Power BI Server licensing question

[vanessafvg]

if i have a SQL Enterprise license with Software assurance and i am not using the cloud premium functionality,  only Power BI server on prem, do i still need the pro licenses for authors of reports if  i am not using the  cloud at all?

[v-qiuyu-msft]

Hi @vanessafvg,

Publishing PBIX reports from Desktop will require a Pro License for production usage. You can see below infomration from this blog:

Either way you license Power BI Report Server, “publisher” users who publish Power BI reports to the report server for others to access need Power BI Pro licenses, whereas “reader” users who merely view reports don’t need any per-user licenses.

Best Regards,
QiuyunYu

[vanessafvg]

@v-qiuyu-msft what i dont understand though is if you doing it all on prem and dont have a office 365 account, why do you need a pro license?  

[v-qiuyu-msft]

Hi @vanessafvg,

Power BI Report Server is part of the Power BI family. Just like you need Power BI Pro license to be able to share content on Power BI Premium, you need a Power BI Pro license to be able to share content on-premises through Power BI report Server. At the same time, just like you don’t need per user subscription license to consume content published on Power BI Premium, you don’t need a per user license to consume Power BI reports published on Power BI Report Server.

Best Regards,
QiuyunYu

[vanessafvg]

@v-qiuyu-msft i get that part, but what i am saying is, that if you are only using the on prem of power bi report server  of the premuim, and the office 365 license is how a pro license gets assisgned?  How do you apply the pro license in an environment that is not using any cloud capability, ie no one has office 365 accounts its all managed via window authentication using only Power BI report server, with SQL SSAS via direct query?  When you create the pbix all you do is upload it into power bi report server, there is no publishing per se.

[TheOckieMofo]

You shouldn't because you never touch the Power BI cloud infrastructure. PBI Desktop is free forever so any user can download. Keep in mind you would need to download the PBI Desktop for Report Server, which can be downloaded here: PBI Report Server.

Also, you can only build dashboards on top of live connections to SSAS cubes, which I'm assuming you either have and/or have the ability to create.

[xpherion]

You can check following discussion about Power BI Report Server license.