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Moving Deployed Reporting Services Reports

  • July 30, 2007 at 11:02 am

    #117666

    We will making a change to our Reporting Services deployment next month. We will be moving from our SQL 2000 server to a new SQL 2005 server. In addition, we will moving from a Local Catalog Deployment to a Remote Catalog Deployment. My question is this: Is there a way I can prevent my team from having to manually redeploy our reports in the new system? They have not been diligent about saving the Visual Studio solution or project files, so they will have to pull the most up-to-date RDL's off the server and deploy them on the new server one by one.
     
    I suppose I can install SQL 2000 on the new server first, then move the Reporting Services databases to the new server, then upgrade the server to 2005, but installing 2000 and upgrading to 2005 does not sound like a best practice. I would prefer a clean install of 2005. Does anyone know if I can move the deployed reports from one server to another?

  • July 30, 2007 at 11:29 am

    #723373

    This will probably sound harsh, and it will certainly NOT please management, but requiring your development team to manually redeploy the reports may bring home to them the value of using best practices in software development. It's a lesson they should only need to learn once.

    Question: If the physical database files are detached, copied over, and then reattached, what is NOT included in those database (physical) files but stored in other files? Are there any Reporting Services components stored with the data? (My installation is migrating from SQL 7 to 2005 and does not use RS.)

  • July 30, 2007 at 11:58 am

    #723376

    The database for Reporting Services 2005 is different from the database for 2000 (it has been upgraded in addition to the database engine itself.

    While I can place the 2000 database on the server, it is not a safe assumtion that Reporting Services 2005 will run off the old database.

  • July 30, 2007 at 3:56 pm

    #723426

    Open a report in Report Server or click Show Details in the folder view and select Edit. When it opens click Properties tab. On the Properties tab on General tab under Report Definition click Edit. It will bring up Open or Save dialog. Save all report definitions from the server, it will give you the running RDL versions without going to the developers.

    You will also need to save other objects: Shared Data Sources, images and whatever else is in the folders, security settings, schedules etc if you would not want to upgrade.

    Or upgrade on the test server and then move the upgraded DB to the new 2005 installation - test if it will work at all.

    Don't forget ports open to the user databases from the new server

    Regards,Yelena Varsha

  • July 30, 2007 at 4:50 pm

    #723431

    The best solution I've come across is Jasper Smith's RS Scripter utility. I did this recently when I wanted to take a copy of QA and script out the entire server and redeploy to a staging environment. It's totally free to use and works great. Download here: http://www.sqldbatips.com/showarticle.asp?ID=62

    Hope this helps!

    Cheers,

    Ben Sullins
    bensullins.com
    Beer is my primary key...

  • July 31, 2007 at 10:45 am

    #723658

    Jasper Smith's RS scripter looks like it may be our best solution. We are trialing the software now; and this is probably how we will transfer the reports.

    If anyone else is looking for this free product, I downloaded it from http://www.sqldbatips.com.

  • July 31, 2007 at 12:51 pm

    #723691

    I just downloaded it too but did not install yet. Let us know here if it worked for you.

    Regards,Yelena Varsha

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