topic Re: Power BI Report Server Licensing in Report Server

Power BI Report Server Licensing

bernardjesmith — Fri, 30 Jun 2017 16:04:24 GMT

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?

Re: Power BI Report Server Licensing

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Jun 2017 19:26:41 GMT

bernardjesmith

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.

Re: Power BI Report Server Licensing

bernardjesmith — Fri, 30 Jun 2017 20:50:33 GMT

ENO- Thank you for the reply. I have something to discuss with my team.

Re: Power BI Report Server Licensing

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Jul 2017 19:08:33 GMT

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.

Re: Power BI Report Server Licensing

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 14:22:34 GMT

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

Re: Power BI Report Server Licensing

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 16:04:03 GMT

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).

Re: Power BI Report Server Licensing

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 18:36:08 GMT

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.

Re: Power BI Report Server Licensing

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 18:47:52 GMT

Thanks, folks.

I understand the actual rules, but I'm thinking that we need an option to departmental solutions, based on Excel and Access. That is another reality, no?

Re: Power BI Report Server Licensing

JulienNC — Sat, 02 Sep 2017 23:15:27 GMT

Hi,
As a lot of people , my need are only for the power bi server on premise.
So I have understood that the best choice is to buy the SQL EE + SA.
But , even with google , it is so hard to find out a price for a simple scenario :
Just want to have a power bi server on premise on my little company.
I don't need a datacenter or something like that. Just have an ERP System ( Dynamics Navision ), a few excel file with a few data , and a HR application, and maybe some little custom developped application with sql server or access.
how do I scale the virtual server ? 1 core ? 2 cores ? X cores ? Based on the quantity of data ? Is there some feed back to advise the man who try to get new awesome tool in a little company who can't afford to pay 5000 $ /month.
I read that the minimum of core licence is 4 per virtual machine even if the machine only have two core.
That 's ok , but anyone would have a estimated or detailed licencing price for a small company with just 1 person who will create and post power bi report and 5 who would only use the report.
The on premise option is the only one acceptable , or the Bi solution won't be Power BI.
Thx for your advise.
Julien

Re: Power BI Report Server Licensing

JulienNC — Sat, 02 Sep 2017 23:22:17 GMT

Hi,
As a lot of people , my need are only for the power bi server on premise.
So i have understood that the best choice is to buy the SQL EE + SA.
But , even with google , it is so hard to find out a price for a simple scenario :
Just want to have a power bi server on premise on my little company.
I don't need a datacenter or something like that. Just have an ERP System ( Dynamics Navision ), a few excel file with a few data , and a HR application, and maybe some little custom developped application with sql server or access.
how do I scale the virtual server ? 1 core ? 2 cores ? X cores ? Based on the quantity of data ? Is there some feed back to advise the man who try to get new awesome tool in a little company who can't afford to pay 5000 $ /month.
I read that the minimum of core licence is 4 per virtual machine even if the machine only have two core.
That 's ok , but anyone would have a estimated or detailed licencing price for a small company with just 1 person who will create and post power bi report and 5 who would only use the report.
The on premise option is the only one acceptable , or the Bi solution won't be Power BI.
Thx for your advise.
Julien

Re: Power BI Report Server Licensing

Muhammadwaleed — Thu, 07 Sep 2017 04:30:23 GMT

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?

Re: Power BI Report Server Licensing

Muhammadwaleed — Thu, 07 Sep 2017 04:31:19 GMT

Hi,

Re: Power BI Report Server Licensing

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Sep 2017 14:55:47 GMT

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

Re: Power BI Report Server Licensing

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 13:48:46 GMT

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?

Re: Power BI Report Server Licensing

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 21:07:00 GMT

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

Re: Power BI Report Server Licensing

csteinberg — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 13:52:36 GMT

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?

Re: Power BI Report Server Licensing

Anonymous — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 13:29:05 GMT

csteinberg This post should help you out.

Re: Power BI Report Server Licensing

prazzy88 — Fri, 22 Sep 2017 11:01:47 GMT

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.

Re: Power BI Report Server Licensing

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Sep 2017 16:43:29 GMT

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.

Re: Power BI Report Server Licensing

prazzy88 — Mon, 16 Oct 2017 11:14:46 GMT

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