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PL-900 A Power BI administrator for a retail company Practice Question
You are a Power BI administrator for a retail company. The sales team uses a Power BI report that connects to an on-premises SQL Server database via an on-premises data gateway. Recently, several users reported that the report is showing stale data. The report is configured to refresh daily at 8:00 AM. Upon investigation, you find that the scheduled refresh failed last night at 8:00 AM with an error: 'The data source credentials could not be encrypted using the gateway's encryption key.' The gateway is installed on a server that was rebooted for maintenance at 7:30 AM. The gateway service account is a local service account. The data source credentials were configured using a SQL Server authentication login. What should you do to resolve the issue?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently assume a service restart or credential reconfiguration is needed, but the specific encryption key error points to a recoverable state in the Power BI service, not a local service or data source issue.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
In the Power BI Online service, go to the gateway settings and click 'Recover' to restore the encryption key.
The error 'The data source credentials could not be encrypted using the gateway's encryption key' indicates that the gateway's encryption key was lost or corrupted, which commonly occurs after a server reboot if the key is stored in memory or a volatile location. In the Power BI Online service, the 'Recover' option under gateway settings restores the encryption key from a backup stored in the cloud, allowing the gateway to re-encrypt credentials without reconfiguring the data source. This is the direct fix for the reported error and does not require changing the service account or recreating the data source.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Change the gateway service account to a domain account and reconfigure the data source credentials.
Why it's wrong here
Changing the service account is not necessary and may not resolve the encryption key issue.
- ✓
In the Power BI Online service, go to the gateway settings and click 'Recover' to restore the encryption key.
Why this is correct
Recovering the gateway restores the encryption key.
- ✗
Restart the on-premises data gateway service on the server.
Why it's wrong here
Restarting the service does not recover the encryption key.
- ✗
Delete and recreate the data source in the gateway settings.
Why it's wrong here
Recreating the data source does not fix the encryption key problem.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PL-900 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Microsoft certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the PL-900 exam.