Next, I’ll show you how to install and use the Enterprise Gateway. While you can install the gateway on any machine, you should install it on a dedicated server within your corporate network. You can install multiple gateways if needed, such as to assign department-level admin access.
Installing the Enterprise Gateway
Follow these steps to download the gateway:
1.Remote in to the server where you want to install the gateway. This server should have a fast connection to the on-premises databases that the gateway will access. Verify that you can connect to the target databases.
2.Open the web browser and log in to Power BI Service.
3.In the Application Toolbar located in the upper-right corner of the Power BI portal, click the Download menu, and then click “Power BI Gateways”.
4.In the next page, click Download below the “For enterprise deployments” section.
5.Once you download the setup executable, run it. Select the installation folder, read and accept the agreement, and then click Install. The gateway installs and runs as a Windows service called Power BI Enterprise Gateway Service (PBIEgwService) and its default location is the \Program Files\Power BI Enterprise Gateway folder.
Configuring the Enterprise Gateway
Next, you need to configure the gateway:
1. Once the setup program installs the gateway, it’ll ask you to sign in to Power BI.
1.Specify the gateway name and a recovery key (see Figure 9.15). Save the recovery key in a safe place. Someone will need it to restore the gateway if admin access is lost.
Figure 9.15 When you configure the Enterprise Gateway, you need to give it a name and provide a recovery key.
2.Click Configure. This registers the gateway with Power BI. You should see a message that the gateway is connected.
3.Click “Close & Add data sources”.
NOTE Data transfer between the Power BI service and the gateway is secured through Azure Service Bus. The gateway communicates on outbound ports TCP 443 (default), 5671, 5672, 9350 thru 9354. The gateway doesn’t require inbound ports, so you don’t have to open any ports in your company firewall.
Figure 9.16 The enterprise Gateway can provide access to many databases.
Managing the Enterprise Gateway
The next phase of configuring the gateway needs to be done in Power BI Service, as follows:
1. The setup program should navigate you to the Gateways page in Power BI Service. In future, to access this page, click the Settings menu in the Application Toolbar in the upper-right corner, and then click “Manage gateways”.
1.In the Gateways page, select your gateway and notice that you can enter additional gateway settings, such as the department and description. Moreover, you can specify additional administrators who can manage the gateway (the person who installs the gateway becomes the first administrator).
2.Next, add one or more data sources that the gateway will delegate access to. Suppose you want to set up DirectQuery to the AdventureWorksDW2012 database. In the Gateways page, click “Add Data Source” (see Figure 9.16).
3.Fill in the data source settings to reflect your database setup. Currently, the only data source type that the Enterprise Gateway supports is SQL Server but more types will be added in future.
4.The Authentication method allows you to specify the credentials of a trusted Windows account or a standard SQL Server login that has access to the database. Remember to grant this account at least read credentials to the database, such by assigning it to the SQL Server db_reader role. Note that all queries from all users will use these credentials to connect to the database, so grant the account only the minimum set of permissions it needs to the SQL Server database. This might result in different data permissions than the permissions a data analyst had when he used Power BI Desktop to connect to SQL Server under his credentials.
NOTE The gateway uses asymmetric encryption to encrypt the credentials so that they cannot be decrypted in the cloud. Power BI sends the credentials to the gateway server which decrypts the credentials when the data sources are accessed.
5.By default, only the administrators can access the gateway. Once you add a data source and click the data source in the Gateways page, you’ll see a new Users tab. You can use this tab to specify the email addresses of individual users or groups that can use the gateway.
TIP If you have issues with the Enterprise Gateway setup or data source access, you can configure it for
troubleshooting. You can find the troubleshooting steps in the “Troubleshooting the Power BI Gateway – Enterprise”
page at https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/powerbi-gateway-enterprise-tshoot.