Happy new year! In our previous post before the holidays, we mentioned we were working toward releasing the next Technical Preview of Power BI reports in SQL Server Reporting Services in January. Today, we’re pleased to make the January 2017 Technical Preview available for download.
Try it on your on-premises server
We released the October 2016 Technical Preview as a pre-configured Virtual Machine in the Azure Marketplace. We received a lot of enthusiastic feedback that this VM with everything you need preloaded – Power BI Desktop, Reporting Services, Analysis Services, and even some sample data and reports – made it really quick and easy to try this exciting new feature.
With the January 2017 Technical Preview, in addition to trying the VM in Azure, you can now download the software and install it on your own on-premises VM or server. In the latter case, you’ll need
- Your own VM or server (not one in production use)
- Windows Server 2012 or later (or Windows 8 or later)
- .NET Framework 4.5.2 or later
- SQL Server Database Engine (2008 or later), to store the report server database
- SQL Server Analysis Services (2012 SP1 CU4 or later), to store your data models
Need a copy of SQL Server to try? Get SQL Server 2016 Evaluation or try SQL Server vNext CTP1.1.
Download and install in minutes
We’ve learned a lot about how customers install and upgrade Reporting Services and we’re incorporating that feedback into a standalone setup for the January 2017 Technical Preview. This standalone installer offers a lightweight download and a simplified setup process. It’s a work in progress and you’ll notice it evolve in an upcoming preview, but already, you can install the Technical Preview in just a few minutes. Plus, installing the Technical Preview won’t affect any Database Engine instances or other SQL Server features.
In tomorrow’s post, Chris Finlan will guide you through the setup process step-by-step.
Create reports with Power BI Desktop
Along with the new setup, you’ll find a Technical Preview version of Power BI Desktop for download (in 32-bit and 64-bit flavors). With it, you can
- Connect “live” to Analysis Services models – both Tabular and Multidimensional (cubes)
- Visually explore data and create an interactive report
- Save that report to your report server running the Technical Preview
- View and interact with the report in your web browser
You do need to use this Technical Preview version of Power BI Desktop. If you already have another version of Power BI Desktop installed, you can install this one side-by-side.
More to come
We’re hard at work on enhancing the setup experience and Power BI report functionality for upcoming releases. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy trying the January 2017 Technical Preview and we’re eager to hear your feedback.
Try it now and send us your feedback
- Download the January 2017 Technical Preview
- Try the Virtual Machine in the Azure Marketplace
- Post in the Reporting Services forum (or if you prefer, send us an email)
- Join the conversation on Twitter: @SQLServerBI, #SSRS
Super cool!!!! thanks.
when its RTM??? next week??? 🙂
Ha, not quite, but we’re moving ahead fast!
Chris
Loving it!!
Any Ideas when it will hit the market?
We’re targeting mid-2017. See this previous post for this and a few other FAQs: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlrsteamblog/2016/12/16/power-bi-reports-in-sql-server-reporting-services-feedback-on-the-technical-preview/.
wow thanks
thanks for making it standalone, that’s make the whole thing much easier, I hope this option stay for the final release, even better if you keep releasing SSRS independently of SQLSERVER.
now regarding the support for full pbix file, I imagine it will available when SSAS vnext supported it, so basically SSRS will act only as rendering engine, the model will be always hosted in SSAS ?
thanks again
Thanks for the feedback! To support data models embedded within PBIX files, you’re correct that we’ll need an Analysis Services engine *somewhere*. As we dig into that work, we’ll know more about the deployment of that engine.
This is fantastic! can’t wait to install the preview
From reading the article to first prototype available in less than 30 minutes. Very exciting to see the new features coming !!
Hi
Error in this version
The service is not available.
The report server isn’t configured properly. Contact your system administrator to resolve the issue. System administrators: Check the report server trace log for details.
Make sure you’ve configured the report server using Reporting Services Configuration Manager, as Chris describes in this follow-up post: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlrsteamblog/2017/01/18/getting-started-with-the-technical-preview-of-power-bi-reports-in-sql-server-reporting-services/.
If this helps, I face a similar issue because the standard port :80 was already taken by another Reporting Services instance. I move to another port and that was it.
Hello,
I have the same issue “service is not available.
Regards,
Frederic
How will licensing be handled for PowerBI on SSRS? Power BI Pro licenses still needed or will it be by server?
Licensing is TBD at a later time.
Thanks for a great job!
