Document

Contents
Power BI Report Server documentation

Overview
What is Power BI Report Server?
Compare Power BI Report Server and the service
Tutorials
Explore Power BI Report Server in a VM
Concepts
What's new
Administrator overview
Change log
Support timeline
Always Encrypted support
Hardware and software requirements
Browser support
Report server basics
Power BI report scheduled refresh
Power BI report data sources
Paginated report data sources
Subscriptions
Using the mobile app
Report server for developers
Report server for developers
Report Viewer control
Develop extensions
Embed reports
How to
Install Power BI Desktop
Install Report Builder
Report server basics
Create a Power BI report for a report server
Manage content in the report server
Row-level security (RLS) in the report server
Create a paginated report for a report server
Enter data directly in a paginated report
Work with KPIs
Access shared datasets as OData feeds
Change data source connection strings with PowerShell
Change data source connection strings with PowerShell, pre-October 2020
Configure scheduled refresh
Add comments to a report
Report server for admins
Install a report server
Find your product key
Upgrade a report server
Migrate a report server
Configure Kerberos to use Power BI reports
Configure mobile app access remotely
Configure WAP and AD FS
Configure a report server with Azure Application Proxy
Remote mobile access with Azure AD
Host Excel workbooks
Troubleshoot
Troubleshoot custom visuals in Power BI Desktop
Troubleshoot scheduled refresh
Reference
REST API
WMI
SOAP APIs
URL Access
Extensions
Resources
Capacity planning whitepaper
Capacity planning whitepaper
PDF Rendering Extension conformance
3/5/2021 • 3 minutes to read • Edit Online
Power BI Report Server is an on-premises report server with a web portal in which you display and manage
reports and KPIs. Along with it come the tools to create Power BI reports, paginated reports, mobile reports, and
KPIs. Your users can access those reports in different ways: viewing them in a web browser or mobile device, or
as an email in their in-box.
Comparing Power BI Report Server

Power BI Report Server is similar to both SQL Server Reporting Services and the Power BI online service, but in
different ways. Like the Power BI service, Power BI Report Server hosts Power BI reports (.pbix), Excel files, and
paginated reports (.rdl). Like Reporting Services, Power BI Report Server is on premises. Power BI Report Server
features are a superset of Reporting Services: everything you can do in Reporting Services, you can do with
Power BI Report Server, along with support for Power BI reports. See Comparing Power BI Report Server and
the Power BI service for details.
Licensing Power BI Report Server
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.
If you publish Power BI reports to Power BI Report Server, you also need a Power BI Pro license. You don't need a
Power BI Pro license to view and interact with Power BI reports on Power BI Report Server.
NOTE
For Power BI Premium, Power BI Report Server is only included with P SKUs. It is not included with EM SKUs.
Web portal
The entry point for Power BI Report Server is a secure web portal you can view in any modern browser. Here,
you access all your reports and KPIs. The content on the web portal is organized in a traditional folder hierarchy.
In your folders, content is grouped by type: Power BI reports, mobile reports, paginated reports, KPIs, and Excel
workbooks. Shared datasets and shared data sources are in their own folders, to use as building blocks for your
reports. You tag favorites to view them in a single folder. And you create KPIs right in the web portal.
Depending on your permissions, you can manage the content in the web portal. You can schedule report
processing, access reports on demand, and subscribe to published reports. You can also apply your own custom
branding to your web portal.
More about the Power BI Report Server web portal.
Power BI reports
You create Power BI reports (.pbix) with the version of Power BI Desktop optimized for the report server. Then
you publish them and view them in the web portal in your own environment.
A Power BI report is a multi-perspective view into a data model, with visualizations that represent different
findings and insights from that data model. A report can have a single visualization or pages full of
visualizations. Depending on your role, you may read and explore reports, or you may create them for others.
Read about installing Microsoft Power BI Desktop.
Paginated reports
Paginated reports (.rdl) are document-style reports with visualizations, in which tables expand horizontally and
vertically to display all their data, continuing from page to page as needed. They're great for generating fixed-
layout, pixel-perfect documents optimized for printing, such as PDF and Word files.
You can create paginated reports using Report Builder or Report Designer in SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT).
Reporting Services mobile reports

Mobile reports connect to on-premises data and have a responsive layout that adapts to different devices and
the different ways you hold them. You create them with SQL Server Mobile Report Publisher.
More about Reporting Services mobile reports.
Report Server programming features

Take advantage of Power BI Report Server programming features to extend and customize your reports, with
APIs to integrate or extend data and report processing in custom applications.
More Report Server developer documentation.
Next steps
Install Power BI Report Server
Download Report Builder
More questions? Try asking the Power BI Community
Comparing Power BI Report Server and the Power
BI service
Power BI Report Server and the Power BI service have many similarities and some key differences. This table
explains which is which.
Features of Power BI Report Server and the Power BI service

F EAT URES P O W ER B I REP O RT SERVER P O W ER B I SERVIC E N OT ES
Analyze in Excel No Yes Analyze in Excel
Deployment On-premises or hosted Cloud Power BI Report Server can

cloud be deployed in Azure VMs
(hosted cloud) if licensed
through Power BI Premium
or SQL Server Enterprise
with Software Assurance
Data sources Cloud and/or on-premises Cloud and/or on-premises
License Power BI Premium or SQL Power BI Pro and/or Power

Server EE with Software BI Premium
Assurance (SA)
Lifecycle Modern lifecycle policy Fully managed service
Release cycle Three times a year (January, Once a month Latest features and fixes
May, September) come to the Power BI
service first. A rollup of
features from Power BI
Desktop releases for the
service comes to Power BI
Report Server in each
release; most other features
are only meant for the
Power BI service.
Composite models No Yes
Connect to services like Yes Yes Connect to the services you

Salesforce use with template apps in
the Power BI service. In
Power BI Report Server, use
certified connectors to
connect to services. See
Power BI report data
sources in Power BI Report
Server for details.
Create Power BI reports in Yes Yes

Power BI Desktop
Create Power BI reports in No Yes

the browser
Dashboards No Yes Dashboards in the Power BI

service
Distribute group of reports No Yes Create and publish apps

using apps with dashboards and
reports
Gateway required No Yes for on-premises data

sources
Host and connect to Power No Yes Intro to datasets across

BI shared datasets workspaces
Organizational content No Yes Organizational content

packs packs are being deprecated,
and replaced by template
apps.
Q&A No Yes Q&A in the Power BI

service and Power BI
Desktop
Quick insights No Yes Automatically generate data

insights with Power BI
Paginated reports Yes Yes Paginated reports are

available in the Power BI
service in a Premium
capacity
Power BI mobile apps Yes Yes Power BI mobile apps

overview
Real-time streaming No Yes Real-time streaming in

Power BI
Automatic page refresh for No Yes Automatic page refresh

DirectQuery models
ArcGIS for Power BI Yes Yes ArcGIS for Power BI
Email subscriptions for No Yes Subscribe yourself or others

Power BI reports to a report or dashboard in
the Power BI service
Email subscriptions for Yes Yes Subscribe yourself and

paginated reports others to paginated reports
in the Power BI service
Email delivery in Reporting

Services
Data alerts No Yes Data alerts in the Power BI

service
Row-level security (RLS) Yes Yes Available in both

DirectQuery (data source)
& Import mode
Row-level security in the

Power BI service
Row-level security in Power

BI Report Server
Many-to-many No Yes Apply many-to-many

relationships relationships in Power BI
Desktop
Cross-report drillthrough No Yes Use cross-report

drillthrough
Full-screen mode No Yes Full-screen mode in the

Power BI service
Advanced Microsoft 365 No Yes Collaborate in a workspace

collaboration with Microsoft 365
R scripts and visuals No Yes Create R visuals and run R

scripts in Power BI Desktop
and publish them to the
Power BI service. You can't
save Power BI reports with
R scripts or visuals to Power
BI Report Server.
Python scripts and visuals No Yes Create Python scripts and

visuals in Power BI Desktop
and publish them to the
Power BI service. You can't
save Power BI reports with
Python scripts or visuals to
Power BI Report Server.
Preview features No Yes Opt in for Power BI service

preview features
Power BI visuals Yes Yes Power BI visuals

Power BI Desktop Version optimized for Version optimized for Power Power BI Desktop for the
Report Server, available for BI Service, available from report server
download with Report the Windows Store
Server Power BI Desktop for the
Power BI service
Template apps No Yes Install and distribute

template apps in your
organization
Next steps
Tutorial: Explore the Power BI Report Server web
portal in a VM
In this tutorial, you create an Azure virtual machine with Power BI Report Server already installed, so you can
experience viewing, editing, and managing sample Power BI and paginated reports, and KPIs.
Here are the tasks you'll do in this tutorial:

Create and connect to a VM
Start and explore the Power BI Report Server web portal
Tag a favorite item
View and edit a Power BI report
View, manage, and edit a paginated report
View an Excel workbook in Excel Online
For this tutorial, you need an Azure subscription. If you don’t have one, create a free account before you begin.
Create a Power BI Report Server VM

Luckily, the Power BI team has created a VM that comes with Power BI Report Server already installed.
1. In the Azure Marketplace, select Power BI Report Server. This link opens it directly: Power BI Report
Server.
2. Select Get it now .
3. To agree to the provider's terms of use and privacy policy, select Continue .
4. Select Create .
5. In Step 1 Basics , for VM Name , call it repor tser ver vm .

The Power BI Report Server VM name can't contain dashes.
6. Create a user name and password.
7. For Resource group , select Create new , and call it repor tser verresourcegroup > OK .
If you go through the tutorial more than once, you need to give the resource group a different name after
the first time. You can't use the same resource group name twice in one subscription.
8. Keep the other defaults > OK .
9. In Step 2 Settings , keep the defaults > OK .
The SQL Storage account and Diagnostics Storage account values must also be unique. If you go
through the tutorial more than once, you need to give them different names.
10. In Step 3 Summar y , review your selections > OK .
11. In Step 4 Buy , review the Terms of user and privacy policy > Create .
The Submitting deployment for Power BI Repor t Ser ver process may take several minutes.
Connect to your virtual machine

1. In the Azure nav pane, select Vir tual machines .
2. In the Filter by name box, type "report".
3. Select the VM named REPORTSERVERVM .
4. Under REPORTSERVERVM Virtual machine, select Connect .
5. In the Connect to vir tual machine pane, keep the defaults and select Download RDP File .
6. In the Remote Desktop Connection dialog box, select Connect .
7. Enter the name and password you created for the VM > OK .
8. The next dialog box says The identity of the remote computer cannot be identified . Select Yes .
Voila, your new VM opens.
Power BI Report Server on the VM

When your VM opens, here are the items you see on the desktop.
N UM B ER W H AT IT IS
Sample Power BI (.PBIX) reports
Links to Power BI Report Server documentation
Starts Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server (January

2021)
Opens Power BI Report Server web portal in the browser
Starts SQL Server Data Tools, for creating paginated (.RDL)

reports
Double-click the Repor t Ser ver Web Por tal icon. The browser opens https://localhost/reports/browse . In
the web portal, you see various files grouped by type.
N UM B ER W H AT IT IS
KPIs created in the web portal
Power BI (.PBIX) reports
Mobile reports created in SQL Server Mobile Report

Publisher
Paginated reports created in Report Builder or SQL Server

Data Tools
Excel workbooks
Data sources for paginated reports
Tag your favorites

You can tag the reports and KPIs that you want to be favorites. They're easier to find because they're all gathered
in a single Favorites folder, both in the web portal and in the Power BI mobile apps.
1. Select the ellipsis (… ) in the upper-right corner of the Profit Margin KPI > Add to Favorites .
2. Select Favorites on the web portal ribbon to see it along with your other favorites on the Favorites page
in the web portal.
3. Select Browse to go back to the web portal.
View items in List view

By default, the web portal displays its contents in Tile view.
You can switch to List view, where it's easy to move or delete multiple items at a time.
1. Select Tiles > List .
2. Go back to Tiles view: Select List > Tiles .
Power BI reports
You can view and interact with Power BI reports in the web portal, and start Power BI Desktop right from the
web portal.
View Power BI reports
1. In the web portal under Power BI repor ts , select Sample Customer Over view Repor t . The report
opens in the browser.
2. Select the United States block in the tree map to see how it highlights related values in the other visuals.
Edit in Power BI Desktop
1. Select Edit in Power BI Desktop .
2. Select Allow to allow this web site to open a program on your computer.
The report opens in Power BI Desktop. Note the name in the top bar, "Power BI Desktop (January 2021)".
That's the version optimized for Power BI Report Server.
Use the version of Power BI Desktop that's installed on the VM. You can't go across domains to upload a
report.
3. In the Fields pane, expand the Customers table and drag the Occupation field to Report level filters.
4. Save the report.
5. Go back to the report in the browser and select the browser Refresh icon.
6. Expand the Filters pane on the right to see the Occupation filter you added. Select Professional .
Paginated (.RDL) reports

You can view and manage paginated reports, and launch Report Builder, from the web portal.
Manage a paginated report
1. In the web portal under Paginated repor ts , select More options (...) next to Sales Order > Manage .
2. Select Parameters , change the default value for SalesOrderNumber to SO50689 > Apply .

View a paginated report
1. Select Sales Order in the web portal.
2. You see it opened to the Order parameter you set, SO50689 .
You can change that parameter here, along with the other parameters, without changing the defaults.
3. Select Order SO48339 > View Repor t .
4. You see that this is page 1 of 2. Select the right arrow to see the second page. The table continues on that
page.
Edit a paginated report
You can edit paginated reports in Report Builder, and you can start Report Builder right from the browser.
1. In the web portal, select More options (...) next to Sales Order > Edit in Repor t Builder .
2. Select Allow to allow this web site to open a program on your computer.
3. The Sales Order report opens in Design View in Report Builder.
4. Select Run to preview the report.

5. Close Report Builder and go back to the browser.
View Excel workbooks

You can view and interact with Excel workbooks in Excel Online in Power BI Report Server.
1. Select the Excel workbook Office Liquidation Sale.xlsx . It may ask for credentials. Select Cancel . It
opens in the web portal.
2. Select Appliance in the slicer.
Clean up resources
Now that you've finished this tutorial, delete the resource group, virtual machine, and all related resources.
To do so, select the resource group for the VM and select Delete .
Next steps
In this tutorial, you've created a VM with Power BI Report Server. You've tried some of the functionality of the
web portal, and you've opened a Power BI report and a paginated report in their respective editors. This VM has
SQL Server Analysis Services data sources installed, so you can try creating your own Power BI and paginated
reports with those same data sources.
To learn more about creating reports for Power BI Report Server, continue on.
Create a Power BI report for Power BI Report Server
What's new in Power BI Report Server
Learn about what's new in the latest versions of Power BI Report Server and Power BI Desktop for Power BI
Report Server. This article covers the major feature areas and is updated with each new release. For more about
what's new in Power BI Report Server, see the Change log for Power BI Report Server.
Download Power BI Report Server and Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server.
May 2021
Here’s a list of new and updated features. For details, see the Power BI Report Server blog post for May 2021.
Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server
Highlighted new features
Here are highlights of the the new features in Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server.
Smart guides for aligning objects are now available in the mobile layout view.
Invert axis and continuous axis sorting.
CALCULATE filters are easier to use.
Performance improvements to IF and SWITCH functions.
Text/CSV by example.
Other new and updated features
Repor ting
New and improved shapes
New field list
Search bar
Updated color picker
New filter operations: “is empty” and “is not empty”
Analytics
X axis constant line for line charts.
Modeling
IF.EAGER
CROSSFILTER supports many-to-many relationships.
Other
Certificate revocation check controls now available in Desktop interface.
Simplifying collection of diagnostic information.
January 2021
What follows is a list of new and updated features. For details, see the Power BI Report Server blog post for
January 2021.
Here are some highlights of new features.
Power BI repor ts
Apply all filters is now generally available
Visual Zoom Slider
Certificate revocation check for web connections
Selection pane in the mobile layout view
ArcGIS for Power BI support
Data connectivity
Hive LLAP connector generally available
New connectors: Actian, Anaplan, Starburst Presto
New connection metadata format (preview)
We've updated the way that connection metadata is stored in the .pbix file format in October. This update is part
of a long-term journey to make .pbix files more programmatically accessible and editable. We've already
enabled the change in the version of Power BI Desktop that releases monthly in line with the Power BI service.
We're previewing the changes in this release of Power BI Desktop for Report Server, starting this month.
Starting with this release you'll see the following notification prompting you to turn on the preview and upgrade
to the enhanced format:
"Coming soon--turn on the enhanced metadata format preview to get better performance and security updates
in Power BI."
Note the following:
Existing datasets will continue to work, even without upgrading. They will get upgraded when the enhanced
format is made generally available.
Power BI Desktop for Report Server will automatically upgrade an existing dataset to the enhanced format
for you. We recommend not overwriting existing reports on Report Server with this upgraded version, in
case you want to revert back to the previous format.
Joining this preview is optional, although we encourage you to try it out and give us your feedback! We aim
to make the enhanced format generally available as the only option in the next release of Report Server.
As an administrator, you can disable this preview, force V3 off, and hide the preview feature check box. Set the
following DWORD value to 0 in the registry: AllowV3Models in either:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Microsoft Power BI Desktop SSRS]

"AllowV3Models"=dword:00000000
or
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Microsoft Power BI Desktop SSRS]

"AllowV3Models"=dword:00000000
See Using enhanced dataset metadata for more information.

Power BI Report Server
Browser suppor t deprecation
If you're using Edge Legacy or Internet Explorer 11, it's time to upgrade your browser. Support for the Microsoft
Edge Legacy browser stopped beginning March 9, 2021, and Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 support for
Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 will stop beginning August 17, 2021.
You'll see a warning in the Power BI Report Server web portal that Internet Explorer 11 is being deprecated. Time
to upgrade! See Browser support for Power BI Report Server for details.
New product icon
Power BI Report Server has a new product icon, in keeping with the new icons rolling out across all Microsoft
products.
October 2020
What follows is a complete list of new and updated features. For details, see the Power BI Report Server blog
post for October 2020.
Here are some highlights of new features.
Modern ribbon
The modern ribbon has come to Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server. We'll continue to make additions
and add more features to the ribbon. See Use the updated ribbon in Power BI Desktop to learn more about its
changes and benefits.
Hierarchy slicers
You can build what's called a hierarchy slicer to filter multiple related fields in a single slicer. Now that it's
generally available, it benefits from added functionality:
New options for expand/collapse icons.
Icons now scale with font size.
Customizable indentation for child items.
Further customization for slicer header text.
See Slicers in Power BI in the documentation for details.
Mobile authoring enhancements
In this release we are introducing an improved mobile layout authoring experience and more mobile layout
capabilities. As more organizations have adopted the Power BI mobile apps, we've received feedback asking for
more capabilities and improvements for the mobile authoring experience. The enhancements in this release will
help you more easily build compelling, interactive reports optimized for mobile devices.
Here are the new experiences and capabilities for building mobile-optimized reports:
New phone emulator
Updated visualization pane
Support for overlaid visuals
Bookmarks available in the mobile layout view
Turn off gridlines and snap togrid
See this blog post, Enhancements to mobile authoring, for details.
Data Preparation: Automatic table detection from Excel files
This new feature of the Excel connector automatically identifies sections of each Excel spreadsheet to extract into
a table. It shows them under a “Suggested Tables” group in the Navigator. Previously, data had to be formatted
as a table or named range in Excel. Otherwise you had to scrape the relevant rows/columns with specific
transforms, such as skip rows and remove columns, from worksheet objects, as in Sheet1 in the following
example.To use this feature, you need to enable it in the Settings dialog box.
Modeling: Enhanced Dataset Metadata

