How do I allow access to users outside my organisation

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I need to allow access to a report on PBI RS to users outside my organisation.

Is this possible and how would I go about this?

We are on-prem.

[AbhiSSRS]

As others suggested this is not feasible unless you mak your on-prem PBIRS accessible (via a redirect/reverse -proxy) . So if you are able to establish the external access to portal, you may use these steps to configure a login portal for your report server : (You will need .net developer help and a web application architect)

Download Custom Security samples for Reporting Services by Microsoft and configure Login page as per requirements. You will be setting up a database with login/passwords. Change app.config app settings to reflect server URL

<applicationSettings>    <Microsoft.Samples.ReportingServices.CustomSecurity.Properties.Settings>      <!--<setting name="Microsoft_Samples_ReportingServices_CustomSecurity_localhost_ReportingService2010"          serializeAs="String">           

<value>http://servername/ReportsBI/browse/</value>        </setting>-->      <setting name="Database_ConnectionString" serializeAs="String">        <value>Data Source=<Servername, port>;Initial Catalog=UserAccounts;Integrated Security=false;User Id=#####;Password=######;</value>      </setting>    </Microsoft.Samples.ReportingServices.CustomSecurity.Properties.Settings>

    <add key="ValidationSettings:UnobtrusiveValidationMode" value="None" />

  </applicationSettings>

Compile the project and deploy below dlls at designated Power BI server locations(eg path is C drive) :

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Power BI Report Server\PBIRS\PowerBI

Microsoft.Samples.ReportingServices.CustomSecurity.dll

Microsoft.Samples.ReportingServices.CustomSecurity.pdb

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Power BI Report Server\PBIRS\ReportServer\bin

Microsoft.Samples.ReportingServices.CustomSecurity.dll

Microsoft.Samples.ReportingServices.CustomSecurity.pdb

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Power BI Report Server\PBIRS\Portal

Microsoft.Samples.ReportingServices.CustomSecurity.dll

Microsoft.Samples.ReportingServices.CustomSecurity.pdb

Deploy below additional file to Report Server :

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Power BI Report Server\PBIRS\ReportServer

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Power BI Report Server\PBIRS\Portal

RSPortal.exe.config

Insert Machine Key  Encryption and Decryption:(Machine key can be generated from IIS)

<system.web>

    <machineKey validationKey=’XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXD" decryptionKey="XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" validation="AES" decryption="AES" />

  </system.web>

 
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Power BI Report Server\PBIRS\PowerBI

<system.web>

    <machineKey validationKey=’XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXD" decryptionKey="XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" validation="AES" decryption="AES" />

  </system.web>

RSPowerBI.exe.config

Once these are done, you would be able to access your login page and on successful authorization users would be redirected to PBIRS showing your reports. You can get your login page as external facing the same way you get any web application traditionally!

[d_gosbell]

So this is not impossible. It's just not typically done. There are two issues involved.

1) you would need to created internal users within your organization for those users so that they could authenticate to your Report Server.

2) you would need to provide some way for those users to connect to your report server. You could setup some sort of VPN to allow them to connect to your internal network. You'd need to talk to your IT department about the security implications of this and whether it was possible/desireable in your circumstances.  

OR

You would need to look at exposing your Report Server to the internet somehow. I have hard that Azure Application Proxy is one way of securely doing this, but it's not something I've done myself so I'm not 100% sure.


Or as Janey has said you could look at using powerbi.com for those reports that need to be shared externally.

[v-janeyg-msft]

Hi, @Anonymous 

I'm afraid not. The easiest way is to publish the report to the service, and then share it with external users, or publish to web.

Reference: How To Share Power BI Report With External Users (c-sharpcorner.com)

Publish to web from Power BI - Power BI | Microsoft Docs

If it doesn’t solve your problem, please feel free to ask me.

Best Regards

Janey Guo

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