Will “Sharepoint/web/excel/csv etc” be supported data source connections in the future?
Yes, we’ll have support for embedded data models in Power BI reports in a future release.
Chris
YES THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great start, can’t wait for embedded data and support of data sources other than Analysis Services
Wow! Rocks like a little genuine super star. Great feature, thanks team.
We are expecting more from Microsoft to compete with OBIEE, Tableau and others.
Thanks. I have a machine with SQL Server vnext CTP 1.1 on it. I have ssrs running there already and I just installed the tech preview.
I tried to upload a pbix file I had been using on the earlier VM which worked – it is pointing to tabular model. I saved it out to the new server and it saves fine, when I click on “Take me there” which is supposed to render the PBI report, I get a power bi … wait cursor and it doesn’t render.
I can share a fiddler trace if that would help.
thank you
Hi Luis,
Is the tabular model in AS on the other server? There would need to be connectivity available to that AS server for it to work properly.
Thanks,
Chris
when using a KPI with a dataset that uses a filtering parameter with a default value why wont the KPI refresh when the browser is refreshed . the same KPI refreshes when sproc of the dataset is modified to not having a filtering parameter. is there a known issue in this regard ?
Yes, and installing SQL Server 2016 SP1 CU1 should resolve that issue; see https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3211220/fix-kpis-bound-to-a-dataset-together-with-parameters-are-not-updated-during-cache-refresh.
Will the install work on Windows Server 2008 R2?
No, as with SQL Server 2016, you’ll need Windows Server 2012 or later.
Awesome…thank you..
Does it have to be installed on the same server as SQL Server or can it be installed on a seperate server ?
Can I have SQL on server A, SSAS Tabular on server B and SSRS Power BI on server C ?
You can install them all on one server or on two or three different servers.
What are the minimum hardware and software requirements?
Software requirements are listed above in the blog post. As for hardware, this SQL 2016/SQL vNext doc (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143506.aspx#hwswr) lists a couple of hardware specs (minimum and recommended).
AWESOME…i’ve waited for this for so long!!!
Today we tried successfully this on premisis over 450 GB database, that was a good experience, it works like a charm!
Thanks.
I get the following error when installing
[12A4:2974][2017-01-19T15:40:40]e000: Error 0x80070643: Failed to install MSI package.
[12A4:2974][2017-01-19T15:40:40]e000: Error 0x80070643: Failed to execute MSI package.
[05CC:07E4][2017-01-19T15:40:40]e000: Error 0x80070643: Failed to configure per-machine MSI package.
[05CC:07E4][2017-01-19T15:40:40]i319: Applied execute package: RSServerSetup.msi, result: 0x80070643, restart: None
[05CC:07E4][2017-01-19T15:40:40]e000: Error 0x80070643: Failed to execute MSI package.
I’m installing on a Windows Server 2012 x64. Is anyone else having this issue?
Thanks Brad. We’re actively investigating this as we’ve had other users report this as well.
Chris
Chris, any update on this as I am also facing this issue and due to that not able to install and test the product?
Hi Pankaj,
Please make sure you are running on a domain controller and that the service account you are running under is correct.
Thanks,
Chris
SQLServerReportingServices.exea won’t run in Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 64 bit. I’ve tried running in compatibility mode and no luck. Any suggestions before trying Windows Server 2012?
Sorry you’re having trouble. What error are you encountering?
Hello
As mentioned by Brad Ho … This is what we get
get the following error when installing
[12A4:2974][2017-01-19T15:40:40]e000: Error 0x80070643: Failed to install MSI package.
[12A4:2974][2017-01-19T15:40:40]e000: Error 0x80070643: Failed to execute MSI package.
[05CC:07E4][2017-01-19T15:40:40]e000: Error 0x80070643: Failed to configure per-machine MSI package.
[05CC:07E4][2017-01-19T15:40:40]i319: Applied execute package: RSServerSetup.msi, result: 0x80070643, restart: None
[05CC:07E4][2017-01-19T15:40:40]e000: Error 0x80070643: Failed to execute MSI package.
I’m installing on a Windows Server 2012 x64. Is anyone else having this issue?
Again I’m on WinServer2012 x64.
Thanks
Sunil
Hi Sunil,
We’re actively investigating this with another customer internally – we’ll provide an update here as soon as we have a resolution.
Thanks!
Chris
I was finally able to get Reporting Services installed. Just to let you know how we got this installed, we actually had to remove the server from the domain. Install Reporting Services and then add the server back to the domain after successfully installing. Don’t know if it may have been some Group Policy that was causing the installation to fail. I hope this helps.
Great, thanks Brad. This is helpful to know.
Thanks,
Chris
Great to see the updated installer. No custom visuals support yet – disappointing.
Fear not – we do plan to support custom visuals soon.
Can PowerBI mobile app be used to view these reports published on-premise ?
Not yet, but we’re working with the Power BI Mobile team on that front.
Hi,
Is it possible to install these on a server which already has a SQL Server 2014 installed on it – without affecting it I mean ?
Thanks for the great job
Absolutely. We don’t support installing the Technical Preview on a server that’s in production use, but you’re welcome to install it on a VM or server for evaluation use.
Overall, this is great. I’m trying to determine if the requirement of Power BI Desktop reports that connect live to SQL Server Analysis Services (on-premises) will go away or not. I’m particularly interested if SQL Server databases will be supported data sources for PBIX files in SSRS. (i.e. removing the need for SSAS data models)
Thanks!
Yes, we do plan to extend support to additional data sources besides Analysis Services in a future release.
Do you also plan to add the ability to directly publish a Power Bi report to an SSRS instance from the desktop application?
Hi Toni,
You can already do that under the “Save” or “Save As” menu, you can save it directly to the SSRS instance – just make sure you’re using the version of Power BI Desktop we released for the preview, and you should see those options.
Thanks!
Chris
Thanks Christopher, it works great!
Toni
Great to see this feature added. Should it be possible to view the Power BI reports through the report viewer control in an ASP.NET site?
You can embed Power BI reports in a web app, not using the existing Report Viewer control (which was designed for paginated reports and ASP.NET Web Forms), but using an iframe and the ?rs:Embed=true URL parameter.
Riccardo,
If I had an on-premise business application with forms-based authentication and needed to do row level security would I be able to pass through the role and user from the embedded report down to the tabular model where the security is implemented? Also, would embedding of reports eventually work the same way as Power BI embedded via JSON rest API integration? Great progress on the on-premise solution. Love it!
We’d like to support the RS scenario with PBI Reports through Power BI embedded, and we’ve started those discussions with that team around how to best accomplish that.
Thanks,
Chris
Hi,
We cannot locate the Export Data or Print Dashboard actions from the reports published to SSRS. These are available in the Power BI Desktop and the cloud version. Please advise if these can be enabled by any configuration, or when it will be available if it is not yet added?
Thank you
We’re working on fleshing out the functionality and aim to add these features over the course of upcoming releases.
Will I have to update my company SQL Server (currently 2014) to get this? We’re looking for a BI solution and Power BI seemed perfect except for all the heavy cloud dependency
Yes, you’ll need to move the upcoming version being released mid-2017. Riccardo talked about this and some other items in a recent blogpost – https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlrsteamblog/2016/12/16/power-bi-reports-in-sql-server-reporting-services-feedback-on-the-technical-preview/
Chris
Thanks. This looks very promising.
Regarding the following response to a comment in an October blog post about aligning functionality with Power BI embedded:
“We do aim to support embedded scenarios and the Technical Preview already supports basic embedding of Power BI reports via the rs:Embed=true URL parameter, while we’re in touch with the Power BI Embedded team and exploring how richer programmability might translate to on-premises report servers”
I had hoped that the same JavaScript functionality would be available in the SSRS offering. Specifically, we need client-side access to the data (Page, DataSelected events (with values), Get/Set filters, etc).
Is there any update on this? Is the “basic embedding” simply rendering?
Thank you!
Allan
We’d like to support that in a future release, and as the article mentions we’re having active conversations with that team on how best to enable it. For some folks who need more basic embedding scenarios supported however, we wanted to be clear we have a solution for them already in the preview release.
HTH
Chris
Cool
Now we wait SQL Server database and Internet sources fo Desktop
SSAS is very “heavy” Many developers use SQL Server tables, files and Internet as sources
Thanks Alexander – we’re definitely going to support embedded data sources in a future release.
Chris
Getting deploy error with using the Virtual Machine in the Azure Marketplace option. I was able to run the previous VM version in October with no problems. I’ve tried the new one about 4 times and had another person try it with the same results.
After configuring and starting the deployment, it fails after about 5 minutes. Interestingly, the VM is there and you can connect to it. SSAS is there, but there are no databases. RS is there, but disabled. The PBI Desktop has a link, but isn’t installed. So it seems that it is partially set up? Can someone else try it?
