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Microsoft Power BI with ADBC Preview

Connect Microsoft Power BI to Dremio to derive powerful insights from your data and create real-time reports. Since May 2025, the Power BI connector for Dremio has an option to use the Arrow Database Connectivity (ADBC) driver. The ADBC driver improves performance especially for large result sets.

Prerequisites​

To try out the option in Preview, you must meet the following prerequisites:

  • Verify that your deployment of Microsoft Power BI has been upgraded to the May 2025 release (or later)

Enable the ADBC Option for a New Connection​

  1. In Power BI Desktop, click Get data.
  2. In the Get Data dialog, locate and select Dremio Cloud, and click Connect.
  3. In the Dremio Cloud dialog, in the Server field, enter adbc://data.dremio.cloud or adbc://data.eu.dremio.cloud depending on which control plane your Dremio Cloud account is on.
  4. (Optional) Complete the other fields in the dialog as you normally would.
  5. Click OK.
  6. Authenticate using your personal access token (PAT), and click Connect.

Enable the ADBC Option for an Existing Connection​

  1. In Power BI Desktop, go to Data source settings, select your source, and click Change source.
  2. In the Dremio Cloud dialog, update the Server field to adbc://data.dremio.cloud or adbc://data.eu.dremio.cloud depending on which control plane your Dremio Cloud account is on. If you're unable to edit the source this way, click Transform data, click Advanced Editor in the Home tab, in the dialog that comes up update the hostname/server with the adbc:// prefix, and click Done.
  3. Click OK.
  4. Reauthenticate using your personal access token (PAT), and click Connect.

Limitations for the Preview​

This functionality is currently in Preview and should not be deployed in a production environment.

ADBC Option will not be enabled automatically. It must be enabled by the owner of the report.

Authentication is supported only via personal access token (PAT).

Encryption is limited to the host root Certificate Authorities (CA) list.

Direct Mode

  • Chaining functions is supported but some complex scenarios may not work as expected.
  • Complex optional parameters for functions are not supported.

Complex Data Types such as Maps and Intervals are not supported.

Feedback​

Your feedback will help improve the experience for Power BI with ADBC. To provide feedback on the preview of the ADBC option in the Power BI connector for Dremio, click here.