2. About Me
• Business Intelligence Consultant with over 15 years
experience in designing and developing datawarehouses
and analytical solutions.
• I have a Masters degree in Statistics and am passionate
about data, analytics and learning data science.
• Volunteering and sharing my knowledge is my passion. In
my pass time I teach game development for primary
school kids.
3. Agenda
• What is Power BI Report Server ?
• Tips on getting your Power BI Report Server installed
• Create a Power BI Report
• Publish the report on the Power BI Report Server
4. What is Power BI Report Server ?
• Stand alone on premise server
• Built on the same architecture as SQL Server Reporting Services
• One Stop Shop for all your Reporting needs
• Why On Premise ?
5. Key Features
• Host Power BI Reports On-Premises
• Leverage custom visuals
• View reports on-the-go with power bi mobile
• Interact with reports via the web
• Export report data to csv
6. Limitations
• Lack of power bi service features
• Two power bi desktop clients
• Two release cycles for these two PBI desktop clients
• No preview features
• Lack of export options
• Lack of grouping and binning features
• Constrained to analysis services
• Lack of subscription and Alerting features
7. Tips for installing the Power BI Report Server
• You can download a free trial which runs for 180 days
• Installation requires a database instance to create internal
databases
• Use of Report Server Configuration Manager
• If SSRS exists on the same server, rename the database to
something different to ReportServer.
• By default the installation gives access to BuiltinAdministrators
8. Create your first Power BI Report
• Installation file used for PBI Desktop to publish to the Power BI
Report Server is different to the version that is published to PBI
Service.
• When installed can be differentiated by the name of the shortcut
that reflects the Month name and Year.
• You can connect to live Sql Server Analysics Services (as of June
2017 update)
• As per September 2017 update, other sources are added as per
9. Publish your Power BI Report
• Use File Save As option – Publish to PBI Report Server
• For Remote SSAS cube in your Power BI Report – configure
Kerberos
Thank you for being here today. I am Indira Bandari. I am a BI Consultant from HealthLink.
I am here to talk to you about Power BI Report Server
I know that today’s topic may bring up no of questions from you since the product is very new.
I want to let you know that I will address as many as I can in the time we have today.
Moving to the cloud is the future (in fact it is the present) but some organisational policies still prevent moving some of their data into the cloud. And so there is still a need for on-premises solutions. Power BI Report Server is the on-premises alternative to the Power BI Service which hosts reports and dashboards in the cloud. Power BI Report Server reports comes with the flexibility of being able to move to the cloud when the organisation is ready to do so. There are, however, a few differences between the two Power BI versions and hence the need for a separate installation.
Microsoft has made another version of Power BI Desktop available. It is called ‘Power BI Desktop optimized for Report Server’, and can be used to create Power BI reports that can be deployed to an on-premises Power BI Report Server.
With the first release of Power BI Report Server, the most significant of the differences between the 2 versions of Power BI was that the only data source that could be used with Power BI Report Server was a Live Connection to SQL Server Analysis Server (SSAS) tabular model or multidimensional cube. Although connections to other data sources were made available with the August 2017 (preview) release; with limitations to data refresh and no support for direct query, SSAS is still the most feasible data source for a production scenario.
Moving to the cloud is the future (in fact it is the present) but some organisational policies still prevent moving some of their data into the cloud. And so there is still a need for on-premises solutions. Power BI Report Server is the on-premises alternative to the Power BI Service which hosts reports and dashboards in the cloud. Power BI Report Server reports comes with the flexibility of being able to move to the cloud when the organisation is ready to do so. There are, however, a few differences between the two Power BI versions and hence the need for a separate installation.
Microsoft has made another version of Power BI Desktop available. It is called ‘Power BI Desktop optimized for Report Server’, and can be used to create Power BI reports that can be deployed to an on-premises Power BI Report Server.
With the first release of Power BI Report Server, the most significant of the differences between the 2 versions of Power BI was that the only data source that could be used with Power BI Report Server was a Live Connection to SQL Server Analysis Server (SSAS) tabular model or multidimensional cube. Although connections to other data sources were made available with the August 2017 (preview) release; with limitations to data refresh and no support for direct query, SSAS is still the most feasible data source for a production scenario.
