Integrate Power BI with Tiger Data

Power BI is a business analytics tool for visualizing data, creating interactive reports, and sharing insights across an organization.

This page shows you how to connect Power BI to Tiger Data using the built-in PostgreSQL connector, so that you can build interactive reports based on the data in your service or database.

In this integration guide, you:

• Connect Power BI to your service or database.
• Import data and verify that it loads.

Prerequisites for this integration guide

To follow these steps, you'll need:

• A Tiger Cloud service, or a running instance of self-hosted TimescaleDB.

• Your connection details.

• Power BI Desktop installed. Power BI Desktop has bundled the Npgsql data provider since December 2019, so no separate driver installation is needed for current versions.

Connect to your service or database from Power BI

Power BI connects to your service or database with the built-in PostgreSQL connector.

1. Select the PostgreSQL connector

   In Power BI Desktop, click Get data, select the Database category, choose PostgreSQL database, then click Connect.

2. Enter your service or database

   In the PostgreSQL database dialog, use your connection details to enter the Server (your host, optionally with :port) and the Database name (your dbname).

   Select Import to load a copy of the data into Power BI, or DirectQuery to query your service or database live, then click OK.

3. Authenticate

   On the Database tab, enter your user and password from your connection details, then click Connect.

   If you are prompted that the connection isn't encrypted, set up SSL on your service or database for an encrypted connection, or click OK to continue without encryption.

4. Load your tables

   In Navigator, select the tables you want, then click Load to import them, or Transform Data to shape the data first.

   The selected tables appear in the Data pane.

Verify the integration

To confirm Power BI is working with your service or database:

1. Check your imported tables

   In the Data pane, expand one of the tables you loaded and confirm its columns and rows match your service or database.

2. Build a visualization

   On the report canvas, drag fields from a table onto a visual.

   The visual renders with data from your service or database, confirming that Power BI can read your data.

You have successfully integrated Power BI with Tiger Data.

Troubleshooting

• The PostgreSQL connector is missing: update to a current version of Power BI Desktop, which bundles the Npgsql provider. Older versions require a separate Npgsql installation.
• Connection fails over a gateway: if you publish to the Power BI service, configure the PostgreSQL connector on an on-premises or virtual network data gateway that can reach your service or database.

For other connectivity and authentication issues, see Troubleshoot Tiger Cloud integrations.

Next steps

Find your connection details

Locate the host, port, database, user, and password for your service or database.

Integrate Tableau with Tiger Data

Connect Tableau to your service or database to build dashboards.