June 7, 2011 at 6:11 pm
We're in the process of implementing a CRM product that is a customization of Microsoft Dynamics and uses SSRS. My original intent (and what I did on the Test system) had been to install SSRS and the SQL Engine on the same server.
However, my production server is on a SQL Failover cluster and SSRS is not clusterable. I found the following, which specifically addresses my issue: http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/crm/using/deploy/clusteringssrs.mspx
The trouble is, I find the advice sort of contradictory. Maybe I'm not understanding.
They essentially say that you can install SSRS on a single node of the cluster and it's DBs on a clustered SQL instance but that the RS service and Web service will not participate in the failover cluster. They are independent of the cluster. Which is fine. This I can handle.
However, in the last section of the article, they say that you should not deploy in a 2-node cluster when the passive node becomes active when failover occurs. I can see where this would be a problem 1.) if the node with SSRS was completely lost or 2.) from a licensing point of view, but I'm not entirely sure why it's not supported if the instance has simply failed over.
Has anyone configured SSRS in this way (on one node of a failover cluster)?
June 7, 2011 at 8:23 pm
If you have Enterprise Edition - you can install SSRS as a scale-out solution. Basically, you install SSRS on the active node, with the databases configured on an instance in the active node (or a separate instance just for SSRS).
Then, you install on the passive node and configure it as a scale-out implementation.
This way, you can access SSRS through either node - or through any cluster IP address that is available. If you create a separate instance just for SSRS - then you could access through that instances virtual IP address.
Or, you can load balance across both nodes using something like Netscaler.
Jeffrey Williams
“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”
― Charles R. Swindoll
How to post questions to get better answers faster
Managing Transaction Logs
June 8, 2011 at 9:31 am
I do have an Enterprise installation on the cluster. But, it's Active/Passive. Wouldn't doing the SSRS install on both nodes require that I license SSRS on both nodes? Since the intent, in this case, was not to provide failover or load balancing (it just happened that the CRM install was on a cluster and the original idea was to keep its components together), it seems as if I'd incur the same cost in this design as spinning up a new VM for SSRS (adding in the OS license, of course)
June 8, 2011 at 11:23 am
I am going to go out on a limb here..
From the licensing overview doc:
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE / COMPONENTS IN ADDITIONAL SERVERS
The Business Intelligence components for SQL Server 2008 include Analysis Services, Reporting Services, and Integration Services. To use any of these components, the server on which Business Intelligence is installed must have a valid SQL Server 2008 license. If these components are in a separate server than the main database server, then they require an additional license of each additional server where they are installed.
This seems to apply only when you break up things like SQL, SSRS, SSAS onto seperate servers and they are all performing those functions, so I don't think this applies because:
When doing failover support, a server is designated as the passive server. The purpose of the passive server is to absorb the data and information held in another server that fails. A passive server does not need a license, provided that the number of processors in the passive server is equal or less than those of the active server. The passive server can take the duties of the active server for 30 days. Afterward, it must be licensed accordingly.
So as long as you don't try to do something like load balancing on the two instances of SSRS I think you will be in compliance with both the letter and spirit of the licensing terms.
CEWII
June 8, 2011 at 12:01 pm
Based on what I know about licensing on clusters, this makes sense.
What doesn't make sense is that, based on the link I posted above, MS specifically states this a non supported configuration. (I've excerpted below.) I'm willing to believe that since that's a 2007 article, maybe it no longer applies but the whole thing just makes me squeamish.
Excerpt:
SQL Server Reporting Services failover cluster configurations that are not supported
Do not deploy both SQL Server Report Services and the reporting services databases on each node of a multi-node cluster. Moreover, do not deploy SQL Server Reporting Services in a two-node cluster environment that consists of an active node and a passive node where the passive node becomes active during a failover.
June 8, 2011 at 12:09 pm
It is effectively a scale-out solution in architecture, but not in practice. If you reference the reporting server with the server net name of the SQL server (not the whole server net name \ instance name) You will get the active node. You may have to configure the individual nodes seperately. And each node needs to reference the clustered SQL server.
CEWII
June 9, 2011 at 4:15 pm
Thanks to all for your help. I decided to go the path of least resistance (for now) and share an existing SSRS server.
June 10, 2011 at 7:46 am
Fair enough..
CEWII
Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply