Scenario:
Customer's Power BI data model is built using text files and excel spreadsheets that are stored on an on-premise file share using a combination of 'Text/CSV' and 'Folder' data sources. They also use a 'SQL Server Database' data source that is also stored on-prem. This model has been published to the PBI Service and both on-demand and scheduled refreshes occur as expected and complete successfully using the customers on-prem gateway server.
Customer now wants to migrate all of their text and excel files to Azure Blob storage while leaving the SQL database on-prem. The expectation is that the Power BI Service will access the text and excel files via the Azure back end and still use the gateway to access the on-prem SQL database.
Issue:
Using Power BI Desktop, the data sources are changed as needed to point to the Azure Blob storage location. Two different migration methods were tested:
- Create a new data source and change existing queries to reference the new data source in the 'Advanced Editor' view of the existing queries.
- Change existing query to point to Azure Blob Storage in Advanced Editor.
With both approaches, the data source change was successful in Power BI Desktop. The files were pulled from Azure and the model worked properly.
In both approaches, however, once published to the Power BI Service, the data set would no longer refresh.
Symptoms:
When the newly published data set was accessed in the Power BI service interface and the 'Refresh Now' option was chosen, the following pop-up occurs:
Install the data gateway (personal mode) to refresh. etc.
If the 'Schedule Refresh' option is chosen, the same notification appears at the top of the popup and the option to choose the on-prem gateway is now greyed out:
You don't have any gateway installed or configured for the data sources in this dataset. Please install....etc.
Expected Behavior:
Expectation is that Power BI will pull the data stored in the Azure Blob storage via the Azure backend and use the on-prem gateway to access the on-prem SQL Server datasource.