In the past, only loadable queries generated in Power Query were mapped to the data model. Now all queries
are mapped to objects in the data model. The queries are regenerated based off the data model when you open
that PBIX file.
This backend update has unlocked future feature improvements and will continue to do so.
For example:
With the addition of external tools in Power BI Desktop (currently in preview), tables you add through these
external tools now appear as queries when you reopen your report.
If you've tried to export a PBIT file and unzip the file, you now see the model in JSON and no longer get
errors about corrupted files.
If you have an older PBIX that can't automatically update, for reasons such as unapplied changes, you need to
successfully upgrade your model before you can make any other modeling changes.
Suppor t for Windows 7 ends
After 10 years, support for Windows 7 ended on January 14, 2020. In line with this change, we stopped support
for Power BI Desktop on Windows 7 on January 31, 2021. Power BI Desktop is only supported on Windows 8
and newer. The January 2021 release of Power BI Desktop optimized for Report Server will be supported
according to the Modern Lifecycle Policy. In other words, it's fully supported until the next release (currently
scheduled for May 2021). After May 2021, it will only receive security updates until January 2022. All support
will stop after January 2022. See the Power BI Report Server support timeline for details.
Complete list of updates
Here’s a complete list of the updates in the October edition of Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server.
Repor ting
Modern ribbon
Canvas watermarks
Total labels for stacked visuals
Added general visual option to maintain layerorder
Gradient legend
Relative time filter
Ability to further customize slicer header text
Hierarchical slicer improvements
New options for expand/collapse icons
Icons now scale with font size
Ability to customize indentation for child items
Mobile authoringenhancements
New phone emulator
Updated visualization pane
Support for overlaid visuals
Bookmark available in the Mobile layout view
Turn off gridlines and snap togrid
Visualizations
Line chart dot formatting options
Modeling
Enhanced Dataset Metadata
Performance improvements to IF and SWITCH functions
Support for Excel financial functions
Model view enabled for live connect
Updates to Model view
Data preparation
Global option to disable automatic type detection
Other
Export data source to PBIDS in Power BI Desktop
Desktop splash screen dismiss
Change data source connection strings in Power BI repor ts with PowerShell
In the October release of Power BI Report Server, we are enabling the ability to update connections for Power BI
reports for DirectQuery and Refresh. This ability is also a breaking change in how you could set it up in previous
releases. To learn more, see Change data source connection strings in Power BI reports with PowerShell - Power
BI Report Server.
May 2020
Among the highlights of this update are the hierarchical slicer and decomposition tree visuals, and query
diagnostics. What follows is a complete list of new and updated features. For details, see the Power BI Report
Server blog post for May 2020.
Reporting
Hierarchical slicer
New action types for buttons:
Page navigation
Drillthrough
Buttons now support fill images
Multi-column sort for tables
Dual axis for line charts
Rectangle select for visuals
Conditional formatting for totals and subtotals in tables and matrices
Customize theme dialog
Conditional formatting discoverability
Decomposition tree
Filter pane updates:
New filter pane experience
Filter pane search
Modeling
New DAX functions:
FirstNonBlankValue
LastNonBlankValue
Coalesce
Standard DAX separators
Visualizations
New visualization icons
Visual drop shadows
Data Preparation
Query diagnostics
Other
Using default system credentials for web proxy
Power BI visuals API
The API version shipped with this release is 3.2.
January 2020
See the Power BI Report Server January 2020 blog post for more details.
This release brings many new features, such as conditional formatting for buttons, data profiling enhancements,
and more formatting settings for KPIs and table visuals. Here's a summarized list of updates:
Repor ting
Setting a table column or matrix value as a custom URL
KPI visual formatting settings
Filter pane experience updates
Analytics
Conditionally format buttons
Load more for Analyze insights
New DAX function: Quarter
Data preparation
Data profiling enhancements
Other
New file format: .pbids
Performance improvements for modeling operations
Repor ting
Set a table column or matrix value as a custom URL
You can set a table column or matrix value as a custom URL. You find this new option under the conditional
formatting card in the formatting pane.
KPI visual formatting settings
With this month's release, KPIs have new formatting options:
Indicator text formatting (font family, color, and alignment)
Trend axis transparency
Goal and distance text formatting (label text, font family, color, and size)
Distance text formatting (label text, positive direction, font family, color, and size)
Adding a date label with formatting (font family, color, and size)
You can conditionally format some of these new formatting options:
Indicator font color
Goal font color and Goal Distance font color
The good/bad/neutral status colors
Date font color
Filter pane experience updates
As part of the general availability of the new filter experience from the last release, we have streamlined the
process to transition current reports to the new pane. When you open Power BI Report Server for the first time,
you see a filter pane auto-update dialog. These updates also include banners in Report Server when reports
need to be migrated to the new experience.
Analytics
Conditional formatting for buttons
These conditional formatting updates are all button related. You can now dynamically set formatting for the
following properties:
Button text font color
Button text
Icon line color
Outline color
Fill Color
Button tooltip (under the action card)
Load more for Analyze insights
When running the Analyze feature to find insights in your data, such as Explain the increase, we only run the
machine-learning models for a set period of time to show you insights in a timely manner. If there's a lot of data
to analyze, you can now choose to continue to run the analysis after the initial timeout.
New DAX function: Quarter
This month, we have a new DAX function, Quarter. The Quarter function returns the quarter corresponding to a
specified date.
Data preparation
Data profiling enhancements
This month we're introducing a couple of significant enhancements to our Data Profiling capabilities within the
Power Query Editor, including:
Multiple Grouping options for the Column Profile pane value distribution visual, specific by column type, in
addition to the existing "By Value" criteria.
Text: By Text Length (number of characters).
Number: By Sign (positive/negative) and Parity (even/odd).
Date/DateTime: By Year, Month, Day, Week of Year, Day of Week, AM/PM Time, and Hour within a day.
And more for other data types, for example Logical True/False.
Filter options
You could already leverage several type-specific grouping criteria within the Column Profiles distribution pane.
Now, you can also filter from within the callouts for each of the values in the distribution chart when grouping
criteria is applied. For example, from the Data Profiles pane for a Date/DateTime column, you can exclude all
values that fall in a given Month.
Other
New file format: .pbids
This month we are releasing a new file format: .pbids, to streamline the "Get Data" experience for report creators
in your organization. We recommend that admins create these files for commonly used connections.
When a report creator opens a .pbids file, Power BI Desktop prompts for authentication to connect to the data
source specified in the file. Then the user selects the tables to load into the model. They may also need to select
the database if one was not specified in the file. From there, the report creator can start building visualizations.
Find details and examples in the Using .pbids files to get data section of the "Data sources in Power BI Desktop"
article.
Performance improvements for modeling operations
We have made a performance improvement in the Analysis Services engine to speed up modeling operations
such as adding measures or calculated columns and creating relationships. The amount of improvement you see
depends on the model, but we have seen 20x performance improvement for some customers for actions like
opening a file and adding a measure.
That's all for the January 2020 release of Power BI Report Server. Continue sending feedback, and don't forget to
vote for features that you'd like to see in the Power BI.
Export to Excel from Power BI reports
Exporting to Excel from a Power BI report in Power BI Report Server now works the same as exporting to Excel
from a Power BI report in the Power BI service. You can export directly to the Excel .xlsx format, and the export
limit is 150 K rows.
Azure SQL Managed Instance support
You can now host a database catalog used for Power BI Report Server in an Azure SQL Managed Instance (MI)
that's hosted either in a VM or in your data center. Support is limited to using database credentials for the
connection to SQL MI.
Power BI Premium dataset support
You can connect to Power BI datasets using either Microsoft Report Builder or SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT).
Then you can publish those reports to Power BI Report Server using SQL Server Analysis Services connectivity.
Users need to use a stored Windows user name and password to enable the scenario.
AltText (alternative text) support for report elements
When authoring reports, you can use tooltips to specify text for each element on the report. Screen reader
technologies will use these tooltips.
Azure Active Directory Application Proxy support
With Azure Active Directory Application Proxy, you no longer need to manage your own web application proxy
in order to allow secure access via the web or mobile apps. See Remote access to on-premises applications
through Azure Active Directory's Application Proxy for more information.
Custom headers
Sets header values for all URLs matching the specified regex pattern. Users can update the custom header value
with valid XML to set header values for selected request URLs. Admins can add any number of headers in the
XML. See CustomHeaders in the Reporting Services Ser ver Proper ties Advanced Page article for details.
Transparent Database Encryption
Power BI Report Server now supports Transparent Database Encryption for the Power BI Report Server catalog
database for Enterprise and Standard editions.
Power BI visuals API
The API version shipped with this release is 2.6.0.
Microsoft Report Builder update
The newly released version of Report Builder is fully compatible with the 2016, 2017, and 2019 versions of
Reporting Services. It's also compatible with all released and supported versions of Power BI Report Server.
September 2019
See the Power BI Report Server September 2019 blog post for details about all the new features.
The September 2019 update of Power BI Report Server is packed with lots of Power BI report features. Here are
some of the highlights:
Visual-level filters for slicers You can add a visual-level filter to slicers. It works like any other visual-level
filter, just filtering the slicer itself and no other visuals. This filter is for useful for filtering out blanks or if you
want to use measure filters.
Icon sets for table and matrix With KPI icons, you can set up rules for showing different sets of icons in
your table and matrix, similar to icon sets in Excel.
Grouping visuals Now you can you group visuals, shapes, text boxes, images, and buttons together on a
report page just like in PowerPoint. When you group objects together, you can move and resize them all
together. Grouping makes it easier to work in a report with lots of objects layered on each page.
New default themes To go along with the new theme JSON options, we are updating the themes available
for reports, and changing the default theme for new reports. The new default theme both aligns better with
Microsoft's design language and follows best design practices for visuals.
Updated pane design We've refreshed much of our interface. We've updated all the panes, the footer, and
view switcher to be a lighter color, updated spacing, and introduced new icons. The new design is the first
step to refreshing the entire interface.
Here's the complete list of features.
Reporting
Updated pane design
Visual level filters for slicers
Sorting for the performance analyzer pane
Visual header tooltips
Table & matrix total label customization
Sync slicer support for hierarchy slicer
Consistent font sizes across visuals
Icon sets for table and matrix
Percent support for conditional formatting by rules
New filter pane is now generally available
Data colors support when using play axis on scatter charts
Performance improves when using relative date and dropdown slicers
Grouping visuals
Color and text classes in themes
New default themes
Analytics
Custom format strings
Conditional formatting updates for formatting options
Visual background and title colors
Card colors
Gauge fill and colors
Alt text
Border color
Conditional formatting warnings
Drillthrough discoverability improvement
New DAX expressions: REMOVEFILTERS and CONVERT
New DAX comparison operator: ==
Data preparation
Improvements to M Intellisense
New Transform: Split column by positions
Copy to clipboard from data profiling
May 2019
See the Power BI Report Server May 2019 blog post for details about all the new features.
Here are some of the highlights of the release:
Performance analyzer
If your report runs slower than you expect, try the Performance Analyzer in Power BI Desktop. When you start it,
it creates a log file with information about every action you take in the report. Read more about the
Performance Analyzer.
New modeling view
In the new Modeling view in Power BI Desktop, you can view and work with complex datasets that contain many
tables. Highlights include multiple diagram layouts and bulk editing of columns, measures, and tables. Read
more about Modeling view.
Accessible visual interaction
You can now access data points on many of the built-in visuals using keyboard navigation. Read more about
accessibility in Power BI reports.
Conditional formatting titles and web URL actions
Power BI reports are interactive. It makes sense that titles in a report would be dynamic, to reflect the current
state of the report. You can use the same expression-bound formatting to make the URLs of your buttons,
shapes, and images dynamic. Read more about expression-based titles.
Cross-highlight by axis labels
Select the axis category labels in a visual to cross-highlight the other elements on a page, just as you would
select the data points in a visual. Read more about cross-highlighting.
All the new features
Here's the list of all the new features:
Reporting
Cross-highlight on a single point in line charts
Word wrap on titles
Update default visual interaction to cross-filter ¬
Rounded corners for visual borders
Single select slicer
Heat map support for Bing maps
Cross-highlight by axis labels
Default tooltip formatting
Static web URL support for buttons, shapes & images
Page alignment options
Selection pane improvements
Accessible visual interaction
Conditional formatting for visual titles
Conditional formatting for web URL actions for buttons, shapes, and images
Performance analyzer pane
Table and matrix keyboard navigation
Line data label position control
KPI visual Indicator text size control
Analytics
Show dates as a hierarchy now generally available
Modeling
New modeling view now generally available
New DAX functions
Update to the ALLSELECTED DAX function
Disable autodate tables for new reports
Support for trusted visuals
We've added support for Trusted Visuals to Power BI Report Server. Currently we support Mapbox and PowerOn
visuals. ESRI, Visio, and PowerApps aren't supported for this release.)
Improved security features
RestrictedResourceMimeTypeForUpload , which admins can use to specify a comma-separated list of
banned mime types, for example text/html.
January 2019
Support for these features in Power BI reports:
Row-level security Setting up row-level security (RLS) with Power BI Report Server can restrict data access for
given users. Filters restrict data access at the row level, and you can define filters within roles.
Expand and collapse on matrix row headers We've added the ability to expand and collapse individual row
headers, one of the most requested visual features.
Copy and paste between .pbix files You can copy visuals between .pbix files, either from the visual’s context
menu or with the standard Ctrl+C keyboard shortcut, and paste it into another report with Ctrl+V.
Smar t alignment guides You see smart alignment guides when moving objects on your report page, like you
see in PowerPoint, to help you align everything on your page. You see the smart guides anytime you drag or
resize something on your page. When you move an object near another one, it snaps into a position aligned
with the other object.
Accessibility features Too many accessibility features to list: for example, fields list pane accessibility support.
The fields list pane is fully accessible. You can navigate around the pane using just your keyboard and a screen
reader and use the context menu to add fields to your report page.
Power BI visuals
Administrator settings
Administrators can set the following properties in SSMS Advanced Properties for the server farm:
AllowedResourceExtensionsForUpload Set extensions of resources that can be uploaded to the report
server. Extensions for built-in file types like *.rdl and *.pbix are not required to be included. Default is “*, *.xml,
*.xsd, *.xsl, *.png, *.gif, *.jpg, *.tif, *.jpeg, *.tiff, *.bmp, *.pdf, *.svg, *.rtf, *.txt, *.doc, *.docx, *.pps, *.ppt, *.pptx”.
Suppor tedHyperlinkSchemes Sets a comma-separated list of the URI schemes allowed to be defined on
Hyperlink actions that are allowed to be rendered or “*” to enable all hyperlink schemes. For example, setting
“http, https” would allow hyperlinks to “https://www. contoso.com”, but would remove hyperlinks to
“mailto:[email protected]” or “javascript:window.open(‘www.contoso.com’, ‘_blank’)”. Default is “*”.
August 2018
August 2018 sees many new features added to the version of Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server. Here
they are, broken out by area:
Reporting
Analytics
Modeling
Highlights of the August 2018 release
Out of the whole long list of new features, these features stand out as especially interesting. For more
information, see our blog post.
Report theming
Report theming is available in Power BI Report Server, which allows you to quickly color your entire report to
match a theme or corporate branding. When you import a theme, all your charts automatically update to use
the theme colors, and you can have access to the theme colors from the color palette. You can upload a theme
file using the Impor t Theme option under the Switch Theme button.
A theme file is a JSON file that includes all the colors you want us to use in your report along with any default
formatting you want to apply to visuals. Here is a simple sample JSON theme that just updates the default
colors of the report:
{
"name": "waveform",
"dataColors": [ "#31B6FD", "#4584D3", "#5BD078", "#A5D028", "#F5C040", "#05E0DB", "#3153FD", "#4C45D3",
"#5BD0B0", "#54D028", "#D0F540", "#057BE0" ],
"background":"#FFFFFF",
"foreground": "#F2F2F2",
"tableAccent":"#5BD078"
}
Conditional formatting by a different field

The ability to format a column by a different field in your model is one of the significant improvements to
conditional formatting.
Conditional formatting by values
Another new conditional formatting type is the Format by field value. The Format by field value lets you use a
measure or column that specifies a color, either through a hex code or name, and applies that color to the
background or font color.
Report page tooltips
The report page tooltips feature is included in the August 2018 update of Power BI Report Server. This feature
lets you design a report page to be used as a custom tooltip for other visuals in your report.
Log axis improvements
We’ve greatly improved log axis in your cartesian charts. You should now be able to select log scale for the
numeric axis of any cartesian chart, including combo chart, when you have data that is completely positive or
completely negative.
SAP HANA SSO Direct Query
SAP HANA SSO Direct Query support with Kerberos is now available for Power BI Reports.
NOTE
This scenario is supported only when SAP HANA is treated as a relational data source with reports you’ve created in
Power BI desktop. To enable this in Power BI Desktop, in the DirectQuery menu under Options, check the “Treat SAP
HANA as a relational source” and click OK.
Power BI visuals
Now Power BI visuals can fall back to a previous version compatible with the current version of the server
API (if available).
Reporting
Report Theming
Buttons to trigger actions
Combo chart line styles
Improved default sort for visuals
Numeric slicer
Advanced slicer syncing
Log axis improvements
Data label options for funnel chart
Set line stroke width to zero
High contrast support for reports
Donut radius control
Pie and donut detail labels position control
Format data labels separately for each measure in a combo chart
New visual header with more flexibility and formatting
Wallpaper formatting
Tooltips for table & matrix
Turn off tooltips for visuals
Slicer accessibility
Formatting pane improvements
Stepped line support for line and combo charts
Sorting experience improvement
Print reports through Export to PDF (in Power BI Desktop)
Create bookmark groups
Slicer restatement
Report page tooltips
Analytics
New DAX function: COMBINEVALUES()
Measure drillthrough
Conditional formatting by a different field
Conditional formatting by values
Modeling
Filtering and sorting in data view
Improved locale formatting
Data categories for measures
Statistical DAX functions
May 2018
Configure Power BI iOS mobile apps for report servers remotely
As an IT admin, you can now use your organization's MDM tool to remotely configure Power BI iOS mobile app
access to a report server. See Configure Power BI iOS mobile app access to a report server remotely for details.
March 2018
March 2018 sees many, many new features added to the version of Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report
Server. Here they are, broken out by area:
Visuals
Reporting
Analytics
Performance
Report server
Others
Highlights of the March 2018 release
Out of the whole long list of new features, these features stand out as especially interesting.
Rule-based conditional formatting for table and matrix
Create rules to conditionally color the background or font color of a column based on specific business logic in
your table or matrix.
Show and hide pages
You want readers to have access to your report, but some of the pages aren't finished. Now you can hide them
until they're ready. Or you can hide pages from normal navigation, and readers can get to the page by
bookmarks or drillthrough.
Bookmarking
Speaking of bookmarking, create bookmarks to tell a story with the data in your report.
Cross-highlighting for bookmarks: Bookmarks maintain and display the cross-highlighted state of the report
page at the time you created the bookmark.
More bookmark flexibility: Bookmarks reflect the properties you set in your report, and affect only the visuals
you choose.
Multi-select data points across multiple charts
Select multiple data points in multiple charts and have the cross-filtering apply to the entire page.
Sync slicers across multiple pages of your report
A slicer can apply to one, two, or more pages in a report.
Quick measures
Create new measures based on existing measures and numerical columns in a table.
Drilling down filters other visuals
When you drill down in a given category in one visual, you can have it filter all the visuals on the page by that
same category.
Visuals updates
Cell alignment for table and matrix
Display units and precision control for table & matrix columns
Overflow data labels for bar and column charts
Control data label background color for Cartesian and maps visuals
Bar/column padding control
Increase area used for axis labels in charts
Scatter visual from x- & y-axis groupings
High density sampling for maps based on latitude and longitude
Responsive slicers
Add an anchor date for relative date slicer
Reporting
Turn off the visual header in reading mode for a report
Report options for slow data sources
Improved default visual placement
Control visual ordering through the selection pane
Lock objects on your report
Search the formatting and analytics pane
Field properties pane and field descriptions
Analytics
UTCNOW() and UTCTODAY()
Mark custom date table
Drill filters other visuals
Cell-level formatting for multidimensional AS models for multi-row card
Performance
Filtering performance improvements
DirectQuery performance improvements
Open and save performance improvements
“Show items with no data” improvements
Report server
Export to accessible PDF
When you export a paginated (RDL) report to PDF, you can now get an accessible/tagged PDF file. It's larger in
size but easier for screen readers and other assistive technologies to read and navigate. You enable accessible
PDF by setting the AccessiblePDF device information setting to True . See PDF Device Information Settings and
Changing Device Information Settings.
Other improvements
Add Column From Examples improvements
Consulting Services quick link
Improved error reporting
View previous errors you’ve encountered
October 2017
Power BI report data sources
Power BI reports in Power BI Report Server can connect to a variety of data sources. You can import data and
schedule data refresh, or query it directly using DirectQuery or a live connection to SQL Server Analysis
Services. See the list of data sources that support scheduled refresh and those that support DirectQuery in
"Power BI report data sources in Power BI Report Server".
Scheduled data refresh for imported data
In Power BI Report Server, you can set up scheduled data refresh to keep data up-to-date in Power BI reports
with an embedded model rather than a live connection or DirectQuery. With an embedded model, you import
the data, so it's disconnected from the original data source. It needs to be updated to keep the data fresh, and
scheduled refresh is the way to do that. Read more about "scheduled refresh for Power BI reports in Power BI
Report Server".
Editing Power BI reports from the server
You can open and edit Power BI report (.pbix) files from the server, but you get back the original file you
uploaded. If the data has been refreshed by the ser ver, the data won’t be refreshed when you first
open the file . You need to manually refresh it locally to see the change.
Large file upload/download
You can upload files up to 2 GB in size, though by default this limit is set to 1 GB in the Report Server settings in
SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). These files are stored in the database just as they are for SharePoint,
and no special configuration for the SQL Server catalog is required.
Accessing shared datasets as OData feeds
You can access shared datasets from Power BI Desktop with an OData feed. For more information, see Accessing
shared datasets as OData feeds in Power BI Report Server.
Scale -out
This release supports scale-out. Use a load-balancer and set server affinity for the best experience. The scenario
is not yet optimized for scale-out, so you see models potentially replicated across multiple nodes. The scenario
will work without the Network Load Balancer and sticky sessions. However, you not only see an over-use of
memory across nodes as the model is loaded N times, but performance will slow in between connections as the
model is streamed as it hits a new node in between requests.
Administrator settings
Administrators can set the following properties in SSMS Advanced Properties for the server farm:
EnableCustomVisuals: True/False
EnablePowerBIReportEmbeddedModels: True/False
EnablePowerBIReportExportData: True/False
MaxFileSizeMb: Default is now 1000
ModelCleanupCycleMinutes: How often it checks to evict models from memory
ModelExpirationMinutes: How long until model expires and is evicted, based on last time used
ScheduleRefreshTimeoutMinutes: How long data refresh can take for a model. The default is two hours. There
is no hard upper limit.
Config file rsrepor tser ver.config
<Configuration>
<Service>
<PollingInterval>10</PollingInterval>
<IsDataModelRefreshService>false</IsDataModelRefreshService>
<MaxQueueThreads>0</MaxQueueThreads>
</Service>
</Configuration>
Developer API
The developer API (REST API) introduced for SSRS 2017 has been extended for Power BI Report Server to work
with both Excel files and .pbix files. One potential use case is to programmatically download files from the server,
refresh them, and then republish them. This is the only way to refresh Excel workbooks with PowerPivot models,
for example.
There is a new separate API for large files, which will be updated in the Power BI Report Server version of
Swagger.
SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS ) and the Power BI Report Server memory footprint
Power BI Report Server now hosts SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) internally. This isn't specific to scheduled
refresh. Hosting SSAS can greatly expand the report server memory footprint. The AS.ini configuration file is
available on the server nodes, so if you're familiar with SSAS, you may want to update the settings, including
maximum memory limit and disk caching etc. See Server properties in Analysis Services for details.
Viewing and interacting with Excel workbooks
Excel and Power BI contain a portfolio of tools that is unique in the industry. Together, they enable business
analysts to more easily gather, shape, analyze, and visually explore their data. In addition to viewing Power BI
reports in the web portal, business users can now do the same with Excel workbooks in Power BI Report Server,
giving them a single location to publish and view their self-service Microsoft BI content.
We’ve published a walkthrough of how to add Office Online Server (OOS) to your Power BI Report Server
preview environment. Customers with a Volume Licensing account can download OOS from the Volume License
Servicing Center at no cost and will have view-only functionality. Once configured, users can view and interact
with Excel workbooks that:
Have no external data source dependencies
Have a live connection to an external SQL Server Analysis Services data source
Have a PowerPivot data model
Support for new table and matrix visuals
Power BI Report Server now supports the new Power BI table and matrix visuals. For the latest version of Power
BI Desktop, on the Power BI Report Server download page, select Advanced download options .
June 2017
Power BI Report Server made generally available (GA).
May 2017
Power BI Report Server Preview made available
Ability to publish Power BI reports on-premises
support for Power BI visuals
Support for **Analysis Services live connections*- only with more data sources to come.
Power BI Mobile app updated to display Power BI reports hosted in Power BI Report Server
Enhanced collaboration in reports with comments
Next steps
Check these sources to keep up-to-date on new features in Power BI Report Server.
Microsoft Power BI blog
Admin overview, Power BI Report Server
This article is the administration overview of Power BI Report Server, an on-premises location for storing and
managing your Power BI, mobile, and paginated reports. This article introduces concepts of planning, deploying,
and managing your Power BI Report Server, with links to more information.
Installing and migration

You need to install Power BI Report Server to start using it. We have articles that explain how to handle this task.
Before you start to install, upgrade, or migrate to Power BI Report Server, take a look at the system requirements
for the report server.
Installing
If you are deploying a new Power BI Report Server, you use the following document to help you.
Migration
There is no in-place upgrade for SQL Server Reporting Services. If you have an existing SQL Server Reporting
Services instance that you want to make a Power BI Report Server, you need to migrate it. You may want to
perform a migration for other reasons as well. Review the migration document for more details.
Migrate a report server installation
Configuring your report server

