How to integrate Power BI Report Server with Configuration Manager reporting

With the release of Microsoft Endpoint Manager configuration manager technical preview 2001 released in Jan 2020, we can now integrate Power BI Report Server with Configuration Manager reporting.

Integrating configuration manager with Power BI Report Servers gives you modern visualization and better performance. It adds console support for Power BI reports similar to what already exists with SQL Server Reporting Services.

Read more information about configuration manager technical preview 2001 here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/configmgr/core/get-started/2020/technical-preview-2001#bkmk_powerbi

In this blog post, we will see how to integrate Power BI Report Server with Configuration Manager reporting in Technical preview 2001.

Note: This is not applicable to current branch releases and is purely for technical preview 2001. These changes will come to current branch at in the upcoming months.

What are the Prerequisites and initial setup for this integration:

• Power BI Report Server license. For more information, see Licensing Power BI Report Server. You need to evaluate the licensing before you proceed.
• Download Microsoft Power BI Report Server-September 2019
• Download Microsoft Power BI Desktop (Optimized for Power BI Report Server - September 2019).

  Important: Only use this version of Power BI Desktop, don't use the version from the Microsoft Store.

• Configure the reporting services point
• Configure the Configuration Manager console

The first component to look at is Reporting services point.

Configure the reporting services point

This process varies depending upon whether you already have this role in the site server.

There are 2 scenarios a) If you don't have reporting services b) If you have reporting services

a) If you don't have a reporting services point ?

If you don’t have reporting services point installed on the site or you are trying to install new site using the baseline then

1. Install Power BI Report Server (Download from the above link and install it) . Installation of power BI report server is straight forward and all you need is to accept the default switches.
2. Once the installation of power BI report server is completed, launch Report Server Configuration Manager and configure it. See below steps how to configure Report Server Configuration Manager.
3. Add the reporting services point role in Configuration Manager. For more information, see Configure reporting.

b) If you already have a reporting services point and configured for reports? This is where we mostly fall into.

Follow the steps below to do it on the same server.

1. If you have SQL Server reporting services installed ,launch Reporting Server Configuration Manager from start menu
3. we will now back up the Encryption Keys. we will import this key to power BI report server. For more information, see SSRS Encryption Keys - Back Up and Restore Encryption Keys.
5. In my case, it is grayed out .The reason for this is , i did not configure the SSRS database in my technical preview version hence the error. But when this feature release to production, you will already have ssrs reporting working.
7. After creating SSRS database, you should now see the encryption keys option available.
9. Click on backup and save the key into location with password protected.
10. Now remove the reporting services point role from the site server.
12. Uninstall SQL Server Reporting Services, but keep the database.
15. If you are running SQL server 2016 and above,SSRS is separate component and you need to remove it from programs and features.
16. If your SQL is running older than 2016 then you need to launch SQL server setup,modify components and choose to remove reporting services.
17. Once the SSRS component is removed, Install Power BI Report Server using the file that you downloaded above.
18. When you install power BI server and launch the configuration wizard, you will see the following with Instance ID:  PBIRS
20. Click on database , you will see the database name is empty. we will now use same database that we had earlier with SSRS.
22. Click on change database
24. Choose reportserver database
26. Click next next and finish.
27. Now we will restore the Encryption keys that we backup earlier. On the report server configuration manager, click on Encryption keys and click Restore
29. As you can see, the backup is grayed-out and restore is available to bring the keys. When you restore the key, it prompt for password.
31. we have now successfully restored the key and we are now good to Add the reporting services point role in Configuration Manager.
32. While adding reporting services point role, if you see reporting services server instance blank, you need to configure the web service URL in report server configuration manager.
34. Click on cancel the ‘add site system role wizard ’ and launch report server configuration manager in power BI report server, go to web service URL and click on Copy.
36. You also need to click on web portal URL and click on copy. If you already have the URLs displayed then you don't need to do anything.
38. we now have both web service URL and web portal URL working. Now add the reporting services point role.
40. Now we are into the final portion which is Configure the Configuration Manager console
    1. On a computer that has the Configuration Manager console, update the Configuration Manager console to the latest version.
    2. Install Power BI Desktop. Make sure the language is the same.
    3. After it installs, launch Power BI Desktop at least once before you open the Configuration Manager console.

Now launch the Configuration Manager console, go to the Monitoring workspace, expand Reporting, and select the new Power BI Reports node. (\Monitoring\Overview\Reporting\Power BI Reports)

we are now ready to start creating power BI reports.

When the power BI desktop is opened, you can create the report and When the report is ready to save, go to the File menu, select Save as, then choose Power BI Report Server.

In the Power BI Report Server Selection window, enter the URL for the reporting services point as the New report server address. For example, http://sg-cmtp01.azure.eskonr.com/Reports

SSRS is now changed to power BI report server

For more information on log files to use for reporting, see Log file reference - Reporting.

Hope you found this useful and happy reporting in Power BI.