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Version: current [26.x]

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 you are using Dremio Software 25.0+
  • Verify that your deployment of Microsoft Power BI has been upgraded to the latest release

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 Software, and click Connect.
  3. In the Dremio Software dialog, in the Server field, specify your hostname with the adbc:// prefix. Example: adbc://acme-company.dremio.com
  4. (Optional) Complete the other fields in the dialog as you normally would.
  5. Click OK.
  6. Authenticate using your preferred method, 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 Software dialog, update the Server field by adding the adbc:// prefix before the hostname. Example: adbc://acme-company.dremio.com. If you're unable to edit the source this way, click Transform data, then click Advanced Editor in the Home tab. In the dialog that appears, update the hostname/server with the adbc:// prefix, and click Done.
  3. Click OK.
  4. Reauthenticate using your preferred method, 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.

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.

Troubleshoot the Power BI Connection​

If you have previously installed older versions of Power BI Desktop, cached data may interfere with the newer versions of the ADBC driver. This can result in connection errors such as:

  • ADBC: IOError [] [FlightSQL] [FlightSQL] unresolved address (Unavailable; GetObjects(GetDBSchemas))
  • ADBC: IOError [] [FlightSQL] [FlightSQL] connection error: desc = "transport: authentication handshake failed: credentials: cannot check peer: missing selected ALPN property. If you upgraded from a grpc-go version earlier than 1.67, your TLS connections may have stopped working due to ALPN enforcement. For more details, see: https://github.com/grpc/grpc-go/issues/434" (Unavailable; GetObjects(GetDBSchemas))

To resolve these issues, follow the steps below to clear the Power BI Desktop cache and any cached data source permissions involving Dremio connections.

  1. Clear Power BI Desktop Caches.
  2. In Power BI Desktop, go to File > Options and Settings > Data Source Settings.
  3. Select Global Permissions.
  4. Clear all cached connections by clicking Clear All Permissions, or select specific Dremio data sources and click Clear Permissions.

After completing these steps, try reconnecting to Dremio using the instructions above.

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.