Self Serve BI in Power BI report server

[Anonymous]

Question : Is there any possibility to have Self Serve BI reports in powerbi report server?

Requirement:
My requirement from client is that to have a self-serve BI report so that they can access the report and play with data and create some visuals based on their requirements.

Configuration that we have as of now:

1) We are using latest power bi desktop version for development and power bi report server for publishing the dashboards.

So, my only question is to know whether self serve BI is possible in powerbi report server or not?

If it is feasible, please provide the links for documentation to proceed further.

Thanks in Advance.

[Anonymous]

Question : Is there any possibility to have Self Serve BI reports in powerbi report server?

Requirement:
My requirement from client is that to have a self-serve BI report so that they can access the report and play with data and create some visuals based on their requirements.

Configuration that we have as of now:

1) We are using latest power bi desktop version for development and power bi report server for publishing the dashboards.

So, my only question is to know whether self serve BI is possible in powerbi report server or not?

If it is feasible, please provide the links for documentation to proceed further.

Thanks in Advance.

[Anonymous]

Once you publish the report to the PBIRS, it is a deployed report and any changes that can be made to the report are set by the creator. Eg slicer, list, date range to make the report dynamic. Actually modifying they report can only be done by opening the report in the Power BI Desktop for Report Server and then publishing the report and overwritting the previous report as a new version ( no version control).

Also, you will need to make sure that what ever version of  power bi report server you are using, that the Power BI desktop version is the same. If you use the mainstream Power BI desktop, you will find, you will can not open them in the report server desktop version nor publish them.

[3CloudThomas]

No, only a machine (Windows only) that has Power BI Desktop installed can edit the pbis file. Power BI Report Server also has its own version of Power BI Desktop that has to be installed on a Windows machine.

Thomas

[3CloudThomas]

You cannot edit a deployed Power BI report in on-premises Report Server. The only option to edit (when clicked in portal), opens the deployed Power BI pbix file in Power BI Desktop, then if you change and click save. the report would be updated in the Report Server portal. That is, if the person has permisssions to save to the portal.

Thomas

[Anonymous]

So,if people are opening the dashboards from other devices like mobiles or tablets, is it possible for them to edit the dashboards like we do in powerbi service

[d_gosbell · Accepted solution]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Question : Is there any possibility to have Self Serve BI reports in powerbi report server?

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Yes this is possible

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@Anonymous wrote:

1) We are using latest power bi desktop version for development and power bi report server for publishing the dashboards.

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You should never use the latest Power BI Desktop if you are using Report Server. Each release of Report Server comes with a matching release of Power BI Desktop and you should only ever use that version. The reason for this is that the functionality in Report Server is fixed and is only updated when you install a new release on the server while the main version of Desktop is updated monthly. So there could be new features in the latest Desktop that Report Server does not know about and the worst case is Report Server will throw an error when you attempt to upload the report.

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@Anonymous wrote:

If it is feasible, please provide the links for documentation to proceed further.

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I don't know if there is specific documentation on this. 

You need to give the users the appropriate permissions. You could either create a new folder or go into an existing one then click on the "Manage Folder" button in the toolbar, then click on the "Add User or Group" and add a user or group and tick the "Publisher" role.

Once you've done this the user can either go to the Report Server portal and use the Upload link to upload a pbix file. Or if the have the report open in Power BI Desktop optimize for Report Server they can go to File > Save As and choose the option to save to Report Server.

Once the report is saved to the Report Server the users with Publisher rights can also open the report and an "Edit in Power BI Desktop" button will appear at the top of the report. This is probably the easiest way to edit existing reports as just clicking the Save button will publish the changes back to Report Server.

[YaseenJan]

@d_gosbell, i am also looking for a self serve option in power bi report server (PBIRS).

Can you elaborate how it can be achieved with PBIRS in the following context:

1. Publishing one data model for users to access and create reports, rather than having a separate model per report, making it's administration difficult. 

Having the users access (and edit) the reports and use the model inside it to write reports, doesnt seem a sustainable model, where multiple users need to be catered. Also, incase future enhancements and new additions need to be added to the model, will it require to be updated inside multiple versions of the pbi reports then?  

Please correct me if im wrong, from my understanding of achieving it via Power BI service, one can develop a model in PBI desktop and publish on the PBI service. It becomes available as a dataset for the users to use for reports. Further, any enhancements to the model can still be deployed to the same dataset updating the model without having to create a new one. Hence, achieving the purpose of one data model. I am looking if the same or similar version can be achieved in PBIRS.

-Thanks 

[d_gosbell]

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@YaseenJan wrote:

@d_gosbell, i am also looking for a self serve option in power bi report server (PBIRS).

Can you elaborate how it can be achieved with PBIRS in the following context:

1. Publishing one data model for users to access and create reports, rather than having a separate model per report, making it's administration difficult. 

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@YaseenJan you cannot do this in PBIRS alone. The only way to share a model across multiple reports in an on-prem situation is to publish those models to a SQL Server Analysis Services server. Then you can live connect to those models and publish many pbix reports on the PBIRS server pointing to the one data model in SSAS.

There is no way to connect to a data model published on the PBIRS server itself

[Anonymous]

So,if people are opening the dashboards from other devices like mobiles or tablets, is it possible for them to edit the dashboards like we do in powerbi service

[d_gosbell]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So,if people are opening the dashboards from other devices like mobiles or tablets, is it possible for them to edit the dashboards like we do in powerbi service

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No, in Report Server you can only edit reports on a PC using Power BI Desktop. 

[Anonymous]

So, if we want to edit the dashboards in mobiles or tablets it is only possible in power bi service right?

[v-xiaoyan-msft]

Hi @Anonymous ,

Power BI consists of several elements that all work together, starting with these three basics:

• A Windows desktop application called Power BI Desktop.
• An online SaaS (Software as a Service) service called the Power BI service.
• Power BI mobile apps for Windows, iOS, and Android devices.

Beyond those three, Power BI also features two other elements:

• Power BI Report Builder, for creating paginated reports to share in the Power BI service. 
• Power BI Report Server, an on-premises report server where you can publish your Power BI reports, after creating them in Power BI Desktop

In the Power BI mobile apps for iOS and Android devices, you can annotate a tile, report, or visual and then share it with anyone via email.

If you want to make edits to the dashboard, we recommend you to select Power BI Service.
Some articles for your reference：

What is Power BI? 

Ways to collaborate and share in Power BI 

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Caitlyn

If this post helps then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.