Power BI Report Server On-Prem licensing

[p0werb1]

I am interested in using Power BI Report Server completely On-Prem.

If I own a server, fully licensed with SQL Server Enterprise Edition with Software Assurance. Either running SQL Server 2017 or 2019.

As far as I understand, this license covers me to install and run Power BI Report Server on the same server that´s licensed?

What about consumers and report developers...

• Consumers need to view reports On-Prem.
• Developers need to publish reports using Power BI Desktop (optimized for RS).

Do the developers that publish reports any licence... e.g. Power BI Pro? or is this included in the Enterprise with SA licence?

[samiullah]

is it mandatory to run power bi report server on the same VM ? or we can run it on different vm and deploy report server databases with the licensed version. 

[d_gosbell]

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@samiullah wrote:

is it mandatory to run power bi report server on the same VM ? or we can run it on different vm and deploy report server databases with the licensed version. 

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No you can run the SQL database on a separate machine from Report Server, you just need to make sure that both machines are covered by an appropriate license.

[d_gosbell]

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@p0werb1 wrote:

If I own a server, fully licensed with SQL Server Enterprise Edition with Software Assurance. Either running SQL Server 2017 or 2019.

As far as I understand, this license covers me to install and run Power BI Report Server on the same server that´s licensed?

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This is correct

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@p0werb1 wrote:

Do the developers that publish reports any licence... e.g. Power BI Pro? or is this included in the Enterprise with SA licence?

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Consumers do not need any licenses. But Developers that publish reports are required to have Power BI Pro licenses. 

[p0werb1]

I thought that the Enterprise Edition with SA covers this, publishing reports to an On-Prem Report Server installation. Is not the Power BI Pro license connected to the cloud version, Power BI services which enables publishing reports to the cloud?

How about paginated reports using Report Builder which has been part of Reporting Services but now lives in Power BI Report Server. Will this also need a Power BI Pro license now days?

[d_gosbell · Accepted solution]

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@p0werb1 wrote:

I thought that the Enterprise Edition with SA covers this, publishing reports to an On-Prem Report Server installation. Is not the Power BI Pro license connected to the cloud version, Power BI services which enables publishing reports to the cloud?

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No, it's mentioned here in the docs https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/report-server/get-started#licensing-power-bi-report-server 

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@p0werb1 wrote:

How about paginated reports using Report Builder which has been part of Reporting Services but now lives in Power BI Report Server. Will this also need a Power BI Pro license now days?

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The docs just mention that the pro license is required for publishing Power BI reports. I have not seen any additional licensing required for report builder so I believe this is the same as for SSRS and does not require any end user licensing. 

[transwest]

I agree with @p0werb1

You need a pro license to publish and end-users can access.  Why does Microsoft make it so difficult to understand their licensing structure?!?  Ridiculous