SQL Server Reporting Services to Power BI Migration
SQL Server Reporting Services to Power BI Migration moves your SSRS estate off a product Microsoft has stopped shipping: SQL Server 2025 does not include Reporting Services, and SSRS 2022 is the final release. IT Partner inventories every RDL report, data source, shared dataset, subscription and schedule; rationalizes what nobody runs any more; migrates what matters to the Power BI service as paginated reports — or to Power BI Report Server where reports must stay on-premises; rebuilds the subscriptions and schedules; and validates each migrated report side by side against SSRS before cutover. Priced by written quote after the inventory, because SSRS estates range from a dozen reports to well over a thousand; a mid-sized estate typically takes about four weeks.
What this engagement is
In June 2025 Microsoft announced that SQL Server 2025 would ship without Reporting Services, and when SQL Server 2025 was released in November 2025 it did exactly that: the on-premises reporting role is consolidated into Power BI Report Server, and SSRS 2022 is the last SSRS there will be. SSRS 2022 stays supported on SQL Server 2022's lifecycle — extended support runs to January 2033 — so nothing stops working tomorrow. But every SQL Server 2025 upgrade, consolidation or Azure migration now surfaces the same question: what happens to the reports? This service answers it with an inventory first. We pull the report catalog and execution log from the ReportServer database, so the decisions rest on what actually runs — in most estates a large share of RDL reports have not been executed in a year. Each report gets a disposition: migrate as-is, migrate with rework, rebuild as an interactive Power BI report, or retire. You approve the list before anything is converted. Then we migrate to one of two destinations, sometimes both. The Power BI service hosts RDL reports as paginated reports — since 2023 they publish to Pro workspaces, with Fabric or Premium capacity needed for some features such as dynamic per-recipient subscriptions. Power BI Report Server keeps everything on-premises, hosts RDL and Power BI reports side by side, and with SQL Server 2025 is licensed with Standard as well as Enterprise core licenses without a Software Assurance requirement, per Microsoft's announcement. We use Microsoft's RDL migration tooling for the bulk conversion — it carries reports across and turns shared datasets and data sources into embedded ones — and then do the work the tool cannot: data sources that need a gateway or a different connector, user-identity expressions that must change from Windows identity to user principal name, custom code, linked reports, snapshots and caching, and the subscriptions that never come across automatically. Every migrated report is validated side by side — same parameters, same date range, same output — against the SSRS original, and the two systems run in parallel until you sign off. Net-new dashboard design is a separate service, as is migrating the SQL Server engine underneath; both are cross-linked below and are often bought together with this one.
Success criteria
What you receive
How the work unfolds
Extract the report catalog, dependencies, subscriptions and execution log from the ReportServer database; scan every RDL for features that need rework; produce the inventory workbook.
Walk the inventory with the report owners, agree the disposition of every report, decide between the Power BI service and Power BI Report Server (or a split), and confirm licensing; the written quote is finalized here.
Set up workspaces, apps and gateway connections in the Power BI service, or install and configure Power BI Report Server on your infrastructure; map the SSRS security model to the target.
Convert reports wave by wave with Microsoft's RDL migration tooling, rework the flagged items (data sources, identity expressions, custom code, linked reports), and rebuild the reports chosen for redesign.
Recreate subscriptions and schedules in the target, run each report side by side against SSRS with the same parameters, record the evidence, and fix what differs.
Redirect users to the new estate, run the two systems in parallel for the agreed period, then decommission SSRS on your sign-off and hand over the documentation.
Prerequisites
Who does what
IT Partner
- Inventory extraction, feature scan, usage analysis and the disposition workshop.
- Target design, licensing guidance and the written quote.
- Workspace, app and gateway setup, or Power BI Report Server installation and configuration.
- Report conversion, rework and rebuilds on the approved list, in waves.
- Subscription and schedule rebuild, side-by-side validation, and the evidence per report.
- Cutover plan, parallel-run support, decommission on your sign-off, documentation and handover.
Your team
- Provide access to the ReportServer database, the SSRS portal and the report data sources.
- Nominate report owners and a target-platform decision-maker, and turn dispositions and validations around within the agreed time.
- Purchase Power BI licensing or provide the Power BI Report Server infrastructure and license basis.
- Install or approve the on-premises data gateway, and provide service accounts for data sources.
- Supply subscription recipient lists and confirm delivery reconciliation.
- Communicate the change to report users and approve cutover and decommission in writing.
What's not included
Limitations & technical notes
Frequently asked questions
Is SSRS really being discontinued?
