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bernardjesmith
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Power BI Report Server Licensing

Hi,

 

I've read several articles on Power BI Report Server Licensing, but for my use case I'm a little confused. My use case is this:

 

I plan to upgrade from SQL Server Standard 2008 to SQL Server Standard 2016 later this year. If I want to use Power BI Report Server do I have to buy a Power BI Premium license, or can I download and run Power BI Report Server alongside or as a replacement for SSRS based on the licenses I purchase for SQL Server Standard 2016 

 

Alternatively, can I use Power BI Pro Service and publish content for consumers with the understanding each consumer must also have a Power BI Pro License?

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

@bernardjesmith

I plan to upgrade from SQL Server Standard 2008 to SQL Server Standard 2016 later this year. If I want to use Power BI Report Server do I have to buy a Power BI Premium license, or can I download and run Power BI Report Server alongside or as a replacement for SSRS based on the licenses I purchase for SQL Server Standard 2016 

You have two options.

You can buy Power BI Premium, this allows you to license the same number of cores that you purchase in capacity in the premium license on premises for your Power BI Report Server.

You can purchase SQL Enterprise Edition + Software Assurance. This give you license to install the Power BI Report Server.

Only the Content Creators (those building reports) need to have a Power BI Pro license in both cases.

 

Alternatively, can I use Power BI Pro Service and publish content for consumers with the understanding each consumer must also have a Power BI Pro License? The Pro license gives you the ability to share content in the Power BI Service. You don't get the Power BI Report Server in this license. You are correct, report creators and end users need Pro licenses.

In this scenario, you would have a normal SSRS report server, and the Power BI Service. They would not communicate, and you couldn't put PBI Reports on the SSRS Server.


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56 REPLIES 56
Anonymous
Not applicable

Thanks a lot for your answer, but I got more questions regarding this subject...

 

According to the PBI Premium White Paper, it is possible to have a local server (on-premisses) away from the cloud.
page 4/15, 2º paragraph, https://aka.ms/pbipremiumwhitepaper:
...we also included an on-premises server in Power BI Premium—the Power BI Report Server.
Power BI Report Server allows you to keep sensitive data and reports fully behind your firewall, creating a hybrid deployment mixing cloud and on-premises.

 

Is it possible to use Row Level Security (RLS) on this Report Server?

Using only Report Server, is it possible to view reports in a similar way as on PBI Service? (app.powerbi.com)

How do I share reports using only Report Server? (all users must have PRO licenses?)

What versions of SQL Server are compatible with this Report Server and Power BI?

 

@Anonymous

Is it possible to use Row Level Security (RLS) on this Report Server? Yes

Using only Report Server, is it possible to view reports in a similar way as on PBI Service? (app.powerbi.com) Yes, you just don't get some of the Service features like Q&A, Quick Insights, etc. But it is a clean browser experiance.

How do I share reports using only Report Server? (all users must have PRO licenses?) All users are granted access to the report server itself, and log into it and see content that they have permissions to.

What versions of SQL Server are compatible with this Report Server and Power BI? If you are going to migrate to the PBIRS from RS then 2008 or later. Otherwise it since Tabular models are the only viable data source for the Power BI Reports, then it would be whatever version supports those.

 

More Details here


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So, a more "how do I" question.

 

We installed PowerBI Report Server Evaluation.  How do I apply the license to it (We have SQL Server Enterprise with SA)?

Do we need to install SQL Server Enterprise on the same server just for licensing?

@csteinbergThis post should help you out.


Looking for more Power BI tips, tricks & tools? Check out PowerBI.tips the site I co-own with Mike Carlo. Also, if you are near SE WI? Join our PUG Milwaukee Brew City PUG

Hello @Seth_C_Bauer I read the post you mentioned but didn't get clear answer.

 

My major concern right now is We have total 3 SQL Server Enterprise licenses. 2 of them are through MPN and 1 of them is through SA program. The SQL Server Enterprise + SA product key is being used for different department right now. But they don't use the Power BI report server available with their SA subscription.

 

My question is, as it is within the organization, can we use that Power BI report Server key avilable in SA subscription and install it on a server which has SQL Server Enterprise part of our MPN subscription.

 

Thanks in advance.

You can run Power BI Report Server on a server/VM to which you've allocated SQL Server Enterprise + Software Assurance licenses.

 

Say you have, for example, SQL Server Enterprise + Software Assurance licenses for 24 cores.

  • If all 24 cores are already allocated to some server/VM (to run SQL Server), then you must run Power BI Report Server on that server/VM.
  • If, say, 16 cores are allocated to some server/VM (to run SQL Server), then you could run Power BI Report Server on that server/VM, or, since you have 8 licenses unallocated, you could allocate them to a different, 8-core server/VM and run Power BI Report Server there.

Hope this example helps.

