Connect Power BI with Azure SQL Database Server Using AAD Credentials

Question

I am trying to connect Power BI to an Azure SQL Database Server. I am able to connect to the database using SSMS and have added my IP to the firewall settings of the server. However, every time I try to connect Power BI to my SQL Server, I get the following error:

"A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: TCP Provider, error: 0 - A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.)"

I am authenticating to the SQL Server using my Microsoft account, but the error still persists.

Answer 1

I am not sure if you have any network related issues. But, based on my test, everything works fine at my side.

Here are my steps:

1. Set Active Directory Admin for your Azure SQL

And my suggestion here is to add a security group as AD Admin. Then you can add uses to that groups, and all the added users will be administrators.

2. Add firewall rule for your Azure SQL

3. Connect to Azure SQL in Power BI

a). Get Data from Azure -> Azure SQL Database

b). Input your server name and database name

c). Sign in with Azure AD credentials and connect

The account should be set as Active Directory Admin for your Azure SQL Server in step 1.

d). Get data

Answer 2

Recently went through this and was able to connect to a SQL Server with AAD through PBI using the ODBC connection:

Get Data -> Other -> ODBC

Data source name dropdown: (None) Advanced Options: enter the following connection string:

Driver={ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server};Server=<SERVER NAME>;Database=<DB NAME>;Authentication=AticeDirectoryPassword

You will then be prompted for your username and password.