White Paper Published: Deploying SQL Server 2016 PowerPivot and Power View in SharePoint 2016

The PowerPivot add-in for SharePoint Server 2016 was published for the first time as part of the  Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Community Technology Preview (CTP) 3.1 Feature Pack. Now customers can take advantage of SharePoint 2016 in their I-enabled farms and benefit from infrastructure advancements, compliance and security enhancements, and numerous performance and reliability improvements. For all the details, see the SharePoint Server 2016 Beta 2 online documentation at https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc303422(v=office.16).aspx.

Especially the changes in Excel Services, now called Excel Online, have significant impact on the deployment of a BI-enabled farm. Unifying both workbook editing and BI scenarios, Excel Online no longer exists in SharePoint, but is co-deployed on a separate computer running Office Online Server. This new architecture introduces new dependencies, such as the need to configure Kerberos Constrained Delegation (KCD) because Excel Online must be able to act on behalf of the user when opening a workbook in the browser that uses another workbook as its data source.

Here’s what you need to get started:

Also make sure you download and read the white paper Deploying SQL Server 2016 PowerPivot and Power View in SharePoint 2016 because it provides a first overview of the architecture changes and corresponding new system architecture for SQL Server BI based on SharePoint 2016 and Office Online Server. It also outlines a recommended deployment path to enable and verify BI capabilities in a SharePoint 2016 farm in three main stages. This white paper also guides you past certain known issues that exist in the SharePoint Server 2016 Beta 2, Office Online Server Preview and SQL Server 2016 CTP 3.1 releases.

The main goal of this white paper is to help you get familiar with the new architecture as quickly as possible by focusing on the essential deployment tasks in a small demo environment. Subsequent papers and blog articles will build on this foundation, such as when covering the scale-out of a BI environment or complex authentication scenarios. Stay tuned!