BizTalk Server 2016 Feature Pack 1: How to publish BizTalk operational data on Power BI – Step-by-step configuration (Part 3)

by Sandro Pereira | May 7, 2017 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

To close this sequence of posts about BizTalk Server 2016 Feature Pack 1: How to publish BizTalk operational data on Power BI – Step-by-step configuration, in this post we will see how we can connect Power BI BizTalkOperationalData dataset with our on-premise BizTalk environment.

Step-by-step Configuration to Enable BizTalk Server 2016 Operational Data Feed

Fourth step: Connect Power BI BizTalkOperationalData dataset with your on-premise BizTalk environment

The final step is to install and configure a Power BI Gateway to connect your on-premise BizTalk Server environment.

With the On-premises data gateway, you can keep your data fresh by connecting to your on-premises data sources without the need to move the data. Because it installs and runs on your computer, it is best to install it on a machine that can be left running all the time.

Here are a few things to consider before installing the gateway.

• If you are installing on a laptop, and your laptop is turned off, not connected to the internet, or asleep the gateway won’t work and the data in the cloud service will not be synchronized with your on-premises data.
• If your machine is connected to a wireless network, the gateway may perform more slowly which will cause it to take longer to synchronize the data in the cloud service with your on-premises data.

(source: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/powerbi-gateway-onprem/)

To do that we need to:

• Run the downloaded .EXE file – PowerBIGatewayInstall.exe – from your hard drive.
• In the “Security Warning” screen, click “Run”

• In the “Start your on-premises data gateway installation” screen, click “Next”

• · In the “Choose the type of gateway you need” screen, select “On-premises date gateway (recommended)” and then click “Next”
  • On-premises data gateway: Multiple users can share and reuse a gateway in this mode. This gateway can be used by Power BI, PowerApps, Flow or Logic Apps. For Power BI, this includes support for both schedule refresh and DirectQuery
  • Personal: This is for Power BI only and can be used as an individual without any administrator configuration. This can only be used for on-demand refresh and schedule refresh. This will launch the installation of the personal gateway.

• In the “Reminder before you install” screen, click “Next”

• In the “Getting ready to install the on-premises data gateway” screen, review or change the installation path, select the option “I accept the terms of use and privacy statement” and then click “Install”

• If the install is successful, then the “Almost done” screen will appear. The next step is to sign into your Power BI account to finish the configuration of the gateway. Enter your email account and then click “Sign in”

• The next step is to specify that we want to register a new gateway on our environment.
  • Select the option “Register a new gateway on this computer” and then click “Next”

• Finally, the last step is to configure the Gateway settings by defining a Gateway name and recovery key. To finalize the configuration, click “Configure”

When we click configure, the Gateway is confirmed and added to the PowerBI setup for our account.

The only thing the is missing to finalize the process is to add a data source to the gateway that we just created previously on https://app.powerbi.com portal. For that we need to:

• Login in https://app.powerbi.com portal
• Select the gear icon in the upper-right corner and then click “Manage gateways”.

• You can add a new data source by selecting a gateway and click “…” (3 dots) button and then click “Add data source”.

• In the “Data Source Setting” panel set the following configuration:
  • Data Source Name: set a name for your data source, example: BizTalkOperationalDataSource
  • Data Source Type: From the Data Source Type list, you must select “OData”.
  • URL: set the URL that we defined on the “BizTalkOperationalData.pbit” template:
    • http://localhost/BizTalkOperationalDataService
  • Authentication Method: This can either be Windows or Basic. You would want to choose Basic if you are going to use SQL Authentication instead of Windows Authentication. Then enter the credentials that will be used for this data source.

• And then click “Add”.

Now let’s associate this gateway and data source with our BizTalkOperationalData dataset. To do that you need to:

• Select your Workspace, in my case “My workspace” and then select the tab “dataset”

• On our BizTalkOperationalData dataset, click “…” (3 dots) button and then select “Settings”

• On our BizTalkOperationalData dataset, expand the tab “gateway connection”. There you will be able to already see a gateway available under “Use a data gateway”.
  • Select the option “Use a data gateway” and click “Apply”.

And now you will be able to successfully refresh manual your dataset or specify a scheduling refresh mechanism.

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Author: Sandro Pereira

Sandro Pereira lives in Portugal and works as a consultant at DevScope. In the past years, he has been working on implementing Integration scenarios both on-premises and cloud for various clients, each with different scenarios from a technical point of view, size, and criticality, using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft BizTalk Server and different technologies like AS2, EDI, RosettaNet, SAP, TIBCO etc. He is a regular blogger, international speaker, and technical reviewer of several BizTalk books all focused on Integration. He is also the author of the book “BizTalk Mapping Patterns & Best Practices”. He has been awarded MVP since 2011 for his contributions to the integration community. View all posts by Sandro Pereira