Microsoft Power BI Desktop

This article explains how to connect Microsoft Power BI Desktop to an Exasol database.

Exasol takes no responsibility for changes in functionality or terms of use for third-party tools. For more details about the compatibility and use of these tools with Exasol, refer to the respective software vendor’s website.

Introduction

Microsoft Power BI is Microsoft’s business analytics platform that consists of two components: the Power BI Desktop application and the Power BI service. A certified custom connector for Exasol is integrated in Power BI Desktop and in the on-premises data gateway, enabling you to connect to Exasol using Direct Query mode as well as classical import mode.

This article explains how to connect Power BI Desktop to an Exasol database using the Exasol connector. For more information about how to use the Power BI software services, apps, and connectors, refer to the Power BI documentation on the Microsoft Learn website.

Prerequisites

  • Microsoft Power BI Desktop must be installed.

  • The Exasol ODBC driver must be installed. To learn more, see ODBC Driver.

  • Your Exasol SaaS database must be running.

  • The IP address of the host where the tool is running must be in the allowed IP address list.

    To learn more about how to allow traffic to your database, see Network Security.

Get the connection details

  1. On the Databases page in the Exasol SaaS web console, click on the info button  on the cluster.

  2. Copy the connection string, port, and username from the cluster details window. You will need this information when you configure the connection in the client.

    saas cluster details

  3. If you do not already have a personal access token (PAT), follow the instructions in Personal access token to create a new token. The token and the username will be used by the client to authenticate to Exasol.

    The token is only shown once and will disappear when you close or refresh the page. Make sure that you copy the token, since it cannot be retrieved if you lose it. In that case you must create a new token.

Connect Power BI Desktop to Exasol

  1. In the Power BI Desktop application, create a new database connection and select the Exasol connector.

  2. Set the following options:

    Connection String: the connection string that you fetched in Get the connection details

    Encrypted: Yes

    Data Connectivity Mode: DirectQuery

    enter connection string

  3. Enter your Exasol username and the personal access token as password, then click on Connect to finish.

    enter credentials

Next steps

To learn how to use Power BI Desktop and the on-premises data gateway, refer to the Power BI documentation on the Microsoft Learn website.