No data refresh, regardless of storage mode, can be successful unless the underlying data sources are reachable. There are three primary possibilities for data access:

·         A dataset makes advantage of on-site data sources.

·         A dataset makes advantage of cloud-based data sources.

·         A dataset incorporates information from both on-site and cloud sources.

Making connections to on-premises data sources

Before you can create a refresh, schedule or carry out an on-demand data refresh, if your dataset uses a data source that Power BI cannot access over a direct network connection, you must configure a gateway connection for this dataset.

 

 You can choose from the following:

·         Select a business data gateway that has the necessary data source specification.

·         Establish a personal data gateway.

 

Using a corporate data gateway

Microsoft advises connecting a dataset to an on-premises data source via an enterprise data gateway rather than a personal gateway.

Make sure the gateway is configured correctly, which means it must have all necessary data source definitions and the most recent upgrades.

Power BI receives connection details for a specific source, such as connection endpoints, authentication mode, and credentials, from a data source description.

If you are a gateway administrator, connecting a dataset to an enterprise gateway is quite easy.

You may swiftly update the gateway and add missing data sources, if required, with admin permissions.


 

Establishing a private data gateway

You can deploy a data gateway in personal mode if you don't have access to a corporate data gateway and are the only one in charge of managing datasets, meaning you don't need to share your data sources with anyone.

 Choose Install now under You have no personal gateways installed in the Gateway connection section.


 

Using cloud data sources to access

Sets that use cloud data sources, such as Azure SQL DB, don't need a data gateway if Power BI can connect directly over the network.

As a result, using the Data source credentials part of the dataset settings, you may control how these data sources are configured.

 


Utilizing the same source query to access on-premises and cloud sources

Many sources can provide data to a dataset, and these sources might be on-premises or in the cloud. But, as was already indicated, a dataset is limited to using a single gateway connection.

A gateway is necessary if a dataset links to both on-premises and cloud sources in a single mashup query, even though cloud data sources don't always need one. In this case, Power BI will also need to use a gateway for the cloud data sources.

 

Summary: In this article, we learned How to Review Power BI Data Infrastructure Dependencies, in our next article we will learn how to do a personal gateway in Power BI.