Limitation on number of cores for Power BI Report Server? Licensing question

[mehmet-vrp]

Hello,

I am wondering whether there is a limitation on the number of cores for Power BI Report Server.  Can it be installed on server which has more CPU cores than the SQL Enterprise server its license is associated with.

Thanks 

Mehmet Baserdem

[nickyvv · Accepted solution]

@v-janeyg-msft @mehmet-vrp, 

As @d_gosbell mentioned, there are indeed some limitations, which you can find in the MSFT Product Terms on this page: 

Software Assurance  

You can find this under: Software > SQL Server > Software Assurance (page 32):

4.8 Use of Power BI Report Server – SQL Server Enterprise Edition

Customer may run Power BI Report Server software on the Licensed Server or in Azure. Customer may run the software on a maximum numbers of cores equal to the number of SQL Server Enterprise Edition Core Licenses with active SA assigned to the licensed Server, subject to a minimum of four core licenses per OSE. Alternatively, if the software is run in Azure, Customer must allocate one SQL Server Enterprise Edition Core License with active SA per virtual core, subject to a minimum of four core licenses per OSE. Use is additionally subject to the applicable terms of Customer’s volume license agreement. A Power BI Pro User SL is required to publish shared Power BI reports using the Power BI Report Server. This right expires upon expiration of Customer’s SA coverage.  

Power BI Report Server  

This one is a bit hidden: Online Services > Other Online Services > MSFT Power Platform > Product Conditions (page 76):

2.1 Power BI Report Server – Running Instances

For each Microsoft Power BI Premium P subscription license, Customer may run any number of Instances of the Power BI Report Server software in a Physical OSE or Virtual OSE on a Server dedicated to Customer’s user or a Virtual OSE on shared servers on Microsoft Azure Services only. Dedicated Servers used for this purpose, that are under the management or control of an entity other than Customer or one of its Affiliates, are subject to the Outsourcing Software Management clause. Customer may run the Power BI Report Server software in a Physical or Virtual OSE with up to the number of cores included under its Power BI Premium P plan.  If any Virtual Core is at any time mapped to more than one Hardware Thread, Customer needs an additional subscription license for each additional Hardware Thread mapped to that Virtual Core.  

[josef78]

There no technical restriction, about number of cores and machines, related between PBI RS a MSSQL. You can instal everything on one machine, or on many multiple machines in large deployment. Some good approach for mid sized solution is:

-one server for MSSQL (standard without SA is enough)

-one server for Power BI Report Server for frontend (you need MSSQL Enterprise with SA or Power BI Premium)

-one server for Power BI Report Server for background refresh jobs (you need MSSQL Enterprise with SA or Power BI Premium)

-one (optional) server for SSAS if you need (for many feature is Enterprise required)

-one (optional) server for SSIS if you need (I think Standard without SA is enough)

But be sure, every installed MSSQL product must be licenced.

[v-janeyg-msft]

Hi, @mehmet-vrp 

You should know that pbi report server is on-premises. So there is no core number, and the data is stored in SQL SERVER.  Power BI Report Server is available through two different licenses: Power BI Premium and SQL Server Enterprise Edition with Software Assurance. It's just a way to get the installation key. There is no restriction on which server it is installed on.

If you publish Power BI reports to Power BI Report Server, you also need a Power BI Pro license. You don't need a Power BI Pro license to view and interact with Power BI reports on Power BI Report Server.

Note: For Power BI Premium, Power BI Report Server is only included with P SKUs. It is not included with EM SKUs.

Best Regards

Janey Guo

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[d_gosbell]

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@v-janeyg-msft wrote:

You should know that pbi report server is on-promises. So there is no core number

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@v-janeyg-msft - can you please double check this internally with someone at MSFT as it contradicts everything else I've heard about the PBIRS licensing. Unfortunately the documentation on the licensing is extremely poor and I cannot find anything to confirm either way.

My understanding is that if you are using the SQL Server Entreprise SA licensing model - that every core that is running PBIRS needs to be covered by a SQL Server Enterprise core license.

[nickyvv · Accepted solution]

@v-janeyg-msft @mehmet-vrp, 

As @d_gosbell mentioned, there are indeed some limitations, which you can find in the MSFT Product Terms on this page: 

Software Assurance  

You can find this under: Software > SQL Server > Software Assurance (page 32):

4.8 Use of Power BI Report Server – SQL Server Enterprise Edition

Customer may run Power BI Report Server software on the Licensed Server or in Azure. Customer may run the software on a maximum numbers of cores equal to the number of SQL Server Enterprise Edition Core Licenses with active SA assigned to the licensed Server, subject to a minimum of four core licenses per OSE. Alternatively, if the software is run in Azure, Customer must allocate one SQL Server Enterprise Edition Core License with active SA per virtual core, subject to a minimum of four core licenses per OSE. Use is additionally subject to the applicable terms of Customer’s volume license agreement. A Power BI Pro User SL is required to publish shared Power BI reports using the Power BI Report Server. This right expires upon expiration of Customer’s SA coverage.  

Power BI Report Server  

This one is a bit hidden: Online Services > Other Online Services > MSFT Power Platform > Product Conditions (page 76):

2.1 Power BI Report Server – Running Instances

For each Microsoft Power BI Premium P subscription license, Customer may run any number of Instances of the Power BI Report Server software in a Physical OSE or Virtual OSE on a Server dedicated to Customer’s user or a Virtual OSE on shared servers on Microsoft Azure Services only. Dedicated Servers used for this purpose, that are under the management or control of an entity other than Customer or one of its Affiliates, are subject to the Outsourcing Software Management clause. Customer may run the Power BI Report Server software in a Physical or Virtual OSE with up to the number of cores included under its Power BI Premium P plan.  If any Virtual Core is at any time mapped to more than one Hardware Thread, Customer needs an additional subscription license for each additional Hardware Thread mapped to that Virtual Core.  

[mehmet-vrp]

Hello @nickyvv ,

Thank you very much for pointing this information & document.   I have one more question left. I am not sure if you can further help or we need someone from Microsoft to provide definitive answer.

Volume Licensing document - Title 4.8 refers to  "max core count per OSE  (i.e. Operating System Environment)"

Is this max core count limit applies to a single OSE / per node?  Or  this limit applies to the total count of cores installed on all nodes. 

Lets assume that I have 8-cores SQL Enterprise license.  Can I install PBI Report Server - Web Portal component  multiple instances of  OSEs / phyiscal nodes each with 8-cores CPU?   Do I need additional license for scale-out deployment scenarios?

[d_gosbell · Accepted solution]

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@mehmet-vrp wrote:

Lets assume that I have 8-cores SQL Enterprise license.  Can I install PBI Report Server - Web Portal component  multiple instances of  OSEs / phyiscal nodes each with 8-cores CPU?   Do I need additional license for scale-out deployment scenarios?

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No you can't. If you want to have 2 x 8-core nodes you would need 16 cores of SQL Enterprise license since PBIRS is always deployed in an NLB style configuration where all nodes are "active" nodes. 

Or if you only have an 8-core license and you wanted a scale out deployment you could do 2 x 4-core nodes.