Forum Discussion
Fabric cloud based Report Server replacement
Hi keith_smith1
Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Fabric Community Forum.
Thank you d_gosbell and rohit1991 for sharing helpful insights on this topic.
We understand your requirement to transition from an on-premises SQL Server/Power BI Report Server (PBIRS) setup to Microsoft Fabric, hosting hundreds of reports in the cloud while ensuring line-level staff have strictly read-only access without license prompts, promotional pop-ups, or exposure to the Fabric dashboard.
To provide a controlled, read-only report viewing experience, we recommend using Microsoft Fabric Apps for centralized report management and SharePoint Online embedding for secure, UI-free delivery to your staff.
Organize paginated and Power BI reports in a Fabric workspace with F64 or higher capacity, create a Fabric app, and configure navigation for ease of use. Assign Viewer permissions via Azure AD security groups, publish the app, and share the URL for streamlined access and subscription.
Embed Power BI and paginated reports in SharePoint Online by copying the embed URL from the Fabric app or workspace and adding it to a Power BI web part on a modern site page. Secure the SharePoint site with Read permissions via Azure AD groups, allowing users to access reports directly in SharePoint with a clean, report-only experience.
Regarding the License Prompts and Trial Offers as suggested by d_gosbell , please ensure your workspace is on an F64 or higher capacity to enable free user access without Pro licenses. To disable trial prompts, navigate to Fabric Admin Portal > Tenant Settings > Users can try Microsoft Fabric paid features > Disabled.
If my response has resolved your query, please mark it as the Accepted Solution to assist others. Additionally, a 'Kudos' would be appreciated if you found my response helpful.
Thank You
keith_smith1 wrote:
We just want our domain users to have read-only access to reports we grant them access to (AND THAT'S IT!), so please let me know if I am missing something here.
You are definitely missing something. Granting readonly access to reports is definitely possible.
keith_smith1 wrote:
1) A user viewing a report link is prompted to create a free Fabric license and is encouraged to start a premium capacity free trial even though we are already on a paid capacity (!!!),
Free users are only supported on F64 or above. You should only see this prompt if you are under that size. Also note that it can sometimes take a few hours for this free user entitlement to take effect.
This should also only happen if the user has workspace admin access. If you only want users to have read-only access they should only be given Viewer access to a workspace or have content shared via an app.
keith_smith1 wrote:
2) They recieve several pop-up messages that are not appropriate for view-only staff (trial offer, release announcements),
You can turn off the ability to create trials in the tenant settings. There is a setting called "users can try Microsoft Fabric paid features"
keith_smith1 wrote:
3) They are then free to access their Fabric dashboard which has several buttons we don't want them having access to and I am unaware of any way to disable them (Real-Time, Monitoring, Learn, etc).
This is only because they have access to a trial. Once you've turned off the ability to create new trials a Fabric admin can go into the Capacity Settings in the admin portal and they can move any workspaces off the trials onto the paid capacities and then cancel any existing trials.