30 posts from: Musings on Reporting Services and Notification Services
SQL 2008 R2 RTM! Time to look at some new Execution Log Reports
(Indexed 2010-04-22):
Wow. We just RTMed SQL Server 2008 R2. Check out the official web site SQL Server 2008 R2 Website. Now that the official release is on its way out the door, I thought Id share some reports that show off some of the new capabilities. In SQL 2008 R2 there is a new ExecutionLog3 view in the Report Server database. For those familiar with SSRS, the ExecutionLog table, and then ExecutionLog and ExecutionLog2 views were used in previous versions to show which reports ran on th...(truncated)...
Charts in a Tablix cell dont work for me but Ive see these nice demos where they do
(Indexed 2009-12-21):
Problem: You may have learned about sparklines or you want to add a chart to your Tablix. You either copy/paste your working(!!!) chart into the tablix and then you preview and you get: "The chart 'Chart1' has a detail member with inner members. Detail members can only contain static inner members." Solution: In a Tablix you cannot put dynamic member in a Detail row. You have to put it into a Group header or Group Footer row. Steps: Insert a table into your report. ...(truncated)...
High Availability Frequently Asked Questions about Failover Clustering and Reporting Services
(Indexed 2009-10-28):
In SSRS high availability is achieved through a Scale-out deployment that is placed behind a Network Load Balancer (NLB). The NLB is then responsible for routing requests to Report Server nodes that are responding to requests. High Availability Documentation Reference: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb522745.aspx However, many customers are interested in using Windows Failover Clustering with SSRS, since this is how they deploy their SQL Servers. This article discus...(truncated)...
Building a robust setup experience with Reporting Services
(Indexed 2009-07-02):
This post is intended for ISVs or Product Development organizations who are planning to integrate Reporting Services into their product. Over the years I have seen a number of products do this and some get it right and some encounter issues. The part of the problem Id like to focus on is recommendations for building your products setup/installation program when you know you have a dependency on Reporting Services. When building your setup program, you most likely want y...(truncated)...
InternalCatalogException, ASSERT, or NullReferenceException when using a Custom Security Extension
(Indexed 2009-05-08):
We have seen multiple customers with issues when customizing the Security Extension Sample (2005, 2008) that is available on http://www.codeplex.com/. This is the sample that demonstrates how to create a Forms Authentication solution with SQL Server Reporting Services. There are two scenarios which are the primary sources of the problems: Scenario 1: Anonymous access Many custom security extension authors want to allow anonymous access where users do not need to login, or to allow all users som...(truncated)...
IIS Troubleshooting for SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services
(Indexed 2009-02-04):
Over the years, we have seen a number of IIS related issues that cause trouble for users who deploy SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services. We have tried to resolve these in the MSDN Forums on a case by case basis. Now we have compiled the common issues with IIS into a single KB Article along with explanation of why these occur and what can be done to resolve them. Kudos to James Wu on the SSRS team for slogging through the issues and compiling them into this document. How to troubleshoot IIS c...(truncated)...
Several blogs I would keep on my reading list...
(Indexed 2009-01-23):
Recently I have had little time to devote to blogging, but I did want to pass along a couple of references that I tend to provide to customers, partners, and Microsoft internal folks as they dig deep into SSRS. Robert Bruckner has a great blog which offers many tips on SSRS, especially focusing on report processing. The topic I tell customers to reference most often is how to use the ExecutionLog2 View for analyzing and optimizing reports. Dean Kalanquin has just started a new blog. He's a o...(truncated)...
SQL PASS Community Summit 2008 Presentation Links
(Indexed 2008-11-21):
Denny Lee and I presented on Wednesday at the SQL PASS Community Summit 2008 on Building SSRS 2008 Large Scale Solutions. The slide deck is available for conference attendees at from the conference site. However, the format is PDF and during the transformation from PowerPoint to PDF many of the links were lost. I have compiled all the links from the presentation deck below for everyone's reference: SQLCAT.com http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlcat http://blogs.msdn.com/mssqlisv http://technet.micros...(truncated)...
SQL Server 2005 Notification Services Components Package RC1 Availability
(Indexed 2008-09-09):
As part of this blog, I comment about Notification Services. I wanted to provide you the following information about the availability of a pre-release SQL Server 2005 Notification Services components package. If you have questions about SQL Server 2005 Notification Services, visit the SQL Server Notification Services Forum on MSDN. You can help improve the final version by submitting bugs to the Connect Feedback Center. Take care and good luck, -Lukasz ---------------------- SQL Server 2005 ...(truncated)...
SQL 2008 RTM - Where is Report Builder 2.0?