You have many options when configuring your report server. Will you use SSL? Are you configuring an email
server? Do you want to integrate with the Power BI service to pin visualizations?
The majority of your configuration will occur within the Report Server Configuration Manager. Check out the
configuration manager documentation for more details.
Security
Security and protection are important to every organization. You can learn about authentication, authorization,
roles, and permissions over in the security documentation.
Next steps
Find your report server product key
Install Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server
Download SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT)
Change log for Power BI Report Server
This change log is for Power BI Report Server and lists new items along with bug fixes for each released build.
See What's new in Power BI Report Server for more information about new features.
May 2021
Power BI Repor t Ser ver
Version: 1.11.7815.26414 (Build 15.0.1106.169), Released: May 27, 2021
Features
Added enhancements for PBIX reports containing "models with enhanced metadata".
Custom Visual API shipped with release - version 3.5.0
Bug fixes
Fixed issue with caching of linked reports.
Fixed issue where "Changed by" section would show incorrect date on some PBIX
reports.
Fixed issue causing "Datasource is not found" for PBIX report data sources.
Fixed issue causing "No credentials were found for the datasource" for PBIX report data
sources.
Fixed permission issue for live connect of SSAS tabular PBIX reports.
Fixed various issues in new portal preview.
Security updates
Power BI Desktop (optimized for Power BI Repor t Ser ver)
Version: 2.93.1681.0 (May 2021), Released: July 6, 2021
Contains fix for Google Auth: Google Auth is moved to System Browser (non embedded) to
allow users to log into Google Analytics and Google Big Query.
Version: 2.93.982.0 (May 2021), Released: May 27, 2021
Contains changes required for connection with Power BI Report Server (May 2021).
"Models with enhanced metadata" is now the only option for modeling in Power BI Desktop for
RS.
Bug fixes
January 2021
Version: 1.10.7737.32652 (Build 15.0.1105.230), Released: March 12, 2021
Bug fixes
Fixed issue with URL filters causing PBIX reports to not load.
Version: 1.10.7698.27886 (Build 15.0.1105.195), Released: January 28, 2021
Features
New Icons releate to Power BI and Power BI reports.
New portal preview experience added behind 'UsePortalV2' feature switch in
ReportServer catalog's ConfigurationInfo table.
Bug fixes
Fixed issue with scheduled refresh of Power BI reports with certain models using
enhanced model metadata.
Fixed issue editing data driven subscriptions in portal.
Security updates
Version: 2.88.2361.0 (January 2021), Released: March 12, 2021 - Bug fixes
Version: 2.88.1382.0 (January 2021), Released: January 28, 2021 (new build and new version) -
Contains changes required for connection with Power BI Report Server (January 2021)
October 2020
Security Updates (KB 5001285)
Bug fixes
Fixed issue with refresh of reports with two or more datasources that differ only by the
casing of the letters.
Fixed issue with refresh of reports certain combinations of nested joins.
Version: 1.9.7627.11028 (Build 15.0.1104.264), Released: November 18, 2020
Bug fixes
Fixed issue preventing users from changing fields in site settings via the portal.
Fixed issue with refresh of Power BI Reports when using 'EnterData' data source.
Fixed issue with refresh of some models using enhanced dataset metadata.
Fixed issue where some Power BI reports could not be published to the Report Server.
Version: 1.9.7604.41261 (Build 15.0.1104.239), Released: October 27, 2020
Features
Enabled support for enhanced dataset metadata in Power BI Report Server.
Enabled the ability to update connections for Power BI reports for DirectQuery and
refresh (see Change data source connection strings for more details).
Security updates
Bug fixes
Fixed issue preventing users from changing Power BI report refresh schedules.
Fixed confusing error message users got managing reports when credentials had
expired.
Fixed issue with exporting reports with periods in their name.
Fixed screen reader issues in a tablix.
Fixed issue with log files being blank in some circumstances.
Fixed issue with overwriting Excel file during upload.
Fixed issue with Model.UpdateCacheSnapshot REST API method.
Fixed issue with SAP BW data source connections via XMLA.
Fixed issue with "Connect to Power BI" dialog not closing.
Fixed issue with CustomHeaders advanced feature default value.
Updated MHTML renderer to use newer HTML DOCTYPE.
Version: 2.86.3481.0 (October 2020), Released: March 31, 2021 - Bug fixes
Version: 2.86.2841.0 (October 2020), Released: Feburary 5, 2021 - Bug fixes
Version: 2.86.1321.0 (October 2020), Released: November 18, 2020 - Bug fixes
Version: 2.86.961.0 (October 2020), Released: October 27, 2020 (new build and new version) -
Contains changes required for connection with Power BI Report Server (October 2020)
May 2020
Security Updates (KB 5001284)
Version: 1.8.7485.35104 (Build 15.0.1103.234), Released: June 30, 2020
Bug fixes
Fixed an issue in scale-out scenarios where reports weren't reflecting edits immediately
in the server after upload.
Version: 1.8.7468.41510 (Build 15.0.1103.232), Released: June 15, 2020
Bug fixes
Fixed an issue where reports weren't reflecting edits immediately in the server after
upload.
Fixed an issue where refresh failed when fuzzy matching was used to merge queries.
Version: 1.8.7450.37410 (Build 15.0.1103.227), Released: May 27, 2020
Features
Added support for customizable catalog connection pool size (see
MaxCatalogConnectionPoolSizePerProcess setting for more details).
Improved behavior when viewing a report during a refresh operation.
Security updates
Bug fixes
Fixed two issues relating to single quotes in folder and report names.
Fixed an issue relating the horizontal scroll with certain browsers and the See Records
feature.
Fixed an issue where scheduled refresh while report open can sometimes lead to
schema errors in the underlying model.
Fixed an issue where alt text for PDF export were not correctly encoded for multi-byte
characters.
Fixed an issue where custom applications executing LoadReport would incorrectly
receive a TrustedHeader error.
Fixed an issue where heavy load from scheduled refresh could lead to failed refreshes.
Fixed an issue where reports would save to the wrong location if the report name
matched the folder name.
Fixed tabbing issues in the Document Map.
Fixed an issue with data-driven subscriptions failing when they used DAX queries.
Fixed an issue in URL Access causing FindString to not locate matches.
Fixed an issue that broke embedded data sources when reports were moved.
Fixed an issue causing scheduled refresh to fail for certain data sources.
Added validation to report scheduling to reduce opportunity for invalid requests.
Version: 2.81.5831.1181 (May 2020), Released: June 9, 2020 - Bug Fix - Fix for MarketPlace visuals
Version: 2.81.5831.941 (May 2020), Released: May 27, 2020 (new build and new version) - Contains
changes required for connection with Power BI Report Server (May 2020)
January 2020
Bug Fixes
Fix for Power BI reports failing to upload for certain data sources
Fix for Power BI Report Server Desktop link download location from the portal
Fix for DynamicImageDPI for Excel rendering
Fix for Oracle connections using incorrect thread culture in certain multi-user scenarios
(see UseInstalledUICulture documentation for more details)
Fix for CustomHeaders default value causing failures for report embedding
Fix for SQL parameter names being incorrectly generated in certain cases
Features
Export to Excel from Power BI reports.
Power BI Premium dataset support for paginated reports.
AltText (alternative text) support for paginated report elements.
Support for custom headers.
Support for Azure SQL Managed Instances as the catalog.
Transparent Database Encryption for the catalog.
Security updates
Bug fixes
Fixes for accessibility for screen readers, report rendering, and keyboard navigation.
Fix for saving multi-byte Report titles.
Fix for verbose logging affecting report server reliability.
Fix for ensuring live data in Power BI reports on mobile.
Fix for applying cross-visual highlighting across as visuals in filtered export of Power BI
reports.
Fix for writing footer when exporting to Word with expression for visibility for paginated
reports.
Version: 2.76.5678.1521 (January 2020), Released: January 23, 2020 (new build and new version)
September 2019
Security updates
Bug fixes
Fix for .net framework 4.7 not installed.
Fix for paginated reports for Teradata with multivalue parameters with error 110083.
Fix for URLRoot value not work if there are multiple web service URL bindings and one
of them is https://+80/reportserver.
Fix for paginated reports multivalue parameter values showing up outside the report
area.
Bug fixes
Fix for Text Filter custom visual.
Fix for the performance of drop-down slicers.
Fix for Strip PII from telemetry.
Fix for URLs to not be case sensitive.
Version 1.6.7206.38019 (Build 15.0.1102.597), Released: September 26, 2019
Security updates
Bug fixes
Paginated reports
Fix for accessibility issues encountered while using Internet Explorer and
Microsoft Edge.
Fix for SAP HANA issues while testing connection.
Fix for issues found while providing list of email addresses.
Fix for for Power BI reports that use a DirectQuery data source and integrated
authentication.
Fix for Paginated reports to render with filter parameters when snapshot is
enabled.
Fix for double execution of stored procedures during report execution.
Fix for default service account being granted SQL Server login permissions, when
custom service account is configured to run the Power BI Report Server.
Fix for accessing models meanwhile refreshing in Japanese time zone.
Fix for stale models when a new version of the report is uploaded during refresh.
Fix for parameter values that contain the '&' character'.
Programmability
Updated Web API: /PowerBIReports({Id})/DataSources (PATCH) to allow connection string
updates.
Version: 2.73.5586.1501 (September 2019), Released: October 25, 2019
Bug fixes
Fix for Telemetry.
Version: 2.73.5586.1241 (September 2019), Released: October 9, 2019
Bug fixes
Fix for Text Filter custom visual.
Fix for the performance of drop down slicers.
Fix for Strip PII from telemetry.
Version: 2.73.5586.821 (September 2019), Released: September 26, 2019 (new build and new
version)
Contains changes required for connection with Power BI Report Server (September 2019)
May 2019
Version 1.5.7074.36177 (Build 15.0.1102.371), Released: May 21, 2019
Bug Fixes
Paginated Reports
Fix to always enable pdf font-embedding.
Fix to set cookies sent over https as Secure
Fix to issues with pop ups due to script errors
Fix for display issues with Mobile App on Android phones
Fix for Mobile Report Time Navigator to show the correct week numbers
irrespective of the start of Fiscal year
Added 'RestrictedResourceMimeTypeForUpload' configurable property for
admins to specify banned mime types
Features
Adding support for Trusted Visuals to PBIRS
Version: 2.69.5467.1801 (May 2019), Released: May 21, 2019
Bug fixes
Fix to avoid re-entry of credentials during PBIX upload to PBIRS
Fixes opening documents with # in the filename
Added easier link for back navigation on PBIRS Selection window
Fix to High Contrast mode in PBIRS to display Back button, show warning visual
messages.
UI fixes to Selection pane, canvas scaling.
Version: 2.69.5467.5201 (May 2019), Released: July 30, 2019
Bug fixes
Fix for incorrect telemetry logging
January 2019
Version 1.4.7024.16477 (Build 15.0.1102.299), Released: March 28, 2019
Bug Fixes
Power BI Reports
Fix for issue with basic credentials when using direct query for SAP Hana and SAP
BW
Fix for OData feed data refresh fails with "Could not load file or assembly
'Microsoft.OData.Core.NetFX35.V7"
Version 1.4.6969.7395 (Build 15.0.1102.235), Released: January 30, 2019
Bug Fixes
Power BI Reports
Fix for issue with basic credentials when using direct query
Fix for bidirectional relationships with row-level security filters applied
Fix for stale data after a model refresh in a scale-out environment
Fix for double scrollbar for table/ matrix on Firefox 63+
Fix for +/- icon size in Internet Explorer
Paginated Reports
Fix for issue with updating usage of a shared datasource for a report
Features
Power BI Reports
Support for Row-level security
Expand and collapse on matrix row headers
Copy and paste between .pbix files
Smart alignment guides
Support for SAP BW 2.0 Connector
Administrators
Ability to restrict extensions of resources that can be uploaded to the report
server
Ability to restrict supported hyperlink schemes
Programmability
New Web API: /PowerBIReports({Id})/DataModelRoles (GET)
New Web API: /PowerBIReports({Id})/DataModelRoleAssignments (GET & PUT)
See Power BI Report Server REST API for more details
Bug Fixes
HTML Injection Vulnerability
Export to PDF is not showing Euro symbol
Saving a password with multiple data sources in Power BI reports invalidates non
changed passwords
Visuals display issues in Power BI Mobile App after being idle
Version: 2.65.5313.1562 (January 2019), Released: January 30, 2019
Shortcut and pinned icons remain after uninstalling Power BI Report Server
Fix for pinning Power BI Report Server to start menu giving black text on a black icon
Version: 2.65.5313.1421 (January 2019), Released: January 22, 2019 (new build and new version)
Version: 2.65.5313.5141 (January 2019), Released: July 31, 2019 (new build and new version)
Bug fixes
August 2018
Version 1.3.6816.37243 (Build 15.0.2.557), Released: August 30, 2018
Bug fixes
Fixed an issue when server was upgraded from earlier versions of PBI Report Server
where a binding redirect was not updated, customers saw this message:
Failed to load expression host assembly. Details: Could not load file or assembly
'Microsoft.ReportingServices.ProcessingObjectModel, Version=2018.7.0.0,
Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89845dcd8080cc91' or one of its dependencies. The
located assembly's manifest definition does not match the assembly reference.
(Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131040) (rsErrorLoadingExprHostAssembly)
Bug for Data Label Transparency is now fixed.
Version 1.3.6801.38816 (Build 15.0.2.540), Released: August 15, 2018
Features
SAP HANA SSO Direct Query support with Kerberos now available for Power BI Reports
Power BI visuals will fall back to a previous version compatible with the current version
of the server API (if available)
Version: 2.61.5192.641 (August 2018), Released: August 15, 2018
Contains changes required for connection with Power BI Report Server (August 2018)
Version: 2.61.5192.7701 (August 2018), Released: August 8, 2019 (new build and new version)
Bug fixes
March 2018
Version 1.2.6690.34729 (Build 15.0.2.402), Released: April 27, 2018
Bug fixes
Enable migration of SQL Server Reporting Services 2017 catalogs
For Power BI Reports (PBIX)
Reports can be refresh when a server is configured to use custom authentication
Modifying the properties of a report does not reset data source credentials
For Paginated Reports (RDL)
Usage of Lookup() or derivative functions such as LookupSet() and
MultiLookup() in RDL Expressions no longer result in #Error
Linked reports respect the page size of the target report when printing
Subscriptions can be created for linked reports that use cascading parameters
Multi-value parameter defaults can be modified when using IE11
Data-driven subscription delivery options are editable
Subscriptions can be viewed and edited while the subscription is executing
Setting data source credentials does not remove expression-based connection
strings
For KPIs
Trend lines are refreshed when data is updated
General stability improvements
Bug fixes
For Power BI Reports (PBIX), fix for Export Data not working from Power BI Visuals
For Power BI Reports (PBIX), fix for URL filters not working
For Paginated Reports (RDL), fix for images not being displayed correctly in IE11 after
upgrading to Power BI Report Server March release
Security Updates
Accessibility Improvements
Bug fixes
For Paginated Reports (RDL), fix for parameters visibility in a linked report that is
reverted after editing its properties
Fix for web portal with custom forms authentication that is ignoring the sliding
expiration cookie
Fix for export to Word that creates unequal row height if row content is empty
For Paginated Reports (RDL), fix for expression-based connection string that is deleted
when we change credential for data source
Fix for ability to use KPI with text values
For Paginated Reports (RDL), fix for ability to assign a new dataset to an existing
Paginated Report (RDL)
Other stability and usability fixes
Version: 2.56.5023.1043 (March 2018), Released: March 19, 2018
Contains changes required for connection with Power BI Report Server (March 2018)
October 2017
Security Updates
Bug Fixes
Fix for Model.GetParameters returning 400
Fix for setting shared data set to existing Paginated Reports (RDL)
Fix for ExecutionNotFoundException when exporting report with different parameter
values to PDF
Version 1.1.6551.5155 (Build 14.0.600.438), Released: December 11, 2017
Bug Fixes
Failure to save data after refreshing for certain Power BI Desktop reports.
Version 1.1.6530.30789 (Build 14.0.600.437), Released: November 17, 2017
Bug Fixes
Fix for Basic Authentication Scenarios
Fix for weekdays were not selectable on schedule page for Subscriptions, Cache Refresh
Plans and History Snapshots on Portal
For Paginated Reports (RDL), fix for having expressions in Textbox with CanGrow
property set to false is resulting in values not showing colors and fonts not being proper
For Power BI Reports (PBIX), fix for adding Legends to line chart renders an empty visual
Version 1.1.6514.9163 (Build 14.0.600.434), Released: November 1, 2017
Bug Fixes
Fix for upload reliability problems for PBIX reports over 500 MB
Fix for data loading issue for PBIX reports over 1 GB
Version 1.1.6513.3500 (Build 14.0.600.433), Released: October 31, 2017
Features
Embedded Data Model Support
Excel Workbook Viewing (with Office Online Server integration enabled)
Scheduled Data Refresh (PBIX)
Direct Query Support
Large File Support (up to 2 GB)
Public REST API
Shared Dataset support in Power BI Desktop (via oData)
URL Parameter Support for PBIX files
Accessibility improvements
Version: 2.51.4885.3981 (October 2017), Released: April 10, 2018
Security Updates
Version: 2.51.4885.2501 (October 2017), Released: January 10, 2018
Security Updates
Version: 2.51.4885.1423 (October 2017), Released: November 17, 2017
Bug Fixes
Fix for 32-bit Power BI Desktop failing to run on x86 OS
For Power BI Reports (PBIX), fix to show x-axis gridlines
Other minor bug fixes
Version: 2.51.4885.1041 (October 2017), Released: October 31, 2017
Features
Contains changes required for connection with Power BI Report Server (October 2017)
June 2017
Build 14.0.600.309, Released: January 10, 2018
Security Updates
Build 14.0.600.305, Released: September 19, 2017
Bug Fixes
Update to the latest Bing Maps Web Control
Build 14.0.600.301, Released: July 11, 2017
Bug Fixes
The {{UserId}} tag resolves to the stored credentials instead of the user executing the
report in Power BI Reports
Some images fail to render in Power BI Report Server reports
Unable to change the name of a Power BI Report in the Power BI Report Server
Unable to load Power BI visuals in the Power BI mobile application (it requires reinstall of
the mobile app to clear up the local cache)
Build 14.0.600.271, Released: June 12, 2017
Power BI Report Server initial release
Version: 2.47.4766.4901 (June 2017), Released: January 10, 2018
Security Updates
Next steps
What is Power BI Report Server? Administrator overview
Support timeline for Power BI Report Server
Power BI Report Server releases a few times per year. Security and critical updates are available until the next
release becomes generally available (GA). After the next release, the previous release continues to receive
security updates for the remainder of the 12-month release lifespan.
This support policy allows us to deliver innovation to customers at a rapid rate while providing flexibility for
customers to adopt the innovation at their pace.
Security and Critical Updates servicing phase - When running the latest current version of Power BI
Report Server, you receive both Security and Critical updates.
Security Updates (Only) servicing phase - After the release of a new version, support for older versions
reduces to Security updates only for the rest of the 12-month support lifecycle (shown in figure 1).
Version history
VERSIO N AVA IL A B IL IT Y DAT E SUP P O RT EN D DAT E
May 2020 May 2020 May 2020 and all previous versions no
longer supported
October 2020 October 2020 October 2021
January 2021 January 2021 January 2022
May 2021 May 2021 May 2022
To download Power BI Report Server, and Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server, go to On-premises
reporting with Power BI Report Server.
Next steps
What's new in Power BI Report Server
What is Power BI Report Server? Administrator overview
Always Encrypted in Power BI Report Server
This article spells out Always Encrypted support in Power BI Report Server when using the data source types
Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Azure SQL Database. For more information about Always Encrypted
capabilities in SQL Server, see the Always Encrypted article.
Always Encrypted user isolation

At this time, Power BI Report Server doesn't restrict access to Always Encrypted columns in reports if a user has
access to the report. Therefore if the server has been given access to the column encryption keys via the column
master key, then users have access to all the columns for the reports they can access.
Always Encrypted column usage

Key storage strategies
STO RA GE SUP P O RT ED
Windows Certificate Store Yes
Azure Key Vault No
Cryptography Next Generation (CNG) No
Certificate storage and access

The account that requires access to the certificate is the service account. The certificate should be stored in the
local computer certificate store. For more information, see:
Configure the Report Server Service Account (Configuration Manager)
Making certificates available to applications and users section in the SQL Server article "Create and store
column master keys for Always Encrypted."
Column encryption strategy
In Power BI Report Server, the column encryption strategy can be deterministic or randomized. The following
table spells out differences, depending on which strategy it uses.
USE DET ERM IN IST IC RA N DO M IZ ED
Can be read as-is in the results of a Yes Yes

query, for example, SELECT
statements.
Can be used as a Group By entity Yes No

within the query.
Can be used as an aggregate field, No, except for COUNT and DISTINCT No
except for COUNT and DISTINCT.
Can be used as a report parameter Yes No

Read more about deterministic vs. randomized encryption.
Parameter usage
Parameter usage only applies to deterministic encryption.
Single-value parameter . You can use a single-value parameter against an Always Encrypted column.
Multi-value parameter . You can't use a multi-value parameter with more than one value against an Always
Encrypted column.
Cascading parameters . You can use cascading parameters with Always Encrypted if all the following are true:
All Always Encrypted columns must be Always Encrypted with deterministic strategy.
All parameters used against Always Encrypted columns are single-value parameters.
All SQL comparisons use the Equals (=) operator.
Datatype support
SUP P O RT ED
A GGREGAT IO N S SUP P O RT S
SUP P O RT S USE ( C O UN T, F ILT ERIN G VIA
SUP P O RT S A S GRO UP B Y DIST IN C T, M A X , EQ UA L IT Y USIN G
SQ L DATA T Y P E REA DIN G F IEL D EL EM EN T M IN , SUM , ETC . ) PA RA M ET ERS N OT ES
int Yes Yes COUNT, Yes, as Integer

DISTINCT
float Yes Yes COUNT, Yes, as Float

DISTINCT
nvarchar Yes Yes COUNT, Yes, as Text Deterministic

DISTINCT encryption must
use a column
collation with a
binary2 sort
order for
character
columns. See the
SQL Server
Always
Encrypted article
for details.
varchar Yes Yes COUNT, No

DISTINCT
decimal Yes Yes COUNT, No

DISTINCT
numeric Yes Yes COUNT, No

DISTINCT
datetime Yes Yes COUNT, No

DISTINCT
SUP P O RT ED
A GGREGAT IO N S SUP P O RT S
SUP P O RT S USE ( C O UN T, F ILT ERIN G VIA
SUP P O RT S A S GRO UP B Y DIST IN C T, M A X , EQ UA L IT Y USIN G
SQ L DATA T Y P E REA DIN G F IEL D EL EM EN T M IN , SUM , ETC . ) PA RA M ET ERS N OT ES
datetime2 Yes Yes COUNT, Yes, as Date/Time Supported if

DISTINCT column has no
millisecond
precision (in
other words, no
datetime2(0))
Aggregation alternatives
Currently the only supported aggregations against deterministic Always Encrypted columns are those
aggregations that directly use the Equals (=) operator. This SQL Server limitation is due to the nature of Always
Encrypted columns. Users must aggregate within the report instead of in the database.
Always Encrypted in connection strings

You need to to enable Always Encrypted in the connection string for a SQL Server data source. Read more about
enabling Always Encrypted in application queries.
Next steps
Always Encrypted in SQL Server and Azure SQL Database
Hardware and software requirements for installing
This article lays out the minimum hardware and software requirements to install and run Power BI Report
Server. See Capacity planning guidance for Power BI Report Server for more details.
Processor, Memory, and Operating System Requirements

C O M P O N EN T REQ UIREM EN T
.NET Framework 4.8
If the server doesn't have internet access, you can manually

install the .NET Framework from Microsoft .NET Framework
4.8 (Offline Installer) for Windows.
For more information, recommendations, and guidance

about the .NET Framework 4.8 see .NET Framework
Deployment Guide for Developers.
Windows 8.1, and Windows Server 2012 R2 require

KB2919355 before installing .NET Framework 4.8.
Hard Disk Power BI Report Server requires a minimum of 1 GB of

available hard-disk space.
Addition space will be required on the database server that

is hosting the report server database.
Memory Minimum: 1 GB
Recommended: At least 4 GB
Processor speed Minimum: x64 Processor: 1.4 GHz
Recommended: 2.0 GHz or faster
Processor type x64 Processor: AMD Opteron, AMD Athlon 64, Intel Xeon
with Intel EM64T support, Intel Pentium IV with EM64T
support
C O M P O N EN T REQ UIREM EN T
Operating system Windows Server 2019 Datacenter
Windows Server 2019 Standard
Windows Server 2016 Datacenter
Windows Server 2016 Standard
Windows 10 Home
Windows 10 Professional
Windows 10 Enterprise
NOTE
Installation of Power BI Report Server is supported on x64 processors only.
Database server version requirements

SQL Server is used to host the report server databases. The SQL Server Database Engine instance can be a local
or remote instance. The following are the supported versions of SQL Server Database Engine that can be used
to host the report server databases:
Azure SQL Managed Instance (Power BI Report Server January 2020 version and later)
SQL Server 2019
SQL Server 2017
SQL Server 2016
SQL Server 2014
SQL Server 2012
When you create the report server database on a remote computer, you have to configure the connection to use
a domain user account or a service account with network access. If you decide to use a remote SQL Server
instance, consider carefully which credentials the report server should use to connect to the SQL Server
instance. For more information, see Configure a Report Server Database Connection.
Considerations
Power BI Report Server will install default values to configure the core settings required to make a report server
operational. It has the following requirements:
The supported languages for Power BI Report Server are - English, German, Spanish, Japanese, Italian,
French, Russian, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Portuguese Brazil, Korean
A SQL Server Database Engine must be available after setup and before you configure the database for the
report server. The Database Engine instance hosts the report server database that Reporting Services
Configuration Manager will create. The Database Engine is not required for the actual setup experience.
Reporting Services Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server outlines differences between the
editions of SQL Server.
The user account that runs Setup must be a member of the local Administrators group.
The user account that runs Reporting Services Configuration Manager must have permission to access and
create databases on the Database Engine instance that hosts the report server databases.
Setup must be able to use the default values to reserve the URLs that provide access to the report server and
the web portal. These values are port 80, a strong wildcard, and the virtual directory names in the format
Repor tSer ver and Repor ts .
Read-only domain controller (RODC)

You can install the report server in an environment that has a Read-Only Domain Controller (RODC). However,
Reporting Services needs access to a Read-Write Domain Controller to function properly. If Reporting Services
only has access to a RODC, you may encounter errors when trying to administer the service.
Power BI reports and Analysis Services live connections

You can use a live connection against tabular or multidimensional instances. Your Analysis Services server has to
be the proper version and edition to work properly.
SERVER VERSIO N REQ UIRED SK U
2012 SP1 CU4 or later Business Intelligence and Enterprise SKU
2014 Business Intelligence and Enterprise SKU
2016 and later Standard SKU or higher
Next steps
Install Power BI Report Server Capacity planning guidance for Power BI Report Server
Browser support for Power BI Report Server
Learn about what browser versions are supported for managing and viewing Power BI Report Server and the
Report Viewer Controls.
NOTE
Support for the Microsoft Edge Legacy browser stopped beginning March 9, 2021, and support for Microsoft Internet
Explorer 11 stopped beginning August 17, 2021.
Browser requirements for the web portal

The following is the current list of browsers supported for the web portal.
Microsoft Windows
Windows 7, 8.1, 10; Windows Server 2008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2
Microsoft Edge (+)
Microsoft Internet Explorer 11
Google Chrome (+)
Mozilla Firefox (+)
Apple OS X
OS X 10.9-10.11
Apple Safari (+)
Google Chrome (+)
Mozilla Firefox (+)
Apple iOS
iPhone and iPad with iOS 10
Apple Safari (+)
Google Android
Phones and tablets with Android 4.4 (KitKat) or later
Google Chrome (+)
(+) Latest publicly released version
Browser requirements for the Report Viewer web control (2015)

The following is the current list of browsers supported with the Report Viewer web control. The report viewer
supports viewing reports from the web portal.
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Edge (+)
Google Chrome (+)
Mozilla Firefox (+)
Apple OS X
OS X 10.9-10.11
Apple Safari (+)
Authentication requirements
Browsers support specific authentication schemes that must be handled by the report server in order for the
client request to succeed. The following table identifies the default authentication types supported by each
browser running on a Windows operating system.
B RO W SER T Y P E SUP P O RT S B RO W SER DEFA ULT SERVER DEFA ULT
Microsoft Edge (+) Negotiate, Kerberos, NTLM, Negotiate Yes. The default
Basic authentication settings
work with Edge.
Microsoft Internet Negotiate, Kerberos, NTLM, Negotiate Yes. The default

Explorer Basic authentication settings
work with Internet Explorer.
Google Chrome (+) Negotiate, NTLM, Basic Negotiate Yes. The default
authentication settings
work with Chrome.
Mozilla Firefox(+) NTLM, Basic NTLM Yes. The default

work with Firefox.
Apple Safari(+) NTLM, Basic Basic Yes. The default

work with Safari.

Script requirements for viewing reports
To use the report viewer, configure your browser to run scripts.
If scripting is not enabled, you will see an error message similar to the following when you open a report:
Your browser does not support scripts or has been configured to not allow scripts to run. Click here to view
this report without scripts
If you choose to view the report without script support, the report is rendered in HTML without report viewer
capabilities such as the report toolbar and the document map.
NOTE
The report toolbar is part of the HTML Viewer component. By default the toolbar appears at the top of every report that
is rendered in a browser window. The report viewer provides features include the ability to search the report for
information, scroll to a specific page, and adjust the page size for viewing purposes. For more information about the
report toolbar or HTML Viewer, see HTML Viewer and the Report Toolbar.
Browser support for Report Viewer web server controls in Visual
Studio
The Report Viewer Web server control is used to embed report functionality in an ASP.NET web application. For
more information on how to get the Report Viewer Control, see Integrating Reporting Services Using Report
Viewer Controls - Get Started.
Use a browser that has script support enabled. If the browser cannot run scripts, you cannot view the report.
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Edge (+)
Google Chrome (+)
Mozilla Firefox (+)
Next steps
Power BI report scheduled refresh in Power BI
Report Server
Scheduled refresh for Power BI reports allows the data for a report to stay up to date.
Scheduled refresh is specific to Power BI reports with an embedded model. Meaning you imported data into the
report instead of using a live connection or DirectQuery. When importing your data, it is disconnected from the
original data source and needs to be updated to keep data fresh. Scheduled refresh is the way to keep your data
up to date.
Scheduled refresh is configured within the management section of a report. For more information on how to
configure scheduled refresh, see How to configure Power BI report scheduled refresh.
How this works

Several components are involved when using scheduled refresh for your Power BI reports.
SQL Server Agent as a timer to generate scheduled events.
Scheduled jobs are added to a queue of events and notifications in the report server database. In a scale-out
deployment, the queue is shared across all of the report servers in the deployment.
All report processing that occurs as a result of a schedule event is performed as a background process.
The data model is loaded within an Analysis Services instance.
For some data sources, the Power Query mashup engine is used to connect to data sources and transform
the data. Other data sources may be connected to directly from an Analysis Services service used to host the
data models for Power BI Report Server.
New data is loaded into the data model within Analysis Services.
In a scale-out configuration, the data model can be replicated across nodes.
Analysis Services processes the data and executes any needed calculations.
Power BI Report Server maintains an event queue for all scheduled operations. It polls the queue at regular
intervals to check for new events. By default, the queue is scanned at 10 second intervals. You can change the
interval by modifying the PollingInter val , IsNotificationSer vice , and IsEventSer vice configuration settings
in the RSReportServer.config file. IsDataModelRefreshSer vice can also be used to set whether a report server
process scheduled events.
Analysis Services
Rendering a Power BI report, as well as performing a scheduled refresh, requires loading the Power BI report's
data model in Analysis Services. An Analysis Services process will be running with Power BI Report Server.
Considerations and limitations

When scheduled refresh can't be used
Not all Power BI Reports can have a scheduled refresh plan created on them. The following is a list of Power BI
Reports that you Can't create a scheduled refresh plan.
Your report contains one or more Analysis Services data sources, which use a live connection.
Your report contains one or more data sources, which use DirectQuery.
Your report does not contain any data source. For example, data is manually entered via Enter Data or a
report contains only static content like images, text, etc.
Your report contains dynamic data sources. For example, data from the report is used to dynamicaly build
the name of a server, the name of a database, or a URL address to fetch contents. Only data sources that are
detected when the report was uploaded can be refreshed.
In addition to the above list, there are specific scenarios with data sources in import mode, for which you cannot
create refresh plans.
If a File or Folder data source is used and the file path is a local path (e.g. C:\Users\user\Documents), then a
refresh plan cannot be created. The path must be a path the report server can connect to like a network
share. For example, \myshare\Documents.
If data source can be connected using only OAuth (e.g. Facebook, Google Analytics, Salesforce, etc.), then
cache refresh plan cannot be created. At the moment, RS does not support OAuth authentication for any data
source whether it is for paginated, mobile or Power BI reports.
Memory limits
Traditional workload for a report server has been similar to a web application. The ability to load reports with
imported data or DirectQuery, and the ability to perform scheduled refresh, rely on an Analysis Services
instance being hosted alongside of the report server. As a result, this could result is unexpected memory
pressure on the server. Plan your server deployment accordingly knowning that Analysis Services may be
consuming memory alongside the report server.
For information on how to monitor an Analysis Services instance, see Monitor an Analysis Services Instance.
For information about memory settings within Analysis Services, see Memory Properties.
Data model size limit
The data model loaded into the internal Analysis Services engine during a scheduled refresh has a maximum
size of 2,000 MB (2GB). This maximum size can't be configured. If your data model grows larger than 2GB, you
will receive the refresh error, "The length of the result exceeds the length limit (2GB) of the target large type." In
that case, we recommend hosting the model in an Analysis Services instance and using a live connection to the
model in the report.
Next steps
Configure scheduled refresh on a Power BI report.
Power BI report data sources in Power BI Report
Server
Power BI reports can connect to a number of data sources. Depending on how data is used, different data
sources are available. Data can be imported or data can be queried directly using DirectQuery or a live
connection to SQL Server Analysis Services. Some data sources are available in Power BI Desktop for Power BI
Report Server, but aren't supported when published to Power BI Report Server.
These data sources are specific to Power BI reports used within Power BI Report Server. For information about
data sources supported with paginated reports (.rdl), see Data Sources Supported by Reporting Services.
IMPORTANT
All data sources in a Power BI Desktop report must support configuring scheduled refresh.
List of supported data sources

DATA SO URC E C A C H ED DATA SC H EDUL ED REF RESH L IVE/ DIREC TQ UERY
SQL Server Database Yes Yes Yes
SQL Server Analysis Yes Yes Yes

