Installation and Configuration of Microsoft Data Gateway Server
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Installation and Configuration of Microsoft Data Gateway Server

By Tirtha Ghosh  |  Published on July 3, 2019

Installation and Configuration of Microsoft Data Gateway Server

The On-premises data gateway acts as a bridge, providing quick and secure data transfer between on-premises data (data that is not in the cloud) and specific Microsoft Office 365 cloud services (Power BI, Microsoft Flow, Logic Apps, and PowerApps)

You can use a single gateway with different services at the same time. If you are using Power BI as well as PowerApps, a single gateway can be used for both. It is dependent on the account you sign in with.

Pre-requisites to Install on-premises Data Gateway

License Requirement

  • Microsoft Provides Data Gateway server as a free product to encourage organization use Microsoft Cloud Services

Minimum Requirements:

  • .NET 4.6 Framework
  • 64-bit version of Windows 7 / Windows Server 2008 R2 (or later)
  • 8 Core CPU (2 processor , 4 core each)
  • 8 GB Memory
  • 64-bit version of Windows 2012 R2 (or later)
  • Drive space C:\ -100 GB
  • The gateway cannot be installed on a domain controller
  • If you are planning to use Windows authentication, make sure you install the gateway on a computer that is a member of the same Active Directory environment as the data source(s).
  • You shouldn’t install a gateway on a computer, such a laptop, that may be turned off, asleep, or not connected to the Internet because the gateway can’t run under any of those circumstances. In addition, gateway performance might suffer over a wireless network.
  • Analysis Services is not required to use the gateway. You can use the gateway to connect to an Analysis Services data source.

Servers DNS

It has inbuilt clustering feature for high availability, we need to two VMs to implement that.

  • domain.com
  • domain.com

Sign in account

Users sign in with either a work or school account. This account is our organization account. If you signed up for an Office 365 offering and didn’t supply your actual work email, it may look like nancy@domain.onmicrosoft.com. Your account is stored within a tenant in Azure Active Directory (AAD). In most cases, AAD account’s UPN will match the email address.

Example: datagateway@domain.com

Whitelisting of IP address and Ports

It is recommended that you whitelist the IP addresses, for your data region, in your firewall. You can download the Microsoft Azure Datacenter IP list, which is updated weekly. The gateway will communicate with Azure Service Bus using the IP address along with the fully qualified domain name (FQDN).

Microsoft Azure Datacenter IP list:

Click here to download

Ports:

The gateway creates an outbound connection to Azure Service Bus. It communicates on outbound ports: TCP 443 (default), 5671, 5672, 9350 through 9354. The gateway does not require inbound ports.

Here is a listing of the fully qualified domain names used by the gateway.

Domain namesOutbound portsDescription
*.download.microsoft.com80HTTP used to download the installer.
*.powerbi.com443HTTPS
*.analysis.windows.net443HTTPS
*.login.windows.net443HTTPS
*.servicebus.windows.net5671-5672Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP)
*.servicebus.windows.net443, 9350-9354Listeners on Service Bus Relay over TCP (requires 443 for Access Control token acquisition)
*.frontend.clouddatahub.net443HTTPS
*.core.windows.net443HTTPS
login.microsoftonline.com443HTTPS
*.msftncsi.com443Used to test internet connectivity if the gateway is unreachable by the Power BI service.
*.microsoftonline-p.com443Used for authentication depending on configuration.

Limitations of Analysis Services Live Connections

You can use a live connection against tabular or multidimensional instances.

Server versionRequired SKU
2012 SP1 CU4 or laterBusiness Intelligence and Enterprise SKU
2014Business Intelligence and Enterprise SKU
2016Standard SKU or higher
  • Cell level Formatting and translation features are not supported.
  • Actions and Named Sets are not exposed to Power BI, but you can still connect to multidimensional cubes that also contain Actions or Named sets and create visuals and reports.

Installation of on-premises Data Gateway Server

  • Download the Data gateway server application for free
  • Run the package to start the installation
    Installation and Configuration of Microsoft Data Gateway Server
  • Click next to proceed.
    Installation and Configuration of Microsoft Data Gateway Server
  • Choose the enterprise mode for full deployment.
    Installation and Configuration of Microsoft Data Gateway Server
  • Click next to proceed installing the binaries.
    Installation and Configuration of Microsoft Data Gateway Server
  • A customary warning to ensure that you have chosen the right network placement of the server for optimal performance. Please check the pre-requisite section for details.
    Installation and Configuration of Microsoft Data Gateway Server
  • Chose the installation path and click Install to proceed.
    Installation and Configuration of Microsoft Data Gateway Server
    Installation and Configuration of Microsoft Data Gateway Server

  • Sign in with an office 365 account to register the gateway service with Azure service bus.
    Installation and Configuration of Microsoft Data Gateway Server
    Installation and Configuration of Microsoft Data Gateway Server

  • Choose register if you are installing this as the first gateway server for the organization. You can also choose migrate option if you are installing this as a second server for any of the use case supporting second server provided in the pop up.
    Installation and Configuration of Microsoft Data Gateway Server
  • Set your recovery key in this step. This key will be needed if you want to scale up or recover a failed data gateway server to connect to existing data gateway Azure Service Bus.
    Installation and Configuration of Microsoft Data Gateway Server
  • Once this step is completed, the configuration steps will automatically establish secured connectivity between the server and the Azure Service Bus.
    Installation and Configuration of Microsoft Data Gateway Server
  • Upon successful configuration, you can explore additional options to troubleshoot/monitor the server.
  • Service Settings
    Installation and Configuration of Microsoft Data Gateway Server
  • Diagnostic – enable if you want additional troubleshooting log to be made available
    Installation and Configuration of Microsoft Data Gateway Server
  • Network – enforce https mode for secured connectivity to Azure Service Bus
    Installation and Configuration of Microsoft Data Gateway Server
  • Connectors – to set advanced configuration if you are using existing or different Azure Service Bus connector, imported into this server.
    Installation and Configuration of Microsoft Data Gateway Server

Test Connectivity to DataGateway Server from PowerBI

You can log in to Power BI for Office 365 and add Gateway Cluster. It should automatically show up the new Data Gateway Server name installed.

Installation and Configuration of Microsoft Data Gateway Server

We will continue in the Part II to learn how we can make use of Data Gateway server to fetch data from on-premise SQL Server. Stay tuned till then. Do not forget to provide your feedback in the comment section.

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