Shared Schedules and Report-Specific Schedules

SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services (SSRS) provides shared schedules and report-specific schedules that you can use to support time-driven operations.

Comparing Shared and Report-Specific Schedules

Both types of schedules yield the same output and have an almost identical composition in how they specify dates, times, and duration. The differences between the schedules can be summarized as follows:

  • Shared schedules are multipurpose items that contain ready-to-use schedule information. You create a shared schedule once, and then reference it in a subscription or property page when you need to specify schedule information.
  • Report-specific schedules are defined in the context of an individual report, subscription, or report execution operation to determine cache expiration or snapshot updates. These schedules are created inline when you define a subscription or set report execution properties. You can create a report-specific schedule if a shared schedule does not provide the frequency or recurrence pattern that you need.

Because shared schedules are system-level items, creating a shared schedule requires system-level permissions, unlike a report-specific schedule. For this reason, a report server administrator or content manager typically creates the shared schedules that are available on your server. In contrast, report-specific schedules can be created by individual users.

Shared schedules can be centrally managed, paused, and resumed. In contrast, you must edit a report-specific schedule manually to prevent a report from running. For more information about schedule frequency options, see New Schedule / Edit Schedule Page (Report Manager).

Managing Shared Schedules

To manage shared schedules, use the Shared Schedules page in Report Manager. From this page, you can view all the shared schedules that are defined for the server, pause and resume schedules, and select schedules to modify or delete. The Shared Schedules page summarizes the following information about the state of each schedule: frequency, owner, expiration date, and status.

You can tell whether a shared schedule is actively used by inspecting the values in the Last Run date, Next Run date, and Status fields on the Shared Schedules page. If a schedule no longer runs because it has expired, the expiration date appears in the Status field.

You can also view the Reports page of a given Shared Schedule. This page lists all reports that use the shared schedule. You can also view log files to determine whether reports have been run at the times specified by the schedule. For more information, see Reporting Services Log Files.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Create, Delete, or Modify a Shared Schedule (Management Studio)
How to: Create, Delete, or Modify a Shared Schedule (Report Manager)

Concepts

Creating, Modifying, and Deleting Schedules
Pausing and Resuming Shared Schedules
Scheduling and Delivery Processor

Other Resources

Scheduling Reports and Subscriptions
Shared Schedules Page (Report Manager)

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance