What is Power bi

This tutorial, we will discuss what is Power BI? How to download and install the power bi desktop to create reports and dashboards.

What is Power BI – Video Tutorial

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What is Power BI

If you are working with huge data, then you need a business intelligence tool Power BI to analyze your organization data.

Power BI is a collection of software services, apps, and connectors that work together to turn your unrelated sources of data into coherent, visually immersive, and interactive insights.

Ultimately, by using Power BI you can store and share business data in the form of reports and dashboards to analyze and make business decisions.

The functionality works in the below order:

• Get raw data from various data sources
• Model data
• Create Reports and Dashboards
• Share with Others

To import data and to create various reports and dashboards, we require Power BI Desktop which is a free tool.

Power BI components

Below are the Power BI components:

• Power BI Desktop: This is a desktop application which you can install in your local desktop
• Power BI service: A SaaS (Software as a Service) based service.
• Power BI mobile apps: Various mobile apps for Windows, iOS, and Android devices.
• Power BI Report Server: Allows you to publish Power BI reports to an on-premises report server.

The first 3 are designed to let you create, share, and consume business insights.

Power BI Report Server allows you to publish Power BI reports to an on-premises report server, after creating them in Power BI Desktop.

May be your company is not ready to move the reports to the cloud, wants to keep inside your premises within your corporate firewall.

Power BI Report Server is a solution that you deploy behind your firewall and then deliver your reports to the right users in different ways, whether that’s viewing them in a web browser, on a mobile device, or as an email.

Power BI Report Server is also compatible with Power BI in the cloud, you can move to the cloud when you’re ready without any problem.

Download and Install Power BI Desktop

Power BI desktop is the free tool which you can download and install in your local system.

We can use Power BI desktop to import your data, do the data modelling and then to create reports and dashboards.

Microsoft Power BI Desktop is available for 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) platforms. You can download according to your system requirements.

Download power bi desktop latest version from the below link.

• Download Power BI Desktop

For my 64 bit machine, I have downloaded the 64-bit version of Power BI Desktop.

Double click on the setup to start the installation.

Then click on Next.

Then accept the terms and conditions check box and click on Next.

Then select the installation folder like below:

Then click on Install button to start the installation.

The installation will go like below:

Then click on the Finish button to finish the installation.

Once the installation is over, you can search for Power BI Desktop in the system and you can see like below:

Then we can create report by getting data from various data sources like below:

You can also check out the below tutorial on how to create a Power BI report from excel using Power BI desktop.

• Create a Power BI report from Excel using Power BI Desktop

Understand Power BI Visualizations Dashboards and Reports

Watch the below video to understand Power BI Visualizations Dashboards and Reports.

A Power BI dashboard is a single page that contains single or multiple visualizations. A Power bi report contains a single or multiple pages.

Power BI On-premises Data Gateway

Let us check out, what is Power BI On-premises Data Gateway, How the Data Gateway works in Power BI.

Also, We will see what are the different types of Gateways present in Power BI, how we can use a Power BI Data Gateway, how to download, install, configure, manage, etc.

What is a Power bi data gateway?

Gateway is the connection between the Microsoft cloud services and On-premises data that are not present in the cloud. You can install the Gateway application on any servers in the local domain.

Power BI, PowerApps, Azure Analysis Services, Microsoft Flow, etc are some cloud services where you can use the Data Gateway.

Most organizations can use the Data Gateway to keep the database and other data sources should secure in the on-premises network and as well as in the cloud services.

How the Power BI Data Gateway works

The below screenshot represents the architecture diagram of Power BI Data Gateway. The below diagram specifies the connection between the Cloud data services and On-premises data sources which connect through a bridge is known as On-premises Data Gateway.

Different types of Power BI Gateways

In Power BI, There are two different types of Gateways present as:

• On-premises data gateway: This type of Power BI Gateway helps to connect multiple users with multiple On-premises data sources. By using a single gateway connection, you can use this On-premises data gateway with all the devices.
• On-premises data gateway (Personal mode): This Power BI Data gateway helps to connect one user with one data source. So that the user can not share with others. Only in Power BI, this On-premise Data Gateway (Personal mode) is used.

