Denny Lee » Reporting Services

SQL Server Reporting Services Disaster Recovery Case Study

dennyglee — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:56:56 +0000

There are many ways to perform disaster recovery with Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS). Based upon customer experience and internal testing, this technical note provides guidance around best practices to design and manage robust end-to-end disaster recovery (DR). This DR method will involve both automatic and manual failover in the form of content switches, SQL Server failover clustering, and database mirroring. This case study focuses on the lessons learned from CareGroup Healthcare System.

To read more, please go to SQL Server Reporting Services Disaster Recovery Case Study.

Reporting Services, Report Builder, and ReportViewer Controls

Denny Lee — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 06:35:14 +0000

I had been asked a number of times what is the difference between Reporting Services, Report Builder, and ReportViewer Controls, so here’s a quick recap:

Reporting Services: This is the server-based reporting platform as part of the Microsoft BI stack that allows you to create reporting solutions against multiple data sources. More information can be found at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms159106.aspx. As part of the Visual Studio 2008 Business Intelligence Development Studio, you can create your reports in a development shell which ultimately creates Repot Definition Language (RDL).
Report Builder 2008: Report Builder is an Office-like tool that allows you to create reports with all of the functionality of BIDS (graphs, tables, etc.) but with more pivot-like functionality. More information can be found at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9f783224-9871-4eea-b1d5-f3140a253db6&displaylang=en. RB will also create 2008 formatted RDL.
ReportViewer Control: These controls are part of Visual Studio 2008 to develop ASP.NET web-based applications. These controls create a different form of report definition language (client) called RDLC. You can convert RDLC to RDL as noted in this page: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms252109(VS.80).aspx. But, note that Visual Studio 2008 ReportViewer Control is compatible to 2005 RDL while Report Builder 2.0 and SSRS 2008 (Visual Studio Business Intelligence Development Studio) generate 2008 RDL which are not compatible with each other because SSRS 2008 has a new rendering engine that utilizes Tablix.

Just in case you’re interested in Reporting Services enterprise scalability, check out the Building and Deploying Large Scale SQL Server Reporting Services Environments Technical Notes series at sqlcat.com.

Reporting Services, Report Builder, and ReportViewer Controls

dennyglee — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 06:35:14 +0000

I had been asked a number of times what is the difference between Reporting Services, Report Builder, and ReportViewer Controls, so here’s a quick recap:

Reporting Services: This is the server-based reporting platform as part of the Microsoft BI stack that allows you to create reporting solutions against multiple data sources. More information can be found at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms159106.aspx. As part of the Visual Studio 2008 Business Intelligence Development Studio, you can create your reports in a development shell which ultimately creates Repot Definition Language (RDL).
Report Builder 2008: Report Builder is an Office-like tool that allows you to create reports with all of the functionality of BIDS (graphs, tables, etc.) but with more pivot-like functionality. More information can be found at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9f783224-9871-4eea-b1d5-f3140a253db6&displaylang=en. RB will also create 2008 formatted RDL.
ReportViewer Control: These controls are part of Visual Studio 2008 to develop ASP.NET web-based applications. These controls create a different form of report definition language (client) called RDLC. You can convert RDLC to RDL as noted in this page: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms252109(VS.80).aspx. But, note that Visual Studio 2008 ReportViewer Control is compatible to 2005 RDL while Report Builder 2.0 and SSRS 2008 (Visual Studio Business Intelligence Development Studio) generate 2008 RDL which are not compatible with each other because SSRS 2008 has a new rendering engine that utilizes Tablix.

Reporting Services Performance Optimization

Denny Lee — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 07:21:15 +0000

The final technical note as part of the Building and Deploying Large Scale SQL Server Reporting Services Environments technical note series on Reporting Services Performance Optimization has just been published at Reporting Services Performance Optimization.

This technical note provides guidance on the reasons to use 64-bit, how to handle large workloads, Monitoring Reporting Services (which includes a link to a sample SSRS project to view the ExecutionLog2 view), and Memory Configurations.

Enjoy!

Reporting Services Performance Optimization

dennyglee — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 07:21:15 +0000

Enjoy!

ExecutionLog2 View – Analyzing and Optimizing Reports

Denny Lee — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:23:45 +0000

An excellent blog explaining the ExecutionLog2 view within Reporting Services has been written by Robert Bruckner at: http://blogs.msdn.com/robertbruckner/archive/2009/01/05/executionlog2-view.aspx

Quoted from Robert:

Before you can optimize particular reports or your entire system, you need metrics and understand what they tell you. In this posting, I want to focus on how to effectively interpret and utilize the data present in the new ExecutionLog2 view in the Reporting Services 2008 catalog database.

ExecutionLog2 View – Analyzing and Optimizing Reports

dennyglee — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:23:45 +0000

An excellent blog explaining the ExecutionLog2 view within Reporting Services has been written by Robert Bruckner at: http://blogs.msdn.com/robertbruckner/archive/2009/01/05/executionlog2-view.aspx

Quoted from Robert:

Technet Webcast: Building SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 Large-Scale Solutions

Denny Lee — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 01:30:08 +0000

Check out my Technet webcast on Building SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 Large-Scale Solutions.

In this webcast, you learn about successful configuration and architecture principles to maximize the scalability of your enterprise Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services (SSRS) environment. Join us as we provide you details, based on real customer scenarios, on how to make the most of your SSRS 2008 environment.

Have fun!

Reporting Services Scale-Out Deployment Best Practices

Denny Lee — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 23:04:55 +0000

Check out the the third of five technical note as part of the Building and Deploying Large Scale SQL Server Reporting Services Environments Technical Note Series: Reporting Services Scale-Out Deployment Best Practices

This technical note reviews the

SSRS Scale-Out Architecture
Report Catalog sizing
The benefits of File System snapshots for SSRS 2005
Why File System snapshots may not help for SSRS 2008
Using Cache Execution
Load Balancing your Network
Isolate your workloads
Report Data Performance Considerations

Enjoy!

Reporting Services Scale-Out Deployment Best Practices

dennyglee — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 23:04:55 +0000

This technical note reviews the

SSRS Scale-Out Architecture
Report Catalog sizing
The benefits of File System snapshots for SSRS 2005
Why File System snapshots may not help for SSRS 2008
Using Cache Execution
Load Balancing your Network
Isolate your workloads
Report Data Performance Considerations

Enjoy!