Category: Power BI Service

Power BI, Power BI Service, SQL Server Reporting Services - SSRS

SSRS 2016 and Power BI

SSRS 2016 and Power BI

Without a doubt SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) is one of the most powerful reporting tools for several years. There are tons of features that you can use to make a report that suits your customers’ needs. Despite programmability and extensibility are key strengths of Reporting Services platform when it comes to creating dashboards, SSRS has absolutely nothing to offer as SSRS is a report authoring tool. So it never supposed to offer dashboards. In old days we could create web parts in SharePoint or we could install Performance Point and include SSRS reports in Performance Point dashboards. But, setting up and implementing dashboards in SharePoint/Performance Point was always a painful job. Happily with the new version of SQL Server 2016 we are able to pin visuals from existing on-prem SSRS reports to a Power BI dashboard. In this article I explain how SSRS 2016 and Power BI integration works.

Requirements

When you meet the above requirements you can pin visuals from existing SSRS reports to Power BI or you can create brand new reports and pin the visuals to Power BI.

Note: You can only pin report visuals to Power BI that means you won’t be able to pin tables and matrix to Power BI.

Note: If you don’t want to install the developer edition of SQL Server 2016 OR for any reason you cannot use the developer edition, don’t worry, the functionality I’m going to explain is available in other editions of SQL Server 2016. Indeed, the only editions that doesn’t support SSRS integration with Power BI are “Express Edition” and ” Express with Tools” editions. Check this out for more information.

Register SSRS with Power BI

After installing SQL Server you need to configure Reporting Services. As configuring Reporting Services is out of scope I leave it to you.

Note: At the time of writing this article I was using SQL Server 2016 CTP3. The same principles apply to SQL Server 2016.

  • Open “Reporting Services Configuration Manager”
  • Enter the “Server Name” and “Reporting Services Instance” then click “Connect”

SSRS 2016 Continue reading “SSRS 2016 and Power BI” →

Power BI, Power BI Service

Power BI and iFrame

Power BI is growing very quickly and there are tons of fantastic features added to it during the past few months. So there are lots of Power BI subjects we can talk about these days. In this article I want to represent a new feature added to Power BI Service which is “Publish to Web”. Publish to Web is basically putting Power BI reports in an iFrame. So now we can combine Power BI and iFrame  together and embed Power BI reports into a web page to share data insights to the Internet. Keep in mind that the data we publish to web will be available to anyone on the Internet. So we really need to make sure we do NOT share any confidential information and we have the rights to share that information.

Note: Publish to web feature is in Preview  so it is available for all users with no costs during the preview. So you don’t need to have a Pro account to be able to use this feature for now.

I also explain how to embed a rich media content in your Power BI Dashboard.

Note:  Publish to web and embedding a rich media content to your dashboard are different features available in Power BI Service.

Power BI Publish to Web

Publishing a Power BI report to web not only creates a link that you can send in email, but also creates HTML iFrame you can put in your blog or website. I would like to remind you again that the “Publish to Web” feature is only available in Power BI Service so don’t get confused by looking for such a feature in Power BI Desktop.

Enabling Power BI Publish to Web

To enable Power BI Publish to Web follow the steps below:

  • Login to your Power BI Service
  • Open a desired report
  • Click “File” menu then “Publish to Web”

Power BI and iFrame

Continue reading “Power BI and iFrame” →

BISM Multidimensional, On-premises Data Gateway Enterprise Mode, Power BI, Power BI Desktop, Power BI Service

Connect Live Power BI to SSAS Multidimensional

Connect liv Power BI SSAS Multidimensional

In one of my previous posts I explained how to use Power BI on top of your SSAS Multidimensional using Data Import Scenario. You can also find definitive explanation about “Managing Analysis Services Multidimensional Model” here. In this post I show you how to connect live your SSAS Multidimensional model with Power BI. “Connect Live SSAS Multidimensional” means making a Direct Connection from Power BI Desktop to your SSAS Multidimensional instance.

As it is a direct connection you’ll be able to see/use the following SSAS Multidimensional objects:

  • Cubes
  • Perspectives
  • Measure Groups
  • Measures
  • Dimensions
  • Dimension Attributes
  • Hierarchies including Parent Child

In this post you’ll learn:

  • How to connect live from Power BI Desktop to SSAS Multidimensional
  • Creating reports using SSAS objects like hierarchies
  • Publishing your reports from Power BI Desktop to Power BI Service

Requirements

To be able to successfully create and publish your reports using Power BI Desktop on top of SSAS Multidimensional you will require:

  • The latest version of Power BI Desktop (Current version is 2.31.4280.361 64-bit (January 2016))

Power BI Desktop Version

Continue reading “Connect Live Power BI to SSAS Multidimensional” →

Azure, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, Pass Business Intelligence Virtual Chapter, Power BI, Power BI Desktop, Power BI Service, Presentations

Webinar Materials: Visualising Azure SQL DW with Power BI

Power BI Azure SQL DW PassIn the previous post I announced that I will speak in “Visualising Your Azure SQL Data Warehouse with Power BI” webinar on 23 Jan 2016. The webinar host was Pass Business Intelligence Virtual Chapter. It was such an amazing experience for me to speak in the webinar and I would like to thank all 105 attendees. The attendees showed their enthusiasm by asking lots of questions during the webinar.

In this webinar I demonstrated:

  • How to install Azure SQL DW in Azure Portal
  • How to configure firewall settings from Azure Portal and SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 2016
  • How to connect directly from Azure SQL DW to Power BI Service and the other way around
  • How to visualise you Azure SQL DW data warehouse data with Power BI Desktop (both Data Import and DirectQuery scenarios)
  • Comparing the features of different scenarios that helps you finding the best for your use cases

and much more…

You can see and download the session materials as follows.

Session Materials

Watch Visualising Your Azure SQL Data Warehouse with Power BI on YouTube

Continue reading “Webinar Materials: Visualising Azure SQL DW with Power BI” →