Services
Azure SQL Database Yes Yes Yes
Azure Synapse Analytics Yes Yes Yes

(formerly SQL Data
Warehouse)
Excel Yes Yes No
Access Database Yes Yes No
Active Directory Yes Yes No
Amazon Redshift Yes No No
Azure Blob Storage Yes Yes No
Azure Data Lake Store Yes No No
Azure HDInsight (HDFS) Yes No No
Azure HDInsight (Spark) Yes No No
Azure Table Storage Yes Yes No

Dynamics 365 (online) Yes No No
Facebook Yes No No
Folder Yes Yes No
Google Analytics Yes No No
Hadoop File (HDFS) Yes No No
IBM DB2 Database Yes Yes No
Impala Yes No No
JSON Yes Yes No
Microsoft Exchange Yes No No
Microsoft Exchange Online Yes No No
MySQL Database Yes Yes No
OData Feed Yes Yes No
ODBC Yes Yes No
OLE DB Yes Yes No
Oracle Database Yes Yes Yes
PostgreSQL Database Yes Yes No
Power BI dataset in the No No No

Power BI service
Power BI dataset in Power No No No

BI Report Server
R Script Yes No No
Salesforce Objects Yes No No
Salesforce Reports Yes No No
SAP Business Warehouse Yes Yes Yes

server
SAP HANA Database Yes Yes Yes
SharePoint Folder (on- Yes Yes No

premises)
SharePoint List (on- Yes Yes No

premises)
SharePoint Online List Yes No No
Snowflake Yes No No
Sybase Database Yes Yes No
Teradata Yes Yes Yes
Text/CSV Yes Yes No
Web Yes Yes No
XML Yes Yes No
appFigures (Beta) Yes No No
Azure Analysis Services Yes No Yes

database
Azure Cosmos DB (Beta) Yes No No
Azure HDInsight Spark Yes No No

(Beta)
Common Data Service Yes No No

(Beta)
comScore Digital Analytix Yes No No

(Beta)
Dynamics 365 for Customer Yes No No

Insights (Beta)
Dynamics 365 for Financials Yes No No

(Beta)
GitHub (Beta) Yes No No
Google BigQuery (Beta) Yes No No
IBM Informix database Yes No No

(Beta)
IBM Netezza (Beta) Yes No No
Kusto (Beta) Yes No No
MailChimp (Beta) Yes No No

Microsoft Azure Yes No No

Consumption Insights
(Beta)
Mixpanel (Beta) Yes No No
Planview Enterprise (Beta) Yes No No
Projectplace (Beta) Yes No No
QuickBooks Online (Beta) Yes No No
Smartsheet Yes No No
Spark (Beta) Yes No No
SparkPost (Beta) Yes No No
SQL Sentry (Beta) Yes No No
Stripe (Beta) Yes No No
SweetIQ (Beta) Yes No No
Troux (Beta) Yes No No
Twilio (Beta) Yes No No
tyGraph (Beta) Yes No No
Vertica (Beta) Yes No No
Visual Studio Team Services Yes No No

(Beta)
Webtrends (Beta) Yes No No
Zendesk (Beta) Yes No No
IMPORTANT
Row-level security configured at the data source should work for certain DirectQuery (SQL Server, Azure SQL Database,
Oracle and Teradata) and live connections assuming Kerberos is configured properly in your environment.
List of supported authentication methods for model refresh

Power BI Report Server does not support OAuth-based authentication for model refresh. Some data sources
such as Excel or Access databases make use of a separate step like File or Web to connect to data.
A N O N Y M O US K EY USERN A M E A N D W IN DO W S
DATA SO URC E A UT H EN T IC AT IO N A UT H EN T IC AT IO N PA SSW O RD A UT H EN T IC AT IO N
SQL Server Database No No Yes Yes
SQL Server Analysis No No Yes Yes

Services
Web Yes No Yes Yes
Azure SQL Database No No Yes No
Azure Synapse No No Yes No

Analytics (formerly
SQL Data
Warehouse)
Active Directory No No Yes Yes
Amazon Redshift No No No No
Azure Blob Storage Yes Yes No No
Azure Data Lake No No No No

Store
Azure HDInsight No No No No
(HDFS)
(Spark)
Azure Table Storage No Yes No No
Dynamics 365 No No No No
(online)
Facebook No No No No
Folder No No No Yes
Google Analytics No No No No
Hadoop File (HDFS) No No No No
IBM DB2 Database No No Yes Yes
Impala No No No No
Microsoft Exchange No No No No
Microsoft Exchange No No No No
Online
MySQL Database No No Yes Yes
OData Feed Yes Yes Yes Yes
ODBC Yes No Yes Yes
OLE DB Yes No Yes Yes
Oracle Database No No Yes Yes
PostgreSQL Database No No Yes No
Power BI service No No No No
R Script No No No No
Salesforce Objects No No No No
Salesforce Reports No No No No
SAP Business No No Yes No

Warehouse server
SAP HANA Database No No Yes Yes
SharePoint Folder Yes No No Yes

(on-premises)
SharePoint List (on- Yes No No Yes

premises)
SharePoint Online No No No No
List
Snowflake No No No No
Sybase Database No No Yes Yes
Teradata No No Yes Yes**
appFigures (Beta) No No No No
Azure Analysis No No No No
Services database
(Beta)
Azure Cosmos DB No No No No
(Beta)
Spark (Beta)
Common Data No No No No
Service (Beta)
comScore Digital No No No No
Analytix (Beta)
Dynamics 365 for No No No No

Customer Insights
(Beta)
Dynamics 365 for No No No No

Financials (Beta)
GitHub (Beta) No No No No
Google BigQuery No No No No
(Beta)
IBM Informix No No No No
database (Beta)
IBM Netezza (Beta) No No No No
Kusto (Beta) No No No No
MailChimp (Beta) No No No No
Microsoft Azure No No No No
Consumption
Insights (Beta)
Mixpanel (Beta) No No No No
Planview Enterprise No No No No
(Beta)
Projectplace (Beta) No No No No
QuickBooks Online No No No No
(Beta)
Smartsheet No No No No
Spark (Beta) No No No No
SparkPost (Beta) No No No No
SQL Sentry (Beta) No No No No
Stripe (Beta) No No No No
SweetIQ (Beta) No No No No
Troux (Beta) No No No No
Twilio (Beta) No No No No
tyGraph (Beta) No No No No
Vertica (Beta) No No No No
Visual Studio Team No No No No

Services (Beta)
Webtrends (Beta) No No No No
Zendesk (Beta) No No No No
**Using LDAP authentication with Teradata (enabled in Power BI Desktop by using the Command Prompt
command 'setx PBI_EnableTeradataLdap true') is not supported for model refresh.
Power BI Report Server has a limitation when using web data: only data files from web can be refreshed. Data
based on Page or By example aren't refreshable. This limitation is because the M expressions created with
Web.BrowserContents and Web.Page can't be refreshed. Power BI Report Server can only refresh Web.Contents
data sources.
List of supported authentication methods for DirectQuery

Power BI Report Server does not support OAuth-based authentication for DirectQuery.
IN T EGRAT ED
A N O N Y M O US K EY W IN DO W S W IN DO W S
A UT H EN T IC AT IO A UT H EN T IC AT IO USERN A M E A N D A UT H EN T IC AT IO A UT H EN T IC AT IO
DATA SO URC E N N PA SSW O RD N N
SQL Server No No Yes Yes Yes

Database
SQL Server No No Yes Yes Yes

Analysis Services
Azure SQL No No Yes No No

Database
Azure Synapse No No Yes No No

Analytics
(formerly SQL
Data Warehouse)
Oracle Database No No Yes Yes Yes
SAP Business No No Yes No No

Warehouse
server
IN T EGRAT ED
A N O N Y M O US K EY W IN DO W S W IN DO W S
A UT H EN T IC AT IO A UT H EN T IC AT IO USERN A M E A N D A UT H EN T IC AT IO A UT H EN T IC AT IO
DATA SO URC E N N PA SSW O RD N N
SAP HANA No No Yes Yes Yes**

Database
Teradata No No Yes Yes Yes
**SAP HANA supports DirectQuery with Integrated Windows Authentication only when using it as a relational
database in the published Power BI Desktop file (.pbix).
Next steps
Data sources for Power BI reports in the Power BI service
Now that you've connected to your data source, create a Power BI report using data from that data source.
Paginated report data sources in Power BI Report
Server
Reporting Services paginated reports in Power BI Report Server support the same data sources that are
supported in SQL Server Reporting Services. See the list of Data sources supported by Reporting Services.
Connect to Oracle data sources with UseInstalledUICulture

To connect to Oracle data sources, Power BI Report Server uses the Oracle Data Provider for .NET (ODP.NET)
which is NLS agnostic.
By default, the report server uses the first client's UI culture to load ODP.NET. As a result, all subsequent
connections to Oracle from the report server will be in that initial UI culture until restart of the service. This
approach can cause issues rendering a report due to mismatches in UI culture formatting.
To offer a better experience in Power BI Report Server, we have introduced a configuration setting named
UseInstalledUICulture. When UseInstalledUICulture is set to true, the report server always loads ODP.NET in the
server’s UI Culture instead of the first client’s culture. This setting is available in Power BI Report Server starting
with the March 2020 Service Release.
To enable the feature, modify ORACLE extension entry rsreportserver.config file like below.
<Extension Name="ORACLE"
Type="Microsoft.ReportingServices.DataExtensions.OracleClientConnectionWrapper,Microsoft.ReportingServices.D
ataExtensions">
<Configuration>
<UseInstalledUICulture>true</UseInstalledUICulture>
</Configuration>
</Extension>
Next steps
Now that you've connected to your data source, create a paginated report.
What are the Power BI mobile apps?
Power BI offers a set of mobile apps for iOS, Android, and Windows 10 mobile devices. In the mobile apps, you
connect to and interact with your cloud and on-premises data.
You create reports in Power BI Desktop. You create dashboards, and view dashboards and reports in the Power
BI report service (https://powerbi.com). You view on-premises Power BI reports on Power BI Report Server. All
these reports and dashboards are available in the Power BI mobile apps, whether they're on premises or in the
cloud. Try viewing and interacting with them on your mobile device, be it iOS (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, or Apple
Watch), Android phone or tablet, or Windows 10 device.
Get the app from the application store
Mobile apps for different devices

DEVIC E H IGH L IGH T S
iPhones go everywhere, and the Power BI mobile app for

the iPhone goes, too. Besides viewing your Power BI reports
in a special mobile layout view, you can add Power BI to your
Apple Watch, and ask questions with the Q&A virtual
analyst.
Get started with the Power BI mobile app for iOS.
On the iPad , the Power BI mobile app displays dashboards

and reports the way they were formatted for the Power BI
service. Plus you can view your Power BI Report Server and
Reporting Services KPIs and reports right on your iPad. You
can set data alerts in the Power BI mobile app to notify you
when data in a dashboard changes beyond limits you set.
Get started with the Power BI mobile app for iOS.
DEVIC E H IGH L IGH T S
The Power BI mobile app for the Android phone brings

Power BI to your pocket, with up-to-date, touch-enabled
mobile access to your business information. You can filter a
report by your geographic location. You can scan QR codes
with your Android phone and go straight to a Power BI
dashboard or report.
Get started with the Power BI mobile app for Android.
This mobile app runs on a number of different Android

tablets , bringing you up-to-date, touch-enabled mobile
access to your business information. On the Android tablet,
the Power BI mobile app displays dashboards and reports
the way they were formatted for the Power BI service. You
can mark your favorite dashboards and reports, so you can
get to them quickly, along with your favorite Power BI
Report Server and Reporting Services KPIs and reports.
Get started with the Power BI mobile app for Android.
The Power BI mobile app for Windows 10 runs on any

Windows 10 device, including Windows 10 phones. Along
with many of the features of the other mobile apps, the
Power BI mobile app for Windows 10 offers special
functionality. For example, you can pin a Power BI dashboard
to the Windows 10 Start screen from the Power BI mobile
app. Plus you can run Power BI in presentation mode on
Surface Hub and in the Power BI mobile app for Windows
10.
Get started with the Power BI mobile app for Windows 10
devices.
NOTE
Power BI mobile app support for phones using Windows 10 Mobile has been discontinued as of March 16, 2021.
Learn more
Enterprise support for the Power BI mobile apps

Organizations can use Microsoft Intune to manage devices and applications, including Power BI mobile apps for
Android and iOS.
Microsoft Intune lets organizations control items like requiring an access pin, controlling how data is handled by
the application, and even encrypting application data when the app isn't in use.
Read more about configuring Power BI mobile apps for Android and iOS with Microsoft Intune.
Next steps
View a dashboard in the mobile apps
Developer handbook overview, Power BI Report
Server
Welcome to the developer handbook for Power BI Report Server, an on-premises location for storing and
managing your Power BI, mobile, and paginated reports.
This handbook highlights options you have, as a developer, to work with Power BI Report Server.
Embedding
For any report within Power BI Report Server, you can embed within an iFrame by adding the querystring
parameter ?rs:Embed=true to the URL. This technique works with Power BI reports as well as other report types.
Report Viewer Control
For paginated reports, you can take advantage of the Report Viewer Control. With it, you can place the control
within a .NET windows or web application. For more information, see Get started with the Report Viewer
Control.
APIs
You have several API options for interacting with Power BI Report Server. This technique includes the following.
REST APIs
URL Access
WMI Provider
You can also use the open-source PowerShell utilities to manage your report server.
NOTE
The PowerShell utilities support Power BI Desktop files (.pbix) via the -RsRest* commands.
Run the following command to find which commands in the ReportingServicesTools PowerShell module
support Power BI Desktop files (.pbix).
Get-Command -Module ReportingServicesTools -Noun RsRest*
Custom extensions
The Extension Library is a set of classes, interfaces, and value types that are included in Power BI Report Server.
This library provides access to system functionality and is designed to be the foundation on which Microsoft
.NET Framework applications can be used to extend Power BI Report Server components.
There are several types of extensions you can build.
Data processing extensions
Delivery extensions
Rendering extensions for paginated reports
Security extensions
To learn more, see Extension library.
Next steps
Get started with the Report Viewer Control
Building Applications Using the Web Service and the .NET Framework
URL Access
Extension library
WMI Provider
Embed a Power BI Report Server report using an
iFrame in SharePoint Server
In this article, you learn how to embed a Power BI Report Server report by using an iFrame in a SharePoint page.
If you're working with SharePoint Online, Power BI Report Server must be publicly accessible. In SharePoint
Online, the Power BI Web part that works with the Power BI service won't work with Power BI Report Server.
Prerequisites
Power BI Report Server installed and configured.
Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server installed.
A SharePoint 2013, 2016, or 2019 environment installed and configured.
Internet Explorer 11 is only supported if the document mode is set to IE11 (Edge) mode or when using
SharePoint Online. You may use other supported browsers with SharePoint on-premises and SharePoint
Online.
Create the Power BI report URL

1. Download the sample from GitHub: Blog Demo. Select Clone or download , and then select Download
ZIP .
2. Unzip the file, and open the sample .pbix file in Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server.
3. Save the report to the Power BI Repor t Ser ver .

4. View report in the Power BI Report Server web portal.
Capture the URL parameter

After you have your URL, you can create an iFrame within a SharePoint page to host the report. For any Power BI
Report Server report URL, add the following query string parameter to embed your report in a SharePoint
iFrame: ?rs:embed=true .
For example: https://myserver/reports/powerbi/Sales?rs:embed=true
Embed the report in a SharePoint iFrame

1. Navigate to a SharePoint Site Contents page.
2. Choose the page where you want to add your report.
3. Select the gear icon on the top right, and then select Edit page .
4. Select Add a Web Par t .

5. Under Categories , select Media and Content . Under Par ts , select Content Editor , and then select
Add .
6. Select Click here to add new content .
7. From the top menu, select Format Text , and then select Edit Source .
8. In the Edit Source window, paste your iFrame code in HTML Source , and then select OK .
For example:
<iframe width="800" height="600" src="https://myserver/reports/powerbi/Sales?rs:embed=true"

frameborder="0" allowFullScreen="true"></iframe>
9. In the top menu, select Page , and then select Stop Editing .
The report appears on the page.

Next steps
Create a Power BI report for Power BI Report Server.
Create a paginated report for Power BI Report Server.
More questions? Try the Power BI Community.
To create Power BI reports for Power BI Report Server, you need to download and install the version of Power BI
Desktop that's optimized for Power BI Report Server. This release is different from the Power BI Desktop used
with the Power BI service. For example, the version of Power BI Desktop for the Power BI service includes
preview features. Those features aren't in the Power BI Report Server version until they're generally available.
Using this release makes sure that the report server can interact with a known version of the reports and model.
Not to worry. You can install Power BI Desktop, and Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server, side by side on
the same computer.
Download and install Power BI Desktop

The easiest way to be sure you have the most up-to-date version of Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report
Server is to start from the web portal of your report server.
1. In the report server web portal, select the Download arrow > Power BI Desktop .
Or go to the Power BI Report Server home page and select Advanced download options .
2. In the Download Center page, select a language, then select Download .
3. Depending on your computer, select:
PBIDesktopRS.msi (the 32-bit version) or
PBIDesktopRS_x64.msi (the 64-bit version).
4. After you download the installer, run the Power BI Desktop Setup Wizard.
5. At the end of the installation, select Launch Power BI Desktop .
It starts automatically and you're ready to go.
Verify you're using the correct version

It's easy to verify that you're using the correct Power BI Desktop: Look at the launch screen or title bar within
Power BI Desktop. You can tell you have the right version because Power BI Desktop (Januar y 2021) or later
is in the title bar. Also, the Power BI logo colors are reversed, yellow on black instead of black on yellow.
The version of Power BI Desktop for the Power BI service doesn't have the month and year in the title bar.
File extension association

Say you've installed both Power BI Desktop and Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server on the same
machine. Your most recent installation of Power BI Desktop has the file association with .pbix files. Thus, when
you double-click a .pbix file, it launches the Power BI Desktop you installed most recently.
If you have Power BI Desktop and then install Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server, all .pbix files open in
Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server by default. If you would rather have Power BI Desktop be the
default to launch when opening a .pbix file, reinstall Power BI Desktop from the Microsoft Store.
You can always open the version of Power BI Desktop you want to use first. And then open the file from within
Power BI Desktop.
Here's the safest way to always open the correct version of Power BI Desktop. Start editing a Power BI report
from within Power BI Report Server, or create a new Power BI report from the Power BI service.
Considerations and limitations

Power BI reports in Power BI Report Server, in the Power BI service ( https://app.powerbi.com ), and in the Power
BI mobile apps act almost exactly the same, but a few features are different.
Selecting a language
For Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server, you select the language when you install the app. You can't
change it after, but you can install a version in another language.
NOTE
Translations aren’t supported for Power BI reports in Power BI Report Server.
Report visuals in a browser

Power BI Report Server reports support almost all visualizations, including Power BI visuals. Power BI Report
Server reports don’t support:
R visuals
Breadcrumbs
Power BI Desktop preview features
Reports in the Power BI mobile apps
Power BI Report Server reports support all the basic functionality in the Power BI mobile apps, including:
Phone report layout: You can optimize a report for the Power BI mobile apps. On your mobile phone,
optimized reports have a special icon , and layout.
Power BI Report Server reports don’t support these features in the Power BI mobile apps:
R visuals
Power BI visuals
Breadcrumbs
Geo filtering or bar codes
Custom Security
Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server does not support custom security. If your Power BI Report Server
is configured with a custom security extension, you can't save a Power BI report from Power BI Desktop
(optimized for Power BI Report Server) to the Power BI Report Server instance. You need to save the .pbix report
file from Power BI Desktop and upload it to the Power BI Report Server portal site.
Saving reports to a Power BI Report Server in a different domain
When you save a Power BI report to Power BI Report Server, your Windows credentials are used. Saving directly
to a report server in a different domain to your Windows credentials is not supported. You can use a web
browser to view the report server and manually upload the file from your machine instead.
Next steps
Now that you have Power BI Desktop installed, you can start creating Power BI reports.
Create a Power BI report for Power BI Report Server
Install Report Builder - Power BI Report Server
Report Builder is a stand-alone app, installed on your computer by you or an administrator. You can install it
from the Microsoft Download Center or from Power BI Report Server.
Looking for help with installing Report Builder for the Power BI service? See Power BI Report Builder instead.
An administrator typically installs and configures Power BI Report Server, grants permission to download Report
Builder from the web portal, and manages folders and permissions to reports, and shared datasets saved to the
report server. For more information about Power BI Report Server administration, see the Admin overview,
System requirements
See the System requirements section of the Report Builder download page on the Microsoft Download
Center.
Install Report Builder from a web portal

You can install Report Builder from a Power BI Report Server web portal. You may already have installed Report
Builder to create reports for an SSRS server. You can use the same version or Report Builder to create reports
for Power BI Report Server. If you haven't installed it, the process is easy.
1. In the Power BI Report Server web portal, select New > Paginated Repor t .
If you don't have Report Builder installed already, the Microsoft Report Builder Wizard starts.
2. Accept the terms in the license agreement > Next .
3. Select Install to complete the installation of Report Builder.
4. After it's installed, Report Builder opens to the New Repor t or Dataset screen.
Install Report Builder from the Download Center
1. On the Report Builder page of the Microsoft Download Center , select Download .
2. After Report Builder has finished downloading, select Run .
The Microsoft Report Builder Wizard starts.
3. Accept the terms in the license agreement > Next .
4. Select Install to complete the installation of Report Builder.
Next steps
Create a Power BI report for Power BI Report
Server
You can store and manage Power BI reports on premises in the Power BI Report Server web portal, just as you
can store Power BI reports in the cloud in the Power BI service (https://powerbi.com). You create and edit reports
in Power BI Desktop, and publish them to the web portal. Then report readers in your organization can view
them in a browser or in a Power BI mobile app on a mobile device.
Here are four quick steps to get you started.
Step 1: Install Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server

If you've already created Power BI reports in Power BI Desktop, then you're almost ready to create Power BI
reports for Power BI Report Server. We recommend installing the version of Power BI Desktop for Power BI
Report Server so you know the server and the app are always in sync. You can have both versions of Power BI
Desktop on the same computer.
1. In the report server web portal, select the Download arrow > Power BI Desktop .
Or go to the Power BI Report Server home page and select Advanced download options .
2. In the Download Center page, select Download .
3. Depending on your computer, select:
PBIDesktopRS.msi (the 32-bit version) or
PBIDesktopRS_x64.msi (the 64-bit version).
4. After you download the installer, run the Power BI Desktop Setup Wizard.
5. At the end of the installation, check Star t Power BI Desktop now .
It starts automatically and you're ready to go. You can tell you have the right version because Power BI
Desktop (Januar y 2021) is in the title bar.
6. If you're not familiar with Power BI Desktop, consider watching the videos on the welcome screen.
Step 2: Select a data source

You can connect to a variety of data sources. Read more about connecting to data sources.
1. From the welcome screen, select Get Data .
Or on the Home tab, select Get Data .
2. Select your data source -- in this example, Analysis Ser vices .
3. Fill in Ser ver , and optionally, Database . Make sure Connect live is selected > OK .
4. Choose the report server where you'll save your reports.
Step 3: Design your report

Here's the fun part: You get to create visuals that illustrate your data.
For example, you could create a funnel chart of customers and group values by yearly income.
1. In Visualizations , select Funnel char t .

2. Drag the field to be counted to the Values well. If it's not a numeric field, Power BI Desktop automatically
makes it a Count of the value.
3. Drag the field to group on to the Group well.
Read much more about designing a Power BI report.
Step 4: Save your report to the report server

When your report is ready, you save it to the Power BI Report Server you chose in Step 2.
1. On the File menu, select Save as > Power BI Repor t Ser ver .
2. Now you can view it in the web portal.
NOTE
If you choose to edit the report in the future, the report data you see in the desktop will always be the cached data from
when the report was initially created. To view the latest data when editing the report, you must refresh the data in your
Power BI Desktop application.
Next steps
Power BI Desktop
There are so many great resources for creating reports in Power BI Desktop. This link is a good starting point.
Get started with Power BI Desktop
Guided learning: Explore Power BI Desktop
Manage content in the web portal
The Power BI Report Server web portal is an on-premises location for viewing, storing and managing your
Power BI, mobile, and paginated reports, and KPIs.
You can view the web portal in any modern browser. In the web portal, reports and KPIs are organized in folders,
and you can mark them as favorites. You can also store Excel workbooks there. From the web portal, you can
launch the tools you need to create reports:
Power BI repor ts created with Power BI Desktop: View them in the web portal and the Power BI mobile
apps.
Paginated repor ts created in Report Builder: Modern-looking, fixed-layout documents optimized for
printing.
KPIs created right in the web portal.
In the web portal you can browse the report server folders or search for specific reports. You can view a report,
its general properties and past copies of the report that are captured in report history. Depending on your
permissions, you might also be able to subscribe to reports for delivery to your e-mail inbox or a shared folder
on the file system.
Web portal roles and permissions

The web portal application runs in a browser. When you start the web portal, the pages, links, and options you
see vary based on the permissions you have on the report server. If you're assigned to a role with full
permissions, you have access to the complete set of application menus and pages for managing a report server.
If you're assigned to a role with permissions to view and run reports, you only see the menus and pages you
need for those activities. You can have different role assignments for different report servers, or even for the
various reports and folders on a single report server.
Start the web portal

1. Open your web browser.
See this list of supported web browsers and versions.
2. In the address bar, type the web portal URL.
By default, the URL is https://[ComputerName]/reports.
The report server might be configured to use a specific port. For example,
https://[ComputerName]:80/reports or https://[ComputerName]:8080/reports
You see that the web portal groups items into these categories:
KPIs
Mobile reports
Paginated reports
Power BI Desktop reports
Excel workbooks
Datasets
Data sources
Resources
Manage items in the web portal

Power BI Report Server offers detailed control of the items you store on the web portal. For example, you can
set up subscriptions, caching, snapshots, and security on individual paginated reports.
1. Select More options (...) in the upper-right corner of an item, then select Manage .
2. Choose the property or other feature you want to set.

3. Select Apply .
Read more about working with subscriptions in the web portal.
Next steps
Row-level security (RLS) in Power BI Report Server
Setting up row-level security (RLS) with Power BI Report Server can restrict data access for given users. Filters
restrict data access at the row level, and you can define filters within roles. If you're using the default
permissions in Power BI Report Server, any user with Publisher or Content Manager permissions for the Power
BI report can assign members to roles for that report.
You configure RLS for reports imported into Power BI with Power BI Desktop. You can also configure RLS on
reports that use DirectQuery, such as SQL Server. Keep in mind that RLS isn't respected if your DirectQuery
connection uses integrated authentication for report readers. For Analysis Services live connections, you
configure row-level security on the on-premises model. The security option doesn't show up for live connection
datasets.
Define roles and rules in Power BI Desktop

You can define roles and rules within Power BI Desktop. When you publish to Power BI, it also publishes the role
definitions.
To define security roles, follow these steps.
1. Import data into your Power BI Desktop report, or configure a DirectQuery connection.
NOTE
You can't define roles within Power BI Desktop for Analysis Services live connections. You need to do that within
the Analysis Services model.
2. From the Modeling tab, select Manage Roles .
3. From the Manage roles window, select Create .
4. Under Roles , provide a name for the role.

