Power BI: How to call API through VPN in Power BI

Question

For my Pro Power BI Project, I need to consume external API calls through set of automated endpoint calls.

However these set of APIs are accessible only over Private VPN Network and require OpenVPN to access them.

Below is error snapshot in Power BI:

Please advise whether Data gateway would help resolve above issue or another alternative - middleware script would be required.

Thank you.

Answer 1

First that screenshot you provided looks like it is from Power BI Desktop. The on-premises data gateway is unrelated to Power BI Desktop refreshes. So make sure your laptop is connected to OpenVPN when you refresh in Power BI Desktop.

Once you are happy with the report you have built and want to publish it to the Power BI Service you will need to setup an on-premises data gateway so that the scheduled refreshes will be able to talk to your source APIs over OpenVPN. Typically you install the “standard mode” (see the link above for more details) and put it on a Virtual Machine or server which is always running (rather than a laptop which can be shut down at night during the scheduled refresh). But if you don't need scheduled refresh during hours when your laptop is off, I suppose you could use “personal mode”. Personal mode isn't recommended generally.

Make sure OpenVPN is connected on the server where the on-premises data gateway software is installed. If this VPN connection disconnects after a few hours then ask your IT team for a better way to get a Virtual Machine which is on the same network as the source API or on a network which has a site-to-site “always connected” type VPN connection.

You will need to install and configure the gateway software, create a data source with credentials for your source API, ensure your user account is a “ User ” on that gateway data source, then republish the report from Power BI Desktop so it will bind to the gateway data source and use it during refresh.