An instance of the SQL Server Database Engine from 2008 or later must be available to configure the Power BI Report Server. Each Power BI Report Server instance, such as ATLAS\PBIRS requires both a Report Server Database and a related report server temporary database on the same instance of the database engine. The Report Server Database stores content, such as reports, schedule definitions, folders, data sources, and the credentials for report data sources. The report server temporary database stores cached reports, session and execution data, and work tables generated by the report server.

Both the Report Server Database and the report server temporary databases should be regularly backed up but not modified or tuned. In a restore operation, if the temporary database is not backed-up, it will have to be recreated. If a backed up temporary database is used in a restore operation, the contents of the database should be deleted and the report server windows service should be restarted.

The Power BI Report Server (and SSRS) also requires access to a Read-Write Domain controller to properly administer the service. The Netdom command-line tool for Windows Server can be used to determine whether the domain controller is read-only or read-write. Specifically, the netdom query dc command will return only writable domain controllers.

For the report server instance machine, an operating system of Windows Server 2012 or later is required, as is 1 GB of RAM, 1 GB of available hard-disk space, and an X64 processor with a clock speed of 1.4 GHz or higher. 4 GB of RAM and an X64 processor with a 2.0 GHz or a faster clock speed is recommended. Additional hard disk space will be required on the database server hosting the Report Server Database and the temporary database.