OpenBI Server

OpenBI Server is where your company’s models and reports live: on your own Windows server or Mac, under your own domain, with your own sign-in. This section is for IT and the server’s administrators. It describes OpenBI Server 0.1.49.

What it does

Workspaces: a room of its own for each company, department or group, with the people in it and their roles.
Reports in the browser: people open report pages at bi.<your domain>, see only the rows their roles allow, and export them to PDF.
Publishing: model developers publish from OpenBI Studio; each publish is a new version, and no version is ever altered or deleted.
Data: the server signs in to each model’s data sources with credentials it keeps sealed, and refreshes on demand or on a schedule. OpenBI Gateway refreshes from files that only machines in your own network reach.
Excel: Analyze in Excel gives people a PivotTable on a model, with their own access.
AI agents: once you turn it on, people connect their own agent, such as Claude or ChatGPT, to the server’s MCP address, and it reads what they can see, as them, in the workspaces that allow it (see AI agents on the server). Off by default.
Also: row-level security from the model’s roles, OpenBI Lake, the Monitor, data alerts, a failover cluster, and a command line for IT and their agent.

Its parts

Everything runs on your machine. The two services listen on that machine only; the front door holds the public names, the certificates and ports 80 and 443.

Part	What it is
The server	The service `OpenBIServer` on Windows (its own account, `NT SERVICE\OpenBIServer`), a launchd daemon on a Mac. It runs the portal, publishing, refresh, Excel’s connections and the API OpenBI Studio uses, on `http://localhost:5780`, which the network never reaches directly.
OpenBI Accounts	The sign-in service, `OpenBIAccounts`, on `http://localhost:5790`: passwords, the authenticator app, invitations and “Forgot your password?”. It comes with the server. A company with Microsoft Entra ID, Okta or another OpenID Connect provider can use that instead. See Sign-in and OpenBI Accounts.
The front door	On Windows, IIS: it holds the public names, the HTTPS certificates and ports 80 and 443, and passes each request to the service its name is for. On a Mac, the server opens ports 80 and 443 itself.
The engines	OpenBI’s engine, written in C, the same as OpenBI Studio’s. The first person to open a model version starts an engine for it; it answers that version’s queries in a memory-capped process, and stops after 30 minutes unused.
The records	People, workspaces, roles, versions, schedules and the audit log. SQLite in the data folder by default, with nothing to install; SQL Server or PostgreSQL if you prefer, and for a cluster.
The data folder	`C:\ProgramData\OpenBI Server` on Windows, `/Library/Application Support/OpenBI Server` on a Mac: the licences, settings, logs, published versions and their data. Only administrators and the services can open it.

Where it runs

On your own machines: Windows Server (2025 is the version it’s tested on; any 64-bit Windows that stays on works), or a Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 14 or later. Norway Analytics hosts nothing for you: your data, your reports, your people and their passwords stay with you. On its own, the server sends only the licence check, to Keygen, and, with a seat licence, the number of seats in use, to the seller; The licence and Buy OpenBI Server list exactly what they send. What else goes out, and only when you set it up or a report uses it (certificates, e-mail, your data sources, map tiles), is in What leaves the machine.

Who does what

Who	Does	Where
IT	Installs the server, sets up DNS, certificates, the licence, sign-in and e-mail; keeps it running, backed up and upgraded.	The command line on the server
Server administrators	Create workspaces, see every workspace, look after people (invite, reset, disable), read the audit log, choose the server’s own Windows account for a data source.	The portal’s admin portal, or the command line
Workspace Admins	Decide who is in their workspace and with which role, change its settings, archive it.	The workspace’s Manage access
Members	Set a model’s data source credentials and refresh schedule; archive what is published.	The model’s Settings
Contributors	Publish from OpenBI Studio, edit report pages in the browser, refresh now.	OpenBI Studio, the report’s Edit
Viewers	Open reports and analyze them in Excel, seeing only the rows the model’s roles give them.	Their browser and Excel

Each role may do everything the roles below it may. Who may do what has the full list, and The portal shows the browser side part by part, for everyone who uses it.

Set it up, in this order

Choose your two addresses and add their DNS records: Your two addresses.
Install the server: on Windows or on a Mac. Both pages go on through the steps below, with their commands.
Buy it, or add your domain’s licence, on the server’s setup page: Buy OpenBI Server and The licence.
HTTPS and sign-in: certificates for both addresses, OpenBI Accounts or your own provider, and e-mail for invitations: Sign-in and OpenBI Accounts.
The first administrator, then doctor to check everything.
Workspaces and people: Workspaces and roles.
Publish a model from OpenBI Studio: Publishing.
Its data: credentials, then refresh and schedules.
Then, as you need them: row-level security, Excel, backups, the Monitor and upgrades.

The command line

Everything IT does is done from the server’s command line, so IT, or an AI agent working for them on the server, can install, set up and fix OpenBI Server without a browser. On Windows, it is OpenBI.Server.exe, run in a Command Prompt opened as administrator; on a Mac, sudo openbi-server in Terminal.

cd "C:\Program Files\OpenBI Server"
OpenBI.Server.exe help
OpenBI.Server.exe doctor

Every command answers in plain text, or as JSON with --json.
Set-up commands are dry runs (iis setup, https letsencrypt, firewall): they list their steps, each done or still to do, and do them only with --apply.
doctor checks everything the server needs, and gives each problem the command that fixes it.
Secrets stay out of your command history. Leave out a licence key, password or client secret and the command asks for it, hidden, or reads it piped in. A data source’s secret is never taken as an argument.

Server command line lists every command.

Frequently asked questions

Do we need a database server?

No. SQLite is built into OpenBI Server and keeps its records in the data folder. A cluster of servers needs a database they share: SQL Server or PostgreSQL. MySQL and MariaDB are no longer a records database from 0.1.46 on; as a data source for your models they work as before.

Does the server need the internet?

For the licence check, yes: HTTPS out to api.keygen.sh, every six hours; with a seat licence, also to billing.querex.no, the seller’s billing service. It works on for up to 14 days without it, then in a grace period; see Offline. People reach the server from wherever your DNS and firewall allow.

Can it replace our Power BI service workspaces?

It does the same jobs on your own machines: workspaces with the same four roles, reports in the browser, scheduled refresh, row-level security and Analyze in Excel. Models and reports come from OpenBI Studio, which imports Power BI Desktop’s files: see Import from Power BI.

Last updated 6 November 2026 · OpenBI Server 0.1.49