(Indexed 2008-08-08):
We've just released SQL Server 2008 (it feels great by the way!) and there have already been many e-mails asking us where to find Report Builder 2.0. You can find an update on the release plan for Report Builder 2.0 on the main Reporting Services Blog:http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlrsteamblog/archive/2008/08/07/...(truncated)... care and good luck,-Lukasz[Image]
Reporting Services HTTP 401 (Unauthorized) - Host Headers require your attention
(Indexed 2008-07-18):
In a previous post, I talked about issues with repeated login prompts when trying to access either Report Server or Report Manager using your browser. Recently, during an upgrade of our internal test server we identified a new type of HTTP 401 (Unauthorized) message. This post provides a description of the problem and the solution. Symptoms: When all of the following symptoms apply, it could be this issue: A. When accessing Report Manager or Report Server you use a URL that looks like http(...(truncated)...
SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services Scalability
(Indexed 2008-07-14):
Much has been said up to now about the scalability work the Reporting Services team has done in the SQL 2008 version. However, until now, there were no numbers to back up the architecture discussions. The SQL Server Customer Advisory Team (SQLCAT) just released a Technical Note titled Scaling Up Reporting Services 2008 vs. Reporting Services 2005: Lessons Learned. This is a must read for anyone looking to compare the two products. It also shows that an investment, even now, in SQL 2005 Report...(truncated)...
Solving the Reporting Services Login issue in the February CTP of SQL Server 2008
(Indexed 2008-03-27):
Ive seen customers run into authentication issues using the SQL Server 2008 February CTP of Reporting Services (you should all give it a try!). This post provides solutions and a detailed discussion of the underlying causes. The material in this post is applicable to all SSRS deployments, beyond the scope of solving the specific issue. Symptom: A) When you access report server or report manager, you get a login prompt multiple times and eventually you get a blank screen. B) When you try to pub...(truncated)...
Finding Reporting Services Content faster
(Indexed 2008-03-19):
Hi everyone - I've been away from my blog for a little while. However, now again I have some time to start blogging again. I get tons of customer questions over the course of a week. Id like to share with you how I make my life easier by using Internet Explorers built-in search box to help me find things faster. Other browsers provide similar capabilities, so you should be able to get it working there as well. The first issue I'd like to address is an issue that has come up a number of times...(truncated)...
Keeping your report servers awake (or No more waiting for report server to startup)
(Indexed 2007-09-18):
Reporting Services in SQL 2005 is hosted in IIS. IIS has a performance optimization built-in that you cannot disable (AFAIK), which shuts down an application once there is a period of 20 minutes of inactivity. This is governed by the Idle Timeout IIS Metabase property. You can read about this Idle Timeout here:http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/WindowsSer...(truncated)... can read about how to set the Idle Timeout here:http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/WindowsSer...(trun...(truncated)...
Scale Testing Reporting Services
(Indexed 2007-09-05):
I wanted to provide a quick note on how to scale test Reporting Services. Partially I'm posting this so I don't lose the link :-).Often we are asked how best to scale test Reporting Services and what scale numbers to expect coming from a particular configuration. We always hesitate to promise specific numbers because so much depends on your usage patterns, your reports, the size of your data, and your architecture. To say that N users will always be supported by X hardware is just too much of...(truncated)...
New Reporting Services Portal on MSDN
(Indexed 2007-05-25):
Just adding a quick note about the new MSDN Home Page for Reporting Services. It has links to many great pieces of content including articles, blogs, Webcasts, and references to online docs. http://msdn2.Microsoft.com/en-us/sql/aa336316.aspx Take care and good luck, -Lukasz[Image]
Reliability through isolation
(Indexed 2007-04-06):
Reporting Services is an example of a system that both handles interactive user load and schedule load. It is also allows interactive users to schedule reports. A poor scheduling decision on the part of one user can can have significant impact on the overall responsiveness and reliability of your Reporting Services deployment. As an administrator when you plan your load, you want to ensure interactive user request responsiveness does not diminish due to recurring scheduled load. The report s...(truncated)...
Daylight Savings Time issues with Notification Services - update your databases!
(Indexed 2007-02-13):
With the coming change to Daylight Savings Time in the United States, you will need to update your NS application databases for NS v2 and NS v2 SP1. For SQL Server 2005 NS, you will need to update your databases for existing applications. SQL Server 2005 SP2 contains a fix to ensure new applications created after applying SP2 do not encounter this problem.Here is the KB article that includes database scripts you can use to update the time zone information affected by Daylight Savings Time chang...(truncated)...
How to diagnose issues when running reports in the report server?
(Indexed 2007-01-31):
A customer came to the SQL Server Customer lab to investigate a problem with one of the feature Im responsible for data-driven subscriptions. In looking at their solution, we discussed any number of problems they had encountered. I realized that it can be difficult to find out where to start looking when a problem occurs. This post will hopefully provide you a starting point as you endeavor to fix the issues you run into. Reports can take up - a lot of memory, - a lot of ti...(truncated)...
