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Using Teradata's .NET Data Provider

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Reporting Services 2008

RS 2008 includes full support for Teradata-based report models. You can create and use semantic models based off Teradata similar to how Reporting Services already supports this for SQL Server, Analysis Services, and Oracle. Furthermore, RS 2008 includes a Teradata data extension directly in the box.  Among other features, that data extension provides full support for multi-valued query parameters in Teradata queries.   

The only step left for you is to download and install Teradata's .NET Data Provider for Teradata 12.0.  No further configuration step is needed for RS 2008. 

Finally, I recommend to read the following whitepaper on using Teradata connectivity in Reporting Services.

Reporting Services 2005 SP3

With the recent release of Service Pack 3 for SQL Server 2005, we include the same level of report model / semantic query support for Teradata that we provide in Reporting Services 2008.  Furthermore, the Teradata data extension is included as well. 

Before you can use this new functionality in SP3 however, manual steps are necessary to turn it on after the installation of SP3, and Teradata's .NET data provider.  The manual steps are explained in detail in the updated SQL Server 2005 Books Online documentation, and in the MSDN online help page for "Configuring Reporting Services for Teradata-based Report Models".

Registering Teradata's .NET Data Provider directly
(without data extension)

If you are on RS 2005 SP2 or lower, I highly recommend to upgrade to RS 2005 SP3 or RS 2008 - you will get built-in support for Teradata-based report models, and Teradata connectivity with extended features such multi-value parameters. 

However, if you aren't ready to upgrade quite yet, you still have the option of using direct Teradata data connectivity by manually registering the data provider directly in RSReportDesigner.config and RSReportServer.config.  This provides the ability to define and execute queries against Teradata data sources.  However, this does not provide support for any of the extended data features in Reporting Services such as multi-valued query parameters (please see this documentation link for more details on the differences). 

Steps for manual registration of Teradata's data provider with Reporting Services:

Report Server:

  1. Install Teradata's .NET Data Provider for Teradata 12.0 
  2. Open RSReportServer.config. 
    For RS 2005 installations, by default this file is located in <SysDrive>:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.n\Reporting Services\ReportServer.
  3. In the <Data> section, add the following entry. This entry must be on one line with no line breaks; the version stamp must match the version number of the provider you installed:
    <Extension Name="Teradata" Type="Teradata.Client.Provider.TdConnection,Teradata.Client.Provider, Version=12.0.1.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=76b417ee2e04956c"/>
  4. Save the file and then restart Reporting Services on the report server. For more information, see Starting and Stopping the Report Server Windows Service. 

Report Designer in BI Development Studio:

  1. Install Teradata's .NET Data Provider for Teradata 12.0
  2. Open RSReportDesigner.config.
    For RS 2005 installations, by default this file is located in <SysDrive>:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies
  3. In the <Data> section, add the same entry as above for the report server:
    <Extension Name="Teradata" Type="Teradata.Client.Provider.TdConnection,Teradata.Client.Provider, Version=12.0.1.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=76b417ee2e04956c"/>
  4. In the <Designer> section, add the following entry. This entry must be on one line with no line breaks.
    <Extension Name="Teradata" Type="Microsoft.ReportingServices.QueryDesigners.GenericQueryDesigner, Microsoft.ReportingServices.QueryDesigners"/>
  5. Save the file.

Btw, besides the managed provider, Reporting Services also works with Teradata's ODBC and OLEDB data providers.  Those don't need any particular RS config file registrations, as they are supported via the generic ODBC and OLEDB data extension by Reporting Services.

Enjoy!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    December 26, 2008
    I hope December is treating everyone well. I wanted to post a quick summary of new resources related