Accessing Power BI Reporting Services Data Sources in Power BI reports

[DEMCOLO]

Hello,

I am very new to Power BI and I am trying to put all of the pieces together so please forgive my ignorance.

We are wanting to deploy Power BI to our organization.  We are currently testing with an on prem PowerBI reporting server running on SQL Server 2022 Enterprise edition with Software Assurance.  We have purchased some Power BI Pro licenses for those in the organization that will be creating the reports that are to be published on the aforementioned PowerBI Reporting Server. 

I have created data sources on the PowerBI reporting server to on prem sql servers similar to the data sources that we have on our SQL Server Reporting server.  Should those users with the PowerBI Pro licenses be able to access these data sources through the PowerBI desktop that they downloaded from the reporting server (current Version: 2.129.2203.0 64-bit (May 2024))?  If so, what option do they choose when trying to "get data" when beginning to create the reports?

Thanks for your help!

Doug

[v-jtian-msft]

Hi, d_gosbell ,thanks for your concern about this issue.

Your answer is excellent!
And I would like to share some additional solutions below.

Hello, @DEMCOLO . I am glad to help you.
I agree with d_gosbell's suggestion. This is my test:
I create a data source in Power BI Report Server.

Unfortunately, Power BI Desktop does not support the use of data sources in Power BI Report Server.
Instead, Report Builder can be used.

In Power BI Desktop/Power BI Desktop(RS version)

In Microsoft Report Builder
(could be used)
 

Because these data sources are designed for paginated reports (PBIRS), Power BI Desktop cannot use them directly to create interactive reports.Power BI Desktop needs to connect directly to the data sources, which ensures data access independence and flexibility.

The direct link to Power BI desktop(RS)/Power BI desktop should be Power BI Service.
I hope you find the following links helpful
URL:
Solved: Using Data Sources in PowerBI Report Server (Augus... - Microsoft Fabric Community

I hope my suggestions give you good ideas, if you have any more questions, please clarify in a follow-up reply.
Best Regards,
Carson Jian

[d_gosbell · Accepted solution]

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@DEMCOLO wrote:

I have created data sources on the PowerBI reporting server to on prem sql servers similar to the data sources that we have on our SQL Server Reporting server.  Should those users with the PowerBI Pro licenses be able to access these data sources through the PowerBI desktop that they downloaded from the reporting server (current Version: 2.129.2203.0 64-bit (May 2024))? 

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No, those connections are only available to paginated reports.