PowerBI report Server- Azure AD Integration

[nidhin077]

Hi,

I'm trying to integrate the Azure AD with my PowerBI report Server on my Windows server. I added configuration to the ReportServer file and according to certain sources. I'm getting an error message right now. Please have a look at the error message below.

2024-08-16 05:39:35.9814|ERROR|5|Error syncing configurationSystem.NotSupportedException: Extension not supported. at Microsoft.BIServer.Configuration.ConfigReader.GetAuthenticationTypes() at Microsoft.BIServer.Configuration.ConfigReader.GetAuthenticationMode() at Microsoft.BIServer.Configuration.ConfigReader.<Init>b__57_3() at System.Lazy1.CreateValue() at System.Lazy1.LazyInitValue() at Microsoft.BIServer.RSHostingService.ServiceConfigurationManager.SyncMachineKey() at Microsoft.BIServer.RSHostingService.ServiceConfigurationManager.UpdateApplicationConfigs()

Therefore, I want to know if the PowerBI report server supports Azure Authentication. If so, could you kindly share the necessary documentation?

[hackcrr · Accepted solution]

@nidhin077 

Power BI Report Server (PBIRS) doesn't natively support Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) authentication.

Here are some alternative solutions:

1. Windows Authentication and ADFS Integration. PBIRS primarily supports Windows Authentication (NTLM/Kerberos) and can integrate with Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS). If your organization uses ADFS, you can configure claims-based authentication with ADFS, but this requires complex setup and is different from integrating directly with Azure AD.

If Azure AD integration is a must-have for your organization, consider migrating your reports to the Power BI service. The Power BI service fully supports Azure AD, including features such as single sign-on (SSO), multi-factor authentication (MFA), and conditional access policies.

You can find the verification methods I mentioned above from the following documents:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/reporting-services/security/authentication-with-the-report-ser...

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/app-proxy/application-proxy-configure-hard-coded-li...

Please note that these are workarounds. If we proceed with custom development, we will need deep expertise in PBIRS and .NET development

hackcrr

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