Power BI Report Server - People collaborating on a report

[niyati_61]

Hi @d_gosbell,

I'm currently working on a Power BI Report - I work on Power BI Desktop for Report Server (Jan 22) (PBIRSD) version, save the report on,

Local PC - I work on my Power BI Dashboard here. I save it and the manually upload it to report server web portal.

It doesn't directly save to report server web portal, as my local pc server is not connected with the report server pc.

IT can't make a connection from my Local PC to the Report server PC (As in, right now, the ports are not connected (due to firewall) - so when I ping the report server I get no response - IT says they can't connect a regular user pc to a test server for security reasons).

So this is why I can't directly save the report here, and I manually upload them instead. Also, I can't edit the report in my local pc (in the RS web portal, even though I have PBIRSD Jan version. I'm assuming it's because my pc isn't connected to the server pc.

Report Server PC - Where Power BI Report Server is installed. Here I can directly save to report server web portal, and when I click edit the report in the portal, I can open it back again here and work on it and save the changes. However, it's sort of slow.

Q.1) I manually update my Power BI Report - every week. I update the file, then upload it on Report Server. 

Every week I create a new PBI report version, and upload the file to the RS web portal. 

Ideally, there should be 1 power bi file - which gets updated weekly right. However, I'm unable to edit the file in report server portal on my own PC and save changes to it (for the reasons above).

So do I have to edit the file in the report server pc itself and save it to the portal there? Doesn't seem like an ideal solution to me. 

(My report server PC is kind of slow, and also again the question coming below, how do multiple people work on it?)

Q.2) Another collegue wants to work on my Power BI Report too, how do we collaborate and work on the same file?

Currently, on Power BI Service, I created a Workspace - so my collegue edits the file there itself and I can see the changes.

However, how do we work together in the case of Report Server Files? Say, my report is uploaded on the Report Server web portal.

He still won't be able to edit the same file from the portal (for the same reason as me - as his local pc is also not connected to the report server pc). So, how can we work together? If you could kindly provide suggestions.

Appreciate your assitance. Thank you in advance!

[d_gosbell · Accepted solution]

---

@niyati_61 wrote:

So do I have to edit the file in the report server pc itself and save it to the portal there? Doesn't seem like an ideal solution to me. 

---

No, I'm not sure what is going wrong in your setup, but Power BI Desktop for Report Server uses HTTP/HTTPS (so ports 80 & 443) and these are the same ports and protocol that a web browser uses to access the report portal. So if you can view a report on the portal you do not need any additional firewall changes in order to use the "Edit in Power BI Desktop" button or the "Save to Report Server" option in Power BI Desktop.

Power BI Desktop effectively uses the same API calls that the Upload button on the web portal uses.

---

@niyati_61 wrote:

However, how do we work together in the case of Report Server Files? Say, my report is uploaded on the Report Server web portal.

Normally you would use the "Edit in Power BI Desktop", make your changes and save them back to the Report Server. That way you can both work on the same file. Note however that if you both have the same file open then the last save will overwrite any earlier ones, Report Server does not have any locking mechanism to prevent someone from opening a file at the same time as someone else.