Does a customer need a minimum number of cores in their SQL EE with SA to use Power BI Report Server? My understanding was that it needed to match PBI P1 capacity as a minimum, is this correct? if so, is it the 8 v-cores (P1 front end) that need to be matched, 4 cores (P1 back end), or something else?

Per the Product Terms, there's no minimum # of cores overall or per server, but there's an effective minimum of 4 cores per physical processor or per VM. That said, for a production environment, we usually recommend at least 8 cores.

@maulikvankawala Unless someone from MSFT knows this, I would recommend you reach out to your local MSFT Rep, or licensing specialist. I don't know the exact answer, and a hypothetical for me could go either way.


Looking for more Power BI tips, tricks & tools? Check out PowerBI.tips the site I co-own with Mike Carlo. Also, if you are near SE WI? Join our PUG Milwaukee Brew City PUG

Hi,

 

My question is for On Prem Scenario and if we have SQL Server 2016 Enterprise edition with SA do we still need to have Power BI subscription for each users or SQL Server Core license will be enough to use Power BI on Prem?

@Muhammadwaleed A Power BI Pro license is only required for individuals who are creating reports, not any of the end consumers.


Looking for more Power BI tips, tricks & tools? Check out PowerBI.tips the site I co-own with Mike Carlo. Also, if you are near SE WI? Join our PUG Milwaukee Brew City PUG

Hi,

 

My question is for On Prem Scenario and if we have SQL Server 2016 Enterprise edition with SA do we still need to have Power BI subscription for each users or SQL Server Core license will be enough to use Power BI on Prem?

Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi Eno,

 

Let me make a question about licensing?

 

It means that to use a PoserBI 100% on premises I need to sign an online service and pay at least U$ 4,995.00 for a P1 node? My client doesn't use cloud and will not use. He is a bank and uses just on premises solutions. I'm watching the project sinking.

 

Thanks a lot for your attention.

@Anonymous The other option is to purchase SQL Server Enterprise Edition + Software Assurance. This would provide you the license to use the Power BI Report Server on premises only.

The online Premium sku at 5k/mo would give you the Power BI Service, and the Power BI Report Server.

If they aren't interested in online, then the only other route is SQL EE + SA


Looking for more Power BI tips, tricks & tools? Check out PowerBI.tips the site I co-own with Mike Carlo. Also, if you are near SE WI? Join our PUG Milwaukee Brew City PUG
Anonymous
Not applicable

I've seen this statement everywhere "...to purchase SQL Server Enterprise Edition + Software Assurance" to license PBI Report, BUT no word on the pricing page of Power BI itself (https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing) regarding this. And the pricing pages for SQL (either 2016/2017) also don't mention the possibility to use this licensing (per core) to license PBI Report (instead of using Premium.


Any reason for that?

Anonymous
Not applicable

Isn´t SQL EE + SA going to be marginally less at best compared to Premium? I´ve seen numbers of $4 - 7k per core for SQL EE + SA against Premium at $5k (and I´m assuming both are per month).

@Anonymous I haven't done a direct compare, my guess is that the SQL EE +SA would be more based on a per core license. You can license SQL in many ways, I'm not well versed on all of it, but I believe you can do both subscription or yearly.


Looking for more Power BI tips, tricks & tools? Check out PowerBI.tips the site I co-own with Mike Carlo. Also, if you are near SE WI? Join our PUG Milwaukee Brew City PUG

Hi,

Still there is no clarity on whether we need Pro licensing for users to save the reports onto Power BI report server. It would be great if Microsoft clearly mentions this in any licensing pages. We have SQL server 2016, along with that we got Power BI report server, we installed a Power BI desktop and saved the reports directly onto Power BI report server. I don't see where licensing fit here. In all threads its mentioned we need pro license for publishing the reports in report server. But i didn't see anywhere where Pro license is required for publishing into report server which is inside our server.

@prazzy88 "Required" - A Pro license is required, this is clearly stated in documentation. Whether or not this mean the tools restrict you from performing an action is a different topic. If you don't have a Pro license and you are publishing to the PBIRS then you are not compliant with licensing.


Looking for more Power BI tips, tricks & tools? Check out PowerBI.tips the site I co-own with Mike Carlo. Also, if you are near SE WI? Join our PUG Milwaukee Brew City PUG

Can you please me in getting the documentation where it is clearly mentioned. We are really puzzled on this issue.

@prazzy88 Hmm. Looks like a gap in the documentation. Here is a link from the blog where @riccardomuti (MSFT SSRS Team) explains the requirement to the question in detail.

 

I would have expected it to be mentioned in some of the official docs and it isn't.

https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/reportserver-get-started/

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/reporting-services/reporting-services-developer-documentation

 


Looking for more Power BI tips, tricks & tools? Check out PowerBI.tips the site I co-own with Mike Carlo. Also, if you are near SE WI? Join our PUG Milwaukee Brew City PUG

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