5. Under Tables , select the table to which you want to apply a DAX rule.
6. In the Table filter DAX expression box, enter the DAX expressions. This expression returns a value of
true or false. For example: [Entity ID] = “Value” .
NOTE
You can use username() within this expression. Be aware that username() has the format of DOMAIN\username
within Power BI Desktop. Within the Power BI service and Power BI Report Server, it's in the format of the user's
User Principal Name (UPN). Alternatively, you can use userprincipalname(), which always returns the user in the
format of their user principal name, [email protected].
7. After you've created the DAX expression, select the checkmark above the expression box to validate the
expression.
NOTE
In this expression box, you use commas to separate DAX function arguments even if you're using a locale that
normally uses semicolon separators (e.g. French or German).
8. Select Save .
You can't assign users to a role within Power BI Desktop. You assign them in the Power BI service. You can enable
dynamic security within Power BI Desktop by making use of the username() or userprincipalname() DAX
functions and having the proper relationships configured.
Bidirectional cross-filtering
By default, row-level security filtering uses single-directional filters, regardless of whether the relationships are
set to single direction or bidirectional. You can manually enable bidirectional cross-filter with row-level security.
Select the relationship and check the Apply security filter in both directions checkbox.
Check this box when implementing dynamic row-level security based on user name or login ID.
To learn more, see Bidirectional cross-filtering using DirectQuery in Power BI Desktop and the Securing the
Tabular BI Semantic Model technical whitepaper.
Validate the roles within Power BI Desktop
After you've created your roles, test the results of the roles within Power BI Desktop.
1. From the Modeling tab, select View as .
The View as roles window appears, where you see the roles you've created.
2. Select a role you created, and then select OK to apply that role.
The report renders the data relevant for that role.
3. You can also select Other user and supply a given user.
It's best to supply the User Principal Name (UPN) as that's what the Power BI service and Power BI Report
Server use.
Within Power BI Desktop, Other user displays different results only if you're using dynamic security
based on your DAX expressions.
4. Select OK .
The report renders based on what that user can see.
Add members to roles

After you save your report in Power BI Report Server, you manage security and add or remove members on the
server. Only users with either Publisher or Content Manager permissions for the report have the row-level
security option available and not greyed out.
If the report doesn't have the roles it needs, you need to open it in Power BI Desktop, add or modify roles, then
save it back to Power BI Report Server.
1. In Power BI Desktop, save the report to Power BI Report Server. You need to use the version of Power BI
Desktop for Power BI Report Server.
2. In Power BI Report Service, select the ellipsis (… ) next to the report.
3. Select Manage > Row-level security .
On the Row-level security page, you add members to a role you created in Power BI Desktop.
4. To add a member, select Add Member .
5. Enter the user or group in the text box in the Username format (DOMAIN\user) and select the roles you
wish to assign to them. The member has to be within your organization.
Depending on how you have Active Directory configured, entering the User Principal Name here also
works. In that case, the Report Server shows the corresponding username in the list.
6. Click OK to apply.
7. To remove members, check the box next to their names and select Delete . You can delete multiple
members at a time.
username() and userprincipalname()

You can take advantage of the DAX functions username() or userprincipalname() within your dataset. You can
use them within expressions in Power BI Desktop. When you publish your model, Power BI Report Server uses
them.
Within Power BI Desktop, username() returns a user in the format of DOMAIN\User and userprincipalname()
returns a user in the format of [email protected].
Within Power BI Report Server, username() and userprincipalname() both return the user's User Principal Name
(UPN), which is similar to an email address.
If you're using custom authentication in Power BI Report Server, it returns the username format you’ve set up for
users.
Limitations
Here are the current limitations for row-level security on Power BI models.
Users that had reports using the username() DAX function will notice new behavior now where the User
Principal Name (UPN) is returned EXCEPT when using DirectQuery with integrated security. Since RLS isn't
respected in that scenario, the behavior in that scenario is unchanged.
You can define RLS only on datasets created with Power BI Desktop. To enable RLS for datasets created with
Excel, you must convert your files into Power BI Desktop (PBIX) files first. Learn more about converting Excel
files.
Only Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) and DirectQuery connections using stored credentials are supported. Live
connections to Analysis Services and DirectQuery connections using integrated authentication are handled in
the underlying data source.
If you're using integrated security with DirectQuery, then your users may notice:
RLS is disabled and all data is returned.
Users can't update their role assignments, and get an error on the RLS Manage page.
For the DAX username function, you continue to receive the username as DOMAIN\USER.
Report authors don't have access to view the report data in Power BI Report Server until they've assigned
themselves roles accordingly after uploading the report.
Role assignments through group memberships are only supported when the Power BI Report Server is
configured to run with NTLM or Kerberos authentication. Servers running with Custom authentication or
Windows Basic need users explicitly assigned to roles.
FAQ
Can I create these roles for Analysis Services data sources?
You can if you imported the data into Power BI Desktop. If you're using a live connection, you can't configure RLS
within the Power BI service. RLS is defined within the Analysis Services model on-premises.
Can I use RLS to limit the columns or measures accessible by my users?
No. If a user has access to a particular row of data, they can see all the columns of data for that row.
Does RLS let me hide detailed data but give access to data summarized in visuals?
No, you secure individual rows of data but users can always see either the details or the summarized data.
Can I add new roles in Power BI Desktop if I already have existing roles and members assigned?
Yes, if you already have existing roles defined and members assigned in Power BI Report Server, you can make
additional roles and republish your report with no effect on your current assignments.
Next steps
What is Power BI Report Server? Administrator handbook
Create a paginated report for Power BI Report
Server
In this article, you create a paginated report for Power BI Report Server in a few simple steps.
Looking for help with creating paginated reports in Report Builder for the Power BI service? See Power BI Report
Builder instead.
As the name suggests, paginated reports can run to many pages. They're laid out in a fixed format and offer
precise customization. Paginated reports are .rdl files.
You can store and manage paginated reports in the Power BI Report Server web portal, just as you can in the
SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) web portal. You create and edit them in Report Builder or Report
Designer in SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT), then publish them to either web portal. Then report readers in your
organization can view them in a browser or in a Power BI mobile app on their mobile device.
If you've already created paginated reports in Report Builder or Report Designer, then you're ready to create
paginated reports for Power BI Report Server. If not, here are some quick steps to get you started.
Step 1: Start Report Builder
You may already have installed Report Builder to create reports for an SSRS server. You can use the same
version or Report Builder to create reports for Power BI Report Server. If you haven't installed it, the process is
easy.
1. In the Power BI Report Server web portal, select New > Paginated Repor t .
If you don't have Report Builder installed already, it leads you through the installation process now.
2. After it's installed, Report Builder opens to the New Repor t or Dataset screen.
3. Select the wizard for the kind of report you want to create:
Table or matrix
Chart
Map
Blank
4. Let's start with the Chart wizard.
The Chart wizard walks you the steps of creating a basic chart in a report. From there, you can customize
your report in almost unlimited ways.
Step 2: Go through the Chart wizard

The Chart wizard walks you through the basic steps of creating a visualization in a report.
Paginated reports can connect to a wide variety of data sources, from Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Azure
SQL Database to Oracle, Hyperion, and many more. Read about data sources supported by paginated reports.
In the first page in the Chart wizard, Choose a dataset , you can create a dataset or choose a shared dataset on
a server. Datasets return report data from a query on an external data source.
1. Select Browse > select a shared dataset on a server > Open > Next .
Need to create a dataset? See Create a shared or embedded dataset.

2. Choose a chart type -- in this case, a bar chart.
3. Arrange the fields by dragging them to the Categories , Series , and Values boxes.
4. Select Next > Finish .
Step 3: Design your report

Now you're in Report Design view. Notice the data is placeholder data, not your data.
To view your data, select Run .

To go back to Design view, select Design .
You can modify the chart you just created, changing the layout, values, legend... really just about anything.
And you can add all sorts of other visualizations: gauges, tables, matrixes, tables, maps, and more. You can add
headers and footers for multiple pages. See the Report Builder tutorials to try them for yourself.
Step 4: Save your report to the report server

When your report is ready, save it to Power BI Report Server.
1. On the File menu, select Save as , and save it to the report server.
2. Now you can view it in the browser.
Next steps
There are many great resources for designing reports in Report Builder and in Report Designer in SQL Server
Data Tools. The Report Builder tutorials are a good place to start.
Report Builder tutorials
Enter data directly in a paginated report in Report
Builder - Power BI
APPLIES TO: ✔
️ Power BI Report Builder ✔
️ Power BI service ❌ Power BI Desktop
In this article, you learn about a feature in the new version of Microsoft Power BI Report Builder that lets you
enter data directly into an RDL report as an embedded dataset. This feature is similar to Power BI Desktop. You
can type the data directly in a dataset in your report, or paste it from another program like Microsoft Excel. After
you've created a dataset by entering data, you can use it just like you would any other embedded dataset you've
created. Plus you can add more than one table and use one as a filter for the other. This feature is especially
useful for small, static datasets you might need to use in your report, like report parameters.
Prerequisites
To enter data directly in a paginated report, download and install Power BI Report Builder.
To save your paginated report to the Power BI service, you need a Power BI Pro account or Premium Per User
(PPU) license, and write access to a workspace in a Power BI Premium capacity.
To save your paginated report to a report server, you need permissions to edit the RsReportServer.config file.
Create a data source and dataset

After you’ve downloaded and installed Report Builder, you follow the same workflow you use to add an
embedded data source and dataset to your report. In the following procedure, under Data Sources you see a
new option: Enter Data . You only need to set up this data source once in a report. After that, you can create
multiple tables of entered data as separate datasets, all using that single data source.
1. In the Repor t Data pane, select New > Dataset .
2. In the Dataset Proper ties dialog box, select Use a dataset embedded in my repor t .
3. Next to Data source , select New .
4. In the Data Source Proper ties dialog box, select Use a connection embedded in my repor t .
5. In the Select connection type box, select ENTER DATA > OK .
6. Back in the Dataset Proper ties dialog box, select Quer y Designer .
7. In the Quer y Designer pane, right-click and paste your data in the table.
8. To set the column names, double-click each NewColumn and type the column name.
9. If the first row contains column headings from the original data, right-click and delete it.
10. By default, the data type for each column is String. To change the data type, right-click the column header
> Change Type , and set it to another data type, such as Date or Float.
11. When you’ve finished creating the table, select OK .

The query that’s generated is the same as you’d see with an XML data source. Under the covers, we’re
using XML as the data provider. We’ve repurposed it to enable this scenario as well.
12. In the Dataset Proper ties dialog box, select OK .
13. You see your data source and dataset in the Repor t Data pane.
You can use your dataset as the basis for data visualizations in your report. You can also add another dataset and
use the same data source for it.
Design the report

Now that you have a data source and dataset, you're ready to create your report. The following procedure
creates a simple report based on the data in the previous section.
1. On the Inser t menu, select Table > Table Wizard .
2. Select the dataset you just created > Next .
3. In the Arrange fields page, drag fields you want to group by from the Available fields box to the Row
groups box. In this example:
CountryRegion
SalesYear
4. Drag the fields you want to aggregate from the Available fields box to the Values box. In this example:
SalesAmount
By default, Report Builder sums the fields in the Values box, but you can choose another aggregation.
5. Select Next .
6. In the Choose the layout page, keep all the default settings, but clear Expand/collapse groups . In
general, expanding and collapsing groups is great, but this time we want to see all the data.
7. Select Next > Finish . The table is displayed on the design surface.
Run the report
To see the actual values and preview the report, you run it.
1. Select Run in the Home ribbon.
Now you see the values. The matrix has more rows than you saw in Design view! You can either format
the page or decide to use the default settings before saving to your local computer or publishing to the
service.
2. To see how your report will look when you print it, select Print Layout .
Now you see it as it will look on a printed page.

Upload the paginated report to the Power BI service
Now that paginated reports are supported in the Power BI service, you can upload your paginated report to a
Premium capacity. See Upload a paginated report for details.
Upload the paginated report to a report server

You can also upload your paginated report to a Power BI Report Server or SQL Server Reporting Services 2016
or 2017 report server. Before you do, you need to add the following item to your RsReportServer.config as an
additional data extension. Back up your RsReportServer.config file before you make the change, in case you run
into any issues.
<Extension Name="ENTERDATA"
Type="Microsoft.ReportingServices.DataExtensions.XmlDPConnection,Microsoft.ReportingServices.DataExtensions"
>
<Configuration>
<ConfigName>ENTERDATA</ConfigName>
</Configuration>
</Extension>
After you've edited it, here's what the list of data providers in the config file should look like:
That’s it – you can now publish reports that use this new functionality to your report server.
Next steps
What are paginated reports in Power BI Premium?
Accessing shared datasets as OData feeds in Power
BI Report Server
You can access shared datasets from Power BI Desktop with an OData feed.
1. With the OData feed URL, you connect to the OData source.
2. After you bring the data into Power BI Desktop, you can modify it in the Query Editor.
3. Now you can use the data in designing reports.

Be sure to use Advanced Options so you can turn on Open Type Columns and format the columns accordingly
in Power Query to meet your needs.
Read more about connecting to OData feeds in Power BI Desktop.
Change data source connection strings in Power BI
reports with PowerShell - Power BI Report Server
We enable the ability to update connections for Power BI reports for DirectQuery and refresh.
IMPORTANT
This is also a breaking change on how you could set this up in previous releases. If you're using a pre-October 2020
version of Power BI Report Server, see Change data source connection strings in Power BI reports with PowerShell - Power
BI Report Server pre-October 2020
Prerequisites
Download the latest release of Power BI Report Server and Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server.
A report saved with the October 2020 or later release of Power BI Desktop optimized for Report Server, with
Enhanced DataSet Metadata enabled.
A report that uses parameterized connections. Only reports with parameterized connections and databases
can be updated after publishing.
This example uses the Reporting Services PowerShell tools. You can achieve the same by using the new REST
APIs.
Create a report With parameterized connections

1. Create a SQL Server connection to a server. In the example below, we're connecting to the localhost to a
database called ReportServer and pulling data from ExecutionLog.
Here's what the M query looks like at this point:
let
Source = Sql.Database("localhost", "ReportServer"),
dbo_ExecutionLog3 = Source{[Schema="dbo",Item="ExecutionLog3"]}[Data]
in
dbo_ExecutionLog3
2. Select Manage Parameters in the Power Query Editor ribbon.
3. Create parameters for the servername and databasename.
4. Edit the query for the first connection, and map the database and servername.
Now the query looks like this:

let
Source = Sql.Database(ServerName, Databasename),
dbo_ExecutionLog3 = Source{[Schema="dbo",Item="ExecutionLog3"]}[Data]
in
dbo_ExecutionLog3
d. Publish that report to the server. In this example, the report is named executionlogparameter. The
following image is an example of a data source management page.
Update parameters using the PowerShell tools

1. Open PowerShell and install the latest Reporting Services tools, following the instructions at
https://github.com/microsoft/ReportingServicesTools.
2. To get the parameter for the report, use the new REST DataModelParameters API using the following
PowerShell call:
Get-RsRestItemDataModelParameters '/executionlogparameter'
Name Value
---- -----
ServerName localhost
Databasename ReportServer
3. We save the result of this call in a variable:
$parameters = Get-RsRestItemDataModelParameters '/executionlogparameter'
4. Map to a dictionary to access the parameter values.
$parameterdictionary = @{}
foreach ($parameter in $parameters) { $parameterdictionary.Add($parameter.Name, $parameter); }
5. This variable is updated with the values that we need to change.

6. Update the values of the desired parameters:
$parameterdictionary[“ServerName”].Value = 'myproductionserver'
$parameterdictionary[“Databasename”].Value = 'myproductiondatabase'
7. With the updated values, we can use the commandlet Set-RsRestItemDataModelParameters to update the
values in the server:
Set-RsRestItemDataModelParameters -RsItem '/executionlogparameter' -DataModelParameters $parameters

$parameterdictionary.Values
8. Once the parameters are updated, the server updates any data sources that were bound to the
parameters. Going back to the Edit data source dialog box, you should be able to set credentials for the
updated server and database.
Next steps
Paginated report data sources in Power BI Report Server
Change data source connection strings in Power BI
reports with PowerShell - Power BI Report Server
pre-October 2020
You can change data source connection strings of Power BI reports hosted in Power BI Report Server by using
PowerShell to interact with the necessary APIs.
IMPORTANT
If you're using the latest version of Power BI Report Server, see Change data source connection strings in Power BI reports
with PowerShell - Power BI Report Server.
NOTE
Currently this functionality only works for DirectQuery. Support for import and data refresh is coming.
1. Install the Power BI Report Server PowerShell commandlets. Find the commandlets and installation
instructions at https://github.com/Microsoft/ReportingServicesTools.
Install the ReportingServicesTools module directly from the PowerShell Gallery using the following
command.
Install-Module ReportingServicesTools
2. Fetch the existing data source information for the Power BI file via the PowerShell commandlets:
$dataSources = Get-RsRestItemDataSource -RsItem '/MyPbixReport'
To view information for the first data source contained in the Power BI report:
$dataSources[0]
3. Update connection and credential info as needed. If updating the connection string and the data source
makes use of stored credentials, you need to provide the account password.
To update a data source connection string:
$dataSources[0].ConnectionString = 'data source=myCatalogServer;initial catalog=ReportServer;persist

security info=False'
To change the data source credential type:
$dataSources[0].DataModelDataSource.AuthType = 'Integrated'
To change the data source username/password:
$dataSources[0].DataModelDataSource.Username = 'domain\user'
$dataSources[0].DataModelDataSource.Secret = 'password'
4. Save the updated credentials back to the server.
Set-RsRestItemDataSource -RsItem '/MyPbixReport' -RsItemType 'PowerBIReport' -DataSources

$dataSources
Next steps
Paginated report data sources in Power BI Report Server
How to configure Power BI report scheduled refresh
To refresh data in your Power BI report in Power BI Report Server, you must create a scheduled refresh plan. You
create this plan in the Manage area of a Power BI report on the report server.
Configure data source credentials

You need the necessary permissions to create a scheduled refresh plan. Permissions are defined in the role
definitions for the report server. See Role definitions - predefined roles in the SQL Server Reporting Services
documentation for details.
Prior to creating a schedule data refresh plan, you need to set the credentials for each data source used in
your Power BI report.
1. In the web portal, right-click on the Power BI report and select Manage .
2. In the left menu, select the Data sources tab.

3. For each data source that appears, choose the type of authentication to use when connecting to that data
source. Enter the appropriate credentials.
Creating a Schedule Refresh Plan

Follow these steps to create a scheduled refresh plan.
2. In the left menu, select the Scheduled refresh tab.

3. On the Scheduled refresh page, select New scheduled refresh plan .
4. On the New Scheduled Refresh Plan page, enter a description and set a schedule for when you want
your data model to be refreshed.
5. Select Create scheduled refresh plan when done.
Modifying a Schedule Refresh Plan

Modifying a scheduled refresh plan is similar to creating one.
3. On the Scheduled refresh page, select Edit beside the refresh plan you want to manage.
4. On the Edit Scheduled Refresh Plan page, enter a description and set a schedule for when you want
your data model to be refreshed.
5. Select Apply when done.
Viewing the status of Schedule Refresh Plan
View the status of a schedule refresh plan in the web portal.

3. On the Scheduled refresh page, the right most column displays the status of a plan.
STAT US DESC RIP T IO N
New Scheduled Refresh Plan The plan has been created but has not ran.
Refreshing The refresh process has started.
Streaming model to Analysis Server Copying the model from the report server catalog
database to the hosted Analysis Services instance.
Refreshing data Refreshing the data within the model.
Removing credentials from the model Removed the credentials used to connect to the data
source from the model.
Saving model to the catalog Refreshing of data is complete and the refreshed model
is being saved back to the report server catalog
database.
Completed: Data Refresh Refresh is done.
Error: An error occurred during refresh and is displayed.
The web page must be refreshed to see the current status. The status will not change automatically.
Next steps
To learn more about creating and modifying schedules, see Create, modify, and delete schedules.
For information on how to troubleshoot scheduled refresh, see Troubleshoot scheduled refresh in Power BI
Report Server.
Add comments to a report in a report server -
You can add comments to reports, including Power BI reports, within the web portal of a report server. The
comments live with the report, and anyone with the right permissions can see the comments for the report. See
the Permissions section below for details.
Add or view comments

1. Open a paginated or Power BI report on a report server.
2. In the upper-right corner, select Comments .
In the Comments pane, you can see any existing comments.

3. Write your comment, then select Post Comment .
Your comment shows in the pane on the web portal, along with any previous comments. They don't
appear with the report on in the Power BI mobile apps.
TIP
Did you know? You can annotate Power BI reports in the Power BI mobile apps and share the annotated reports
with others.
Permissions
Your ability to see, edit, delete, and manage comments depends on the tasks included in your role assignment.
To see all comments, and post, edit, and delete your own, your role assignment must include the "Comment
on reports" task.
To see all comments; post, edit, and delete your own; and delete other people’s, your role assignment must
include the "Manage comments" task.
For more details on permissions related to comments, see Tasks and Permissions - Item-Level Tasks in the SQL
Server Reporting Services documentation.
Next steps
Learn how to install Power BI Report Server.
Download Power BI Report Server

On the On-premises reporting with Power BI Report Server page, select Download free trial .
When you run the PowerBIReportServer.exe file, you select the free trial or you enter your product key. Read on
for details.
Before you install

Before you install Power BI Report Server, we recommend you review the Hardware and Software Requirements
for installing Power BI Report Server.
IMPORTANT
While you can install Power BI Report Server in an environment that has a Read-Only Domain Controller (RODC), Power
BI Report Server needs access to a Read-Write Domain Controller to function properly. If Power BI Report Server only has
access to a RODC, you may encounter errors when trying to administer the service.
Power BI Report Server product key

You can get the product key for Power BI Report Server from two different sources:
Power BI Premium
SQL Server Enterprise Software Assurance (SA)
Read on for details.
Power BI Premium
If you've purchased Power BI Premium, within the Premium settings tab of the Power BI admin portal, you
have access to your Power BI Report Server product key. The admin portal is only available to Global Admins or
users assigned the Power BI service administrator role.
Selecting Power BI Repor t Ser ver key displays a dialog containing your product key. You can copy it and use
it with the installation.
SQL Server Enterprise Software Assurance (SA)
If you have a SQL Server Enterprise SA agreement, you can get your product key from the Volume Licensing
Service Center.
IMPORTANT
When installing Power BI Report Server on multiple servers for a scale-out scenario, all servers must use the same Power
BI Premium product key or SQL Server Enterprise Software Assurance (SA) product key.
Install your report server

Installing Power BI Report Server is straightforward. There are only a few steps to install the files.
You don't need a SQL Server Database Engine server available at the time of install. You will need one to
configure Reporting Services after install.
1. Find the location of PowerBIReportServer.exe and launch the installer.
2. Select Install Power BI Repor t Ser ver .
3. Choose an edition to install and then select Next .

Choose either Evaluation or Developer edition.
Otherwise, enter the product key that you got from either the Power BI service or the Volume License
Service Center. For more information about how to get your product key, see the Before you install
section above.
4. Read and agree to the license terms and conditions, then select Next .
5. You need a Database Engine available to store the report server database. Select Next to install the
report server only.
6. Specify the install location for the report server. Select Install to continue.
The default path is C:\Program Files\Microsoft Power BI Report Server.

