Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Business Intelligence Unleashed: Reporting Services Setup and Configuration
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
There are two options for installing Reporting Services: native mode and SharePoint Integrated mode. Native mode includes the Report Manager web application that can be used to manage all aspects of managing, deploying, and executing reports. Reporting Services can be installed in native mode completely independent of SharePoint. With SharePoint Integrated mode, the Report Manager is disabled and all report management and execution functions are provided in SharePoint. The considerations and steps for installing and configuring Reporting Services in SharePoint Integrated mode are the topic of this chapter.
Reporting Services uses a SQL Server database to store reports, subscriptions, and so on. This database is named ReportServer by default. The contents of the database are different depending on how it is created; i.e. whether it is created for Reporting Services running in native mode or SharePoint Integrated mode. The creation of the appropriate database can be handled by running the Reporting Services Configuration Manager or during the installation of Reporting Services and the database engine.
After installing or configuring Reporting Services to run in SharePoint Integrated mode, the Reporting Services Add-In for SharePoint must be installed and configured. The Add-In is a SharePoint feature that is activated at the site collection level and provides the infrastructure for storing, running and managing reports within SharePoint.
There are a number of advantages to installing Reporting Services in SharePoint Integrated mode versus native mode. First and foremost is the fact that the integration of Reporting Services with SharePoint is seamless. Reports are stored in SharePoint document libraries, allowing users to interact with them from the familiar SharePoint web interface. Report security is handled in SharePoint rather than in the Report Manager, which implements its own security scheme.
Installing Reporting Services
Reporting Services is one of several features that can be installed from SQL Server setup along with the relational database engine. There are two steps during the setup that are important to highlight to allow the setup to do the majority of the work in getting Reporting Services running in SharePoint Integrated mode. First, as shown in Figure 3.1, choose the SQL Server Feature Installation option. The SQL Server PowerPivot for SharePoint option is not relevant to this discussion. The All Features with Defaults option is normally a good choice, except that it installs and configures Reporting Services in native mode, which is of no benefit.
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Figure 3.1 Configure service application associations.
The second step to highlight is Reporting Services configuration, as shown in Figure 3.2.
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Figure 3.2 Reporting Services configuration.
Choose Install the SharePoint Integrated Mode Default Configuration. This creates the Reporting Services database in SharePoint Integrated mode. There are some scenarios where the integrated mode default configuration option may not be available; for example you have to install both the database engine and Reporting Services. If the option is not available then the alternative is to choose Install, but do not configure the Report Server and then use the Reporting Services Configuration Manager to create a new Reporting Services database in SharePoint Integrated mode.