Question report server and licensing

[oliflo]

Hello

i'm planning to have Power BI Report Server on premise (infra using 3 vm with 4 cores each: 1 for report server, 1 for sql server 2022 and 1 for report catalog), and have some questions:

1. Do I need 2 seperate licenses for the report server and sql server 2022?
2. If I'm having Power BI premium capacity license for the report server, does it cover as well sql server 2022?
3. If I opt for Enterprise SQL Server license with Software Assurance, does it cover both report server and sql server 2022 together with SSIS and SSAS, irrespective of number of cores?

Thank you

[v-binbinyu-msft]

Hi @oliflo ,

Could you tell me if your problem has been solved? If it is, kindly Accept it as the solution. More people will benefit from it. Or if you are still confused about it, please feel free to let me know.

Best regards,
Community Support Team_Binbin Yu
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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@oliflo wrote:

1. Do I need 2 seperate licenses for the report server and sql server 2022?

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You would need to license all 3 VMs so you all 12 cores would need to be licensed

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@oliflo wrote:

2. If I'm having Power BI premium capacity license for the report server, does it cover as well sql server 2022?

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No, premium gives you the right to install a SQL instance that is only used for the Report Catalog. If you use that instance for any other purpose then it needs a full SQL license

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@oliflo wrote:

3. If I opt for Enterprise SQL Server license with Software Assurance, does it cover both report server and sql server 2022 together with SSIS and SSAS, irrespective of number of cores?

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The SQL Enterprise license does cover Report Server, SSIS and SSAS, but not irrespective of the number of cores. You actually pay for the license based on the number of cores you want to run on.

But also note that you can mix and match the licenses across VMs. So you could buy 4 cores of Enterprise SQL with SA to cover your report server, then buy SQL Standard for the other 2 VMs (if you don't need any of the Enterprise features)

[oliflo]

@d_gosbell ,Thank you for these clarifications.

In addition, for viewing and managing roles for reports/folders on Power BI report Server, I need to do it through Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (MSSMS) by connecting to the Reporting Services (setting server type to Reporting Services in the MSSMS).  This makes me have 2 more questions:

1. Is there any other way?
2. Is there a specific license for using Reporting Services or is that same license as the one for SQL Server DB Instance (i.e the premium license used for the Report Catalogue?

Thanks for your help.

[d_gosbell · Accepted solution]

You would normally manage roles for reports/folders throught the web portal. The only reason you would need SSMS is to create custom roles, but this is a very rare occurrance. In most situations the default roles are enough and you can manage these in the web portal itself.

Report Server is either licensed through Power BI Premium or SQL Server Enterprise with SA as per https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/report-server/get-started#licensing-power-bi-report-serve...