Upgrading a Default Installation of Reporting Services

When you run Setup on a computer that already has a default installation of Reporting Services, you can choose whether to upgrade the existing instance in-place or install a new one. Requirements for an in-place upgrade are as follows:

  • The virtual directories used to access the report server and Report Manager must have the default configuration settings. The virtual directories must be created under the default Web site. Application and content mappings, virtual directory security settings, and permissions must have default values.
  • The ASP.NET process identity has not been encrypted in the machine.config file. Encrypting the process identity is a security best practice for some organizations. SQL Server setup cannot upgrade a Reporting Services installation when the process identity is encrypted.
  • No custom extensions have been added and the report server is deployed with the default security extension.

The items described above will block an upgrade and are triggered when you run Upgrade Advisor on an existing installation. For more information about these issues and corrective actions, see the Upgrade Advisor product documentation. You can migrate a Reporting Services installation if upgrading is not an option. For more information about migration and using Upgrade Advisor, see Migrating Reporting Services and Using Upgrade Advisor to Prepare for Upgrades.

Pre-Upgrade Checklist

Use this checklist to prepare your Reporting Services installation for an upgrade.

  1. Back up the report server database and configuration files. If you modified the sample files or style sheets, and you want to keep the revised versions, back up those as well.
  2. Back up the symmetric key.
  3. Uninstall the Reporting Services Books Online Documentation Refresh, if you installed it.
  4. Run Setup on the computer that hosts the report server. Setup detects the existing installation and provides options to upgrade.

Upgrading the Report Server Database

During an upgrade, Setup connects to the report server databases installed on the local default SQL Server Database Engine instance, and then updates the existing table structure to the new schema. Once you upgrade a report server database to the new format, you cannot undo it. The database is migrated in place. Setup uses the database connection information in the RSReportServer.config file to find and connect to the report server database.

Upgrading an installation does not modify the name of the report server database or the connection information. The account information that the report server uses to access the report server database is unchanged. For more information about upgrading the database, see Upgrading a Report Server Database.

Upgrading Report Server Content

Upgrading a report server also upgrades reports, but it does not upgrade other content that is stored in a report server. Published reports and snapshots are upgraded in a long running process at the end of Setup. Subscriptions, schedules, shared data sources, and resources are identical to pre-upgrade versions. For more information about in-place upgrades to reports, see Upgrading Reports.

Upgrading Role Assignments to Use New Ad Hoc Reporting Features

Role definitions and role assignments are not modified during an upgrade. This means that new tasks and role definitions that were introduced in SQL Server 2005 are not implemented in an upgraded installation. To use the new tasks and roles, you must update roles and role assignments manually.

New tasks and roles support the ad hoc reporting features that allow users to create models and use Report Builder. Before you can use the new functionality, you must update existing roles and role assignments. For more information, see Updating Role-Based Security for Report Builder Access.

Upgrading Configuration Files

The configuration files of the existing installation are used in the upgraded installation. New settings are added and set during the upgrade. Not all new settings are present once the upgrade is complete. Additional settings may be added when you run the Reporting Services Configuration tool.

If you are upgrading to SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 1, the configuration files will not be updated to include any new settings. The Service Pack 1 Setup does not modify configuration files. The only new configuration settings added in Service Pack 1 are for the SAP NetWeaver BI data processing extension. For more information about how to configure these settings manually, see Configuring Reporting Services to Use the Microsoft .NET Framework Data Provider 1.0 for SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence.

Upgrading Reporting Services Components Together

Reporting Services includes client and server components. If you upgrade server components, you should also upgrade all client components accordingly. This is especially true of the Report Designer. Although it is possible to run the SQL Server 2000 version of Report Designer with a SQL Server 2005 report server, you might see a disparity between report preview in Report Designer and how the report is rendered at run time. Note that once you upgrade Report Designer, you can no longer use it to publish reports to a SQL Server 2000 report server. Report namespace differences prevent publishing to both versions of the report server.

Upgrading SQL Server Components Together

You can choose whether to upgrade the report server and Database Engine separately or together. The following list summarizes how the components are upgraded:

  • If you upgrade just the Database Engine, the report server and report server database are not affected. The upgraded Database Engine hosts the existing report server database, which is defined by the old schema.
  • If you upgrade just the report server, setup modifies the table structure of the report server database to the new format.
  • If you upgrade both components, the Database Engine is upgraded first, followed by the report server.

For a Reporting Services installation, the upgrade process is initiated only when Setup detects the SQL Server 2000 version of the Report Server component or Report Designer.

Components Removed During an Upgrade

During an upgrade, Setup removes any components that are replaced by new components in the SQL Server 2005 release. The following list describes which components are upgraded or removed. For more information about how to choose a component in Setup, see Installing Reporting Services Using Setup.

  • Report server, Report Manager, and the report server databases are upgraded.
  • Report Designer is uninstalled and replaced with an installation of Business Intelligence Development Studio. In SQL Server 2005, Report Designer runs within Business Intelligence Development Studio. The previous version, which runs in Visual Studio 2003, is uninstalled and the program files are removed from your system.
  • Reporting Services Books Online is removed. In the new release, product documentation is included in SQL Server 2005 Books Online.

Important

If you installed the documentation refresh, be sure to uninstall it before upgrading. You must do this step manually. Although the upgrade feature removes the documentation files, it does not remove the program item from Add / Remove programs.

  • Samples are removed. New versions are available through Setup.
  • Administrative command line tools are removed. Note that rsactivate.exe is no longer used or installed in this release.

See Also

Concepts

Upgrading Reporting Services

Other Resources

Reporting Services Backward Compatibility

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance