Russ Allen, Lead DBA Information Technology Services University of Iowa

 Provides Core IT Services to the Academic Side of the University ◦ Servers (Windows, Linux, AIX, VMWare) ◦ Networking ◦ Identity Management ◦ and Messaging ◦ Application and Instructional Support ◦ Application Development (Student Information System, etc.)

 Database Services ◦ Oracle  Database Administration  Development ◦ SQL Server  Database Administration  Database Hosting ◦ SQL Server Business Intelligence  Administration  Hosting  Development

 High Availability – SSRS Back End ◦ SSRS back end databases should reside on a dedicated clustered instance  Well-designed reports will quickly become critical to departmental operations  No amount of system downtime will be tolerated  Consider three node clusters for extremely critical reporting systems  One active, one passive, one offline for maintenance

 High Availability – SSRS Web Farm ◦ Create an SSRS web server farm behind a network load balancer  SSRS users connect to an alias that references the network load balancer, not an SSRS web farm server  The load balancer will redirect requests to the least busy SSRS web server  The load balancer can be configured to remove a server from a pool before it is taken down for maintenance  Firewall rules should be created to prevent direct connection to web farm servers

 High Availability – SSRS Web Farm ◦ You must configure SSRS web farm servers to be members of an NLB server pool  Modify web.config files to include a “MachineKey” entry  Example:  This entry must be identical in all the web.config files on all SSRS web farm servers  Web.config files must be modified for both the ReportManager and ReportServer

 High Availability – SSRS Web Farm ◦ You must configure SSRS web farm servers to be members of an NLB server pool (cont.)  Edit the HostName and UrlRoot entries in all RsReportServer.config files  These entries must reference the NLB alias, not the individual web farm servers  For more information, read MS white paper entitled “Configure a Report Server on a Network Load Balancing Cluster”

 Service Principal Names (SPNs) ◦ Required if Windows credentials will be used for both SSRS and SQL Server authentication ◦ Must be created explicitly for each SQL Server ◦ Must be created on all SSRS web farm servers ◦ Service account must be configured to “trust for delegations”

 Generic Report Hosting Server ◦ Create a folder for a department or functional group ◦ Create five security groups corresponding to SSRS security roles and add them to those roles inside the folder  DOMAIN\DeptCode-SSRS-Browser  DOMAIN\DeptCode-SSRS-ContentManager, etc. ◦ Create one security group that contains the other five security groups  DOMAIN\DeptCode-SSRS

 Generic Report Hosting Server (cont.) ◦ Add DOMAIN\DeptCode-SSRS to the Browser role on the Home page  This will allow all members of all AD security groups to see the folder on the Home page ◦ Add DOMAIN\DeptCode-SSRS-ReportBuilder to the SSRS SystemUser role  Users in this group will not be able to launch Report Builder without this

 Popular Report Features ◦ “Smart” cascading parameters  Show only those parameter values from the dimension tables that have related rows in the fact table ◦ Expanding / collapsing rows and columns  Details are initially hidden to produce a “pseudo dashboard” ◦ Locked table/tablix row and column headers  Descriptions remain in place as users scroll report  Background of all locked cells must be set to opaque

 Popular Report Features (cont.) ◦ Links to related detail reports or web sites  Replace current report with detail report  Open detail report in a new tab / page (URL expression  Open detail report directly in Excel / PDF (URL expression) ="javascript:void(window.open('" + Globals!ReportServerUrl + "?" + Globals!ReportFolder + "/" + "Report Name" + "&Param1=" + Parameters!Param1.Value + "&Param2=" + JOIN(Parameters!Param2.Value,"&Param2=") + "&rs:Format=Excel" + "','_blank'))"

 Internet Explorer ◦ Provides the best overall user experience (duh)  Parameter pull-downs behave like other Microsoft applications  Report state is preserved when using the back button to return from a linked report  Scrolling is a little “jerky” in reports with locked row and column headers  2083 character URL length limit ◦ Not available for Macintosh, iOS or Unix clients (double-duh)

 Firefox ◦ Works almost as well as Internet Explorer (with one HUGE exception*)  Scrolling is very smooth for reports with locked row and column headers  Parameter pull-down behavior is a little quirky  Virtually unlimited URL length  *Report state (parameter values, report body, etc.) is completely lost when you use the back button to return from a linked report ◦ Versions available for Windows, Macintosh, iOS, and Linux clients

 The ASP.NET Report Viewer control ◦ Provides IE-like behavior in non-IE browsers  Report state is preserved when the back button in the report viewer control is used to return from a linked report ◦ Automatic resizing of the report viewer control within the browser page is challenging  Requires complex JavaScript code to be added to a script block on the ASP.NET page

 Visual Studio / BIDS / Data Tools ◦ Many deployment options  Deploy entire projects or individual items  Define multiple deployment targets (test, QA, production)  Select desired target from pull-down list before deploying ◦ Create “Solutions” containing related BI projects  SSIS  SSAS  ASP.NET, etc.

 Report Builder ◦.NET assembly resides on SSRS server  One-click deployment to client computer via the web  User must be a member of both the “Report Builder” and “System User” roles on the SSRS server  User does not need to download or install Visual Studio / BIDS / Data Tools to edit reports ◦ Report Builder is about 95% the same as the report designer in Visual Studio / BIDS / Data Tools ◦ Only one report can be edited / saved at a time

 Installing Oracle client and ODAC driver software on the development computer ◦ Step 1) Create a system environment variable named TNS_ADMIN that contains the UNC path of a shared network folder containing tnsnames.ora  Extremely Important!!! The user installing the Oracle client software MUST NOT have edit permissions in the shared folder!!!

 Installing Oracle client and ODAC driver software on the development computer ◦ Step 2) Install the full Oracle client for your OS (32-bit or 64-bit) using the “Runtime” option ◦ Step 3) Use SQL*PLUS to test Oracle connectivity  Connect as  Password will not be echoed  If “SQL>” prompt appears, connection is successful

 Installing Oracle client and ODAC driver software on the development computer ◦ Step 4) Install the 32-bit ODAC drivers  Important! Do this on both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows Computers ◦ Step 5) Install the 64-bit ODAC drivers if your computer is running 64-bit Windows ◦ Step 6) Reboot the development computer

 Oracle query development and testing ◦ DbVisualizer is recommended  Works with Oracle, SQL Server and others  Very stable with a nice feature set  Free version is very usable, but pay version contains features that make it worth the money (IMHO)

 Match parameter and dataset column names  Create one denormalized view that contains all the data required to populate both “smart” parameter lists and report bodies  Create parameterized stored procedures that return the data for individual parameter lists and report bodies if possible  Use SSAS cubes or tabular data models as data sources whenever possible

 Next Generation Architecture ◦ SharePoint 2013 server  Integrated Reporting Services  PerformancePoint dashboards  PowerPivot and Power View reports  Shared PowerPivot and SSAS tabular data models  Support for a wide variety of mobile clients ◦ Dedicated SSAS 2012 server with TONS of memory ◦ Central SSRS report development server ◦ More support for Excel-based self service reporting