Power BI Reporting Server on Standard DB Engine

Question

Is it possible for the .pbix files to work correctly when the Power BI reporting server (PBIRS) is installed on a Standard DB Engine?

According to the below link, it looks contradictory as while it states that Standard edition is possible, it also states that the Power BI reports are only supported in Enterprise.

What are the features that Power BI report would miss when installed on a DB engine in SQL Standard edition?

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/reporting-services/reporting-services-features-supported-by-the-editions-of-sql-server-2016?view=sql-server-ver16

Answer 1

Hi @Jessy,

Thanks for your feedback.

I checked out an article and got the information below:

If you buy your PBIRS licenses through having Premium capacity in the Power BI service, you can install SQL Server standard edition, exclusively for the purposes of Power BI or other products like SSRS or SSIS that require a SQL Server database.

So, I think there is not any hidden feature difference/limitation if you buy your licenses as the article says.

Hope this can help you well.

Best regards,

Lucy Chen

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Answer 2

Hi @Jessy,

Thanks for your information.

We can get information from this article:

Power BI Report Server is available through two different licenses: Power BI Premium and SQL Server Enterprise Edition with Software Assurance. See Microsoft Volume Licensing for details. With a Power BI Premium license, you can create a hybrid deployment mixing cloud and on-premises.

• I've checked the licensing datasheet of SQL Server 2017, 2019,2022.
• Hope this article can help you learn more information.

• In addition, I found an issue talking about the PBIRS:

So, bottom line is, you cannot install PBIRS on any server other than the one where the SQL Enterprise SA license is installed. This will have a major impact on our planning, as we will be essentially wasting a very expensive Enterprise license for the sole purpose of running a report server.

You can check out the issue and hope it can help you well.

Feel free to share your issue here.

Best regards,

Lucy Chen

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Answer 3

Thank you @LucyChenMSFT-4874 for your detailed answer. Very helpful to know that others have encountered this dilemma as well, as it has been difficult finding smth reliable about it

However, I actually installed PBIRS on Standard DB engine. From a quick check all looks working quite okay, despite that in the article I provided, it was said that .pbix files are not supported on Standard DB engine, but in my case that seems to be working correctly.

Nonetheless , I am doubtful whether there is any hidden feature difference/limitation , so that I know what to expect in the future