Here is a challenge that had me stumped for several days. Besides for working with Reporting Services on a day to day basis, I also work with a reporting product that requires Apache Tomcat.

Both reside on the same development box running Windows XP box with SP2.

One thing that I noticed (in my case) was that in order to bring up the Microsoft Report Manager, I had to attach a port number to the URL that I was calling. In this case I used good ole 8080.

http://ssc20460:8080/Reports_SSC20460/Pages/Folder.aspx

WebFOCUS the other reporting product with (which I work), requires Tomcat and happens to utilize the same port 8080.

And so the plot thickens.

One would think.. alright both products cannot utilize the same port at the same time. When I want to work with Microsoft Reporting Services then I shall shut off Tomcat and start up the Report Manager. Right ?

Wrong!!! All I obtained was a 404 Error (informing  me that the page was not found).

 Alright, I know that I probably could have changed one of the servers to run off another port, but this may have conflicted with something else and besides where would the challenge be?

One option that does rectify the problem is to set Tomcat to a manual start and stop under the windows service tab, stop Tomcat and REBOOT the machine.

This way I can start up Tomcat each time I wish to use WebFOCUS.

Here is the kicker, once up and running, stopping it to use MS Reporting Manager places me back in the same scenario that I must reboot the PC to continue to work with MS Reporting Services.

With this in mind here is another workaround should you find yourself in a similar position, FOR ANY REASON.

 I obtained this one DIRECTLY from ‘MacGyver’.

This solution does not require placing Tomcat in manual mode NOR requires a reboot.

It only requires that Tomcat be stopped.

After stopping Tomcat ..

1)      Open the Reporting Services Configuration Manager and connect to the server

2)      Select the Report Manager URL tab

3)      Change the virtual directory from Reports_SSC20460 to Reports_SSC204601

4)      Click Apply.

The configuration manager will ‘do its thing’.

                Once complete, change the virtual directory BACK to the original Reports_SSC20460, click apply and bring up the Report Manager.

One hundred percent Kosher?  No, but it works.

Happy programming