7. After a successful setup, select Configure Repor t Ser ver to launch the Reporting Services
Configuration Manager.
Configure your report server
After you select Configure Repor t Ser ver in the setup, you're presented with Reporting Services
Configuration Manager. For more information, see Reporting Services Configuration Manager.
To complete the initial configuration of Reporting Services, you create a report server database. A SQL Server
Database server is required to complete this step.
Creating a database on a different server
If you're creating the report server database on a database server on a different machine, change the service
account for the report server to a credential that is recognized on the database server.
By default, the report server uses the virtual service account. If you try to create a database on a different server,
you may receive the following error on the Applying connection rights step.
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException (0x80131904): Windows NT user or group '(null)' not found. Check the name
again.
To work around the error, you can change the service account to either Network Service or a domain account.
Changing the service account to Network Service applies rights in the context of the machine account for the
report server.
For more information, see Configure the report server service account.
Windows Service
A windows service is created as part of the installation. It is displayed as Power BI Repor t Ser ver . The service
name is PowerBIRepor tSer ver .
Default URL reservations
URL reservations are composed of a prefix, host name, port, and virtual directory:
PA RT DESC RIP T IO N
Prefix The default prefix is HTTP. If you previously installed a Secure

Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate, Setup tries to create URL
reservations that use the HTTPS prefix.
Host name The default host name is a strong wildcard (+). It specifies
that the report server accepts any HTTP request on the
designated port for any host name that resolves to the
computer, including
https://<computername>/reportserver ,
https://localhost/reportserver , or
https://<IPAddress>/reportserver.
Port The default port is 80. If you use any port other than port
80, you have to explicitly add it to the URL when you open
web portal in a browser window.
Virtual directory By default, virtual directories are created in the format of

ReportServer for the Report Server Web service and Reports
for the web portal. For the Report Server Web service, the
default virtual directory is repor tser ver . For the web
portal, the default virtual directory is repor ts .
An example of the complete URL string might be as follows:

https://+:80/reportserver , provides access to the report server.
https://+:80/reports , provides access to the web portal.
Firewall
If you're accessing the report server from a remote machine, make sure you've configured any firewall rules if
there is a firewall present.
Open up the TCP port that you've configured for your Web Service URL and Web Portal URL. By default, they're
configured on TCP port 80.
Additional configuration
To configure integration with the Power BI service so you can pin report items to a Power BI dashboard, see
Integrate with the Power BI service.
To configure email for subscriptions processing, see E-Mail settings and E-Mail delivery in a report server.
To configure the web portal so you can access it on a report computer to view and manage reports, see
Configure a firewall for report server access and Configure a report server for remote administration.
For details on setting report server system properties in SQL Server Management Studio, see Server
Properties Advanced Page. Unless it specifies otherwise, the options apply to both Power BI Report Server
and SQL Server Reporting Services.
Next steps
How to find your report server product key
Verify a Reporting Services installation
Configure the report server service account
Configure report server URLs
Configure a report server database connection
Initialize a report server
Configure SSL connections on a report server
Configure windows service accounts and permissions
How to find your report server product key
Learn how you can find your Power BI Report Server product key to install your server in a production
environment.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/6CQnf-NGtpU?rel=0&showinfo=0
You downloaded Power BI Report Server, and you have a SQL Server Enterprise Software Assurance agreement.
Or, you purchased Power BI Premium. You want to install the server in a production environment, but you need
a product key in order to do that. Where is the product key? The product key will be in one of two places
depending on what you purchased.
NOTE
If you’re using a subscription license for SQL Server that also grants use rights to Power BI Report Server, submit a
support request through the software portal you normally use to get assistance for this scenario.
Purchased Power BI Premium

If you have purchased Power BI Premium, within the Capacity settings tab of the Power BI admin portal, you
will have access to your Power BI Report Server product key. This will only be available for Global Admins or
users assigned the Power BI service administrator role.
Selecting Power BI Repor t Ser ver key will display a dialog contain your product key. You can copy it and use
it with the installation.
Purchased Software Assurance agreement

If you have a SQL Server Enterprise SA agreement, you can get your product key from the Volume Licensing
Service Center. Look under the latest service pack, for the latest version of SQL Server. If you don't see it there,
look under the RTM release of the latest SQL Server version.
NOTE
You need to look under the download section. Not the keys section.
Next steps
Upgrade Power BI Report Server
Learn how to upgrade Power BI Report Server.
Download
To download Power BI Report Server, and Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server, go to On-premises
reporting with Power BI Report Server.
Before you begin

Before you upgrade a report server, we recommend the following steps to back up your report server.
Backing up the encryption keys
Back up the encryption keys when you configure a report server installation for the first time. Also back up the
keys anytime you change the identity of the service accounts or rename the computer. For more information,
see Back Up and Restore Reporting Services Encryption Keys.
Backing up the report server databases
Because a report server is a stateless server, all application data is stored in the repor tser ver and
repor tser ver tempdb databases that run on a SQL Server Database Engine instance. You can back up the
repor tser ver and repor tser ver tempdb databases using one of the supported methods for backing up SQL
Server databases. These recommendations are specific to report server databases:
Use the full recovery model to back up the repor tser ver database.
Use the simple recovery model to back up the repor tser ver tempdb database.
You can use different backup schedules for each database. The only reason to back up the
repor tser ver tempdb is to avoid having to recreate it if there is a hardware failure. In case of hardware
failure, you don't need to recover the data in repor tser ver tempdb , but you do need the table structure. If
you lose repor tser ver tempdb , the only way to get it back is to recreate the report server database. If you
recreate the repor tser ver tempdb , it's important that it have the same name as the primary report server
database.
For more information about backup and recovery of SQL Server relational databases, see Back Up and Restore
of SQL Server Databases.
Backing up the configuration files
Power BI Report Server uses configuration files to store application settings. Back up the files when you first
configure the server, and after you deploy any custom extensions. Files to back up include:
config.json
RSHostingService.exe.config
Rsreportserver.config
Rssvrpolicy.config
Reportingservicesservice.exe.config
Web.config for the Report Server ASP.NET applications
Machine.config for ASP.NET
Upgrade the report server

Upgrading Power BI Report Server is straightforward. There are only a few steps to install the files.
1. Find the location of PowerBIReportServer.exe and launch the installer.
2. Select Upgrade Power BI Repor t Ser ver .
3. Read and agree to the license terms and conditions and then select Upgrade .
4. After a successful upgrade, you can select Configure Repor t Ser ver to launch the Reporting Services
Configuration Manager, or select Close to exit the installer.
Enable Microsoft Update security fixes for Power BI Report Server
Power BI Report Server receives security fixes via Microsoft Update. To enable getting them, manually opt in to
Microsoft Update.
1. Open Windows Update in Update & security settings on the computer you want to opt in.
2. Select Advanced options .
3. Select the checkbox for Give me updates for other Microsoft products when I update Windows .
Upgrade Power BI Desktop

After you upgrade the report server, make sure that any Power BI report authors upgrade to the version of
Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server that matches the server.
Next steps
Verify a Reporting Services installation
Configure the report server service account
Configure report server URLs
Configure a report server database connection
Initialize a report server
Configure SSL connections on a report server
Configure windows service accounts and permissions
Migrate a report server installation
Learn how to migrate your existing SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) instance to an instance of Power BI
Report Server.
Migration is defined as moving application data files to a new Power BI Report Server instance. The following
are common reasons why you might migrate your installation:
You want to move from SQL Server Reporting Services to Power BI Report Server
NOTE
There is not an inplace upgrade from SQL Server Reporting Services to Power BI Report Server. A migration is
necessary.
You have a large-scale deployment or update requirements

You're changing the hardware or topology of your installation
You encounter an issue that blocks upgrade
Migrating to Power BI Report Server from SSRS (Native mode)

Migrating from an SSRS (Native mode) instance to Power BI Report Server consists of a few steps.
NOTE
SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services and later are supported for migration.
Backup database, application, and configuration files
Back up the encryption key
Clone your report server database hosting your reports
Install Power BI Report Server. If you're using the same hardware, you can install Power BI Report Server on
the same server as the SSRS instance. For more information on installing Power BI Report Server, see Install
NOTE
The instance name for the Power BI Report Server will be PBIRS.
Configure the report server using Report Server Configuration Manager and connect to the cloned database.
Perform any cleanup needed for the SSRS (Native mode) instance
Migration to Power BI Report Server from SSRS (SharePoint-

integrated mode)
Migrating from an SSRS (SharePoint-integrated mode) to Power BI Report Server is not as straight forward as
native mode. While these steps provide some guidance, you may have other files and assets within SharePoint
that you need to manage outside of these steps.
You need to migrate the specific report server content from SharePoint to your Power BI Report Server. You
need to have already installed Power BI Report Server somewhere in your environment. For more information
on installing Power BI Report Server, see Install Power BI Report Server.
If you want to copy the report server content from your SharePoint environment to Power BI Report Server, you
need to use tools such as rs.exe to copy the content. Below is a sample of what the script would be to copy
report server content from SharePoint to Power BI Report Server.
NOTE
The sample script should work against SharePoint 2010 and later and SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services and later.
Sample script
Sample Script
rs.exe
-i ssrs_migration.rss -e Mgmt2010
-s https://SourceServer/_vti_bin/reportserver
-v st="sites/bi" -v f="Shared Documents“
-u Domain\User1 -p Password
-v ts=https://TargetServer/reportserver
-v tu="Domain\User" -v tp="Password"
Migrating from one Power BI Report Server to another

Migrating from one Power BI Report Server is the same process as migrating from SSRS (Native-mode).
Backup database, application, and configuration files

Back up the encryption key
Clone your report server database hosting your reports
NOTE
The name of the database must stay the same when restored to the Power BI Report Server.
Install Power BI Report Server. You can't install Power BI Report Server on the same server as the one you're
migrating from. For more information on installing Power BI Report Server, see Install Power BI Report
Server.
NOTE
The instance name for the Power BI Report Server will be PBIRS.
Configure the report server using Report Server Configuration Manager and connect to the cloned database.
Perform any cleanup needed for the old Power BI Report Server installation.
Next steps
Script with the rs.exe Utility and the Web Service
Configure Kerberos to use Power BI reports
https://www.youtube.com/embed/vCH8Fa3OpQ0?showinfo=0
Learn how to configure your report server for Kerberos authentication to data sources used within your Power
BI reports for a distributed environment.
Power BI Report Server includes the ability to host Power BI reports. Many data sources are supported by your
report server. While this article focuses specifically on SQL Server Analysis Services, you can use the concepts
and apply that to other data sources such as SQL Server.
You can install Power BI Report Server, SQL Server and Analysis Services on a single machine and everything
should work without additional configuration. This is great for a test environment. You may hit errors if you have
these services installed on separate machines which is called a distributed environment. In this environment,
you are required to use Kerberos authentication. There is configuration required to implement this.
Specifically, you will need to configure constrained delegation. You may have Kerberos configured in your
environment but it may not be configured for constrained delegation.
Error running report

If your report server is not configured properly, you may receive the following error.
Something went wrong.
We couldn't run the report because we couldn't connect to its data source. The report or data source might
not be configured correctly.
Within Technical details, you will see the following message.
We couldn't connect to the Analysis Services server. The server forcibly closed the connection. To connect
as the user viewing the report, your organization must have configured Kerberos constrained delegation.
Configuring Kerberos constrained delegation

There are several items that need to be configured in order for Kerberos constrained delegation to work. This
includes Service Principal Names (SPN) and delegation settings on service accounts.
NOTE
In order to configure SPNs and delegation settings, you need to be a domain administrator.
We will need to configure, or validate, the following.

1. Authentication type within Report Server config.
2. SPNs for the report server service account.
3. SPNs for the Analysis Services service.
4. SPNs for the SQL Browser service on the Analysis Services machine. This is for named instances only.
5. Delegation settings on the report server service account.
Authentication type within Report Server configuration

We need to configure the authentication type for the report server to allow for Kerberos constrained delegation.
This is done within the rsrepor tser ver.config file. The default location for this file is
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Power BI Report Server\PBIRS\ReportServer .
Within the rsreportserver.config file, you will want to fine the Authentication/AuthenticationTypes section.
We want to make sure that RSWindowsNegotiate is listed and the first in the list of authentication types. It
should look similar to the following.
<AuthenticationTypes>
<RSWindowsNegotiate/>
<RSWindowsNTLM/>
</AuthenticationTypes>
If you had to change the configuration file, you will want to stop and start the report server to make sure the
changes take effect.
For more information, see Configure Windows Authentication on the Report Server.
SPNs for the report server service account

Next, we need to make sure that the report server has valid SPNs available. This is based on the service account
that is configured for the report server.
Virtual Service Account or Network Service
If your report server is configured for the Virtual Service Account or Network Service account, you should not
have to do anything. These are in the context of the machine account. The machine account will have HOST
SPNs by default. These will cover the HTTP service and will be used by the report server.
If you are using a virtual server name, one that is not same as the machine account, the HOST entries will not
cover you and you will need to manually add the SPNs for the virtual server host name.
Domain user account
If your report server is configured to use a domain user account, you will have to manually create HTTP SPNs on
that account. This can be done using the setspn tool that comes with Windows.
NOTE
You will need domain admin rights in order to create the SPN.
It is recommended to create two SPNs. One with the NetBIOS name and the other with the fully qualified
domain name (FQDN). The SPN will be in the following format.
<Service>/<Host>:<port>
Power BI Report Server will use a Service of HTTP. For HTTP SPNs you will not list a port. The service we are
interested in here is HTTP. The host of the SPN will be the name you use in a URL. Typically, this is the machine
name. If you are behind a load balancer, this may be a virtual name.
NOTE
You can verify the URL by either looking at what you enter into the address bar of the browser, or you can look in the
Report Server Configuration Manager on the Web Portal URL tab.
If your machine name is ContosoRS, your SPNs would be the following.
SP N T Y P E SP N
Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) HTTP/ContosoRS.contoso.com
NetBIOS HTTP/ContosoRS
Location of SPN
So, where do you put the SPN? The SPN will be placed on whatever you are using for your service account. If
you are using Virtual Service Account or Network Service, this will be the machine account. Although we
mentioned before you should only need to do this for a virtual URL. If you are using a domain user for the
report server service account, then you will place the SPN on that domain user account.
For example, if we are using the Network Service account and our machine name is ContosoRS, we would place
the SPN on ContosoRS.
If we are using a domain user account of RSService, we would place the SPN on RSService.
Using SetSPN to add the SPN
We can use the SetSPN tool to add the SPN. We will follow the same example as above with the Machine
account and the domain user account.
Placing the SPN on a machine account, for both the FQDN and NetBIOS SPN, would look similar to the
following if we were using a virtual URL of contosoreports.
Setspn -a HTTP/contosoreports.contoso.com ContosoRS

Setspn -a HTTP/contosoreports ContosoRS
Placing the SPN on a domain user account, for both the FQDN and NetBIOS SPN, would look similar to the
following if you were using the machine name for the host of the SPN.
Setspn -a HTTP/ContosoRS.contoso.com RSService

Setspn -a HTTP/ContosoRS RSService
SPNs for the Analysis Services service

The SPNs for Analysis Services are similar to what we did with Power BI Report Server. The format of the SPN is
a little different if you have a named instance.
For Analysis Services, we use a Service of MSOLAPSvc.3. We will specify the instance name for the port location
on the SPN. The host part of the SPN will either be the machine name, or the Cluster virtual name.
An example of an Analysis Services SPN would look like the following.
TYPE F O RM AT
Default instance MSOLAPSvc.3/ContosoAS.contoso.com

MSOLAPSvc.3/ContosoAS
Named instance MSOLAPSvc.3/ContosoAS.contoso.com:INSTANCENAME

MSOLAPSvc.3/ContosoAS:INSTANCENAME
Placement of the SPN is also similar to what was mentioned with Power BI Report Server. It is based on the
service account. If you are using Local System or Network Service, you will be in the context of the machine
account. If you are using a domain user account for the Analysis Services instance, you will place the SPN on the
domain user account.
We can use the SetSPN tool to add the SPN. For this example, the machine name will be ContosoAS.
Placing the SPN on a machine account, for both the FQDN and NetBIOS SPN, would look similar to the
following.
Setspn -a MSOLAPSvc.3/ContosoAS.contoso.com ContosoAS

Setspn -a MSOLAPSvc.3/ContosoAS ContosoAS
Placing the SPN on a domain user account, for both the FQDN and NetBIOS SPN, would look similar to the
following.
Setspn -a MSOLAPSvc.3/ContosoAS.contoso.com OLAPService

Setspn -a MSOLAPSvc.3/ContosoAS OLAPService
SPNs for the SQL Browser service

If you have an Analysis Services named instance, you also need to make sure you have an SPN for the browser
service. This is unique to Analysis Services.
The SPNs for SQL Browser are similar to what we did with Power BI Report Server.
For SQL Browser, we use a Service of MSOLAPDisco.3. We will specify the instance name for the port location
on the SPN. The host part of the SPN will either be the machine name, or the Cluster virtual name. You do not
have to specify anything for the instance name or port.
An example of an Analysis Services SPN would look like the following.
MSOLAPDisco.3/ContosoAS.contoso.com
MSOLAPDisco.3/ContosoAS
Placement of the SPN is also similar to what was mentioned with Power BI Report Server. The difference here is
that SQL Browser always runs under the Local System account. This means that the SPNs will always go on the
machine account.
We can use the SetSPN tool to add the SPN. For this example, the machine name will be ContosoAS.
Placing the SPN on the machine account, for both the FQDN and NetBIOS SPN, would look similar to the
following.
Setspn -a MSOLAPDisco.3/ContosoAS.contoso.com ContosoAS

Setspn -a MSOLAPDisco.3/ContosoAS ContosoAS
For more information, see An SPN for the SQL Server Browser service is required.
Delegation settings on the report server service account

The last part that we have to configure are the delegation settings on the report server service account. There
are different tools you can use to perform these steps. For the purposes of this document, we will stick with
Active Directory Users and Computers.
You will need to start by going to the properties of the report server service account within Active Directory
Users and Computers. This will either be the machine account, if you used Virtual Service Account or Network
Service, or it will be a domain user account.
We will want to configure constrained delegation with protocol transiting. With constrained delegation, you
need to be explicit with which services we want to delegate to. We will go and add both the Analysis Services
service SPN and the SQL Browser SPN to the list that Power BI Report Server can delegate to.
1. Right click on the report server service account and select Proper ties .
2. Select the Delegation tab.
3. Select Trust this computer for delegation to specified ser vices only .
4. Select Use any authentication protocol .
5. Under the Ser vices to which this account can present delegated credentials : select Add .
6. In the new dialog, select Users or Computers .
7. Enter the service account for the Analysis Services service and select Ok .
8. Select the SPN that you created. It will begin with MSOLAPSvc.3 . If you added both the FQDN and the
NetBIOS SPN, it will select both. You may only see one.
9. Select OK . You should see the SPN in the list now.
10. Optionally, you can select Expanded to show both the FQDN and NetBIOS SPN in the list.
11. Select Add again. We will add the SQL Browser SPN now.
13. Enter the Machine name for the machine the SQL Browser service is on and select Ok .
14. Select the SPN that you created. It will begin with MSOLAPDisco.3 . If you added both the FQDN and the
NetBIOS SPN, it will select both. You may only see one.
15. Select Ok . The dialog should look similar to the following if you checked Expanded .
16. Select Ok .
17. Reboot the Power BI Report Server.
Running a Power BI Report

After all of the above configuration is in place, your report should display properly.
While this configuration should work in most cases, with Kerberos, there can be different configuration
depending on your environment. If the report will still not load, you will want to reach out to your domain
administrator to investigate further or contact support.
Next steps
Configure Power BI mobile app access to Report
Server remotely
Applies to:
iOS Android
In this article, learn how to use your organization's MDM tool to configure Power BI mobile app access to Report
Server. To configure it, IT administrators create an app configuration policy with the required information to be
pushed to the app.
With the Report Server connection already configured, Power BI mobile app users can connect to their
organization's Report Server more easily.
Create the app configuration policy in MDM tool

As admin, here are the steps you follow in Microsoft Intune to create the app configuration policy. The steps and
experience of building the app configuration policy may be different in other MDM tools.
1. Connect your MDM tool.
2. Create and name a new app configuration policy.
3. Choose which users to distribute this app configuration policy to.
4. Create key-value pairs.
The following table spells out the pairs.
K EY TYPE DESC RIP T IO N
com.microsoft.powerbi.mobile.ServerU String Report Server URL

RL Should start with http/https
com.microsoft.powerbi.mobile.ServerU String [optional]

sername The username to use for connecting
the server.
If one does not exist, the app prompts
the user to type the username for the
connection.
com.microsoft.powerbi.mobile.ServerDi String [optional]

splayName Default value is “Report server”
A friendly name used in the app to
represent the server
K EY TYPE DESC RIP T IO N
com.microsoft.powerbi.mobile.Override Boolean Default value is True

ServerDetails When set to “True”, it overrides any
Report Server definition already in the
mobile device. Existing servers that are
already configured are deleted.
Override set to True also prevents the
user from removing that configuration.
Set to “False” adds the pushed values,
leaving any existing settings.
If the same server URL is already
configured in the mobile app, the app
leaves that configuration as is. The app
doesn't ask the user to reauthenticate
for the same server.
Here's an example of setting the configuration policy using Intune.
End users connecting to Report Server

Say you publish the app configuration policy for a distribution list. When users and devices on that distribution
list start the mobile app, they have the following experience.
1. They see a message that their mobile app is configured with a Report Server, and tap Sign in .
2. On the Connect to ser ver page, the report server details already filled in. They tap Connect .
3. They type a password to authenticate, then tap Sign in .
Now they can view and interact with KPIs and Power BI reports stored on the Report Server.
Next steps
Enable remote access to Power BI Mobile with Azure AD Application Proxy
Use Web Application Proxy and Active Directory
Federated Services - Power BI Report Server
This article discusses how to use Web Application Proxy (WAP) and Active Directory Federated Services (AD FS)
to connect to Power BI Report Server, and SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) 2016 and later. Through this
integration, users who are away from the corporate network can access their Power BI Report Server and
Reporting Services reports from their client browsers and be protected by AD FS preauthentication. For the
Power BI mobile apps, you also need to configure OAuth to connect to Power BI Report Server and SSRS.
Prerequisites
Domain Name Services (DNS ) configuration
Determine the public URL that the user will connect to. It may look similar to this example:
https://reports.contosolab.com .
Configure your DNS record for the host name, reports.contosolab.com , for example, to point to the public IP
address of the Web Application Proxy (WAP) server.
Configure a public DNS record for your AD FS server. For example, you may have configured the AD FS
server with the following URL: https://adfs.contosolab.com .
Configure your DNS record to point to the public IP address of the Web Application Proxy (WAP) server, for
example adfs.contosolab.com . It's published as part of the WAP application.
Certificates
You need to configure certificates for both the WAP application and the AD FS server. Both of these certificates
must be part of a valid certificate authority that your machines recognize.
1. Configure the report server

We need to make sure that we have a valid Service Principal Name (SPN). The valid SPN enables the proper
Kerberos authentication to occur and enables the report server for negotiate authentication.
Service Principal Name (SPN )
The SPN is a unique identifier for a service that uses Kerberos authentication. Make sure you have a proper
HTTP SPN present for your report server.
For information on how to configure the proper Service Principal Name (SPN) for your report server, see
Register a Service Principal Name (SPN) for a Report Server.
Enabling negotiate authentication
To enable a report server to use Kerberos authentication, you need to configure the Authentication Type of the
report server to be RSWindowsNegotiate. You configure it in the rsreportserver.config file.
<RSWindowsNegotiate />
<RSWindowsNTLM />
For more information, see Modify a Reporting Services Configuration File and Configure Windows
Authentication on a Report Server.
2. Configure Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS)

You need to configure AD FS on a Windows 2016 server within your environment. The configuration can be
done through the Server Manager and selecting Add Roles and Features under Manage. For more information,
see Active Directory Federation Services.
On the AD FS server, using AD FS Management App, complete these steps.
1. Right-click Relying Par ty Trusts > Add Relying Par ty Trust .
2. Follow the steps in Add Relying Par ty Trust wizard.

Choose the Non claims aware option to use Windows Integrated security as the authentication
mechanism.
Enter a name you prefer in the Specify Display Name and select Next . Add the Relying party trust
identifier: <ADFS\_URL>/adfs/services/trust
For example: https://adfs.contosolab.com/adfs/services/trust
Choose the Access Control Policy that fits your organization's needs, and select Next .
Select Next , then select Finish to complete the Add Relying Par ty Trust wizard.
When completed, the properties of the Relying Party Trusts should look like the following.
3. Configure Web Application Proxy (WAP)

You want to enable the Web Application Proxy (Role) Windows role on a server in your environment. It must be
on a Windows 2016 server. For more information, see Web Application Proxy in Windows Server 2016 and
Publishing Applications using AD FS Preauthentication.
Configure constrained delegation
To transition from Forms authentication to Windows authentication, we need to use constrained delegation with
protocol transitioning. This step is part of the Kerberos configuration. We already defined the report server SPN
within the report server configuration.
We need to configure constrained delegation on the WAP Server machine account within Active Directory. You
may need to work with a domain administrator if you don't have rights to Active Directory.
To configure constrained delegation, follow these steps.
1. On a machine that has the Active Directory tools installed, launch Active Director y Users and
Computers .
2. Find the machine account for your WAP server. By default, it will be in the Computers container.
3. Right-click the WAP server and go to Proper ties .
4. On the Delegation tab, select Trust this computer for delegation to specified ser vices only and
then Use any authentication protocol .
5. This option sets up constrained delegation for this WAP Server machine account. We then need to specify
the services that this machine is allowed to delegate to.
6. Select Add under the services box.
7. Select Users or Computers .

8. Enter the service account that you are using for the report server. This account is the same one you used
to add the HTTP SPN in the earlier report server configuration section.
9. Select the HTTP SPN for the report server, then select OK .
NOTE
You may only see the NetBIOS SPN. It will actually select both the NetBIOS and FQDN SPNs, if they both exist.
10. When you select the Expanded check box, the result should look similar to the following example.
Add WAP Application

1. On the Web Application Proxy server, open the Remote Access Management console and select Web
Application Proxy in the Navigation pane.
2. In the Tasks pane, select Publish .
3. On the Welcome page, select Next .
4. On the Preauthentication page, select Active Director y Federation Ser vices (AD FS) , then select
Next .
5. Select Web and MSOFBA preauthentication as we are going to set up just the Browser access for the
report server, and not mobile app access.
6. Add the Relying Par ty that we created in the AD FS server as shown below, then select Next .
7. In the External URL section, put in the publicly accessible URL configured on the WAP server. Add the
URL configured with the report server (Report Server Configuration Manager) as shown below in the
Backend Ser ver URL section. Add the SPN of the report server in the Backend ser ver SPN section.
8. Select Next and Publish .
9. Run the following PowerShell command to validate the WAP configuration.
Get-WebApplicationProxyApplication -Name "PBIRSWAP" | FL
Connect to the report server through the browser

You can then access the Public WAP URL, for example, https://reports.contosolab.com/ReportServer for the web
service and https://reports.contosolab.com/Reports for the web portal from the browser. When you've
authenticated successfully, you can view the reports.
Next steps
Configure OAuth to connect to Power BI Report Server and SSRS *What is Power BI Report Server?
Configure Power BI Report Server with Azure
Application Proxy
This article discusses how to use Azure Active Directory Application Proxy to connect to Power BI Report Server
and SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) 2016 and later. Through this integration, users who are away from
the corporate network can access their Power BI Report Server and Reporting Services reports from their client
browsers and be protected by Azure Active Directory (AD). Read more about remote access to on-premises
applications through Azure Active Directory's Application Proxy.
Environment details
We used these values in the example we created.
Domain: umacontoso.com
Power BI Report Server: PBIRSAZUREAPP.umacontoso.com
SQL Server Data Source: SQLSERVERAZURE.umacontoso.com
Configure Power BI Report Server

After installing Power BI Report Server (assuming on an Azure VM), configure the Power BI Report Server web
service and web portal URLs using the following steps:
1. Create inbound and outbound rules on the VM firewall for Port 80 (Port 443 if you have https URLs
configured). Also, create inbound and outbound rules for Azure VM from the Azure portal for TCP
protocol – Port 80.
2. The DNS name configured for the VM in our environment is pbirsazureapp.eastus.cloudapp.azure.com .
3. Configure the Power BI Report Server external web service and web portal URL by selecting the
Advanced tab > Add button > Choose Host Header Name and adding the host name (DNS name) as
shown here.
4. We performed the previous step for both Web service and Web portal section and got the URLs
registered on the report server Configuration Manager:
https://pbirsazureapp.eastus.cloudapp.azure.com/ReportServer
https://pbirsazureapp.eastus.cloudapp.azure.com/Reports
5. In Azure portal we see two IP addresses for the VM in the networking section
Public IP .
Private IP .
The Public IP address is used for access from outside the virtual machine.
6. Hence, we added the host file entry on the VM (Power BI Report Server) to include the Public IP address
and the host name pbirsazureapp.eastus.cloudapp.azure.com .
7. Note that on restarting the VM, the dynamic IP address might change, and you may have to add the right
IP address again in the host file. To avoid this, you can set the Public IP address to static in the Azure
portal.
8. The Web service and Web portal URLs should be accessible successfully after making the above-
mentioned changes.
9. On accessing the URL https://pbirsazureapp.eastus.cloudapp.azure.com/ReportServer on the server, we're
prompted three times for credentials, and see a blank screen.
10. Add the following registry entry:
HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE \SYSTEM\CurrentControlset\Control \Lsa\ MSV1\_0 registry key
11. Add a new value BackConnectionHostNames , a multi-string value, and provide the host name
pbirsazureapp.eastus.cloudapp.azure.com .
After that, we can access the URLs on the server as well.
Configure Power BI Report Server to work with Kerberos
1. Configure the authentication type
We need to configure the authentication type for the report server to allow for Kerberos constrained delegation.
This configuring is done within the rsrepor tser ver.config file.
Within the rsreportserver.config file, find the Authentication/AuthenticationTypes section.
We want to make sure that RSWindowsNegotiate is listed and is first in the list of authentication types. It should
look similar to the following.
<RSWindowsNegotiate/>
If you have to change the configuration file, stop and restar t the repor t ser ver service from Report Server
Configuration Manager to make sure the changes take effect.
2. Register service principal names (SPNs)
Open the command prompt as an administrator and perform the following steps.
Register the following SPNs under the account Power BI Repor t Ser ver ser vice account using the following
commands
setspn -s http/ Netbios name\_of\_Power BI Report Server\_server<space> Power BI Report