The Power BI Report Server is a new, standalone product that allows organizations to host Power BI Reports on an on-premises report server. Additionally, the Power BI Report Server is built upon the same architecture as SQL Server Reporting Services, allowing you to also use the server to host paginated reports, mobile reports, and key performance indicators (KPIs), thus creating a “one-stop shop” for all your reporting assets.
there are several reasons why customers still want, and even need, an on-premises solution to host Power BI Reports.
Complement the Power BI Service
Highly Regulated Customers
Integrate into existing investment in Reporting Services
Suffice it to say that even in 2017 many organizations cannot, or are simply reluctant to, deploy their BI assets to the cloud. The Power BI Report Server serves as a solution to these customers who have been longing for an on-premises option for Power BI.
The Power BI Report Server only offers a subset of functionality found in the Power BI Service, however, as stated above, it is built upon the same platform as SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS). Simply put, you can think of the Power BI Report Server as a superset of SSRS.
Host Power BI Reports On-Premises
deploy paginated reports (.rdl), mobile reports (.rsmobile), and KPIs to the server
LEVERAGE CUSTOM VISUALS
The Power BI Report Server can render custom visuals, which adds almost 100 more visualizations to your toolbelt while authoring reports!
VIEW REPORTS ON-THE-GO WITH POWER BI MOBILE
You can connect to your Power BI Report Server via the Power BI Mobile app! Power BI Mobile currently supports iOS, Android, and Windows mobile platforms.
INTERACT WITH REPORTS VIA THE WEB
Power BI report rendering allows for the same functionality you would expect if you’re familiar with the Power BI Service. Functionality including slicers, cross-filtering, tooltips, and underlying data exploration are all available.
EXPORT REPORT DATA TO CSV
Perfect for those who simply “want to see the numbers”.
Having an on-premises solution for hosting Power BI reports is a great start, but we would be remiss if we didn’t discuss some key limitations.
LACK OF POWER BI SERVICE FEATURES
As its name implies, the Power BI Report Server can only be used to host Power BI reports. Cool features found in the cloud offering, such as dashboards, streaming data, and “Q&A”, are not available. Only reports authored in Power BI Desktop can be hosted on the report server.
TWO POWER BI DESKTOP CLIENTS
Speaking of Power BI Desktop, the Power BI Report Server is intended to be used in tandem with a new Power BI Desktop client that is optimized for on-premises development. This will only be an issue if you have a hybrid Power BI implementation in which you are leveraging both the Power BI Service and the on-premises Power BI Report Server.
For example, you may use the Power BI Report Sever for hosting sensitive reports that should remain behind your corporate firewall. Technically, you can still use the default Power BI Desktop for report authoring, however, you should be extremely careful not to introduce any features in your report that are not yet supported by Power BI Report Server. Otherwise, your report may not render as expected when viewing from the web.
NO PREVIEW FEATURES
While we’re on the topic, Power BI Desktop preview features are not supported by the Power BI Report Server. That means features like custom report themes will have to wait. In fact, the new Desktop client optimized for on-premises doesn’t even give you the option to turn on preview features. Thus, another reason you should stick to the Power BI Desktop client that is suited for your situation.
LACK OF EXPORT OPTIONS
Currently, you only have the option to print a Power BI report from the report server. Options to export the entire report as an Excel file, image, or PowerPoint slide to be used in presentations are lacking.
Since this is an early preview, there are a few limitations to keep in mind as you try it out. Please note that we plan to support all the below scenarios when we make the GA release available in later in 2017. Some current limitations are:
Scheduled data refresh is currently not available for reports using imported data.
Direct Query data connections are not currently supported.
Scale-out environments for Power BI Report Server are not officially supported using the preview release.
Reports must be smaller than 50 MB in size.
If you would like to use Power BI, but your organization can’t/won’t move to the cloud, Power BI Report Server can be a viable alternative, especially if you get a license for free because you had SQL Server Enterprise with active Software Assurance.