The only benefit of this Power BI On-premises Data Gateway (Personal mode) is, Only one person can create all things in Power BI like Reports, Dashboards, etc and that person doesn’t share any data sources with other users.

How to use a Power BI Data Gateway

To use Power BI Data Gateway, you have to follow the below steps:

• Download the Power BI Data Gateway
• Power BI Data Gateway Installation
• Configure the Power BI Data Gateway based on the firewall
• Manage the Power BI Data Gateway

On-premises data gateway is software that you can install in an on-premises network. You can install a gateway either in standard mode or in a personal mode which you can use in Power BI only.

Here I can refer you to install standard or recommended mode where you can install a standalone gateway.

In this Power BI tutorial, I will show you how you can install a standard or recommended gateway. For this data gateway installation purpose, you need to follow some requirements which I have explained below.

Requirements:

Minimum requirements:

• .NET Framework 4.6
• 64-bit version of Windows 7 or a 64-bit version of Windows Server 2008 R2

Recommended:

• An 8-core CPU
• 8 GB of memory
• A 64-bit version of Windows Server 2012 R2 or later
• Solid-state drive (SSD) storage for spooling

Download the Power BI Data Gateway

You must ensure to install this gateway on a computer that is always turned on. To connect to the data gateway, First of all, you need to download the Power BI Gateway. To download, click on the below link:

Power BI Gateway Download

Power BI Data Gateway Installation

Once the Power BI Data Gateway download is completed, then you can go for the installation process. Open the data gateway which you recently downloaded.

The below screenshot will appear when you will open the downloaded gateway. Just click on the Next button.

As in this Power BI tutorial, I am using a standard mode gateway, that’s why I have selected the On-premises data gateway (recommended) and clicked on the Next button.

If you want to use the data gateway in personal mode, that means if you want to use the gateway for personal purposes, then you can choose the On-premises data gateway (personal mode) from the gateway installer.

You can see the On-premises data gateway is getting ready to install as shown in the below screenshot. Once it is done, click on Next.

Now it will show the default installation path where the data gateway will install. Check the accept the terms of use and then select to Install button.

While you will click on Install, then it will take some time to install fully as like the below screenshot.

Now the installation is successful. To use this data gateway, Provide an Email address for your Office 365 organization account and then click on to Sign in.

At last, To register the data gateway, Specify the new on-premises data gateway name. You must be sure that the gateway name should be unique to entire the tenant.

Now enter a recovery key. If you ever want to recover or move your gateway, then this key will help you. Click on Configure.

The below screenshot is the final window where it uses the same account for Power BI, PowerApps, and Microsoft Flow. Now you can Close the window.

Configure Power BI Data Gateway

To open the on-premises data gateway app:

• Type gateway in your system window.
• Select the On-premises data gateway app.

Once you will select the data gateway, the following window will appear. By clicking on Status, you can see your gateway is all set up.

There are some of the on-premises data gateways features present that can be used only after signing in to your Office 365 account. By clicking on Service Settings, you can restart the gateway without signing in but without signing in you can not change the gateway service account.

Manage Power BI Data Gateway

Now it’s time to manage the gateways in Power BI. Once you will install the On-premises data gateway, then you can manage it based on your requirement.

To manage the Data Gateway in Power BI, Go to the Settings icon which is present on the right top of the Power BI page, and then click on Manage gateways as shown in the below screenshot.

By default, you will be the admin of your gateway when you install a gateway. Also, you can add additional users or security groups as admins by using the Administrators tab.

If you want to remove the user from Administrators, then select your specific user and click on to Remove which is present at the bottom of the page.

You can check out the below tutorials on Microsoft Power BI:

• Power BI Custom Visuals
• Add Title, Image, and Video to Power BI Dashboard
• How to use weekday function power bi with example
• How to use Power BI sync slicers
• Power BI Calculated Column Example
• How to Create Report in Power BI from SharePoint List
• How to split column in Power bi
• What is the difference between calculated column and measure in Power BI
• How to create and use Power BI Bookmarks

In this tutorial, we learned what is Power BI desktop? various components in Power BI and also we saw how to download and install the Power BI desktop.