Forum Discussion
Proper use of Power BI and SQL Server
Hi, everybody, I'm not sure if this is in the right section, so feel free to correct me or move it where it belongs...
So, Im (evidently) new to Power BI.
Right now I have an old version of Crystal Reports and I would like to update our reporting tools.
All my reports are created from SPs, but Power BI takes way longer to process the information from SQL than Crystal.
I understand that Paginated reports are not exactly Power Bi specialty, but maybe there is a way.
I need to query big amounts of data from SQL, sometimes with up to date data. But it takes too long with Power BI compared to a Query directly in SQL Server or compared to Crystal Reports. What would be a solution to this situation?
I was thinking that maybe (for the reports that don't requiere up to date data) use an intermediate data source that could be created nightly and query from that, but what could this intermediate data source be? Excel? Something better (idealy)?
I took a look at SSRS, but I'm not sure if having both SSRS and Power BI is a good idea
Should I use SSRS to paginated reports and somehow mix that with Power Bi to data analysis reports?
Can I use a SSRS report as a data source for Power Bi?
In short, what is the correct aproach to replace Crystal with Power BI and/or SSRS?
Thank you very much, I've been searching information and doing test for a while, I need quite a bit of clarification.
HI FcoLG
SSRS provides more customization features for us to design the report, for example, custom code, many properties for each control. And it can be built to integrate with SharePoint. And Power BI can provide us interaction features between visuals, data modeling and publish to web features. For more information, you can take a look at this same thread: Power BI Vs SSRS.
I need to query big amounts of data from SQL, sometimes with up to date data. But it takes too long with Power BI compared to a Query directly in SQL Server or compared to Crystal Reports.
If you'd like to keep the data up to date, you can set the schedule refresh in service: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/refresh-scheduled-refresh
Also, an incremental refresh is doable if you have premium capacity: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/service-premium-incremental-refresh
If you'd like to have the function of both SSRS and Power bi, I'd like to suggest you use Power Bi Report server:
With Power BI Report Server, it is possible to store paged reports, send reports automatically by e-mail, and all the options that exist in SSRS.
1 Reply
- v-diye-msft
Community Support
HI FcoLG
SSRS provides more customization features for us to design the report, for example, custom code, many properties for each control. And it can be built to integrate with SharePoint. And Power BI can provide us interaction features between visuals, data modeling and publish to web features. For more information, you can take a look at this same thread: Power BI Vs SSRS.
I need to query big amounts of data from SQL, sometimes with up to date data. But it takes too long with Power BI compared to a Query directly in SQL Server or compared to Crystal Reports.
If you'd like to keep the data up to date, you can set the schedule refresh in service: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/refresh-scheduled-refresh
Also, an incremental refresh is doable if you have premium capacity: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/service-premium-incremental-refresh
If you'd like to have the function of both SSRS and Power bi, I'd like to suggest you use Power Bi Report server:
With Power BI Report Server, it is possible to store paged reports, send reports automatically by e-mail, and all the options that exist in SSRS.