Which version of Power BI Report Server is the December 2019 version of Power BI Desktop for?

[pbiwork]

We're running a Power BI Report Server (PBIRS) instance and, in the past, it was critical that the version of Power BI Desktop match the version of PBIRS that we were running (example: May 2019 version of PBIRS needed the May 2019 version of Power BI Desktop).

The December 2019 update for Power BI Desktop was released recently, however, without a corresponding version of PBIRS.  

Which version of PBIRS is the December 2019 version of Power BI Desktop designed for, or should this version of Power BI Desktop not be used with the current version of PBIRS (September 2019 Update)?

[d_gosbell · Accepted solution]

---

@pbiwork wrote:

Which version of PBIRS is the December 2019 version of Power BI Desktop designed for, or should this version of Power BI Desktop not be used with the current version of PBIRS (September 2019 Update)?

---

You should not use the Dec version of Power BI Desktop with PBIRS.

PBIRS is released 3 times a year in Jan, May & Sep (see https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/power-bi-report-server-release-timing-update/) and there is a special "optimized for Report Server" version of Power BI Desktop that is included with each update of PBIRS. The Report Server version of desktop has a logo with a black background instead of the normal yellow.

If you need to deploy to both the cloud and PBIRS you can have both versions of Power BI Desktop installed side-by-side. You just need to make sure that any reports that are to be deployed to PBIRS are created in the matching "black" version.