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Configure the web portal

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The web portal is a web front end application used to view reports, manage report server content, and grant user access to a native mode report server. The web portal is installed with the Report Server Web service within the same report server instance and optionally configured if you selected the Install in the default native mode configuration option when you set it up. You can also configure the web portal as a post-installation task. This article provides information about the following web portal configuration scenarios.

Prerequisites

To use the web portal, you must satisfy the following prerequisites:

  • You must have a configured report server. For more information about minimally configuring a report server, see Configure a report server.

  • Your report server must run in native mode. You can't use the web portal with a report server that is configured for SharePoint integrated mode. In SQL Server 2012, you can't switch a report server from one mode to the other. You might want to change the type of report server that your environment uses. If so, you must install the desired mode of report server and then copy or move the report items to the new report server. This process is typically referred to as a migration. The steps you use to migrate depend on the mode you're migrating to and the version you're migrating from. For more information, see Upgrade and migrate Reporting Services.

  • You must also have Internet Explorer 11 or later with scripting enabled. For more information, see Browser support for Reporting Services.

Configure the web portal to use the default URL

The web portal is a web application that users access in a web browser. Minimally, you must define the URL used to open the application in a browser window. The URL consists of a host name, port, and virtual directory. Default values for this URL include the host name and port values that you defined for the Report Server Web service URL, plus the reports virtual directory name. If you have a named instance, the virtual directory is reports_instance, where instance is the name of your Reporting Services instance.

By default, the web portal URL consists of a unique virtual directory name. It also includes the port and host name that are defined for the Report Server Web service that runs in the same instance. In most cases, the host name is the network name of the report server computer, but it can also be an IP address or host header that resolves the computer. To configure the web portal to use the default URL, use the Web Portal URL page in the Reporting Services Configuration tool.

Tip

If you try to access the web portal on a remote computer and you receive connection error messages in your browser, a common cause is firewall settings. For more information, see Configure a firewall for report server access.

Configure the default the web portal URL and virtual directory

  1. Start the Reporting Services Configuration tool and connect to the report server instance.

  2. In the Reporting Services Configuration tool, select Web Portal URL to open the page for configuring the URL.

  3. Enter a unique virtual directory name for the web portal.

  4. Select Apply.

  5. If you're using Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008, other steps might be required before you can use the web portal. For more information, see Configure a native mode report server for local administration (SSRS).

Configure the web portal to use a specific report server URL

By default, the web portal connects to the Report Server Web service that runs in the same Report Server service. The web portal uses the Report Server Web service URL to make the connection. If you defined multiple URLs for the Report Server Web service, the web portal uses the last one that you defined. However, for some deployments, you might want the web portal to always connect to the Web service through a static URL. For example, if you configured packet filtering on a specific port or IP address, and you want all connections to the report server to go through the filter rules you defined.

When you configure URLs in the Reporting Services Configuration tool, the web portal automatically detects and uses any new and updated URLs for the report server that runs in the same server instance. If your deployment requires that you use a single, static URL for all report server requests, you can specify that URL in the RSReportServer.config file.

Configure a static report server URL

  1. Open the RSReportServer.config file in a text editor. By default, the file is located at \Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSRS12.\<instancename>\Reporting Services\ReportServer.

  2. Find ReportServerURL.

  3. Replace it with the URL of the report server instance.

  4. Save your changes and close the file.

For more information about the configuration file, see Modify a Reporting Services configuration file (RSreportserver.config) and RsReportServer.config configuration file.

Customize styles or application title

You can create a custom brand package to alter the colors used for the web portal. For more information, see Branding the web portal

Modify application title

  1. Sign in using an account that is assigned System Administrator permissions on the report server.

  2. Open Internet Explorer.

  3. Enter the web portal URL. By default, the URL is https://<your-server-name>/reports, but if you installed Reporting Services as a named instance, the default URL is https://<your-server-name>/reports<_instancename>.

  4. Select Site Settings.

  5. On the General tab, in Name, replace SQL Server Reporting Services with a different name.

  6. Select Apply.

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