Reporting Services 2014 -reports in Reporting Services 2019

Question

Hello,

we are planning to update SQL server 2014 + Reporting Services to SQL server 2019 + reporting services. Both products will be updated.
I've been browsing the articles on the matter here in Q&A, but I still have a few questions.

1. We're using Visual Studio 2012 Report Editor to author the reports running on current RS 2014. Can I keep using the Visual studio 2012 to author the reports for RS 2019 as well or should I upgrade to Visual Studio 2019, for example?
2. Is it possible to skip the automatic Report upgrade or force all reports to be processed by RS 2014 Report Processor, for example?
   Our reports contain many subreports. I read from from the article linked below, that there might be a case where either the main report or the subreport cannot be upgraded to the new version and this would cause them to be processed by different Report Processors with the Reporting Services, causing the report processing to fail ("Error: Subreport could not be processed").
   https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/reporting-services/install-windows/upgrade-reports?view=sql-server-ver15#bkmk_subreports

Best Regards,

Tunkkari

Answer 1

Hi @Tunkkari ,

The automatic upgrade of the report occurs automatically when you migrate the report server database. This cannot be stopped manually.

When upgrading to Reporting Services 2016 and older versions, you could following an in-place upgrade process using SQL Server installation media. When upgrading to Reporting Services 2017 and later from Reporting Services 2016 and older, you can’t follow the same steps because the new Reporting Services installation is a standalone product. It's no longer part of the SQL Server installation media.
So you should migrate your reporting service not upgrade ，
You probably do this when migrating reports

1. Back up your old reportingservice first
2. Install a new sql server
3. Install the new version of the reporting service
4. Then you can configure the new reporting service according to your backup content

You can refer to this to see how to migrate report service

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/reporting-services/install-windows/migrate-a-reporting-services-installation-native-mode?view=sql-server-ver15

You mentioned that the subreport cannot be upgraded successfully，the migration will not affect your old reporting service ，so you could keep it to view the unupgraded reports.

Best Regards,
Isabella

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Answer 2

Thank you for your reply, Isabella.

We are performing the upgrade by first creating a totally new set of servers and setting up everything there while the current SQL Server 2014 production environment continues to operate. We will start using the new environment once it's deemed fully operational.

A few more follow-up questions and notes about the migration:

1. I noticed a step in the Reporting Services database backup and restore instructions where you set the Reporting Services temporary DB recovery model to FULL.
   A script quote from this guide: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/reporting-services/report-server/moving-the-report-server-databases-to-another-computer-
   ssrs-native-mode?view=sql-server-ver15#using-backup-and-copy_only-to-backup-the-report-server-databases USE master;
   GO
   ALTER DATABASE ReportServerTempdb
   SET RECOVERY FULL As far as I know, the recovery model of the Reporting Services temporary database should be set to SIMPLE, otherwise log files of the temporary DB will start to grow
   in uncontrollable fashion and will eventually cause the Reporting Services to stop working. This will at least be a problem in our case since the production RS
   databases are backed up and restored to the new server platform which is under construction and the current production environment continues to be used.
   I understand, that in the SQL script, the recovery model is temporarily set to FULL in order to permit log backups as well. Should there be a step to remind you to set the recovery model of the Reporting Services temporary database back to SIMPLE once the backup is complete?
2. Further related to back up the current Reporting Services database. Because the Reporting Services temporary database start to fill up uncontrollably when the recovery model is set to FULL, should we shut down the Reporting Services for the duration of the backups and only start it again after the recovery model of the temporary database is set to SIMPLE again?
3. Would it make any sense or would it even be possible to keep the Reporting Services 2014 while upgrading only the current SQL Server to 2019? In my mind that would reduce the possible risks of having to possibly rebuild several reports in case of compatibility problems.
4. Currently we are using the Report Editor in Visual Studio 2012 to author the reports and to handle version control. Is it possible to target a specific RDL schema version in Visual Studio 2019 Report Editor?

Best regards,

Tunkkari

Answer 3

Hello @IsabellaZhangMSFT-7746 ,

is it possible to use the Reporting Services 2014 with SQL server 2019? Currently our environment consists of two servers. A SQL server and a Reporting Services server.
Could we just restore the current Reporting Services 2014 databases to the new SQL Server 2019 server and continue using the Reporting Services 2014?

This arrangement would reduce the risk with reports possibly breaking down or having compatibility issues when converting to new Reporting Server 2019.

Best regards,

Tunkkari