Per user snapshots? Or multiple snapshots for a report each with different parameters at the same time
(Indexed 2007-01-12):
I've received questions in the past about whether the report server supports per user snapshost - that is report snapshots customized with different parameter values for a given user. The answer I have always given is no - you get one snapshot per report and that snapshot always uses the default parameter values. Well, it turns out that some inventive users have come up with a 'work around'; it involves some coding on your part. But here's the sketch:Though RS supports only 1 *execution* snap...(truncated)...
SQL Pass presentation: Management, Configuration, Security
(Indexed 2006-11-15):
It's been a little while since my last post. I wanted to provide additional information related to my presentation to day at SQL PASS. The talk was extremely well attended - the room was full and standing room only. I hope you got what you were looking for out of the talk - feel free to drop me a line with comments.Unfortunately, due to a technical glitch (err. blue screen of death! Yikes!), we could not record the demos. So I wanted to provide to you some of the demo materials so you can try...(truncated)...
Getting Started with Reporting Services
(Indexed 2006-08-08):
The question sometimes comes up for how to get out of the gate fast when ramping up on Reporting Services. Luckily the User Education team has been doing a fantastic job cranking out tutorials about Reporting Services. This is where I would start: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms170246.aspxAnd then Id follow with search queries for specific topics on RS. Use MSN Search or Google with the suffix reporting services site:msdn2.microsoft.com.Eventually msdn2.microsoft.com will be merged ...(truncated)...
IE 7 Beta 3 Issue when viewing reports in Reporting Services
(Indexed 2006-07-12):
There are a couple of threads on the Reporting Services MSDN Forumn and newsgroup about IE 7 Beta 3 freezing when trying to view Reporting Services reports. Just wanted to put some quick info out for folks who run into this issue:Firstly, we know abou the issue (we too hit it in our internal testing just not in time to catch Beta 3). It only affects IE 7 Beta 3. Beta 2 is fine. Secondly, the IE team is working on a fix to the issue for us. It will show up in later builds of IE 7 as they bec...(truncated)...
Report Designer for SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services does not work on Visual Studio 2005
(Indexed 2006-05-24):
Some folks have run into a problem using SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services now that Visual Studio 2005 has been released. Specifically, the Report Designer in RS 2000 doesn't work in Visual Studio 2005. Luckily, there is a solution: The Visual Studio 2005 license includes a downgrade provision. The details are located here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/previous/downgrade.aspxThe short answer is if you buy a copy of Visual Studio 2005, you can use that license to run the older version. You...(truncated)...
SQL Server 2005 SP1 Reporting Services database expected version is 'C.0.8.43' problem
(Indexed 2006-05-18):
(Originally I thought this post should be titled: SQL 2005 SP1 Tattered my Report Server Database Whats up with that?) When you upgrade SQL Server 2005 to SP1 and you are running Reporting Services, you may start to get the following error message: The version of the report server database is either in a format that is not valid, or it cannot be read. The found version is 'C.0.8.40'. The expected version is 'C.0.8.43'. To continue, update the version of the report server database and verify acc...(truncated)...
Upgrading Reporting Services - What about my Report Definitions (RDLs)?
(Indexed 2006-02-20):
Some folks have asked me what happens when I upgrade my RS 2000 to an RS 2005 deployment with respect to Report Definitions (RDLs). This is an interesting lifecycle problem that weve approached using the following idea:What you publish to the report server is what you retrieve from the report server. Heres how it works: Say you have an RS 2000 Reporting Services deployment that has a number of working reports in it. You probably have one or more corresponding report projects that you edit i...(truncated)...
Populating the Cache before your users pound your report server
(Indexed 2006-02-13):
Often people take a look at their report execution times and wonder how to optimize it. They readily see that it is possible to cache a report the first time a user runs it so that subsequent users don't have to incur the initial execution time. Well that still leaves the first person to take the 'pain' of waiting for the report to run. If yours is like many organizations, the 'first person' is actually a race right at 8am to see who clicks the report. Many folks end up waiting through that ...(truncated)...
I'm famous - no seriously, you can watch a video on Reporting Services and Notification Services upgrade on Microsoft.com
(Indexed 2006-01-26):
Wanted to share with you the following link. This is a presentation I gave a little while ago on Reporting Services and Notification Services upgrade. It is now available for viewing in high fidelity video. http://www.microsoft.com/emea/itsshowtime/sessionh.aspx?videoid=83Take care and good luck,-Lukasz[Image]
Monitoring Subscription Status (also calling RS SOAP methods from inside reports)
(Indexed 2005-12-31):
While posting on the Reporting Services forum, I came across a post by some folks looking to know how to automatically find out that a subscription had failed to run. Right now, the way the RS tools are, there is no way to do this automatically without calling a SOAP method - ListSubscriptions. These folks were DBAs who wanted to monitor RS without needing to build an entire application to do so. The solution they were trying was to access the report server database directly to read values ou...(truncated)...