SQL Server 2025, released in November 2025, does not include Reporting Services; Microsoft consolidated the on-premises reporting role into Power BI Report Server and named SSRS 2022 the final SSRS release. SSRS 2022 remains supported on SQL Server 2022's lifecycle — extended support runs to January 2033 — so existing installations keep working, but there is no SSRS to upgrade to and no new features coming.
Do we have to migrate now?
Not this week. But every SQL Server 2025 upgrade, server consolidation or move to Azure now forces the question, and running a report server that only receives security fixes is a slow accumulation of risk. The inventory is the sensible first step whether you migrate this quarter or next year: it tells you how big the job actually is, and it usually shrinks it.
Power BI service or Power BI Report Server — which should we choose?
The Power BI service if you are already in Microsoft 365, want reports available anywhere with Entra ID sign-in, and can license consumers with Pro, Premium Per User or a Fabric capacity. Power BI Report Server if reports must stay on-premises for regulatory, connectivity or data-residency reasons, or if you already hold SQL Server core licenses that now include it. Many estates split: operational reports to the service, a handful of restricted ones on Report Server. We help you decide in phase two.
What does Power BI Report Server cost to license?
With SQL Server 2025, Microsoft states that Power BI Report Server is licensed with Standard or Enterprise core licenses without a Software Assurance requirement. For SQL Server 2022 and earlier it required Enterprise core licenses with active Software Assurance, or a Power BI Premium or Fabric capacity. That is Microsoft's licensing, not ours — we confirm your entitlement against your records before recommending it, and you should verify with your licensing reseller.
Will our RDL reports work in Power BI without rewriting them?
Most RDL reports carry across as paginated reports with little or no change — that is what paginated reports in Power BI are. The exceptions are predictable: data sources the target cannot reach directly, expressions built on the Windows user identity, custom code and assemblies, linked reports, snapshots and caching, and data-driven subscriptions. The feature scan in the inventory names every affected report, and the quote prices the rework.
Do we need Premium or Fabric capacity for paginated reports?
Not for the reports themselves — paginated reports have published to Pro workspaces since 2023. Some features around them do need a capacity-backed workspace, dynamic per-recipient subscriptions being the common one. If your estate leans on data-driven subscriptions, that is a licensing decision we surface in the target design.
What happens to our subscriptions and schedules?
They do not migrate automatically, so we rebuild them. Standard email subscriptions become Power BI subscriptions; data-driven subscriptions become dynamic per-recipient subscriptions in a capacity-backed workspace or Report Server subscriptions; file-share, FTP-style or other delivery extensions become Power Automate flows or stay on Report Server. Every rebuilt subscription is reconciled against SSRS delivery for at least one cycle.
How do you make sure the migrated reports are correct?
Side by side. Each report is run in SSRS and in the target with the same parameters and date range, and the outputs are compared within the tolerance you set — row counts, totals, and spot-checked detail. The evidence is recorded per report, and the two systems run in parallel until you sign off.
Should we convert every report or rebuild some as interactive Power BI reports?
Usually a mix. Operational and regulatory reports that must print or export exactly stay paginated. Reports people only ever filtered and re-ran are candidates to rebuild as interactive Power BI reports, which is scoped under our Power BI Dashboard and Report Development service. The inventory's execution history and the owner conversations decide which is which — and a good share of reports usually turn out to be retirable.
Can you do the SQL Server 2025 upgrade or the Azure move at the same time?
Yes, through our SQL Server migration services, which cover the engine upgrade and the moves to SQL Server on an Azure VM, Azure SQL Managed Instance or Azure SQL Database. This engagement sequences with them so report data sources are repointed once, not twice.
Our reports use Windows authentication and row filtering by user — will that break?
It changes. In the Power BI service users authenticate with Entra ID, so expressions and lookup tables built on the Windows identity are reworked to the user principal name, and the security is tested per role before cutover. On Power BI Report Server, Windows authentication continues to work.
How much does an SSRS migration cost?
It is quoted in writing after the inventory, because the cost is driven by the number of active reports, how many need rework or rebuild, the subscription count, and the target platform. Estates we see range from a dozen reports to well over a thousand, so a price before the inventory would be a guess. You pay after you approve delivery.
How long does it take?
About four weeks for a mid-sized estate with owners available for the disposition and validation sessions. Large estates are migrated in waves over a longer, quoted period. The inventory phase itself is quick and gives you the real number.
What is not included?
Net-new report design beyond the approved rebuilds, migrating the SQL Server engine, Analysis Services or Integration Services, Microsoft licensing and servers, rewriting custom report extensions, Fabric platform and pipeline work, fixing logic that was already wrong in SSRS, and ongoing maintenance after handover. Each has a named home in our catalog and is cross-referenced rather than blurred into this scope.