How to use one shared data model made in Power BI Desktop in Power BI Report Server?

[Ask123]

Hi expert,

For efficiency reasons I want to create one data model in Power BI Desktop (Optimized for Power BI Report Server - January 2022) and reuse that data model in other reports to be made in Power BI Desktop (Optimized for Power BI Report Server - January 2022) and Microsoft Report Builder.

My client works in Power BI Report Server and does not (want to) use Power BI-Service, because they don't want to have data in the cloud. So this method does not work.

How can I maintain just one data model with several reports?

Thanks for your help!

[josef78 · Accepted solution]

Directly in on-prem Power BI Report Server, it is (still) not possible. 

But in on-prem (if you are using SQL Server EE with SA licencing) is another (better) way how to create shared models. You can create PBI models in SQL Server Analysis Services - Tabular Mode, same way as in PBI Desktop (but in another tool - SSDT). And then you can create any number of visualisation in Power BI Desktop live connected to shared model, which you can save to Power BI RS.

You will get additional benefits, there no size limit of models, and you can use incremental or partial refresh.