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Question

SSAS Model Refresh Fails with "On-Premise Gateway is required" Even After Disabling AlwaysUseGateway

  • July 31, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 36 views
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Hi everyone,

I have created an SSAS Tabular model using data from Azure Databricks through an ODBC DSN. The model was deployed successfully without any issues.

After deployment, I connected to the same model using SSMS. However, when I try to process (refresh) a partition of one of the tables, I receive the following error:

Failed to save modifications to the server. Error returned:

'On-Premise Gateway is required to access the data source. Please install a unified gateway for the server <server_name> or disable AlwaysUseGateway setting if it's enabled.

Technical Details:
RootActivityId: bf18614e-5328-43b3-8732-48560bb528ad
Date (UTC): 7/31/2026 9:10:59 AM'

What I've already checked:

  • Created the model using an ODBC DSN that connects to Azure Databricks.

  • Successfully deployed the model.

  • Verified that the AlwaysUseGateway setting is disabled (False).

  • Restarted/redeployed after changing the setting, but the issue still persists.

Has anyone encountered this issue before?

I'm trying to understand:

  1. Why is the server still requesting an On-Premises Data Gateway even though AlwaysUseGateway is set to False?

  2. Are there any additional server-level or model-level settings that could still force gateway usage?

  3. Is there any requirement when using an ODBC DSN with Azure Databricks that would cause the refresh to require a gateway?

Any suggestions or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

    1 reply

    Ethem Q
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    • Ethem Q
    • Employee
    • August 14, 2026

    Hi ​@naveensaidadi 

    The error message you are getting “'On-Premise Gateway is required to access the data source. Please install a unified gateway for the server <server_name> or disable AlwaysUseGateway setting if it's enabled.” is not a CData error message but rather an error message from Micrsoft most commonly thrown by PowerBI Service. Could it be that you are trying to connect to PowerBI Report Server through the CData ODBC driver for Azure Databricks?

    Based on your description, there are two possible causes I can think of:

    1. You are not using the CData ODBC driver and getting an error unrelated to CData.
    2. You have not installed the ODBC driver on the Server machine.

    Either way, it would be helpful if you could share more details on the use case and how exactly are you deploying. In the meantime, I would recommend you take a look at our KB article below on how to set up SSAS Tabular via the CData ODBC driver for Databircks:

    https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/databricks-odbc-ssas-tabular.rst

     

    Also if the issue is only with accessing data in SSMS then you might want to consider setting up a Linked Server via the SQL Gateway that comes bundled with the CData ODBC driver:

    https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/databricks-odbc-linked-server.rst

     

    If you have any other questions or issues feel free to contact the CData support team at [email protected]

     

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