install reporting services 2005

Do you or do you not need (have to have) an instance of sql server 2005
installed somewhere (the same machine, on the network, anywhere) in order to
install reporting services 2005?Yes, you DO need to have a SQL Server database engine available
somewhere, however it does not need to be 2005 (although, MS does not
recommend using 2000 db w/ RS 2005, because of limiting new feature
set).
The ReportServer piece uses (2) SQL Server databases, named
ReportServerDB and ReportServerTempDB, to store catalog information
(e.g., folders, report RDL, security info, settings, etc.).
Reporting Services, itself, is composed of 3 pieces: a windows
service, a web service application and a asp.net web application. All
of those must connect to a database somewhere so it can get the reports
you have stored, etc.
If you choose to use a remote database engine, you will need 2 licenses
of SQL Server:
- one for where you install the ReportingServices instance, and
- one for where the database engine is installed
You can also scale-out the Report Server to a web farm, so you would
have n number of IIS Web servers, each running their own license of SQL
Server, with only the Reporting Services installed, and configured in a
scale-out (web farm/files only) setup. You would then need a DB server
running its own license of SQL Server with the database engine.
I hope that answers your question and clears up any doubts.
Regards,
Thiago Silva|||One clarification. There is absolutely NO problem using a 2000 DB as the
metadata/cache for RS 2005. All features are available. This is both
supported and expected configuration. I am running that way. This is
separate from licensing. If you have everything on one box and you leave the
DB as 2000 and install/upgrade to RS 2005 then you need a SQL Server 2005
license.
Bruce Loehle-Conger
MVP SQL Server Reporting Services
"tafs7" <tsilva7@.gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1145312024.732011.199790@.z34g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
> Yes, you DO need to have a SQL Server database engine available
> somewhere, however it does not need to be 2005 (although, MS does not
> recommend using 2000 db w/ RS 2005, because of limiting new feature
> set).
> The ReportServer piece uses (2) SQL Server databases, named
> ReportServerDB and ReportServerTempDB, to store catalog information
> (e.g., folders, report RDL, security info, settings, etc.).
> Reporting Services, itself, is composed of 3 pieces: a windows
> service, a web service application and a asp.net web application. All
> of those must connect to a database somewhere so it can get the reports
> you have stored, etc.
> If you choose to use a remote database engine, you will need 2 licenses
> of SQL Server:
> - one for where you install the ReportingServices instance, and
> - one for where the database engine is installed
> You can also scale-out the Report Server to a web farm, so you would
> have n number of IIS Web servers, each running their own license of SQL
> Server, with only the Reporting Services installed, and configured in a
> scale-out (web farm/files only) setup. You would then need a DB server
> running its own license of SQL Server with the database engine.
> I hope that answers your question and clears up any doubts.
> Regards,
> Thiago Silva
>|||Bruce is absolutely correct. I hope I didn't confuse you.
I am running, in production at a client, a scale out deployment of 2 RS
2005 servers, which uses a separate SQL 2000 db for storing the
catalog.
There are no known issues, and this is definetely supported. However,
what I meant is that you will find more MS documentation using all 2005
servers, because they would prefer you to license it that way, in order
to get the new features and benefits of the SQL 2005 database engine.
Regards,
Thiago Silva