The SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services (SSRS)
reporting framework satisfies the typical information
requirements of most organizations, but
the next generation of features available with
SQL Server 2005 SP2 and Microsoft SharePoint
products takes reporting to new levels. The integration
of SSRS and Microsoft Office SharePoint
Server (MOSS) 2007 Enterprise Edition not only
lets information workers more easily find, use,
and share information across the enterprise, but
it also simplifies report management and security
implementation for application administrators.
But what does better information access and simpler
report administration really mean - and how
much work will you have to do to make it work?
In this article, the first in a two-part series, I
briefly introduce you to SSRS and MOSS's rich
information-integration environment, explain the
technical architecture, and walk you through setting
it up. In the follow-up article, I'll show you
how to deploy the integrated environment to support
better information access and integration,
including how to implement security, report properties,
versioning, approval workflow, alerts, information
management policies, and the business
intelligence support features built into MOSS.
Improving Information Access
SSRS integration with MOSS does more than
enable information consolidation. MOSS's
search capabilities let users find all relevant information
and reports at once instead of requiring
them to look through a variety of repositories. MOSS also lets you target reports to specific
users or groups and supports sending alerts to users
when report definitions or properties change.
In addition, MOSS collaboration features let users
supplement reports with background context
using wikis or blogs and implement action plans
using task lists.
These capabilities all sound great for users,
but how much extra effort does this mean for
you as an administrator? Consider having to define
permissions for all types of information -
reports, documents, spreadsheets, and more - in
just one place. You can manage data sources in
one place as well. You can also better manage
report content through MOSS by requiring users
to check out reports to make modifications
and check them back in afterward, implementing
workflow to approve new reports before they
are published, incorporating version control to
track changes over a report's lifetime, and enforcing
report retention policies. The most challenging
aspects of SSRS and MOSS integration
are component configuration and security
implementation, which I'll cover in the second
article of this series.
However, before you leap to SSRS-MOSS integration,
be aware that MOSS doesn't support the following SSRS features:
- Custom security extensions
- Data-driven subscriptions
- The rs.exe utility and scripts you use with it
- Linked reports
- My Reports
- Job management features
If you can't live without these features, you
might consider maintaining two instances of SSRS. You can run one instance in native mode,
keeping these features available in your environment,
and the other instance in integrated mode,
letting you take advantage of the MOSS features
that enable better information access. These two
instances can even coexist on the same server,
although you might achieve better performance
by installing them on separate servers.
Inside the Architecture
Before installing the components required for
SSRS-MOSS integration, you need to understand
the difference between a single-server
deployment and a distributed deployment so
that you can select the one best suited for your
environment.
Single-server deployment. The simplest integrated
architecture includes all components on
one server, as Figure 1 shows. This approach
works when you have a limited number of users
and reports. However, SSRS alone requires a lot
of memory and will compete for memory with
SQL Server and MOSS.
Let's review each component's role in the integrated
environment. Installing the Microsoft
SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services Add-in
for Microsoft SharePoint Technologies updates
your MOSS installation to include a new SSRS
proxy endpoint, a new Web Part for viewing integrated-mode reports, and application pages for
storing and managing integrated-mode reports.
MOSS databases host the SSRS configuration
information as well as SSRS content. Specifically,
the MOSS configuration database stores
the information you provide when you configure
SSRS for the MOSS instance. The content database
is the primary storage location for report
server items such as report definition files, report
models, and data sources as well as for report
server item properties. In addition, the MOSS
content database stores security permissions for
report server resources.
Installing SQL Server 2005 SP2 on your report
server adds a new Simple Object Access
Protocol (SOAP) endpoint for integrated report
management and new extensions that let
MOSS manage security and enable subscription
delivery to a MOSS document library. SP2 also
modifies the Reporting Services Configuration
Tool to support MOSS integration and to generate
database scripts for integrated-mode report
server databases.
The report server uses the same two databases
that it uses in native mode but with a slight variation.
The report server database is the primary
storage location for report snapshots, report history,
schedules, and subscriptions. In addition,
this database serves as secondary
storage for the report definition files, report
models, data sources, and their properties,
avoiding repeated transmission of
files to the report server for processing. As
in native mode, the report server temporary database
stores session data and cached instances.
Continued on page 2.
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