Forum Discussion
Power BI Report Server Licensing
I plan to upgrade from SQL Server Standard 2008 to SQL Server Standard 2016 later this year. If I want to use Power BI Report Server do I have to buy a Power BI Premium license, or can I download and run Power BI Report Server alongside or as a replacement for SSRS based on the licenses I purchase for SQL Server Standard 2016
You have two options.
You can buy Power BI Premium, this allows you to license the same number of cores that you purchase in capacity in the premium license on premises for your Power BI Report Server.
You can purchase SQL Enterprise Edition + Software Assurance. This give you license to install the Power BI Report Server.
Only the Content Creators (those building reports) need to have a Power BI Pro license in both cases.
Alternatively, can I use Power BI Pro Service and publish content for consumers with the understanding each consumer must also have a Power BI Pro License? The Pro license gives you the ability to share content in the Power BI Service. You don't get the Power BI Report Server in this license. You are correct, report creators and end users need Pro licenses.
In this scenario, you would have a normal SSRS report server, and the Power BI Service. They would not communicate, and you couldn't put PBI Reports on the SSRS Server.
Can you please me in getting the documentation where it is clearly mentioned. We are really puzzled on this issue.
prazzy88 Hmm. Looks like a gap in the documentation. Here is a link from the blog where riccardomuti (MSFT SSRS Team) explains the requirement to the question in detail.
I would have expected it to be mentioned in some of the official docs and it isn't.
https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/reportserver-get-started/
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/reporting-services/reporting-services-developer-documentation
It's documented officially in the Product Terms. It's also mentioned on the Power BI Pricing page (see footnotes).
Yes, regardless of how you license the report server itself (Power BI Premium, or SQL Server Enterprise with Software Assurance), you need a Power BI Pro license to publish Power BI reports to Power BI Report Server.
AnonymousThanks for responding back. I couldn't find anything explicitly mentioned anywhere. Anyway i requested sales team to contact me. Lets see.
riccardomuti: still it doesn't mention about whether we need to purchase a Pro license if we have active software assurance with SQL server 2016. We were able to create/publish reports onto Power BI report server even as we have report server part of active software assurance along with SQL server 2016. Can you confirm if Pro license is still required even then?
please, correct me if I´m wrong, but so far I understood this:
To get PBI to work locally (on-premises), I have 2 options:
1- buy Premium, get included for free the Report Server, use SQL Server (free or paid version), and use PBI PRO to publish;
2- don´t buy Premium, buy Software Assurance for SQL Server, get included for free Report Server, and use PBI PRO to publish;
Anonymous
1- yes
2- yes, only caveat is that it is SQL Server Enterprise Edition with Software Assurance.
Either method to get the PBIRS requries a Pro licence for Report creators/Authors.
If we already have SQL Server Enterprise Edition 2016 but without SA, can we add SA to it if that route is more cost effective than purchasing Power BI Premium P1 Node at $5k per month?
I'm struggling to find information on Software Assurance - I'm guessing it is licensed per core?
We are in a unique scenario where we are a small company but with heavy industry regulations on data. Data and reports cannot be hosted in the cloud and explicitly must live on premise.
But Power BI Premium seems geared toward very large scale deployments with large companys. We are finding ourselves in a gap here where we need an on premise solution that is cost effective for hosting Power BI reports. If it weren't for our industry specific regulations on data, we would otherwise simply purchase 3 to 5 cloud Power BI Service user licenses at the $9.99 per month for report developers who would use Power BI Desktop and publish to the cloud service, and then there would be a couple of dozen report users who would access the reports.
Is there any path for a company in a scenario like ours constrained to an on premise Power BI report hosting solution that doesn't cost tens of thousands per year?
See "Getting Software Assurance" on this page: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/licensing-programs/software-assurance-default.aspx. If you're already working with a Microsoft account team and/or Microsoft partner, they should be able to help, and if you're not, follow the "How to buy" link (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Licensing/how-to-buy/how-to-buy.aspx) to contact Microsoft or a partner.
Anonymous
Thank you for the clear explanation.
Is it viable to use a Visual Studio Enterprise Edition subscription (formerly MSDN) to cover the PBI Pro part to create content?
Thank you in advance for your view.
MaKa If a Pro license is rolled into that product license then that would apply. Just as if you had an E5 Office license that offering includes a Pro license and would work. I'm not familiar with what you describe, but if PBI Pro is part of it, then it should be applicable.
riccardomuti , Actually we are also confused with too many different opinions and there is no clear documentation from Microsoft also. I have few questions. If you can help me out it would be great.
1. I am looking for an Azure VM with SQL Server Enterprise 2016. Will it have SA ?
2. If Yes then how to configure PBI Report Server.
3. If No, Then how to get it? because we need Power BI for Reporting purpose.
4. Major Question is, Do I need to pay for PBI Report Server after having SQL SERVER EE 2016. (On Azure VM).
So, either option, I need SQL Server to make PBI Premium work On-Premises. Is this correct?
Or does the Report Server works fine without the SQL Server?
Anonymous Correct, you need to install SQL Server to support the PBIRS. Documentation
Hi riccardomuti, Anonymous: it seems clear to me that a Pro license is required to upload reports to PBI Report Server. However, the platform does not perform any validation and any user can upload contents. Then, how can you prevent users not having a Pro license from uploading reports? I think this licesing policy cannot be applicable if there is no means for the organization to control it. Please can you advise?
Thanks
