Power BI and SQL Server Reporting Services 2016 in an entirely On-Premises Environment
In my current role as a SQL Server and BI Premier Field Engineer, I support customers that are unable to move to Azure-based Power BI in the near term, so all of my current BI deliverables have a strict requirement to be wholly on-prem. With the upcoming release of SQL Server 2016 RTM, I spent some time exploring SSRS and Power BI I features that I can leverage in my on-premises customer environments within RTM and additionally with the features set to be released post-RTM based on public comments from the SSRS and Power BI product teams. Here is what I discovered.
Power BI Desktop support in SSRS 2016
NOTE: I’m using the publicly released RC3 build.
The big change I noticed is that SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) 2016 now recognizes the .pbix file extension created from Power BI Desktop. With this addition, we can now upload .pbix files into SSRS 2016 to leverage the security model that we’re familiar with in SSRS, controlling permissions to view, update, and delete the reports. This also allows customers who are already using SSRS to begin to integrate Power BI reports into the same reporting structure.
Let’s take a look at the workflow:
1. Upload an existing .pbix report to SSRS 2016 using the Upload button – After uploading a .pbix file into SSRS, notice the Power BI Desktop icon associated with the file and the new category titled “Power BI Desktop Reports” to help organize different file types.
2. Click on the ellipses (…) to show the operations supported for the .pbix files, including “Add to Favorites”. After adding to favorites, you’ll see the star icon below in the screenshot below in step #3.
3. Click on the file to open it on your local instance of Power BI Desktop.
4. Note that clicking on the file in Step #3 opens it from a location on the local machine. As a result, by making changes and saving the file locally, the changes are not reflected on the SSRS server by default. In order to get your changes uploaded, you need to manually replace the file back on the SSRS instance. To do so, click on the ellipses, then “Manage”. On the next screen (shown below), click on the “Replace” button, supply an updated name, and click “Apply” to upload the updated .pbix report.
5. And finally, let’s look at the security model available for.pbix files. To view security details, click on the ellipses, then “Manage”, and then on the “Security” tab to show the existing permissions on the file as well as options to add/edit security permissions as seen below.
Power BI Desktop support in future SSRS (Post SSRS 2016 RTM)
This is where the on-prem story gets great. The top two requested features in Power BI User Voice are on-premises hosting and PowerPoint integration. The Power BI product group has publicly stated that their top priority after RTM is to implement the ability to publish Power BI Desktop reports to on-premises SSRS, allowing the report to be viewed in a browser. Once this functionality is released, we will be able to proceed with a full on-premises workflow that will allow for easier and broader consumption of Power BI reports, ideally where they are integrated into SSRS and able to be opened in a web browser to eliminate the need to the report viewer to run Power BI Desktop on their machine. I am eagerly awaiting this functionality and much more as the impact, usability, and value of Power BI and SSRS at that point will be amazing for on-premises customer environments!
Thanks,
Sam Lester (MSFT)
(Disclaimer – This is not an official roadmap of Power BI and SSRS features, but instead an exploration of available features that can be used in on-premises environments with Power BI Desktop and SQL Server 2016 along with my interpretation post-RTM based on the product group’s official statements of future plans. The official roadmap is located at: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dataplatforminsider/2015/10/29/microsoft-business-intelligence-our-reporting-roadmap/.)