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Manual RDL Migration to Power BI

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Power BI

TL;DR

This guide walks through manually migrating an RDL (paginated report) file into Power BI using a Premium workspace. It covers starting a Premium Per User trial, creating a Premium workspace, uploading the RDL file, and configuring data source credentials, giving you a fully working paginated report inside Power BI.

Hi there! If you are a complete beginner to Paginated Reporting concepts and want to explore data migration. You have marked your footprint exactly at the right place. In this blog, I am going to help you to discover the RDL Migration to PowerBI.

What is RDL (Report Definition Language)?

Report Definition Language or RDL is a file extension of Paginated Reports. In order to create one, you will be required to use PBI Report Builder. You can read about it from blogs on how to create one. Well, Here we have a Paginated report ready. And we are going to migrate it to PBI.

Before we begin, I want to clarify that We will require a Premium Workspace to proceed with the same.

How to Manually Migrate an RDL File to Power BI

Step1: Start a Power BI Premium Per User Trial

Open your PBI Service and Navigate to your Profile in the top right. You will observe that I have a Pro Licence. Below which we have the option to start a trial for Premium per User. Hit on the same

Start your free trial

Fill in the necessary details below:

And you are good to go with the window pop-up as shown below:

Observe that you are in your trial which is available for 60 Days

Step 2: Start a Power BI Premium Per User Trial

Create a Premium Workspace. Go to Workspace in the Left bottom and create a new one.

Give a suitable name to your workspace and then choose license mode as Premium Per User

You can choose the type of dataset you will require. In my case – I have a small one for trial. Observe that you have successfully created your Premium Workspace. It will appear with a diamond icon as shown in blue below:

Step 3: Upload the RDL File

Navigate to the New button and click upload a new file.

Running into data source or credential errors during your RDL migration? Get in touch with our team →

Step 4: Configure Data Source Credentials

Here I am choosing to have an RDL File present in my PC > File > Local File

Observe what PBI has to say. Success! Paginated Report uploaded.

SSRS or PBI Report Builder has the complete same interface to offer. Whenever you save your file. It will be an RDL file which you can further term a Paginated Report.

Observe that you have Data Source Credentials Under the Report Tab. Demo1 is the name of the Data Source and next to it is a cross sign which means it is not configured. Hit on Edit credentials

And configure it if necessary.

Observe your Report in PowerBI Environment.

You can further choose to edit it and work around it.

And this is how we have accomplished a successful manual migration of the RDL File to PowerBI.

FAQs: Migrating SSRS Reports to Power BI Paginated Reports

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about RDL files, licensing, and migrating SSRS reports to Power BI paginated reports.

RDL stands for Report Definition Language, the XML-based file format used by paginated reports. It’s the same format used by SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), which is why paginated reports in Power BI are built on RDL technology.
Yes. Publishing and viewing paginated reports in the Power BI service requires a Premium Per User license, Premium capacity, or an F64 (or higher) Fabric SKU. Without one of these, RDL files can only be uploaded to a personal workspace.
You can upload an RDL file to your personal workspace without Premium, but you won’t be able to share it with others in a regular workspace. Sharing paginated reports with a team requires a Premium license.
Manual migration means uploading each RDL file yourself through the Power BI service, which works well for a small number of reports. Microsoft’s RDL Migration Tool automates this process and is better suited for migrating many reports at once from an SSRS server.
This often happens when a report uses shared datasets that get converted into embedded data sources during migration, sometimes creating duplicate or mismatched connections. Manually reassigning each dataset to the correct data source after upload usually resolves it.
Yes, but Power BI still requires an on-premises data gateway to connect to most cloud databases, since paginated reports don’t support all data sources through a direct cloud connection. The gateway needs network access to the database endpoint.
Yes. After uploading, Power BI usually flags the data source as unconfigured until you manually edit the credentials, even if the same credentials worked in the original SSRS or Report Builder environment.
It depends on where RLS is defined. If your dataset uses Azure Analysis Services roles, replicating that exact behavior in a Power BI paginated report can require additional configuration and doesn’t always match Reporting Services’ native behavior out of the box.
No. You can migrate reports without removing anything from your original SSRS or Power BI Report Server environment, and keep both running in parallel until you’re ready to fully retire the old system.
Yes. Power BI Report Builder remains the tool for authoring and editing paginated reports even after they’re published to the Power BI service, so you can continue making changes the same way you did before migration.

From Premium workspace setup to paginated report configuration, we help teams modernize their reporting without the trial and error. See how we can help →

Author By

Gaurav Lakhotia
Manager - Data Analytics & Engineering at  | gaurav.l@addendanalytics.com

Gaurav holds an MBA in Business Analytics. As a data geek and avid learner, he has earned accolades including Microsoft Certified Data Analyst, Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator, and active Power BI Community contributor. He is also a Microsoft Certified Trainer. With critical thinking and project delivery skills, he strives to achieve customer delight in Data Analytics projects. Gaurav loves travelling with friends when he is not busy working on data.

Author By

Picture of Gaurav Lakhotia

Gaurav Lakhotia

Gaurav holds an MBA in Business Analytics. As a data geek and avid learner, he has earned accolades including Microsoft Certified Data Analyst, Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator, and active Power BI Community contributor. He is also a Microsoft Certified Trainer. With critical thinking and project delivery skills, he strives to achieve customer delight in Data Analytics projects. Gaurav loves travelling with friends when he is not busy working on data.

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