Server Deployment Checklist
This topic describes steps for deploying Report Server. Following these steps can help you avoid errors that occur when a system is not correctly configured or fully deployed.
Before You Install
Before you run Setup.exe, review the following points
The computer you choose must satisfy minimum software and hardware requirements. For more information, see Hardware and Software Requirements for Installing SQL Server 2008.
Create or identify the accounts used in a report server deployment. You must have a service account for the Report Server service, and credentials for connecting to the report server database. For more information, see Planning for Services, Accounts, and Connections.
Decide on an instance of SQL Server to host the report server database. You can use a local or remote instance of SQL Server. You should choose an instance that is on a computer that has the storage capacity to accommodate your reports. For more information about the disk space requirements, see Estimating Report Server Database Requirements.
Verify that the instance of SQL Server that hosts the report server database is physically secure. A malicious user who gains access to the report server database and has permission to change the content or modify the schema is a serious security risk.
(Optional) Find the name of the SMTP server or gateway that provides e-mail service to your organization if you want to use report server e-mail in subscriptions. For more information, see Configuring a Report Server for E-Mail Delivery.
Run Setup
After you have decided on which servers to use and know which accounts you want to specify, you are ready to run Setup.exe. You run Setup on the computer that hosts the Reporting Services server-side components. For more information about running Setup, see Quick-Start Installation of SQL Server 2008.
After Setup Completes
On the report server computer, follow these steps after setup is finished to complete the deployment:
Open port 80 in Microsoft Windows Firewall to enable incoming requests over port 80. If you installed Reporting Services on Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1, HTTP requests over port 80 are blocked by default. To open port 80, do the following:
Click Start, point to Control Panel, click Windows Firewall, click Exceptions, and then click Add Port.
In Name, type Web Server (TCP 80).
In Port number, type 80.
For the protocol, select TCP.
Click OK.
To confirm that the Web server is available, open a browser window and type http://<webservername>. If you opened the port successfully, the default Web page appears.
To support remote administration of a report server, you must make additional modifications to Windows Firewall settings. For more information, see How to: Configure a Report Server for Remote Administration.
(Optional) Use the Surface Area Configuration for the Reporting Services facet of Policy-Based Management to make specific features unavailable. You can prevent scheduled operations and Web service calls. If you are not using these features, you should turn them off to reduce the attack surface of a report server.
(Optional) Install Oracle client tools on the report server if your reports use the Microsoft .NET Framework Data Provider for Oracle. After you install the client tools, you must restart the service. To support subscriptions to reports that use Oracle data sources, you must grant permissions to the NetworkService account. For more information, see https://support.microsoft.com/kb/870668.
If the report retrieves data from a remote database server, or if the report server database is on a remote computer, open port 1433 and 1434 on the external computer. Be sure to restart the server after you open ports. For more information, see How to: Configure a Windows Firewall for Database Engine Access.
To access a SQL Server relational database over a remote connection, remote connections must be enabled on the database server. You can use the SQL Server Configuration Manager tool to verify that remote connections over TCP are enabled.
On the instance of SQL Server that is hosting the report server database, verify that the SQL Server Agent service is running. SQL Server Agent must be running before users define subscriptions and other scheduled operations. Use SQL Server Management Studio to enable SQL Server Agent.
Start the Reporting Services Configuration tool and connect to the report server that you just installed. If you installed a default configuration, you can use the tool to verify that the report server is configured. If you installed a files-only installation, you must specify URL reservations and a report server database. For more information, see How to: Start Reporting Services Configuration.
Back up the symmetric key that supports encryption on a report server. For more information, see Backing Up and Restoring Encryption Keys.
Ping the Report Server Web service to make sure it is running. In a browser window, type https://localhost/reportserver. You should also verify that Report Manager is running. In a browser window, type https://localhost/reports. This is the virtual directory for Report Manager.
(Optional) Enable My Reports to give users personal folders for storing and managing individual reports. For more information, see Enabling and Disabling My Reports.
(Optional) Disable client-side printing if you do not want to provide this feature. Client-side printing is enabled by default. For more information, see Enabling and Disabling Client-Side Printing for Reporting Services.
(Optional) Review the configuration files to make unavailable any rendering presentation formats that you do not want to use. Because Reporting Services is designed for Web-based reporting, reports are initially rendered in HTML. Users can view on-demand reports in another format. You can restrict the rendering extensions that are available by removing them from the configuration files. You might also want to customize report server e-mail delivery settings, set limits on the number of open connections, or adjust memory limits. For more information, see Configuration Files (Reporting Services) and Customizing Rendering Extension Parameters in RSReportServer.Config.
(Optional) View or modify memory limits for the Report Server service. By default, the service is tuned for optimal performance. For more information about the default settings, see Configuring Available Memory for Report Server Applications.
Create role assignments to grant report server access to other users. Generally, for each group or user, you should create a pair of role assignments: one for system access and a second one to access items in the report server folder namespace. For more information and step-by-step instruction, see Tutorial: Setting Permissions in Reporting Services and Granting Permissions on a Native Mode Report Server.
For local administration on Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, add the URLs for Reporting Services sites, such as Report Manager, to the trusted sites list and add role assignments for Reporting Services administrators.
Upload test reports to the server and verify that they work as expected.
See Also