Not too long ago, Microsoft announced that SQL SERVER REPORTING SERVICES (SSSRS) was being discontinued with SQL 2022 being the last release. Starting with SQL 2025 forward, POWER BI REPORTING SERVER (PBIRS) would be the new default solution. The good news is that SSRS (2022) will be supported by Microsoft until JANUARY 11, 2033. Details at Microsoft are here:
It had been long time rumored that SSRS might be going away. I recall questions on this matter being asked at the PASS SUMMIT in Seattle as far back as 2015. As a DBA, I’ve created several reports and dashboards in SSRS that I use to monitor the health and auditing of my databases across multiple subsidiaries within the company where I am employed. This news means that I will need to convert (and in some cases, create from scratch) these existing SSRS reports to Power BI.
I look forward to this challenge, and I hope to share some of my work on this blog. I am thinking of starting an on-going series called SSRS TO PBIRS: Report Name… Where I will re-share the data behind the report I’m currently using and how I converted that for use on POWER BI Server.
What to Expect from My SSRS TO PBIRS SERIES
Recently my company moved from an on-prem Power Bi Server into the cloud on Azure. All of the users hold Power Bi Pro licenses and access the reports in that way. That said here are the limitations I am dealing with and the type of articles you might expect to come from my blog series:
- Since my company’s Active Directory (AD) and domain are not in Azure we will be using a data gateway to connect our data sources. That will primarily limit us to using the DATA IMPORT method since the DIRECT QUERY method is blocked by the type of database set up we have with AWS RDS.
- Hopefully some of these posts will help others who may be in a similar situation with a database in AWS RDS and Power Bi reports in Azure. My initial experience has been that AWS and MICROSOFT have both been less than helpful in providing information that would get me connected between both.
- Most of our data will be run on a DATA REFRESH SCHEDULE with LIVE DATA only available to users who have access to initiate a LIVE DATA REFRESH.
- While we have a few people that create Power Bi reports, almost 90% of them are created and managed by a single team member. This may present some challenges with the LIMITS on daily refreshes and GBs of data allowed. But as you will see, we can work around these challenges as well.
- Some of the information presented here MAY NOT be the best way to handle a situation. This blog is a chronical to my experience, and that includes LEARNING as we go. I try to go back and update blog posts when discover a better way, but don’t always have time.
All of that said — I am excited to start this journey of moving my SSRS report to Power Bi. Thank you for joining me on this adventure.