We are happy to announce that we have just released the October update for the On-premises data gateway (version 3000.10.248)
*** Update***
Note: The latest July build number was previously 3000.10.232. This QFE contains the following fixes and features
1. In the last October release of the gateway, during installation, the installer did not allow for changing regions, this issue is now fixed.
2. The PowerShell cmdlets which were coupled as part of the gateway installation previously and were causing failures, have now been decoupled and are being hosted on the PowerShell gallery. Please refer to the updated documentation to continue using these cmdlets
3. We have introduced a new gateway feature for load balancing based on CPU and Memory throttling. More details mentioned below.
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Here are some of the things that we would like to highlight with this month’s release:
- Load balance based on CPU and Memory throttling
- Public Preview of Kerberos based Single Sign-On (SSO) for
- SAP BW Message Server
- Oracle
- Skip test connection for Web or OData
- October Version of the mashup engine
- Performance Monitoring Improvements
- Improved Gateway Documentation
Load balance based on CPU and Memory throttling
Gateway admins can, now, throttle resources of each gateway member to make sure either a gateway member or the entire gateway cluster isn’t overloaded causing system failures.
If a gateway cluster with load balancing enabled receives a request from one of the cloud services (like Power BI), it randomly selects a gateway member. If this member is already at or over the throttling limit set for CPU or memory, another member within the cluster is selected. If all members within the cluster are in the same state, the request would fail.
To enable this feature, gateway admins would update the following settings in the Microsoft.PowerBI.DataMovement.Pipeline.GatewayCore.dll.config file available in the Program Files\On-premises data gateway\ folder.
- CPUUtilizationPercentageThreshold – This configuration allows gateway admins to set a throttling limit for CPU. The permissible range for this configuration is between 0 to 100. A value of 0, which is the default, would indicate that this configuration is disabled.
- MemoryUtilizationPercentageThreshold – This configuration allows gateway admins to set a throttling limit for memory. The permissible range for this configuration is between 0 to 100. A value of 0, which is the default, would indicate that this configuration is disabled.
- ResourceUtilizationAggregateionPeriodInMinutes – This configuration is the time in minutes for which CPU and memory system counters of the gateway machine would be aggregated to be compared against the respective threshold limits set using configurations mentioned above. The default value for this configuration in 5.
Kerberos based Single Sign-On (SSO) for SAP BW Message Server and Oracle (Public Preview)
You have been able to use Single Sign-On, leveraging Kerberos, when connecting to some data sources including SAP BW Application Server in DirectQuery mode from Power BI. You can now also connect to SAP BW Message server using Single Sign-On leveraging Kerberos.
Once you install the latest gateway, browse to the manage gateways page. Select the intended gateway and click on “Add data source”. When you select SAP BW Message Server data source type, you should see the SSO for Kerberos option(highlighted below) now.
Similarly we have also enabled SSO leveraging Kerberos for Oracle also.
Skip test connection for Web or OData
Skip test connection was enabled for On-premises Power BI data sources in April. We are happy to announce that we have enabled Skip test connection feature for Web and OData data sources now.
Performance Monitoring Improvements
Based on your feedback, we have now included an additional file called the Query start Report containing the Query start time and also the actual query text. You no longer need to turn on additional logging to obtain the query text. The Query start report contains the following attributes:
| Attribute | Description |
| GatewayObjectId | Unique identifier for the gateway. |
| RequestId | Unique identifier for a gateway request. It could be the same for multiple queries. |
| DataSource | Contains both the data source type and data source. |
| QueryTrackingId | Unique identifier for a query. |
| QueryExecutionStartTimeUTC | Time when the query execution started. |
| QueryType | Type of query. For instance, the query passed could be a Power BI refresh or DirectQuery. Or, it could be queries from PowerApps and Microsoft Flow. |
| QueryText | Complete query. |
In addition to the new report file, we have also updated the Performance monitoring template in this release. The new version includes not only the new Query text and start time but also new visuals to improve the overall troubleshooting experience.
Improved Gateway Documentation
We have heard your feedback and re-written the gateway documentation. We split them it into content that’s specific to Power BI and general content that applies to all services that the gateway supports. To provide feedback on each article, or the overall gateway docs experience, scroll to the bottom of any article.
October version of the mashup engine
This month’s Gateway update also includes an updated version of the Mashup Engine, which will match the one released as part of the Power BI Desktop October update This will ensure that the reports that you publish to the Power BI Service and refresh via the Gateway will go through the same query execution logic/runtime as in the latest Power BI Desktop version.
Please continue to send us feedback for what new capabilities you’d like to see in the future.