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Administering Connectivity

As an administrator, you configure connectivity from Power BI Service to Dremio Cloud, so that Power BI business users and report creators can run reports published to Power BI Service.

Power BI Service can connect to Dremio Cloud directly (Direct Query) or through Power BI Gateway.

note

For best results, all users of Power BI Desktop should be at the current version. Power BI Gateway should also be at the current version.

Supported Methods of Authenticating from Power BI Desktop to Dremio​

There are two different methods that you can ask users of Power BI Desktop to use when connecting to Dremio Cloud:

  • Use the username and password for a Microsoft account. As a prerequisite, ensure that Dremio Cloud is configured for authentication with Microsoft Entra ID. To enable this method of authentication:

    1. Follow the steps in Microsoft Entra ID.

    2. Follow the steps in the section "Configuring Power BI Authentication" in BI Applications Authentication Configuration.

  • Use a personal access token (PAT) obtained from Dremio Cloud. The use of PATs must be enabled in Dremio. See Creating a Token for the steps.

Enabling Users to Connect to Dremio Cloud by Using Direct Query​

If users of Power BI Service want to run reports that were published from Power BI Desktop June 2022 or later, then connections from Power BI Service to Dremio Cloud do not have to go through Power BI Gateway. The ability to connect without using Power BI Gateway is called Direct Query.

Direct Query requires connections from Power BI Desktop June 2022 or later to be encrypted.

Enabling Users of Power BI Service to Connect to Dremio Cloud via Power BI Gateway​

To enable Power BI users to connect to Dremio Cloud via Power BI Gateway:

  1. Log in to your Power BI Service account at https://app.powerbi.com/.

  2. Click ... next to your profile picture at the top-right corner of the browser and navigate to Settings > Manage gateways.

  3. Under GATEWAY CLUSTERS, select the gateway you created previously.

  4. Select the checkbox Allow user's cloud data sources to refresh through this gateway cluster.

  5. At the top of the page, click Add data sources to use the gateway. This launches the Data Source Settings page.

  6. Enter a Data Source Name.

  7. Select the Data Source Type drop-down menu and select Dremio Cloud.

  8. In the Server field, specify which of Dremio Cloud's control planes to connect to:

    • To connect to the US control plane, type sql.dremio.cloud.

    • To connect to the European control plane, type sql.eu.dremio.cloud.

  9. In the Project field, if your datasets are in a non-default project of your Dremio Cloud organization or you do not have access to the default project, paste the ID of the project that you want to connect to.
    To obtain the project ID, log into Dremio Cloud, switch to the Dremio Cloud project that you want the ID for, click the Project Settings This is the Project Settings icon. icon in the side navigation bar, and then copy the content of the Project ID field.
    If you want to use the default project for your Dremio Cloud organization, proceed to the next step.

  10. For Authentication Method, select Key or Microsoft Account from the drop-down list.

    • If you want to sign in with a personal access token (PAT) for Dremio Cloud, select Key, and then paste in the personal access token you obtained from Dremio Cloud. To create a PAT, follow the steps in the section Creating a Token.

    • If you want to sign into Dremio Cloud by using the username and password for a Microsoft account, select Microsoft Account. Click Sign in, and then specify your credentials.

      note

      You can use Microsoft authentication only if the organization admin has enabled it in Dremio Cloud.

  11. Check the Skip Test Connection box if you are using a release of Power BI earlier than the April 2002 release.

  12. Ignore Engine field. It is not used.

  13. Under Advanced Settings, set the Connection Encryption setting for this data source to Encrypted.

  14. Click Add.

A Connection Successful message is shown on top of the Data Source Settings page.