Deployment Configurations for Reporting Services in SharePoint Integrated Mode

You can configure a report server to run within a deployment of a SharePoint product or technology and use the collaboration and centralized document management features of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 or Office SharePoint Server 2007 with Reporting Services. To use the technologies concurrently, start with separate installations of Reporting Services and a SharePoint product or technology and then install and configure add-in and front-end components that provide support for integrated operations.

When planning a deployment that includes SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services and SharePoint products and technologies, you can design a topology that ranges from a single server to multiple servers for high scale deployments. The following list summarizes different deployment scenarios that you can use:

• Standalone server deployments that place all server components on a single computer.
• Distributed server deployments that place a single instance of a server component on different computers. For example, you might have a Web application front-end on one computer and Reporting Services and the back-end databases on a second computer.
• Scaleable deployment configurations that use multiple instances of the same server components to support a large number of users. For example, you might have a server farm that has Web front-ends on two computers, a third computer that hosts the application server, additional computers that run a report server scale-out, and two computers that host mirrored or clustered database servers.

This topic introduces the different deployment scenarios and provides illustrations to help you understand which components are required for each one. For more information about Reporting Services for SharePoint integration mode, see Configuring Reporting Services for SharePoint 3.0 Integration.

Overview of Supported and Unsupported Configurations

Not all multi-instance or multi-server configurations are supported. When planning a deployment, review the following configurations to verify whether the design you want to implement can be achieved:

Standalone Server Deployments

You can install all server components and application databases for both technologies on a single computer. This deployment configuration is useful if you are evaluating the software or developing custom applications that include Reporting Services in SharePoint integrated mode.

This deployment is the simplest to configure. Because all of the components are installed on the same computer, it also uses the least amount of licenses. Specifically, Reporting Services and the Database Engine can be installed as a single licensed copy of SQL Server 2005. In addition, Reporting Services can connect directly to the local instance of the SharePoint product or technology. For more information about this deployment configuration, see How to: Configure SharePoint Integration on a Standalone Server.

Distributed Server Deployments

A distributed server deployment uses multiple computers, where each computer hosts a single server component. You might use this deployment configuration if you want better performance for processing complex reports or large datasets for a small organization or workgroup.

This deployment configuration requires some advanced planning. You must decide which accounts to use for specific services and how the connections will be configured. You might also need to purchase additional copies of the software if you want to install server components on multiple computers.

For more information about which service accounts to use, see Plan for administrative and service accounts (Windows SharePoint Services) on MSDN, and How to: Configure Service Accounts (Reporting Services Configuration).

For instructions on how to configure a distributed server deployment, see How to: Configure SharePoint Integration on Multiple Servers.

Two-Computer Deployment

The following illustration shows components for a two-computer deployment.

The first computer hosts an instance of a SharePoint product or technology. The Reporting Services Add-in is installed on this computer.

The second computer hosts SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services and the Database Engine. Installing Reporting Services and the Database Engine on the same computer is useful if the benefits of running both components as a single licensed installation outweigh performance considerations. For more information about SQL Server licensing, see How to Buy Microsoft SQL Server on the Microsoft Web site.

Notice that when you run Reporting Services and the SharePoint product or technology on different computers, the report server must have a minimal installation of the same SharePoint product or technology. This means that if you installed Microsoft Office SharePoint Server on the first computer, and you must install a Web front-end of Office SharePoint Server on the second computer. The minimal installation provides a Web front-end that allows you to join a report server instance to the instance of the SharePoint product or technology.

Three-Computer Deployment

The following illustration shows components for a three-computer deployment.

The first computer hosts an instance of a SharePoint product or technology. The second computer hosts SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services. The third computer hosts an instance of the Database Engine.

In the illustration, notice that the Database Engine does not require a local installation of a report server or an instance of a SharePoint product or technology.

To select a remote database server with a SharePoint site, choose the Advanced installation option when installing an instance of a SharePoint product or technology, or use Central Administration to modify the database server setting. To select a remote database server for Reporting Services, use the Reporting Services Configuration tool. For more information about edition and connection requirements for a report server database, see Creating a Report Server Database and How to: Create a Report Server Database for SharePoint Integrated Mode (Reporting Services Configuration).

Scaleable Server Deployments

A scaleable server deployment combines a report server scale-out with a SharePoint farm. If you have a very large organization where potentially thousands of users require access to reports on a SharePoint site, you should consider pairing a scale-out report server deployment with a server farm.

For this scenario, the objective is to optimize the deployment for interactive reporting. If you do not have a large number of users simultaneously accessing reports or if the majority of report processing can be scheduled at intervals that you can control, a distributed server deployment might be a better choice because it is comparatively easier to deploy and maintain. For best practice recommendations on how to estimate capacity requirements, see Planning for Scalability and Performance with Reporting Services on the Microsoft Web site.

What is a scale-out deployment

A report server scale-out deployment consists of two or more report servers that share a single report server database. The following illustration shows a scale-out deployment.

If you are configuring a scale-out deployment so that you can increase the capacity for interactive report processing, you must use a load balancing hardware or software solution to distribute processing across both servers. You must also register a virtual server URL in your domain to get a single point of entry to both servers. How you perform these tasks will depend on the load balancing solution you are using. For instructions on how to register a virtual server name, see your network administrator.

To avoid data loss and maximize up-time, you can run the report server database in a failover cluster. You must install the failover cluster before you create the report server database. To use the failover cluster, you select the cluster name as the database server when you create the report server database.

You cannot mirror the report server database. Database mirroring is not supported by Reporting Services.

For best practices about configuring authentication providers in a scale-out deployment, see Security Overview for Reporting Services in SharePoint Integration Mode.

What is a server farm

A SharePoint farm includes features that allow you to deploy its server components across multiple computers. The following diagram shows two front-end Web servers, an application server that includes Central Administration, and two database servers to host the back-end databases.

If you combine a server farm with a scale-out deployment, the resulting configuration might look like the following:

See Also

Tasks

How to: Configure SharePoint Integration on a Standalone Server
How to: Configure SharePoint Integration on Multiple Servers

Concepts

Requirements for Running Reporting Services in SharePoint Integrated Mode
Configuring Reporting Services for SharePoint 3.0 Integration
Deployment Modes for Reporting Services
Planning a Reporting Services Deployment

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance