Connect Power BI to Azure Synapse Serverless SQL pool

In my previous article Azure Synapse Analytics integrate Data Lake, I presented how to query a Data Lake using Azure Synapse Serverless SQL Pool. Azure Synapse workspace enables us to create a SQL Database on top of a Data Lake, but this isn’t managed by Spark. In this type of database, we can only use a serverless SQL pool.

In this follow-up to the previous article, I’ll show you how to connect Power BI desktop to the Synapse serverless SQL pool.

Step 1— Get the Serverless SQL Pool Workspace SQL endpoint: Starting from Synapse Analytics workspace, click Manage(1), SQL pools(2), Built-in(3), copy Workspace SQL endpoint (4)

Step 2— Open Power BI Desktop application on your computer

Step 3— Choose Azure Synapse Connector: Home(1), Get data(2), Azure Synapse Analytics SQL(4), Connect(5).

Step 4 — For Server provide the SQL Serverless Pool URL (from Step 1) and click Ok

Here are the differences between selecting Import and DirectQuery:

• Import: The dataset is imported into Power BI and as you create or interact with a visualization, Power BI uses the imported data.To see underlying data changes since the initial import or the most recent refresh, you must refresh the data, which imports the full dataset again.
• DirectQuery: No data is imported or copied into Power BI, rather as you create or interact with a visualization, Power BI queries the underlying data source, so you’re always viewing current data.

Step 5 — Sign in Microsoft account and Connect

Step 6— Select the tables you want to analyze and chose Load.

Now you can work with the new created Power Bi datamodel and build the reports you desire.