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Power Apps | On-premises data gateway | High-availability Clusters
In one of my previous articles, I detailed the steps to connect to an on-premise SQL server from a Canvas App.
High availability: Refers to a set of technologies that minimize IT disruptions by providing business continuity of IT services through redundant, fault-tolerant, or failover-protected components inside the same data center.
By default On-premise Gateway is single instance and not a High availability option. If the gateway is unavailable, data requests will be failed and causes App downtime.
In this article, lets see how to build an high available On-premises Gateway using Clusters.
Gateway Clusters:
- A cluster lets gateway admins avoid having a single point of failure for on-premises data access.
- If the primary gateway is unavailable, data requests are routed to the second gateway that you add, and so on.
- Following is the option to add a new Gateway to add to an exiting Gateway Cluster.
- Because we can install only one standard gateway on a computer, we must install each additional gateway in the cluster on a different computer.
Refer this Docs article for more details.
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[Step by Step] Canvas App using on-premise SQL server as Data Source
In this post, lets see how to build a Canvas App with data from on-premise SQL Server.
Using Gateways ,data can be transferred quickly and securely between a canvas app and an on-premises data source, such as an on-premises SQL Server database or an on-premises SharePoint site.
Lets get started to configure a Gateway and read the on-premises SQL Data which acts as a Canvas App’s ‘Data Source’.
Prerequisites:
- SQL Server with a Database and a simple table.
- Dynamics 365 subscription. Subscribe to 30 days trail here.
Configure a ‘Gateway’ to on-premise SQL Server:
We need to install ‘On-Premises Data Gateway’ service on the machine with ‘SQL Server’.
- Connect to PowerApps maker portal using your Dynamics 365 credentials.
- Go to Data -> Gateways and click on ‘+New gateway’ button.
- You will be redirected to downloads page and click on ‘Download’ under ‘On-Premises Data Gateway’ section.
- Download and click on the ‘GatewayInstall’ application.
- Provide your Dynamics 365 email (i.e., User ID) and click ‘Sign in’ to connect to Power platform.
- Provide your desired gateway name,recovery key and click ‘Configure’
- You will end up with below success screen.
- We are done with Gateway configuration.
- If you go to the ‘Services’ on your machine, you should see ‘On-premises data gateway service’ up and running.
- Go back to PowerApps portal and refresh the ‘Gateways’ and you should see the configure gateway.
Create a Canvas App:
As we completed ‘Gateway’ configuration, the next step to create a Canvas app and connect to on-premises SQL server using the ‘Gateway’.
- Click on ‘+Create’ and choose ‘Canvas app from blank’
- Provide the ‘App name’ and click on ‘Create’
- Now we need to establish the connectivity between Canvas App and SQL Server.
- Click on ‘Connect to data’ and select ‘SQL Server’ from the list.
- Choose ‘Connect using on-premises data gateway’ option and provide the SQL server, Gateway details and click ‘Create’.
- Select the table (i.e.,Contact) and click ‘Connect’ which creates a new ‘Data source’.
- Now add a Gallery component and map the ‘Data source’.
Additional Details:
- To install the ‘Gateway’, machine should have minimum configuration mentioned here.
- Gateway installs as ‘On-premises data gateway service’ on the server. Make sure this service is running all the time.
- Along with service, a desktop application by name ‘On-premises data gateway’ gets installed. You can enable logging and manage settings using this application.
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Rajeev Pentyala - Microsoft Power Platform 