Power BI Report Server - License

[dnana]

I need some clarification on Power BI Report Server licensing. We have SQL Enterprise + SA which allows us to obtain the license key (via VLSC) for Power BI Report Server.

I would like to setup the following environment:

Server A will only have the Report Server installed.
Server B will have SQL backend to host the ReportServer database and temp database.

Questions:
Can Power BI Report Server (Server A) be installed on a server that does not have SQL Enterprise installed?

Can the database backend (Server B) have SQL Standard?

[d_gosbell · Accepted solution]

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Can Power BI Report Server (Server A) be installed on a server that does not have SQL Enterprise installed?

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Yes, you don't have to have the database engine installed on the same machine as the PBIRS. However, the cores for the machine that Power BI Report Server runs on needs to be covered by your SQL Enterprise license.

So if you have an existing 24 core SQL Enterprise + SA and you want to install Power BI Report Server on a new 4 core VM you would need to pay for 28 SQL Enterprise cores in total.

Can the database backend (Server B) have SQL Standard?

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The database schema used by the backend database is not overly complicated. I belive that the database backend will work fine on a standard edition from checking here

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-au/sql/reporting-services/reporting-services-features-supported-by-the...