Power BI Gateway

Keep your dashboards and reports up to date by connecting to your on-premises data sources without the need to move the data.

Power BI Gateway

Gateway Purpose

The Power BI Gateway is used to update and refresh Dashboards and Reports where the data is stored locally or on-premises (i.e. data that isn’t on the cloud). This means if you use an on-premises source for data you would not need to move the data on to the Cloud in order to use it within Power BI. The Gateway acts as a bridge to transfer data securely between the on-premises location and the Power BI service (which itself is a Cloud based service).  

Using cloud storage for data?

If you have data that is already on, or can be easily stored on the cloud, you will not need the Gateway connection (for example Excel files on a SharePoint site). 

Service Management run two separate Gateways. One for Test data and the other for Live. If you are experimenting with content or setting up test versions of your reports before releasing them to a wider audience then we would recommend connecting to the Test Gateway. If your reports contain live data and are intended to be published and viewed by users across the University, then the Live Gateway would be used.  

Gateway - Before you start

  • The Gateway is not required to design or build your reports or if you are using a Cloud data source
  • Before creating content, check your Data Source is compatible with the Gateway. If it is not, you'll need to move your data on to the Cloud or to a supported location. Please check the 'List of Power BI data sources' link for compatibility.

List of Power BI data sources 

  • It is recommended to start creating your content in Power BI Desktop first as you’ll need to confirm your Data Source can be added
  • A Power BI Pro Licence is still required to publish and share content. For more information on this see the Power BI Licences section.

Power BI Licences

Gateway Access

In order to add a data source to the University's Power BI Gateway on Test or Live please get in touch with Service Management and provide the following information: 

  • The data source for your reports (which must be one of the listed Power BI data sources)
  • Confirmation as to whether it is Test data or Live data that this connection will be for 
  • The area/department/school/college that are the Owners of this data 
  • Confirmation that you have, or will have, this data source already set up in your Power BI Desktop file
  • The name for your new connection, which should follow the naming convention below.

You will also need to have the following to connect your data source into our Gateway:

  • User credentials that allow the Gateway to connect to your data source. These may or may not be different to your own user credentials.
  • Permission from the Data Owner / Steward to be able to access this data. 

 

Gateway Naming Convention

In order to keep track of the connections on the Gateway, we require the name of the connection to follow our naming convention, in the format:

College/Dept Name – DataSource – SubID – Connection Type 

College/Dept Name The data owner’s department (eg. ISG, CAHSS, MVM, CSE, USG, CSG etc) 
DataSource The platform /program / app that this data relates to (eg. The Event Booking system) 
SubID (optional) A one or two word description for what the data relates to (eg. 'Feedback' - a report on the feedback people leave after attending Events) 
Connection Type Live or Test

Connection name example: ISG-EventBooking-Feedback-LIVE  

 

Contact Service Management via email: service.management@ed.ac.uk

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