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Azure Database for MySQL Blog
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Announcing Power BI integration for Azure Database for MySQL in the Azure portal

mk_sunitha's avatar
mk_sunitha
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Mar 09, 2023

Power BI is a powerful business intelligence tool that you can use to visualize and analyze data from various sources. In this blog post, I’ll show you how to connect Power BI to an Azure Database for MySQL flexible server to ensure that you can get the most out of your data.

 

Today we’re happy to announce that now, with a single click, you can open a database connection to Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server in Power BI Desktop. With Power BI Desktop, you can build advanced queries, models, and reports that visualize data. You can also build data models, create reports, and share your work by publishing it to the Power BI service. Power BI Desktop is free to download, so whether you're a small business owner or a data analyst, Power BI is a cost-effective and valuable tool that can help you unlock the power of your data.

 

With Power BI Desktop, you can:

  • Connect your data to Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server.
  • Transform and model your data.
  • Create visualizations, reports, and dashboards.
  • Generate insights and streamline data reporting processes.
  • Share reports with other members of your organization.

 

Before trying out this new functionality in the Azure portal, download Power BI Desktop and then install the MySQL Connector/NET, which is a .NET driver that enables you to access your MySQL database from your .NET applications, including Power BI. Check out some of the sample schemas if you don’t have any data imported in your Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server instance.

 

For more details on how to get started, watch the following video or refer the QuickStart on MS Learn.

 

 

 

If you don’t have an Azure account, you can get started for free and create your first Azure Database for MySQL flexible server.

 

For more information, see the product documentation for the services that interact with the connector.

 

If you have any feedback or questions about the information provided above, please leave a comment below or email us at AskAzureDBforMySQL@service.microsoft.com. Thank you!

Updated Mar 08, 2023
Version 1.0
  • kashyap5's avatar
    kashyap5
    Copper Contributor

    Hi Sunitha, its a very small table. See my screenshots from Workbench and PowerBI. The load step in PowerBI never finishes. Not able to understand why this doesn't work in Power BI only.

     

     

     

     

  • kashyap5 , thanks for informing me. I was not able to reproduce the issue, but wondering if you can share more details such as if the table or view are large in size or if they have any unique fields such as BLOB , JSON etc. that might be causing an issue. 

  • kashyap5's avatar
    kashyap5
    Copper Contributor

    Hi Sunitha,

     

    Its not working for me. I can connect to database and can see all the tables in PowerBI. But after I click on a table or view, it just keeps loading and doesn't return any data. I have been talking to Microsoft support but they can't find why. It works with Tableau and Workbench, but not PowerBI.

     

     

  • dubeyneeraj's avatar
    dubeyneeraj
    Copper Contributor

    We need to install gateway if we need to refresh the report sourcing data from

    Azure MySQL published on power bi service. In our case we have installed it in Azure VM

  • dubeyneeraj 

    Data gateway is used for data that is on premise MySQL server. If all your data is stored in Azure database for MySQL and you build a report with that data , you don't need a data gateway to publish the reports to Power BI service.  

  • dubeyneeraj's avatar
    dubeyneeraj
    Copper Contributor

    That’s exciting. Does it mean we don’t need on Prem gateway when publishing report to power Bi service