Server\_ServiceAccount
setspn -s http/ FQDN\_of Power BI Report Server\_server<space> Power BI Report Server\_ServiceAccount
Register the following SPNs under the SQL Server service account using the following commands (for a default
instance of SQL Server):
setspn -s MSSQLSVC/FQDN\_of\_SQL\_Server: 1433 (PortNumber) <SQL service service account>
setspn -s MSSQLSVC/FQDN\_of\_SQL\_Server<SQL service service account>
3. Configure delegation settings

We have to configure the delegation settings on the report server service account.
1. Open Active Directory Users and Computers.
2. Open the Properties of the report server service account within Active Directory Users and Computers.
3. We want to configure constrained delegation with protocol transiting. With constrained delegation, we
need to be explicit about which services we want to delegate to.
4. Right click the repor t ser ver ser vice account and select Proper ties .
5. Select the Delegation tab.
6. Select Trust this user for delegation to specified ser vices only .
7. Select Use any authentication protocol .
8. Under the Ser vices to which this account can present delegated credentials : select Add .
10. Enter the ser vice account for the SQL ser ver ser vice and select OK .
It begins with MSSQLSVC.
11. Add the SPNs.
12. Select OK . You should see the SPN in the list now.
These steps help configure Power BI Report Server to work with Kerberos authentication mechanism and get the
test connection to data source working on your local machine.
Configure Azure Application Proxy connector

Refer to the article for configuration related to Application Proxy connector
We installed Application Proxy connector on Power BI Report Server, but you can configure it on a separate
server and make sure that delegation is set up properly.
Ensure the Connector is trusted for delegation
Ensure the Connector is trusted for delegation to the SPN added to the report server application pool account.
Configure Kerberos Constrained Delegation (KCD) so that the Azure AD Application Proxy service can delegate
user identities to the report server application pool account. Configure KCD by enabling the Application Proxy
connector to retrieve Kerberos tickets for your users who have been authenticated in Azure AD. Then that server
passes the context to the target application, or Power BI Report Server in this case.
To configure KCD, repeat the following steps for each connector machine.
1. Sign into a domain controller as a domain administrator, and then open Active Director y Users and
Computers .
2. Find the computer that the connector is running on.
3. Double-click the computer, and then select the Delegation tab.
4. Set the delegation settings to Trust this computer for delegation to the specified ser vices only . Then
select Use any authentication protocol .
5. Select Add , and then select Users or Computers .
6. Enter the service account that you're using for Power BI Report Server. This account is the one you added the
SPN to within the report server configuration.
7. Click OK .
8. To save the changes, click OK again.
Publish through Azure AD Application Proxy

Now you're ready to configure Azure AD Application Proxy.
Publish Power BI Report Server through Application Proxy with the following settings. For step-by-step
instructions on how to publish an application through Application Proxy, see Publishing applications using Azure
AD Application Proxy.
Internal URL : Enter the URL to the report server that the connector can reach in the corporate network.
Make sure this URL is reachable from the server the connector is installed on. A best practice is using a
top-level domain such as https://servername/ to avoid issues with subpaths published through
Application Proxy. For example, use https://servername/ and not https://servername/reports/ or
https://servername/reportserver/ . We've configured our environment with
https://pbirsazureapp.eastus.cloudapp.azure.com/ .
NOTE
We recommend using a secure HTTPS connection to the report server. See Configure SSL connections on a native
mode report server for how-to information.
External URL : Enter the public URL the Power BI mobile app will connect to. For example, it may look
like https://reports.contoso.com if a custom domain is used. To use a custom domain, upload a
certificate for the domain, and point a DNS record to the default msappproxy.net domain for your
application. For detailed steps, see Working with custom domains in Azure AD Application Proxy.
We've configured the external URL to be https://pbirsazureapp-umacontoso2410.msappproxy.net/ for our
environment.
Pre-authentication Method : Azure Active Directory.
Connector Group: Default.
We haven't made any changes in the Additional Settings section. It's configured to work with the default
options.
IMPORTANT
When configuring the application proxy, note that the Backend Application Timeout property is set to Default (85
seconds). If you have reports that take longer than 85 seconds to execute, set this property to Long (180 seconds),
which is the highest possible timeout value. When configured for Long , all reports need to complete within 180 seconds
or they time out and result in an error.
Configure single sign-on
Once your app is published, configure the single sign-on settings with the following steps:
1. On the application page in the portal, select Single sign-on .
2. For Single Sign-on Mode , select Integrated Windows Authentication .
3. Set Internal Application SPN to the value that you set earlier. You can identify this value by using the
following steps:
Try running a report or perform test connection to data source so that a Kerberos ticket gets created.
After successful execution of the report/ test connection, open command prompt and run the
command: klist . In the result section, you should see a ticket with http/ SPN. If it's same as the
SPN you have configured with Power BI Report Server, use that SPN in this section.
4. Choose the Delegated Login Identity for the connector to use on behalf of your users. For more
information, see Working with different on-premises and cloud identities.
We recommend using User Principal name. In our sample, we configured it to work with User Principal
name option:
5. Click Save to save your changes.
Finish setting up your application
To finish setting up your application, go to the Users and groups section and assign users to access this
application.
1. Configure the Authentication section of App registration for the Power BI Report Server application as
follows for Redirect URLs and Advanced settings :
Create a new Redirect URL and configure it with Type = Web and Redirect URI =
https://pbirsazureapp-umacontoso2410.msappproxy.net/
In the Advanced Settings section, configure the Logout URL to
https://pbirsazureapp-umacontoso2410.msappproxy.net/?Appproxy=logout
2. Continue configuring the Authentication section of App registration for the Power BI Report Server
application as follows for Implicit grant , Default client type , and Suppor ted account types :
Set Implicit grant to ID tokens .
Set Default client type to No .
Set Suppor ted account types to Accounts in this organizational director y only
(UmaContoso only – Single tenant) .
3. Once the single sign-on is set up and the URL https://pbirsazureapp-umacontoso2410.msappproxy.net is
working, we have to make sure that the account that we log in with is synced with the account to which
the permissions are provided in Power BI Report Server.
4. We first have to configure the custom domain that we are planning to use in the login, then make sure it
is verified
5. In this case, we purchased a domain called umacontoso.com and configured the DNS zone with the
entries. You can also try using the onmicrosoft.com domain and sync it with on-premises AD.
See the article Tutorial: Map an existing custom DNS name to Azure App Service for reference.
6. After successfully verifying the DNS entry for the custom domain, you should be able to see the status as
Verified corresponding to the domain from the portal.
7. Install Microsoft Azure AD connect on the domain controller server and configure it to sync with Azure
AD.
8. Once the Azure AD has synced with on-premises AD, we see the following status from the Azure portal:
9. Also, once the sync is successful, open the AD domains and trusts on the Domain controller. Right-click
Active Directory Domains and Trusts > Properties and add the UPN. In our environment, umacontoso.com
is the custom domain we purchased.
10. After adding the UPN, you should be able to configure the user accounts with the UPN so that the Azure
AD account and the on-premises AD account are connected and that the token is recognized during
authentication.
The AD domain name gets listed in the drop-down list of the User logon name section after you do the
previous step. Configure the user name, and select the domain from the drop-down list in the User
logon name section of the AD user properties.
11. Once the AD sync is successful, you see the on-premises AD account coming up in the Azure portal under
the Users and Groups section of the application. The source for the account is Windows Ser ver AD.
12. Logging in with [email protected] will be equivalent to using the Windows credentials
Umacontoso\umasm .
These previous steps are applicable if you have on-premises AD configured and are planning to sync it
with Azure AD.
Successful sign-in after implementing the above steps:
Followed by the display of web portal:
With a successful test connection to data source using Kerberos as the authentication:
Access from Power BI mobile apps
Configure the application registration
Before the Power BI mobile app can connect and access Power BI Report Server, you must configure the
application registration that was automatically created for you in Publish through Azure AD Application Proxy
earlier in this article.
NOTE
If you use conditional access policies that require the Power BI mobile app to be an approved client app, you can’t use
Azure AD Application Proxy to connect the Power BI mobile app to Power BI Report Server.
1. On the Azure Active Directory Over view page, select App registrations .
2. On the All applications tab, search for the application you created for Power BI Report Server.
3. Select the application, then select Authentication .
4. Add the following Redirect URIs based on which platform you are using.
When configuring the app for Power BI Mobile iOS , add the following Redirect URIs of type Public Client
(Mobile and Desktop):
msauth://code/mspbi-adal%3a%2f%2fcom.microsoft.powerbimobile
msauth://code/mspbi-adalms%3a%2f%2fcom.microsoft.powerbimobilems
mspbi-adal://com.microsoft.powerbimobile
mspbi-adalms://com.microsoft.powerbimobilems
When configuring the app for Power BI Mobile Android , add the following Redirect URIs of type Public
Client (Mobile and Desktop):
urn:ietf:wg:oauth:2.0:oob
mspbi-adal://com.microsoft.powerbimobile
msauth://com.microsoft.powerbim/g79ekQEgXBL5foHfTlO2TPawrbI%3D
msauth://com.microsoft.powerbim/izba1HXNWrSmQ7ZvMXgqeZPtNEU%3D
When configuring the app for both Power BI Mobile iOS and Android, add the following Redirect URI of
type Public Client (Mobile and Desktop) to the list of Redirect URIs configured for iOS:
urn:ietf:wg:oauth:2.0:oob
IMPORTANT
The Redirect URIs must be added for the application to work correctly.
Connect from the Power BI mobile apps

1. In the Power BI mobile app, connect to your report server instance. To connect, enter the External URL for
the application you published through Application Proxy.
2. Select Connect . You'll be directed to the Azure Active Directory sign-in page.
3. Enter valid credentials for your user and select Sign in . You'll see the elements from your report server.
Next steps
Enable remote access to Power BI Mobile with Azure AD Application Proxy
Configure your report server to host Excel
workbooks using Office Online Server (OOS)
In addition to viewing Power BI reports in the web portal, Power BI Report Server can host Excel workbooks by
using Office Online Server (OOS). Your report server becomes a single location to publish and view self-service
Microsoft BI content.
Prepare server to run Office Online Server

Perform these procedures on the server that will run Office Online Server. This server must be Windows Server
2012 R2 or Windows Server 2016. Windows Server 2016 requires Office Online Server April 2017 or later.
Install prerequisite software for Office Online Server
1. Open the Windows PowerShell prompt as an administrator and run this command to install the required
roles and services.
Windows Ser ver 2012 R2:
Add-WindowsFeature Web-Server,Web-Mgmt-Tools,Web-Mgmt-Console,Web-WebServer,Web-Common-Http,Web-
Default-Doc,Web-Static-Content,Web-Performance,Web-Stat-Compression,Web-Dyn-Compression,Web-
Security,Web-Filtering,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-App-Dev,Web-Net-Ext45,Web-Asp-Net45,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-
ISAPI-Filter,Web-Includes,InkandHandwritingServices,NET-Framework-Features,NET-Framework-Core,NET-
HTTP-Activation,NET-Non-HTTP-Activ,NET-WCF-HTTP-Activation45,Windows-Identity-Foundation,Server-
Media-Foundation
Windows Ser ver 2016:
Add-WindowsFeature Web-Server,Web-Mgmt-Tools,Web-Mgmt-Console,Web-WebServer,Web-Common-Http,Web-
Default-Doc,Web-Static-Content,Web-Performance,Web-Stat-Compression,Web-Dyn-Compression,Web-
Security,Web-Filtering,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-App-Dev,Web-Net-Ext45,Web-Asp-Net45,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-
ISAPI-Filter,Web-Includes,NET-Framework-Features,NET-Framework-45-Features,NET-Framework-Core,NET-
Framework-45-Core,NET-HTTP-Activation,NET-Non-HTTP-Activ,NET-WCF-HTTP-Activation45,Windows-Identity-
Foundation,Server-Media-Foundation
If prompted, restart the server.

2. Install the following software:
.NET Framework 4.5.2
Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2013
Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015
Microsoft.IdentityModel.Extention.dll
Install Office Online Server
If you plan to use any Excel Online features that utilize external data access (such as Power Pivot), note that
Office Online Server must reside in the same Active Directory forest as its users as well as any external data
sources that you plan to access using Windows-based authentication.
1. Download Office Online Server from the Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC). The download is
located under those Office products on the VLSC portal. For development purposes, you can download
OOS from MSDN subscriber downloads.
2. Run Setup.exe.
3. On the Read the Microsoft Software License Terms page, select I accept the terms of this
agreement and select Continue .
4. On the Choose a file location page, select the folder where you want the Office Online Server files to
be installed (for example, C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Web Apps*) and select Install Now . If the
folder you specified doesn’t exist, Setup creates it for you.
We recommend that you install Office Online Server on the system drive.
5. When Setup finishes installing Office Online Server, select Close .
Install language packs for Office Web Apps Server (optional)
Office Online Server Language Packs let users view web-based Office files in multiple languages.
To install the language packs, follow these steps.
1. Download the Office Online Server Language Packs from the Microsoft Download Center.
2. Run wacser verlanguagepack .exe .
3. In the Office Online Server Language Pack Wizard, on the Read the Microsoft Software License Terms
page, select I accept the terms of this agreement and select Continue .
4. When Setup finishes installing Office Online Server, select Close .
Deploy Office Online Server

Create the Office Online Server farm (HTTPS )
Use the New-OfficeWebAppsFarm command to create a new Office Online Server farm that consists of a single
server, as shown in the following example.
New-OfficeWebAppsFarm -InternalUrl "https://server.contoso.com" -ExternalUrl "https://wacweb01.contoso.com"

-CertificateName "OfficeWebApps Certificate"
Parameters
–InternalURL is the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the server that runs Office Online Server, such
as https://servername.contoso.com .
–ExternalURL is the FQDN that can be accessed on the Internet.
–Cer tificateName is the friendly name of the certificate.
Create the Office Online Server farm (HTTP)
Use the New-OfficeWebAppsFarm command to create a new Office Online Server farm that consists of a single
server, as shown in the following example.
New-OfficeWebAppsFarm -InternalURL "https://servername" -AllowHttp
Parameters
–InternalURL is the name of the server that runs Office Online Server, such as https://servername .
–AllowHttp configures the farm to use HTTP.
Verify that the Office Online Server farm was created successfully
After the farm is created, details about the farm are displayed in the Windows PowerShell prompt. To verify that
Office Online Server is installed and configured correctly, use a web browser to access the Office Online Server
discovery URL, as shown in the following example. The discovery URL is the InternalUrl parameter you specified
when you configured your Office Online Server farm, followed by /hosting/discovery, for example:
<InternalUrl>/hosting/discovery
If Office Online Server works as expected, you should see a Web Application Open Platform Interface Protocol
(WOPI)-discovery XML file in your web browser. The first few lines of that file should resemble the following
example:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<wopi-discovery>
<net-zone name="internal-http">
<app name="Excel" favIconUrl="<InternalUrl>/x/_layouts/images/FavIcon_Excel.ico" checkLicense="true">
<action name="view" ext="ods" default="true" urlsrc="<InternalUrl>/x/_layouts/xlviewerinternal.aspx?
<ui=UI_LLCC&><rs=DC_LLCC&>" />
<action name="view" ext="xls" default="true" urlsrc="<InternalUrl>/x/_layouts/xlviewerinternal.aspx?
<action name="view" ext="xlsb" default="true" urlsrc="<InternalUrl>/x/_layouts/xlviewerinternal.aspx?
<action name="view" ext="xlsm" default="true" urlsrc="<InternalUrl>/x/_layouts/xlviewerinternal.aspx?
Configure Excel workbook maximum size

The maximum file size for all files in Power BI Report Server is 100 MB. To stay in sync with that, you need to
manually set this in OOS.
Set-OfficeWebAppsFarm -ExcelWorkbookSizeMax 100
Using EffectiveUserName with Analysis Services

To allow for live connections to Analysis Services, for connections within an Excel workbook that make use of
EffectiveUserName. For OOS to make use of EffectiveUserName, you will need to add the machine account of
the OOS server as an administrator for the Analysis Services instance. Management Studio for SQL Server 2016
or later is needed to do this.
Only embedded Analysis Services connections are currently supported within an Excel workbook. The user's
account will need to have permission to connect to Analysis Services as the ability to proxy the user is not
available.
Run the following PowerShell commands on the OOS Server.
Set-OfficeWebAppsFarm -ExcelUseEffectiveUserName:$true
Set-OfficeWebAppsFarm -ExcelAllowExternalData:$true
Set-OfficeWebAppsFarm -ExcelWarnOnDataRefresh:$false
Configure a Power Pivot instance for data models

Installing an Analysis Services Power Pivot mode instance lets you work with Excel workbooks that are using
Power Pivot. Make sure that the instance name is POWERPIVOT. Add the machine account of the OOS server as
an administrator, for the Analysis Services Power Pivot mode instance. Management Studio for SQL Server 2016
or later is needed to do this.
For OOS to use the Power Pivot mode instance, run the following command.
New-OfficeWebAppsExcelBIServer -ServerId <server_name>\POWERPIVOT
If you did not already allow external data, from the Analysis Services step above, run the following command.
Set-OfficeWebAppsFarm -ExcelAllowExternalData:$true
Firewall considerations
To avoid firewall issues, you may need to open the ports 2382 and 2383. You can also add the msmdsrv.exe, for
the Power Pivot instance, as an application firewall wall policy.
Configure Power BI Report Server to use the OOS Server

On the General page of Site settings , enter the OOS discovery url. The OOS discovery url is the InternalUrl,
used when deploying the OOS server, followed by /hosting/discovery. For example,
https://servername/hosting/discovery , for HTTP. And, https://server.contoso.com/hosting/discovery for HTTPS.
To get to Site settings , select the gear icon in the upper right and select Site settings .
Only a user with the System Administrator role will see the Office Online Server discovery url setting.
After you enter the discovery url, and select Apply , selecting an Excel workbook, within the web portal, should
display the workbook within the web portal.
Limitations and considerations
You will have read only capability with workbooks.
Scheduled refresh isn't supported for Excel workbooks in Power BI Report Server.
Next steps
Troubleshoot custom visuals in Power BI Desktop for
In some specific situations, Power BI Desktop for Power Report Server fails to load a custom visual. After loading
a custom visual from a local file the visual keeps loading but does not show up:
This happens in one of the following scenarios:

When the computer that has Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server isn't connected to the internet.
When the Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server computer’s network device blocks access to
pbivisuals.powerbi.com .
In order to resolve this situation follow the steps below.
Loading custom visuals

Use one of the following solutions to get the custom visual to load in Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report
Server:
Ensure that the Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server computer is connected to the internet.
If the computer is connected to the internet but you still encounter the behavior, check to see if the URL
https://pbivisuals.powerbi.com/ has been blocked. If so, add the URL to an allowlist to get the visual to
load.
If the computer isn't allowed internet access, perform these steps:
1. Configure the Environment variable under “Advanced System settings” as shown below:
2. Add PBI_userFavoriteResourcePackagesEnabled to environment variables and set it to 0 .
3. After making this change, restart Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server, and try loading a
custom visual.
Why this happens

When importing the local copy of the visual, Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server tries to connect to the
internet and load the updated visual, which results in this behavior. Specifically, Power BI Desktop for Power BI
Report Server needs to connect to https://pbivisuals.powerbi.com:443 to get the latest copy of the visuals but
fails with the following error:
DNS Lookup for "pbivisuals.powerbi.com" failed. The system reports that no network connection is available.
System.Net.Sockets.SocketException No such host is known.
To get around the issue, use one of the solutions mentioned in this article.
NOTE
After implementing the solution of configuring the environment variable (the third solution), you might still encounter a
few seconds delay before the visual loads in Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server. You encounter this delay
because Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server tries to fetch the updated copy of the visual from the internet. After
a retry period, it displays the local copy of the custom visual after failing to connect to internet. This could result in a 20 to
30 second delay.

Troubleshoot scheduled refresh in Power BI Report
Server
This article discusses resources available to troubleshoot issues with scheduled refresh in Power BI Report
Server.
As issues come up, this article will be updated with information to help you.
Common issues
The following are the more common issues you will hit when trying to schedule refresh for a report.
Driver related problems
Connecting to different data sources may require 3rd party drivers that need to be installed in order to connect
successfully. Not only would you need to install them on the machine you are using Power BI Desktop on, but
you will also need to make sure the driver is installed on the report server.
The driver may also come in both 32bit and 64bit. Make sure to install the 64bit driver as Power BI Report
Server is 64bit.
Please refer to the manufacturer for details on how to install and configure 3rd party drivers.
Memory pressure
Memory pressure can occur when reports require more memory to process and render. Schedule refresh on
reports may demand a significant amount of memory on the machine. Especially for larger reports. Memory
pressure can result in report failures as well as a potential crash of the report server itself.
If you are encountering memory pressure consistently, it may be worth looking at a scaled out deployment of
the report server in order to spread the load of resources. You can also define that a given report server is used
for data refresh with the IsDataModelRefreshService setting within rsreportserver.config. With this setting, you
could define one or more servers to be the front end server to handle on demand reports, and have another set
of servers to only be used for scheduled refresh.
For information on how to monitor an Analysis Services instance, see Monitor an Analysis Services Instance.
For information about memory settings within Analysis Services, see Memory Properties.
Kerberos configuration
Connecting to a data source with windows credentials may require configuring Kerberos constrained delegation
to make a successful connection. For more information about how to configure Kerberos constrained
delegation, see Configure Kerberos to use Power BI reports.
Known issues
Information about known issues will be listed here when they become available.
Configuration settings
The following settings can be used to affect scheduled refresh. Settings set within SQL Server Management
Studio (SSMS) apply to all report servers within a scale-out deployment. Settings configured within
rsreportserver.config are for the specific server they are set on.
Settings within SSMS:
SET T IN G DESC RIP T IO N
MaxFileSizeMb Maximum file size for uploaded reports. Default is 1000 MB

(1 GB). Maximum value is 2000 MB (2 GB).
ModelCleanupCycleMinutes Defines how often the model is checked to evict it from

memory. Default is 15 minutes.
ModelExpirationMinutes Defines how long until the model expires based on the last
time used and is evicted. Default is 60 minutes.
ScheduleRefreshTimeoutMinutes Defines how long the data refresh can take for a mode.
Default is 120 minutes. There is no upper limit.
Settings within rsrepor tser ver.config:
<Configuration>
<Service>
<PollingInterval>10</PollingInterval>
<IsDataModelRefreshService>false</IsDataModelRefreshService>
<MaxQueueThreads>0</MaxQueueThreads>
</Service>
</Configuration>
Tools for troubleshooting

Logs relevant for scheduled refresh of Power BI reports
The log files which hold information about scheduled refresh are the RSPowerBI_ logs. They are located in the
LogFiles folder of your report server installation location.
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Power BI Report Server\PBIRS\LogFiles\RSPowerBI_*.log
Error condition
2017-10-20 02:00:09.5188|ERROR|744|Error Processing Data Model Refresh: SessionId: e960c25e-ddd4-4763-aa78-

0e5dceb53472, Status: Error Model can not be refreshed because not all the data sources are embedded,
Exception Microsoft.PowerBI.ReportServer.AsServer.InvalidDataSourceException: Model can not be refreshed
because not all the data sources are embedde
at
Microsoft.PowerBI.ReportServer.WebHost.EventHandler.AnalysisServicesDataRefresh.CanModelRefresh(IEnumerable`
1 dataSources)
at Microsoft.PowerBI.ReportServer.WebHost.EventHandler.DataRefreshScope.<>c__DisplayClass7.
<ExecuteActionWithLogging>b__5()
at Microsoft.PowerBI.ReportServer.WebHost.EventHandler.DataRefreshScope.
<ExecuteFuncWithLogging>d__1`1.MoveNext()
Successful refresh
2017-10-25 15:23:41.9370|INFO|6|Handling event with data: TimeEntered: 10/25/2017 8:23:41 PM, Type: Event,
SessionId: 46d398db-0b1f-49d8-b7bd-c5461c07ec7a, EventType: DataModelRefresh
2017-10-25 15:23:41.9370|INFO|6|Processing Data Model Refresh: SessionId: 46d398db-0b1f-49d8-b7bd-
c5461c07ec7a, Status: Starting Data Refresh.
c5461c07ec7a, Status: Starting Retrieving PBIX AsDatabaseInfo.
c5461c07ec7a, Status: Starting Verifying all the data sources are embedded.
c5461c07ec7a, Status: Starting Verifying connection strings are valid.
c5461c07ec7a, Status: Starting Streaming model to Analysis Server.
c5461c07ec7a, Status: Starting Refreshing the model.
c5461c07ec7a, Status: Starting Removing credentials from the model.
c5461c07ec7a, Status: Starting Saving model to the catalog.
Incorrect Credentials
2017-10-20 08:22:01.5595|INFO|302|Processing Data Model Refresh: SessionId: 22cd9ec3-b21a-4eb1-81ae-

15fac8d379ea, Status: Starting Refreshing the model.
2017-10-20 08:22:02.3758|ERROR|302|Error Processing Data Model Refresh: SessionId: 22cd9ec3-b21a-4eb1-81ae-
15fac8d379ea, Status: Error Failed to refresh the model, Exception
Microsoft.AnalysisServices.OperationException: Failed to save modifications to the server. Error returned:
'The credentials provided for the SQL source are invalid. (Source at rosecatalog;reportserver.). The
exception was raised by the IDbCommand interface.
'.
at Microsoft.AnalysisServices.Tabular.Model.SaveChanges(SaveOptions saveOptions)
at Microsoft.PowerBI.ReportServer.AsServer.TOMWrapper.RefreshModel(Database database)
at Microsoft.PowerBI.ReportServer.AsServer.AnalysisServicesServer.RefreshDatabase(String databaseName,
IEnumerable`1 dataSources)
at
Microsoft.PowerBI.ReportServer.WebHost.EventHandler.AnalysisServicesDataRefresh.RefreshDatabase(AsDatabaseIn
fo asDatabaseInfo)
2017-10-20 08:22:02.4588|ERROR|302|Error Processing Data Model Refresh: SessionId: 22cd9ec3-b21a-4eb1-81ae-
15fac8d379ea, Status: Error Failed Data Refresh, Exception Microsoft.AnalysisServices.OperationException:
Failed to save modifications to the server. Error returned: 'The credentials provided for the SQL source are
invalid. (Source at rosecatalog;reportserver.). The exception was raised by the IDbCommand interface.
'.
at Microsoft.PowerBI.ReportServer.WebHost.EventHandler.DataRefreshScope.ExecuteActionWithLogging(Action
methodToExecute, String description, String localizedDescription, String messageInFailure, RefreshInfo
refreshInfo, DataAccessors dataAccessors, ReportEventType operation, Int64 size, Boolean isDataRetrieval,
Boolean showInExecutionLog)
at
Microsoft.PowerBI.ReportServer.WebHost.EventHandler.AnalysisServicesDataRefresh.RefreshData(RefreshInfo
refreshInfo)
Enabling Verbose Logging

