What permissions are needed to perform an update to Power BI Report Server

[micheledubose]

Hello,

In the past, I've updated the Power BI Report Server application where my NT account has sysadmin permissions on the ReportServer and ReportServerTempDb databases. However, I'm not a database administrator and in my company, it is not best practice for a non DBA to has sysadmin permissions on a database. Thus, is sysadmin permissions on the ReportServer and ReportServerTempDb databases required to update Power BI Report Servre?

[micheledubose]

Can anyone assist with this topic?

[v-xiaoyan-msft]

Hi @micheledubose ,

Please correct me if I misunderstood what you meant.
You are referring to the permission to update PBIRS as an application and not the permission to maintain PBIRS as an update, right? you must have the following:

• Local system administrator permissions on the computer that hosts the report server you want to configure. If you are configuring a remote computer, you must have local system administrator permissions on that computer as well.

• You must have permission to create databases on the SQL Server Database Engine used to host the report server database.

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.

[micheledubose]

Hi @v-xiaoyan-msft ,

I'm referring to permissions to update (patch) the PBIRS as an application.  I do not understand the difference between your two statements below.  Can you clarify?

• Local system administrator permissions on the computer that hosts the report server you want to configure.

• If you are configuring a remote computer, you must have local system administrator permissions on that computer as well.

Update: In addition, my assumption is CREATE DATABASES permission is only required for the initial install/creation of thereport server DBs (e.g. ReportServer and ReportServerTempDB).  Is create database really necessary once these DBs already exist?

What DB permissions specifically are needed when updating the PBIRS as an application?  The following table shows the fixed server-level roles and their capabilities.

Fixed server-level role	Description
sysadmin	Members of the sysadmin fixed server role can perform any activity in the server.
serveradmin	Members of the serveradmin fixed server role can change server-wide configuration options and shut down the server.
securityadmin	Members of the securityadmin fixed server role manage logins and their properties. They can GRANT, DENY, and REVOKE server-level permissions. They can also GRANT, DENY, and REVOKE database-level permissions if they have access to a database. Additionally, they can reset passwords for SQL Server logins. IMPORTANT: The ability to grant access to the Database Engine and to configure user permissions allows the security admin to assign most server permissions. The securityadmin role should be treated as equivalent to the sysadmin role. As an alternative, starting with SQL Server 2022, consider using the new fixed server role ##MS_LoginManager##.
processadmin	Members of the processadmin fixed server role can end processes that are running in an instance of SQL Server.
setupadmin	Members of the setupadmin fixed server role can add and remove linked servers by using Transact-SQL statements. (sysadmin membership is needed when using Management Studio.)
bulkadmin	Members of the bulkadmin fixed server role can run the BULK INSERT statement. The bulkadmin role or ADMINISTER BULK OPERATIONS permissions isn't supported for SQL Server on Linux. Only the sysadmin can perform bulk inserts for SQL Server on Linux.
diskadmin	The diskadmin fixed server role is used for managing disk files.
dbcreator	Members of the dbcreator fixed server role can create, alter, drop, and restore any database.
public	Every SQL Server login belongs to the public server role. When a server principal hasn't been granted or denied specific permissions on a securable object, the user inherits the permissions granted to public on that object. Only assign public permissions on any object when you want the object to be available to all users. You can't change membership in public. Note: public is implemented differently than other roles, and permissions can be granted, denied, or revoked from the public fixed server roles.