Screenshots at shared OneDrive Word doc at: https://1drv.ms/w/s!AtpCc8FVXRpvpOxbg3tqjR6ZTxz9ig
Thanks, maybe I’m missing something easy, 🙂
Hi Donald,
Make sure you’ve not reused any of the same names for the items with this VM as you did with the previous VM, or use the same names for items each time you create the VM on your subsequent attempts. We will investigate on our end as well.
Chris
Thanks, I tried again just now using a variation of today’s date in all the names, and a new username and it worked! Thanks for the tip! I’m fairly new to Azure.
We are using SQL Server 2014 SSAS cubes as well as Tabular Database for our Reporting source. Our Report server also in 2014. Can I publish the Power BI dashboards on the 2014 report server?
No, you need the Technical Preview version of Reporting Services, but you can continue to use SQL Server 2014 Analysis Services if you like.
Can you edit the report in the browser similar to what you can do in the service ?
Hi Ahmed,
Currently you can’t, but we would like to make this functionality available at some point. Stay tuned!
Chris
Thanks Chris, Do you think this will be considered for the first release in mid summer or subsequent one?
Hi Ahmed,
We’re not able to commit to anything more specific around that just yet – but we’re moving to get it added sooner rather than later.
Chris
Jan 17 new technical preview reporting service it is possible now. You can download for Microsoft site.
Great Work! I just configured my server and it is working fine.
Is it possible to open the report server configured using new config manager in SQL Server 2016 SSMS? I got everything on same server but still can’t connect to report server instance within SSMS. I need that to configure new role definitions under security settings to give Browser level access to domain users. I had to add user to local System Administrators group to grant access to reports.
Is there a better way to configure security roles?
You should be able to use the SOAP endpoint to connect through SSMS (http://instancename/reportserver) to make your security adjustments.
Thanks!
Chris
Thanks Chris. I got it working.
Another question, when are you planning to support custom visuals for SSRS reports? I’m looking for a slicer with search option.
Hi Hardeep,
We’re planning to support that in an upcoming preview.
Chris
In current version of SSRS Power BI Desktop, is there a way to format date column in SSAS data? For example, use slicer with date column and show in mmm-yy format. All Modeling menu ribbon items are disabled.
Hi Hardeep,
Not currently, no. This isn’t available with live AS connections at this time.
Chris
Hello
this functionality can become very important for our company, many of our customer still asking when it will be available and if will be available for SQL 2016 SPx or for a next major SQL version.
One other question is if the BI report published on reporting services will ahve the same functionality of the paginated report like the scheduling and mail delivery.
Can you please give provide this answer?
Thanks
Enrico
While we’d like to have scheduling and mail delivery, that isn’t functionality we’ll have at GA with Power BI Reports.
This functionality will be made available in the next version of Reporting Services, and won’t be added to 2016 with a service pack or cumulative update.
Chris
Thanks Chris
just an other question, will be also possible print the dashboard or export is as PDF?
Actually from the desktop seems not supported and this a big limitations for our customer.
Enrico
We are looking to add the export options currently available in the service to the reports in a future preview release.
Chris
Will our software assurance for SQL Server 2016 cover this or is this going to be an entirely separate product now?
Hi Matt,
We don’t have any details on the licensing for the product yet – that usually isn’t announced until to closer to the GA release for SQL Server in the past, so we expect a similar scenario to occur this time around.
Thanks,
Chris
After looking at comments, we have to install ssrs service built with this preview. I have already installed ssrs 2016 with sql server 2016. My question is that new installation of standalone will not affect my existing ssrs installation? Will new installation provides configuration manager, report manager or I will use both from existing installation of ssrs. Where I will deploy power bi reports? What is difference between ssrs and standalone ssrs with this preview?
For the current preview, would recommend you install it on a separate server as the only installed instance for the best results.
Chris
Can we render Power BI reports at SharePoint premise by using this preview?
SSRS with sql server installation are required for ssrs standalone or only standalone ssrs with this preview are enough for power bi reports?
There is no SharePoint integrated mode in the preview – as we mentioned in our blogpost in November, we’re focused on a more flexible integration story going forward. You can surface the reports via url embedding currently in a SharePoint environment.
Chris
Hi,
Great Work fellows… when can we expect the next technical preview ? My biggest wants are support for custom visuals and also power bi reports based on excel\csv\web data sources.
Thanks
mandeep