Automated PDF Generation

[marquis_chris]

Hello,

We need to generate some multi-page PDF's each month and we have a Power BI Report Builder report that does what we want.  We were able to automate the export using a Premium license and Power Automate.

But then when we tried to loop it to do what we need it gave an error stating that PPU accounts can only perform an export once every 5 minutes.  Apparently we need to change to a capacity license for $5,000 per month (!!!!!) to accomplish this task?  It seems ubsurd that we would need to go from $20/mo to $5k/mo to export some reports.

Does anyone know of a reasonable way to dump some reports out to PDF automatically in a performant and cost effective way using the Microsoft platform?

Thanks,

Chris

[d_gosbell]

How many reports are you  trying to export? Can you just add a 5 min delay into your Power Automate loop?

[marquis_chris]

We need to do hundreds, so while we could add a delay or even add several PPU accounts to increase capacity, it would not be the simple and scalable solution we're looking for. 

Thanks,

Chris

[d_gosbell]

---

@marquis_chris wrote:

We need to do hundreds, so while we could add a delay or even add several PPU accounts to increase capacity, it would not be the simple and scalable solution we're looking for. 

---

So the other option inbetween a PPU and P1 SKU would be to look at using an A SKU. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/developer/embedded/embedded-capacity#sku-memory-and-compu... but to make this cost effective you would also need to look at either scaling up when you run your exports and then scaling down or pause the capacity when it is not being used. If you were to run an equivalent A SKU 24x7 it would cost more than the same size P SKU.

I would suggest you start with a small scale trial, run a small sample of your reports and see how long they take and use the Premium Capacity Metrics App (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/enterprise/service-premium-install-app ) to see what the CPU usage is like. You should then be able to project roughly what the CPU usage will be like for your full run. This article has more information on capacity planning for paginated reports https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/paginated-reports/paginated-capacity-planning If you run your test over an hour or two it should be pretty cheap since A SKUs are billed hourly and running an actual sample work load is the best way to get a good estimate of your full workload. 

[marquis_chris]

Thanks so much for your detailed reply.

I had seen these pages but it didn't all make sense to me.  There was no link to go buy any of the SKU's that I could find.  They don't seem to appear as products when I try to purchase.  Is the normal path to contact sales for a quote on Capacity?  We only need to run these processes once a month, so if we have the ability to pause it could be cost effective.  I had only seen a price of $4,995/month and assumed that was a fixed cost.

Thanks,

Chris

[d_gosbell · Accepted solution]

You actually purchase the A SKUs through the Azure portal. see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/developer/embedded/azure-pbie-create-capacity?tabs=portal

And there are details here on how to pause/start an embedded capacity https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/developer/embedded/azure-pbie-pause-start with links to ways to automate this.

Once you have created and started the embedded capacity you then need to go back to Power BI and into the setting for your workspace in the Premium setting set it to use this A SKU. Note that once you do this the embedded capacity needs to be running for the reports to work.

The standard P SKUs are really aimed at large enterprises with 500 or more report viewers. For smaller organizations with a monthly report burst like this the A SKU should be more cost effective. The note here https://learn.microsoft.com/en-au/power-bi/enterprise/service-admin-premium-testing#purchase-a-skus-... says that the A SKU gives you all the features of a standard premium capacity, but without the unlimited sharing (so all your users will require Pro or PPU licenses, but it sounds like you have these already)

[marquis_chris]

Ok, I see where I got off the rails.  When you search for PowerBI it shows you the products but it just has a "contact sales" and $4995 for capacities.  They don't tell you to go to the Azure portal to purchase a capacity.

Thanks for all the help.

Chris

[Siv_Abu]

@d_gosbell 

[d_gosbell]

@Siv_Abu - how does your question have anything to do with PDF generation? Please do not cross post like this, it just creates noise and is very disrespectful to other users. You already have another thread open for your question.