topic Which is the correct version of desktop to use for PBI-SSRS? in Report Server

Which is the correct version of desktop to use for PBI-SSRS?

Anonymous — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 12:02:59 GMT

On our dev mahcine I have PBI SSRS and OBI Desktop installed

PBI Desktop is shwoing Version: 2.47.4766.581 64-bit (June 2017) and gives me the option to Save As --> Power BI Report Server

I have PBI Desktop installed on my main work machine Version: 2.47.4766.801 64-bit (June 2017) and this has No SSSR option under Save As

Do I need a specific version? I have moved a couple of PBIX files from one to the other and it seems to work (my PBIX are terribly simple however)

Re: Which is the correct version of desktop to use for PBI-SSRS?

Anonymous — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 12:06:13 GMT

I have noticed a difference in the conifg.xml file for the app

With the value for the primaryservice being different ReportingServices instead of PowerBI

I have tried changing this on my local machine but it does not seem to have had any impact

  <appSettings>
    <add key="PrimaryService" value="ReportingServices" />
  </appSettings>

Re: Which is the correct version of desktop to use for PBI-SSRS?

mgmeyer — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 17:15:53 GMT

Right now we are shipping two slightly differant versions of PBI Desktop one which is targeted to Power BI.com and one which targets PBI Report Server. One of the reasons for this is the desktop that targets powerbi.com has a monthly release cadence which is faster than PBI Report Server. Since new features can be release in the cloud before they can be released for the report server we have to provide a version that aligns with the Report Server release. If you are looking for the Report Server version it is available here and it is one of the download options. If you looking for the Power BI.com version you can get it here. One thing to note, both of these versions can be installed side by side on a machine so you can use the latest service desktop while still keeping the version that targets PBIRS. Hope this helps.

Re: Which is the correct version of desktop to use for PBI-SSRS?

Murtzd — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 18:15:12 GMT

When will you start releasing some features onto the Report Server version? Only the June release is out so far and you've been releasing some fantastic features on the Power BI services version that I want to use on my on premises reports.

Re: Which is the correct version of desktop to use for PBI-SSRS?

mgmeyer — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 18:53:20 GMT

Check out one of my previous post here it has the link to the timeline and some additional info.

Re: Which is the correct version of desktop to use for PBI-SSRS?

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 08:39:33 GMT

Many thanks

That makes sense. So there will be a new version of the SSRS desktop tool alongside each release of SSRS-PBI server.

We are rolling out PBI internally at the moment so I will need make sure the desktop released onto end users mahcines is the version that aligns with SSRS-PBI.

We are reluctant to move data to PBI cloud due to a number of internal security concerns (no bring your own key support for example) so the idea we would have two versions kicking around just sounds like a support nightmare, especially as PBIX files will understandably have compatability issues between the two an the feature set of SSRS-PBI is still failry limited.

I notice the SSRS-PBI desktop app can't publish to the cloud. Is this likely to ever be possible? I am guessing keeping it version compatibile may be an issue

So I think its simpler to keep the two as very distinct products and try to keep the overlap down to a minimum. Being somewhat behind the cutting edge isn't exactly a bad thing :-)

many thanks for the prompt response

Steve