Power BI server questions

[don075]

We are planning of implementing Power BI treport server for our on premise installation. When I look at the licensing options, I see the following two.
Option 1: Power BI premium
Option 2: SQL server enterprise with SA

Since we already have SQL server licenses, I am leaning towards option 2.

1. Would like to know whether there are disadvantages of going with this option.
2. On premise will allow us to create users. Any idea of the maximum no of users that we can create?
3. Except a handful of users who will be creating Power BI reports, thes rest will use it to view reports only. What type of users could we create for viewing only?

[d_gosbell]

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@don075 wrote:

1. Would like to know whether there are disadvantages of going with this option.

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There is no difference between the two licensing options, they are just different ways of purchasing, the cost should be similar. In addition to licensing the cores for your server(s) the users publishing reports need to have Power BI Pro licenses (this is the same, regardless of how you license the server cores)

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@don075 wrote:

2. On premise will allow us to create users. Any idea of the maximum no of users that we can create?

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Technically you don't create users on the Report Server. Report Server links to your Active Directory by default and you just assign permissions to users or groups from Active Directory to reports or folders on Report Server. I'm not aware of any fixed maximum number of users. Report Server can be installed in a scale out cluster with multiple servers so it should be able to scale to work with any organization size.

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@don075 wrote:

3. Except a handful of users who will be creating Power BI reports, thes rest will use it to view reports only. What type of users could we create for viewing only?

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For viewing reports you would just assign those users/groups to the default Browse role. See here for a list of the pre-defined roles Role definitions - predefined roles - SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) | Microsoft Learn (view only users do not require Power BI Pro licenses)

[don075]

Thanks for the response. Greatly appreciated.
Got couple of questions.

1. Is there any documentation that says the type of user license included with power bi report server (named, concurrent)

2. Also a link to good documentation on power bi server administration

3. When I login to power bi service, I see the option to create power bi reports in the website. When I login to the report server, this option is not available.
Is ther away to enable this with power bi report server?

[d_gosbell · Accepted solution]

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@don075 wrote:

1. Is there any documentation that says the type of user license included with power bi report server (named, concurrent)

There are no per user licensing options includeded with Report Server, it is licensed based on the number of cores on the server. Anyone publishing reports requires a separate Power BI Pro license which is effectively a named user license (it's the same license you need for publishing to the cloud service) Power BI Report Server - Licensing

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@don075 wrote:

2. Also a link to good documentation on power bi server administration

Admin overview, Power BI Report Server - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

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@don075 wrote:

3. When I login to power bi service, I see the option to create power bi reports in the website. When I login to the report server, this option is not available.
Is ther away to enable this with power bi report server?

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Report Server does not support creating reports in the browser. This is documented here Comparing Power BI Report Server and the Power BI service - Power BI | Microsoft Learn along with a number of other limitations when compared to the Power BI service.

[don075]

Thanks a lot. Greatly appreciated.