First look at Power BI Report Server

[darogael]

 Description

Power BI Report Server Preview was made available early May 2017 and this blog walks you through the installation, configuration and ends with a demo. The demo video shows how a report can built and added to the Power BI Report Server.

 Installation

The installation and configuration of the May 2017 Preview was uneventful. The support operation systems are-

Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016
You'll need -

• NET Framework 4.5.2 or later
• SQL Server Database Engine (2008 or later), to store the report server database
• SQL Server Analysis Services (2012 SP1 CU4 or later), to store your data models

If you match all the above pre-requisites following are the installation items which are available at this link

• Install Power BI Report Server (PowerBIReportServer.exe)
• Install Power BI Desktop (PBIDesktopRS_x64.msi)

 Power BI Report Server

Following are two screenshots of the installation.

 Report Server Configuration Manager

Below is a screenshot of the Report Server Configuration manager. Notice the Power BI Service (cloud) on the bottom? This is also where you configure the Web Portal URL

The Report Server Configuration manager is also where you configure the Web Portal URL. Once that is configured successfully you can go to the browser and type in http://servername/Reports to view the web inteface. Here is a screenshot

 Power BI Desktop

The Power BI Desktop that comes along with this installation is different from the Online one. Take a look at the screenshots below.

(Below is a screenshot of what you see at the top of the Power BI Desktop)

 Demo

The May 2017 preview version supports only Power BI Desktop reports that connect live to the SQL Server Analysis Services on-premises. Below is a screenshot of the message you will receive when trying to save a report built using, say, a SharePoint On-Premises list. The demo shows gives a quick review of the SQL Sever Database and the SQL Server analysis used here.

 Helpful links

 • Get overview of Power BI Premium white paper
 • Power BI Premium calculator
 • Microsoft Power BI Report Server - May 2017 Preview
 • Guided learning
 • Sample data for SQL Server Database and SQL Server Analysis
 

Conclusion

As it is rightfully stated by the Microsoft Power BI team, 'Power BI Report Server gives your users access to data and insights, and the enterprise reporting capabilities of SQL Server Reporting Services—in a modern, on-premises solution.' Indeed, this is an on-premises reporting tool for today which is cloud-ready for tomorrow and I look forward to the new features that will be available.