Enabling verbose logging, in Power BI Report Server, is the same as it is for SQL Server Reporting Services.
1. Open <install directory>\PBIRS\ReportServer\bin\ReportingServicesService.exe.config .
2. Under <system.diagnostics> , change DefaultTraceSwitch to 4 .
3. Under <RStrace> , change Components to all:4 .
ExecutionLog
Whenever a Power BI report is rendered, or a schedule refresh plan is executed, new entries are added to the
Execution Log in the database. These entries are available in the ExecutionLog3 view within the report server
catalog database.
Execution log entries for Power BI reports differ from entries for other report types.
TimeRendering columns is always 0. Rendering of Power BI reports happens in the browser, not in the server.
There are 2 Request Types and subsequent item actions:
Interactive : whenever a report is being viewed.
ASModelStream : when the data model is streamed to Analysis Services from the catalog.
ConceptualSchema : when user clicks on viewing the report.
Quer yData : whenever data is being requested from client.
Refresh Cache : whenever a schedule refresh plan has been executed.
ASModelStream : whenever the data model is streamed to Analysis Services from the catalog.
DataRefresh : whenever data is being refreshed from one or more data sources.
SaveToCatalog : whenever the data model is being saved back to the catalog.
Analysis Services
There may be times you want to modify Analysis Services for diagnosing issues, or adjust memory limits.
IMPORTANT
These settings will be reset any time you upgrade the report server. Be sure to keep a copy of your changes and reapply
them if needed.
Install location
The default location for Power BI Report Server, and Analysis Services is the following.
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Power BI Report Server\PBIRS\ASEngine
Configuring Analysis Services settings (msmdsrv.ini)

In the <install directory>\PBIRS\ASEngine directory, you will find the msmdsrv.ini file, which you can use to
control different settings of Analysis Services. When you open this file, you will immediately realize that this file
doesn't have all the settings you would expect in the msmdsrv.ini file.
This is because the actual Analysis Services process that is run by Power BI Report Server is launched in
<install directory>\PBIRS\ASEngine\workspaces . In that folder, you will see the full msmdsrv.ini file you are used
to. It is important not to modify the file within the workspaces folder as it is rewritten whenever the Analysis
Services process launches. If you want to control a setting, please do this by modifying msmdsrv.ini in the
<install directory>\PBIRS\ASEngine directory.
The following settings are reset when ever the Analysis Services process is launched. Any changes you make to
these will be ignored.
ConfigurationSettings\PrivateProcess
ConfigurationSettings\DataDir
ConfigurationSettings\LogDir
ConfigurationSettings\TempDir
ConfigurationSettings\BackupDir
ConfigurationSettings\AllowedBrowsingFolders
ConfigurationSettings\CrashReportsFolder
ConfigurationSettings\ExtensionDir
ConfigurationSettings\Port
ConfigurationSettings\DeploymentMode
ConfigurationSettings\ServerLocation
ConfigurationSettings\TMCompatabilitySKU
ConfigurationSettings\FlightRecorder\TraceDefinitionFile
Profiling the local Analysis Services process
A SQL Profiler trace can be run on the local Analysis Services process for diagnostic purposes. To connect to the
local Analysis Services instance, do the following.
SQL Server Profiler Trace is included with the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) download.
1. Start SQL Ser ver Profiler as an administrator.
2. Select the New Trace button.
3. In the Connect to ser ver dialog, select Analysis Ser vices and enter localhost:5132 for the server name.
4. In the Trace proper ties dialog, select the events you want to capture and select Run .
Lock Pages In Memory Windows privilege

If you find that you are unable to render a Power BI report, assigning the Lock pages in memor y privilege to
the services account running Power BI Report server may help. For more information about how to configure
Lock pages in memor y , see Windows privileges assigned to the Analysis Services service account.
Develop with the REST APIs for Power BI Report
Server
Power BI Report Server support Representational State Transfer (REST) APIs. The REST APIs are service
endpoints that support a set of HTTP operations (methods), which provide create, retrieve, update, or delete
access for resources within a report server.
The REST API provides programmatic access to the objects in a Power BI Report Server catalog. Examples of
objects are folders, reports, KPIs, data sources, datasets, refresh plans, subscriptions, and more. Using the REST
API, you can, for example, navigate the folder hierarchy, discover the contents of a folder, or download a report
definition. You can also create, update, and delete objects. Examples of working with objects are upload a report,
execute a refresh plan, delete a folder, and so on.
NOTE
If you’re interested in viewing or deleting personal data, please review Microsoft's guidance in the Windows Data Subject
Requests for the GDPR site. If you’re looking for general information about GDPR, see the GDPR section of the Service
Trust portal.
Components of a REST API request/response

A REST API request/response pair can be separated into five components:
The request URI , which consists of: {URI-scheme} :// {URI-host} / {resource-path} ? {query-string} .
Although the request URI is included in the request message header, we call it out separately here
because most languages or frameworks require you to pass it separately from the request message.
URI scheme: Indicates the protocol used to transmit the request. For example, http or https .
URI host: Specifies the domain name or IP address of the server where the REST service endpoint is
hosted, such as myserver.contoso.com .
Resource path: Specifies the resource or resource collection, which may include multiple segments
used by the service in determining the selection of those resources. For example:
CatalogItems(01234567-89ab-cdef-0123-456789abcdef)/Properties can be used to get the specified
properties for the CatalogItem.
Query string (optional): Provides additional simple parameters, such as the API version or resource
selection criteria.
HTTP request message header fields:
A required HTTP method (also known as an operation or verb), which tells the service what type of
operation you are requesting. Reporting Services REST APIs support DELETE, GET, HEAD, PUT, POST,
and PATCH methods.
Optional additional header fields, as required by the specified URI and HTTP method.
Optional HTTP request message body fields, to support the URI and HTTP operation. For example,
POST operations contain MIME-encoded objects that are passed as complex parameters. For POST or
PUT operations, the MIME-encoding type for the body should be specified in the Content-type request
header as well. Some services require you to use a specific MIME type, such as application/json .
HTTP response message header fields:
An HTTP status code, ranging from 2xx success codes to 4xx or 5xx error codes. Alternatively, a
service-defined status code may be returned, as indicated in the API documentation.
Optional additional header fields, as required to support the request's response, such as a
Content-type response header.
Optional HTTP response message body fields:
MIME-encoded response objects are returned in the HTTP response body, such as a response from a
GET method that is returning data. Typically, these objects are returned in a structured format such as
JSON or XML, as indicated by the Content-type response header.
API documentation
A modern REST API calls for modern API documentation. The REST API is built on the OpenAPI specification
(a.k.a. the swagger specification) and documentation is available on SwaggerHub. Beyond documenting the API,
SwaggerHub helps generate a client library in the language of choice – JavaScript, TypeScript, C#, Java, Python,
Ruby, and more.
Testing API calls

A tool for testing HTTP request/response messages is Fiddler. Fiddler is a free web debugging proxy that can
intercept your REST requests, making it easy to diagnose the HTTP request/ response messages.
Next steps
Review the available APIs over on SwaggerHub.
Samples are available on GitHub. The sample includes an HTML5 app built on TypeScript, React, and webpack
along with a PowerShell example.
Capacity planning guidance for Power BI Report
Server
Power BI Report Server is a self-service BI and enterprise reporting solution that customers can deploy on their
premises, behind their firewall. It combines the interactive report capability of Power BI Desktop with the on-
premises server platform of SQL Server Reporting Services. With heavy and growing usage of analytics and
reporting within enterprises, budgeting the hardware infrastructure and software licenses required to scale to
an enterprise user base can be a challenge. This paper aims to offer guidance on capacity planning for Power BI
Report Server by sharing results of numerous load test executions of various workloads against a report server.
While organizations' reports, queries, and usage patterns vary widely, the results presented in this paper, along
with the actual tests used and a detailed description of how they were executed, serve as a reference point for
anyone in the early-stage planning process of deploying Power BI Report Server.
Executive summary
We executed two different types of workloads against Power BI Report Server; each workload consisted of
rendering different types of reports as well as performing various web portal operations.
In "Power BI Report Heavy" workload, the most frequently executed operation (i.e. the operation executed
60% of the time) was rendering Power BI reports.
In "Paginated Report Heavy" workload, the most frequently executed operation was rendering paginated
reports.
Under a four-server topology of Power BI Report Server and the expectation that no more than 5% of users will
access a report server at any one time, the following table describes the maximum number of users Power BI
Report Server can handle with at least 99% reliability.
W O RK LO A D 8 C O RE/ 32 GB RA M 16 C O RE/ 64 GB RA M
Power BI Repor t Heavy (>60%) 1,000 users 3,000 users
Paginated (RDL) Repor t Heavy 2,000 users 3,200 users

(>60%)
In each run, the most overwhelmed resource was CPU. Due to this, increasing the number of cores to Power BI
Report Server would yield a higher gain in the reliability of the system than increasing the amount of memory
or hard-disk space.
Test methodology
The testing topology used was based on Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines instead of vendor-specific physical
hardware. All machines were hosted in US regions. This reflects the general trend of hardware virtualization
both on-premises and in the public cloud.
Power BI Report Server topology
The Power BI Report Server deployment consisted of the following virtual machines:
Active Directory Domain Controller: this was needed by SQL Server Database Engine, SQL Server Analysis
Services, and Power BI Report Server to securely authenticate all requests.
SQL Server Database Engine and SQL Server Analysis Services: this was where we stored all the databases
for the reports to consume when we rendered them.
Power BI Report Server Database. The report server database is hosted on a different machine than Power BI
Report Server so that it does not need to compete with SQL Server Database Engine for memory, CPU,
network, and disk resources.
See Appendix 1.1 Power BI Report Server Topology and Appendix 1.2 Power BI Report Server Virtual Machine
Configuration for a thorough configuration of each virtual machine used in the topology.
Tests
The tests used in the load test runs are publicly available in a GitHub project called Reporting Services LoadTest.
This tool allows users to study the performance, reliability, scalability and recoverability characteristics of SQL
Server Reporting Services and Power BI Report Server. This project consists of four groups of test cases:
Tests simulating rendering Power BI reports,
Tests simulating rendering mobile reports,
Tests simulating rendering small and large paginated reports, and
Tests simulating performing various types of web portal operations.
All tests were written to perform an end-to-end operation (such as rendering a report, creating a new data
source, etc.). They accomplish this by making one or more web requests to the report server (via APIs). In the
real world, a user may need to perform a few intermediate operations to complete one of these end-to-end
operations. For example, to render a report a user will need to go to the web portal, navigate to the folder where
the report is, then click the report to render it. While tests don't perform all the operations needed to accomplish
an end-to-end task, they still impose most of the load that Power BI Report Server would experience. You can
learn more about the different types of reports used as well as the variety of operations performed by exploring
the GitHub project.
NOTE
The tool isn't officially supported by Microsoft, but the product team does contribute to the project and answer issues
that are raised by other contributors.
Workloads
There are 2 workload profiles used in testing: Power BI Report Heavy and Paginated Report Heavy. The table
below describes the distribution of requests executed against the Report Server.
P O W ER B I REP O RT H EAVY, PA GIN AT ED REP O RT H EAVY,
A C T IVIT Y F REQ UEN C Y O F O C C URREN C E F REQ UEN C Y O F O C C URREN C E
Rendering Power BI repor ts 60% 10%
Rendering paginated (RDL) 30% 60%

repor ts
Rendering mobile repor ts 5% 20%
Web por tal operations 5% 10%
User load
For each test run, tests were executed based on the frequency specified in one of the two workloads. Tests
started with 20 concurrent user requests to the report server. The user load was then gradually increased until
reliability dropped below the 99% target.
Results
Concurrent user capacity
As stated earlier, tests started with 20 concurrent users making requests to the report server. The number of
concurrent users was then gradually increased until 1% of all requests were failing. The results in the following
table tell us the number of concurrent user requests that the server would be able to handle under peak load
with a failure rate of less than 1%.
W O RK LO A D 8 C O RE/ 32 GB 16 C O RE/ 64 GB
Power BI Repor t Heavy 50 concurrent users 150 concurrent users
Paginated Repor t Heavy 100 concurrent users 160 concurrent users
Total user capacity

At Microsoft, we have a production deployment of Power BI Report Server that several teams used. When we
analyze actual usage of this environment, we observe that the number of concurrent users at any given time
(even during daily peak load) doesn't tend to exceed 5% of the total user base. Using this 5% concurrency ratio
as a benchmark, we extrapolated the total user base Power BI Report Server could handle with 99% reliability.
W O RK LO A D 8 C O RE/ 32 GB 16 C O RE/ 64 GB
Power BI Repor t Heavy 1,000 users 3,000 users
Paginated Repor t Heavy 2,000 users 3,200 users
Summary
For each load test run, CPU was the most overwhelmed resource at the point of peak load on the Power BI
Report Server machine. Due to this, the first resource that should be increased is the number of cores.
Alternately, you can consider scaling out by adding more servers hosting Power BI Report Server in your
topology.
The results presented in this paper were derived from executing a specific set of reports consuming a specific
set of data, repeated in a specific way. It's a useful reference point, but keep in mind that your usage will depend
on your reports, queries, usage patterns and deployment of your Power BI Report Server.
Appendix
1 Topology
1.1 Power BI Repor t Ser ver Topology
To focus solely on Power BI Report Server behavior under different configurations, the VM configuration for
each type of machine (except for the machine hosting Power BI Report Server) was fixed. Each machine was
provisioned according to the second-generation (v2) D Series machines with Premium Storage Disks. You can
find detailed information about each VM size under the "General Purpose" section.
VIRT UA L M A C H IN E T Y P E P RO C ESSO R M EM O RY A Z URE VM SIZ E
Active Director y 2 Cores 7 GB Standard_DS2_v2

Domain Controller
SQL Ser ver Database 16 Cores 56 GB Standard_DS5_v2

Engine and Analysis
Ser vices
Repor t Ser ver Database 16 Cores 56 GB Standard_DS5_v2
1.2 Power BI Repor t Ser ver Vir tual Machine Configuration

Different configurations of processor and memory were used for the Virtual Machine hosting Power BI Report
Server. Unlike the other VMs, this machine was provisioned according to the third-generation (v3) D Series
Machines with Premium Storage Disks. You can find detailed information about this VM size under the "General
Purpose" section
VIRT UA L M A C H IN E P RO C ESSO R M EM O RY A Z URE VM SIZ E
Power BI Repor t Ser ver 8 Cores 32 GB Standard_D8S_v3

(Small)
Power BI Repor t Ser ver 16 Cores 64 GB vStandard_D16S_v3

(Large)
2 Run the LoadTest tool

If you'd like to run the Reporting Services LoadTest tool against your or a Microsoft Azure deployment of Power
BI Report Server, follow these steps.
1. Clone the Reporting Services LoadTest project from GitHub (https://github.com/Microsoft/Reporting-
Services-LoadTest).
2. In the project directory, you will find a solution file called RSLoadTests.sln. Open this file in Visual Studio 2015
or later.
3. Determine whether you want to run this tool against your deployment of Power BI Report Server or against a
deployment of Power BI Report Server in Microsoft Azure. If you are going to run it against your own
deployment, go to step 5.
4. Follow the instructions listed on https://github.com/Microsoft/Reporting-Services-LoadTest#create-a-sql-
server-reporting-services-load-environment-in-azure to create a Power BI Report Server environment in
Azure.
5. Once you finish deploying the environment, follow the instructions listed on
https://github.com/Microsoft/Reporting-Services-LoadTest#load-test-execution to run the tests.
PDF Rendering Extension conformance to ISO
14289-1 - paginated reports
APPLIES TO: ✔
️ Power BI Report Server ✔
️ SQL Server Reporting Services paginated reports
️ Power BI Report Builder
✔
This document describes paginated report PDF Rendering Extension conformance to ISO 14289-1 (PDF/UA)
specifications for paginated reports in the Power BI service, Power BI Report Server, and SQL Server Reporting
Services.
NOTE
You can save or print this whitepaper by selecting Print from your browser, then selecting Save as PDF .
Prerequisites
For Power BI paginated reports in the Power BI service, you need a Power BI Pro license, or Premium Per User
(PPU) license, and write access to a workspace in aPower BI Premium capacity.
1. Scope
Not applicable
2. Normative references
Not applicable
3. Terms and definitions

Not applicable
4. Notation
Not applicable
5. Version Identification
The PDF Rendering Extension provides support for PDF/UA as described in this document. In some instances,
noted below, it's incumbent on the user to take steps to ensure that a PDF is in full compliance with PDF/UA. We
expect the user will add the appropriate PDF/UA version and conformance identifiers as the last step in this
process, indicating that the necessary work has been done to make the PDF entirely PDF/UA compliant.
Everything listed in this document is based on rendering a PDF document with the device info setting
AccessiblePdf set to true . In some cases, compliance limitations are due to limitations in the Report Definition
Language (RDL).
6. Conformance requirements
C RIT ERIA SUP P O RT IN G F EAT URE REM A RK S
6.1 General Supported PDF Rendering Extension creates PDF

version 1.7.
6.2 Conforming files Supported with Exceptions See remarks in section 7 – File format
requirements.
6.3 Conforming reader Not Applicable
6.4 Conforming assistive technology Not Applicable
7. File format requirements

7.1 General Supported with Exceptions All real content shall be tagged as
defined in ISO 32000-1:2008, 14.8.
Artifacts (ISO 32000-1:2008,
14.8.2.2.2) shall not be tagged in the
structure tree.
PDF Rendering Extension doesn't
offer the flexibility to explicitly mark
individual items as artifacts, so it will
instead artifact everything that maps
to the criteria in ISO 32000-1:2008,
14.8.2.2.2.
Content shall be marked in the
structure tree with semantically
appropriate tags in a logical reading
order.
Note 4 WCAG 2.0, Guideline 1.4
explains issues regarding contrast,
color, and other formatting for
accessibility.
The user would need to ensure that
their document isn't subject to these
issues.
Standard tags defined in ISO 32000-
1:2008, 14.8.4, shall not be remapped.
remap the standard tags. Documents
begin with the Document root
element.
Files claiming conformance with this
International Standard shall have a
Suspects value of false (ISO 32000-
1:2008, Table 321).
have the Suspects entry. This property
is optional.
7.2 Text Supported with Exceptions Content shall be tagged in logical

reading order. The most semantically
appropriate tag shall be used for each
logical element in the document
content.
PDF Rendering Extension tags
content in logical reading order as
much as is feasible.
Character codes shall map to Unicode
as described in ISO 32000-1:2008,
14.8.2.4.2. Characters not included in
the Unicode specification may use the
Unicode private use area or declare
another character encoding.
Natural language shall be declared as
discussed in ISO 32000-1:2008, 14.9.2
and/or as described in ISO 32000-
1:2008, 7.9.2. Changes in natural
language shall be declared. Changes in
natural language inside text strings
(e.g. inside alternate descriptions) shall
be declared using a language identifier
as described in ISO 32000-1:2008,
14.9.2.2.
PDF Rendering extension only
declares natural language at the
document level
7.3 Graphics Supported with Exceptions Graphics objects, other than text
objects, shall be tagged with a Figure
tag as described in ISO 32000-1:2008,
14.8.4.5, Table 340. If any of the
following exceptions are true, then the
graphic shall be tagged as an artifact:
the graphic doesn't represent
meaningful content, or
the graphic appears as a
background to a link annotation, in
which case, the alternative text on the
link shall describe both the graphic and
the link.
PDF Rendering Extension tags
graphics objects with the Figure tag.
A caption accompanying a figure shall
be tagged with a Caption tag.
PDF Rendering Extension does not
currently tag captions on figures with a
Caption tag.
Figure tags shall include an alternative
representation or replacement text
that represents the contents marked
with the Figure tag as noted in ISO
32000-1:2008, 14.7.2, Table 323.
Note 1 See also WCAG 2.0, Guideline
1.1.
If text represented in a graphic is not
text in a natural language that's meant
to be read by a human reader,
alternative text describing the nature
or purpose of the graphic shall be
provided.
Note 2 Text that's a type sample or a
sample of the writing system used by a
language are examples of text that isn't
in a natural language. PDF Rendering
Extension supports alt text on figures,
though it's up to the user to add the
alt text.
Additional note regarding the BBox
attribute:
currently write the BBox attribute.
A workaround is to manually retag
illustrations as new Figures or as
Artifacts.
7.4 Headings Not Applicable RDL doesn't support mark up of

headings in any way. It's up to the user
to tag them as appropriate.
7.5 Tables Supported with Exceptions Tables should include headers. Table
headers shall be tagged according to
ISO 32000-1:2008, Table 337 and
Table 349.
Note 1 Tables can contain column
headers, row headers or both.
Note 2 As much information as
possible about the structure of tables
needs to be available when assistive
technology is relied upon. Headers
play a key role in providing structural
information.
It's up to the user to include headers
in their tables. RDL and the PDF
Rendering Extension provide support
for row headers.
Structure elements of type TH shall
have a Scope attribute.
PDF Rendering Extension does
include a Scope attribute on TH
elements for Column and Row
Members, but not for Corner cells.
Table tagging structures shall only be
used to tag content presented within
logical row and/or column
relationships.
This is dependent upon how the
user has chosen to use tables in their
RDL.
7.6 Lists Not Applicable RDL does not support mark up of lists.
In RDL, they are structurally a table
with a single table cell.
It's up to the user to retag them as
appropriate.
7.7 Mathematical expressions Supported with Exceptions All mathematical expressions shall be
enclosed within a Formula tag as
detailed in ISO 32000-1:2008, 14.8.4.5
and shall have an Alt attribute.
currently enclose math expressions
within a Formula tag.
The requirements regarding mapping
of characters to Unicode shall apply to
mathematical expressions as set forth
in ISO 32000-1:2008, 9.10.2 and
14.8.2.4.
This is supported by PDF Rendering
Extension.
7.8 Page headers and footers Supported Running headers and footers shall be
identified as Pagination artifacts and
shall be classified as either Header or
Footer subtypes as per ISO 32000-
1:2008, 14.8.2.2.2, Table 330.
Headers or Footers are treated and
tagged as artifacts.
7.9 Notes and references Not Applicable PDF Rendering Extension doesn't
support mark up of notes and
references.
It's up to the user to tag them as
appropriate.
7.10 Optional content Not Applicable
7.11 Embedded files Not Applicable
7.12 Article threads Not Applicable
7.13 Digital signatures Not Applicable
7.14 Non-interactive forms Not Applicable
7.15 XFA Not Applicable
7.16 Security Not Applicable
7.17 Navigation Supported A document should include a

document outline that matches the
reading order and level of navigational
targets (ISO 32000-1:2008, 12.3.3).
RDL supports bookmarks for a
report item, but the user must select
this option. Those bookmarks are then
rendered as a document outline by the
PDF Rendering Extension.
If present, the entries in the
PageLabels number tree (ISO 32000-
1:2008, 7.7.2, Table 28) should be
semantically appropriate.
The PDF Rendering Extension does
not include a PageLabels number tree.
7.18 Annotations Not Applicable RDL doesn't support annotations
7.21 Fonts Supported
7.21.1 General Supported
7.21.2 Font types Supported
7.21.3 Composite fonts Supported
7.21.3.1 General Supported
7.21 3.2 CIDFonts Supported
7.21.3.3 CMaps Supported
7.21.4 Embedding Supported

7.21.4.1 General Supported
7.21.4.2 Subset embedding Supported
7.21.5 Font metrics Supported
7.21.6 Character encodings Supported
7.21.7 Unicode character maps Supported
7.21.8 Use of .notdef glyph Supported
8. Conforming reader requirements

Not applicable
9. AT requirements
Not applicable
Disclaimer
© 2017 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. The names of actual companies and products mentioned
herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. The information contained in this document
represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the issues discussed as of the date of publication.
Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication. Microsoft
regularly updates its websites with new information about the accessibility of products as that information
becomes available.
Customization of the product voids this conformance statement from Microsoft. Please consult with Assistive
Technology (AT) vendors for compatibility specifications of specific AT products.
This document is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
IN THIS DOCUMENT.
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Contents

Power BI Report Server documentation

Comparing Power BI Report Server

Reporting Services mobile reports

Report Server programming features

Features of Power BI Report Server and the Power BI service

Analyze in Excel No Yes Analyze in Excel

Deployment On-premises or hosted Cloud Power BI Report Server can

Data sources Cloud and/or on-premises Cloud and/or on-premises

License Power BI Premium or SQL Power BI Pro and/or Power

Lifecycle Modern lifecycle policy Fully managed service

Composite models No Yes

Connect to services like Yes Yes Connect to the services you

Create Power BI reports in Yes Yes

Create Power BI reports in No Yes

Dashboards No Yes Dashboards in the Power BI

Distribute group of reports No Yes Create and publish apps

Gateway required No Yes for on-premises data

Host and connect to Power No Yes Intro to datasets across

Organizational content No Yes Organizational content

Q&A No Yes Q&A in the Power BI

Quick insights No Yes Automatically generate data

Paginated reports Yes Yes Paginated reports are

Power BI mobile apps Yes Yes Power BI mobile apps

Real-time streaming No Yes Real-time streaming in

Automatic page refresh for No Yes Automatic page refresh

ArcGIS for Power BI Yes Yes ArcGIS for Power BI

Email subscriptions for No Yes Subscribe yourself or others

Email subscriptions for Yes Yes Subscribe yourself and

Email delivery in Reporting

Data alerts No Yes Data alerts in the Power BI

Row-level security (RLS) Yes Yes Available in both

Row-level security in the

Row-level security in Power

Many-to-many No Yes Apply many-to-many

Cross-report drillthrough No Yes Use cross-report

Full-screen mode No Yes Full-screen mode in the

Advanced Microsoft 365 No Yes Collaborate in a workspace

R scripts and visuals No Yes Create R visuals and run R

Python scripts and visuals No Yes Create Python scripts and

Preview features No Yes Opt in for Power BI service

Power BI visuals Yes Yes Power BI visuals

Template apps No Yes Install and distribute

Here are the tasks you'll do in this tutorial:

Create a Power BI Report Server VM

5. In Step 1 Basics , for VM Name , call it repor tser ver vm .

Connect to your virtual machine

Power BI Report Server on the VM

Sample Power BI (.PBIX) reports

Links to Power BI Report Server documentation

Starts Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server (January

Opens Power BI Report Server web portal in the browser

Starts SQL Server Data Tools, for creating paginated (.RDL)

KPIs created in the web portal

Power BI (.PBIX) reports

Mobile reports created in SQL Server Mobile Report

Paginated reports created in Report Builder or SQL Server

Data sources for paginated reports

Tag your favorites

3. Select Browse to go back to the web portal.