how to do this with the Gateway program are essentially non-existent.
Here's what I have done so far:
I installed the program (I am using Windows 10 pro). It said it installed successfully. I signed in. It said the gateway was up and running. I closed the window. In Power BI service, it said it could not use the gateway. I went to open the app and could not find it. I typed "gateway" in the Windows search bar, per Microsoft's instruction on how to start the program) and it could not find it. I went to the default directory where it installed (in appsdata for some reason) and there was an empty folder in there, with only another empty folder within it called telemetry. I went to control panel, programs and features, and looked for the program there. It was not listed. I tried to install the gateway again and it said it was already installed. I restarted my machine and still could not find any trace of the installed program. I deleted the empty folders from appsdata and deleted the items from the registry for this gateway. After that, I was able to reinstall the gateway. This time, I did everything the same, but for whatever reason, it now seems to be installed properly and I can find it from the search, relaunch it, etc. Real quality software here. Never have I ever seen a program do a wierd ghost install like this.
So on to the new problem... how am I supposed to use this to get my on-premise data to automatically refresh through the Power BI service? I have no instructions at all. There does not seem to be anything to configure. All I know is it says it is up and running, both from the Gateway application and in the Power BI service, yet Power BI cannot use it/connect to it. Here are the details it gives me:
Failed to use the selected gateway. Please make sure the gateway is up and running and try again.
Please try again later or contact support. If you contact support, please provide these details.
Any help you can provide would be great. I am so fed up with this terrible software.
My gateway program is on the left. Microsoft's terrible instructions on the right. I do not even have the option they show. And yes, I am signed in. See the next pic.
After you install the gateway software, you need to go to the online service and Manage Gateways (under the gear icon menu) and add the data sources you're using in your reports to the gateway. Once the sources are added to the gateway your dataset should be able to use it.
Proud to be a Super User!
Thanks, I would love to but it says I don't have any!!! o_O
Unless I go to my dataset settings, and then it sees it, and says it's running. This is total garbage.
Then it says to choose data gateway from the Download menu? What download menu? Talk about difficult to use! I feel like I need a Power BI developer by my side to use this junk!
I see, you installed the personal gateway instead of the enterprise gateway. It's been a long time since I used the personal version, but yeah you shouldn't have to add sources to that in the Manage Gateways section because it's a personal gateway, meaning it's only meant to be managed by a single user. Manage Gateways is for managing the company gateways for multiple users. With the enterprise gateway you can have multiple administrators so you have to set up the sources for them to admin. The personal gateway is only accessible to you, so there's nothing to see in Manage Gateways.
It looks like it's already working fine, since your dataset can see it and a refresh is in progress. I think you already had everything up and running before you posted this thread.
Proud to be a Super User!
I keep calling it "enterprise" gateway but it's really called the on-premise gateway now. My brain is stuck on what it was called three or four years ago...
Ayway what I told you about adding sources doesn't apply to the personal gateway. You should be fine. It shows up on the dataset refresh options, which is where you should see it, and a refresh appears to be running just fine in your screenshot.
Proud to be a Super User!
No, it is not working from there. The refresh fails. When I click "apply" to use the gateway for this dataset, that is when it tells me it cannot connect. I posted the error message earlier. Here it is again:
Failed to use the selected gateway. Please make sure the gateway is up and running and try again.
Please try again later or contact support. If you contact support, please provide these details.
As you can imagine from this screenshot, I've got quite a bit of work into this giant piece of **bleep**, so it would be really cool if we could get it to work the way it is supposed to work! Who knows, I might even say something good about it if I can just get it to work and be done with this **bleep** project! Thanks, and have a good weekend. I know I will! 😃