Confusion about Power Bi Report Server Licensing

[ThomasGebets]

I'm struggling to understand the cost of the Power Bi On-Premise solutions.
We have a use case, where most user will use the data online in the Power BI Embedded version (with a embedded capacity) that is used in an Angular web application.

For on-premise users, I found the PBI report server which works a bit different and needs a local database to install the report server itself. I'd like to automatize the local configuration to roll out the database, report server and everything necessary. The report should then be embedded via an iframe in the local web application. There are still plenty of questions open and MS Support doesn't really respond to my questions unfortunately:

* Is it sufficient to have on Premium per User license per customer?

* What is the minimum required SQL License to use Power Bi Report Server? Can't i just use the most barebone SQL License (instead of the suggested enterprise edition for 10-15k). We need to install the db + report server on each customers device, so let's say 500 small customers that want to see their data, if you know what i mean, it isn't feasible to charge 10-15k just to see the beautiful report in a report server. 🙂 

Thank you for any help! I really appreciate it 🙂

[V-yubandi-msft]

Hi @ThomasGebets ,

May I ask if you have resolved this issue? If so, please mark the helpful reply and accept it as the solution. This will be helpful for other community members who have similar problems to solve it faster.

Thank you.

[V-yubandi-msft]

Hi @ThomasGebets ,

Has your issue been resolved, or do you require any further information? Your feedback is valuable to us. If the solution was effective, please mark it as 'Accepted Solution' to assist other community members experiencing the same issue.

[V-yubandi-msft]

Hi @ThomasGebets ,

As we haven’t heard back from you, we wanted to kindly follow up to check if the solution we provided for your issue worked for you  or let us know if you need any further assistance?

Your feedback is important to us, Looking forward to your response. 

[V-yubandi-msft]

Hi @ThomasGebets .,

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Fabric Community. @d_gosbell , has explained this well, but to confirm. Power BI Premium Per User (PPU) does not allow deployment or usage of Power BI Report Server.

For on-premises scenarios with Power BI Report Server, you’ll need one of the following.

1.  Power BI Premium Capacity (P1 or higher). 
2. SQL Server Enterprise Edition with Software Assurance (SA).

If you're planning to support 500+ small customer deployments, Power BI Embedded (A SKUs) might be a more cost-effective and scalable option.'

FYI:

If my response solved your query, please mark it as the Accepted solution to help others find it easily.

And if my answer was helpful, I'd really appreciate a 'Kudos'.

[ThomasGebets]

Thank you for the answer to both of you @d_gosbell and @V-yubandi-msft . As said, we have the Embedded SKUs solution already and this works great for 90% of users. Still, we have the need to deploy multiple offline-only environments for customers due to data security reasons.

Basically, our report (and also the report server) should be deployed automatically and embedded via iframe during the offline-installation of our application. Then, there are only one or two users/admins that can check their data that is generated by their users on-premise (all completely offline). I hope that makes sense. 

* So if have the offline-only requirement for those environments, Premium SKUs or SQL Enterprise versions for EACH of those environments/setups would be required, correct? So that would be: x offline-only customers, x SQL Enterprise licenses (one for each offline-only customer)

* Is there an option of purchasing SQL Enterprise License as a life-time license or is this subscription based only?

Thanks for your help!

[V-yubandi-msft]

Yes, SQL Server Enterprise can be purchased as a one-time  license. However, to use Power BI Report Server, you will also need Software Assurance (SA). Without SA, the license does not include the rights to run Power BI Report Server.

Thank You.

[d_gosbell]

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@ThomasGebets wrote:

* Is it sufficient to have on Premium per User license per customer?

No, this is not enough to use the on-prem report server, but you can use reports deployed to the service if each of your customer's users have Pro or Premium per User licenses

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@ThomasGebets wrote:

* What is the minimum required SQL License to use Power Bi Report Server? Can't i just use the most barebone SQL License (instead of the suggested enterprise edition for 10-15k). We need to install the db + report server on each customers device, so let's say 500 small customers that want to see their data, if you know what i mean, it isn't feasible to charge 10-15k just to see the beautiful report in a report server. 🙂 

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This is documented here https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/report-server/get-started#licensing-power-bi-report-serve... you need either an Enterprise license with Software Assurance or an F64 or higher reserved instance (which I believe are roughly similiar in terms of pricing)

If you only have a small number of users it would be cheaper to deploy your reports to the cloud service for Power BI instead of using Report Server.

[ThomasGebets]

Thanks for the reply. If offline-only is a requirement, is Power BI Report Server the only option? Because it seems that pricing is way more expensive even though, everything runs on your own hardware..

[V-yubandi-msft]

1.Yes, if your environment necessitates complete offline usage without internet access, Power BI Report Server is currently the only Microsoft-supported solution for running Power BI reports entirely on-premises.

2. The cost is associated with licensing rather than hardware usage. Power BI Report Server requires either a Power BI Premium capacity license (P1 or higher) or a SQL Server Enterprise Edition license with Software Assurance. These licensing models are designed for enterprise grade deployments. 

3. If cost is a concern and limited online access is feasible, Power BI Embedded or cloud-based solutions may offer more flexibility and affordability depending on your architecture.

Thank You.

[ThomasGebets]

Ok thanks for clarifying, and excuse my late reply! This is also the information i got in a call with a MS support member. Only remaining question is whether the base version for SQL Enterprise is sufficient. I read somewhere that 4 cores are the minimum which would lead to a doubling of the license price, correct?

[V-yubandi-msft · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your response @ThomasGebets ,

Yes, Microsoft licensing for SQL Server, including the Enterprise Edition, is core based and requires a minimum of 4 cores per physical server. So, even if you're only using 2 cores, you'll still need to license 4, effectively doubling the cost in smaller setups.

This requirement applies whether you're deploying Power BI Report Server via SQL Server Enterprise Edition with Software Assurance or using SQL Server on its own.

Helpful Reference:
SQL Server 2022—Pricing | Microsoft

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