Install or uninstall the Reporting Services add-in for SharePoint (SSRS)

Applies to: ✅ SQL Server Reporting Services (2016) ❌ Power BI Report Server ✅ SharePoint

Run the installation package Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services Add-in for SharePoint products (rsSharePoint.msi) on SharePoint servers to enable Reporting Services features within a SharePoint deployment. Features include Power View, a Report Viewer Web Part, a URL proxy endpoint, Reporting Services content types and application pages so that you can create, view, and manage reports, data sources and other report server content on a SharePoint site. The Reporting Services Add-in for SharePoint products is a required component for a report server that runs in SharePoint mode. The add-in can be installed from either the SQL Server 2016 setup wizard or by downloading the rsSharePoint.msi from the SQL Server 2016 feature pack. For a list of the versions of the add-in and download pages, see Where to find the Reporting Services add-in for SharePoint products.

Note

Reporting Services integration with SharePoint is no longer available after SQL Server 2016. Power View support is no longer available after SQL Server 2017.

Prerequisites

Installing the Reporting Services Add-in is one of several steps that are necessary for integrating a report server with an instance of a SharePoint product. For more information on installing and configuring Reporting Services, see Install the first Report Server in SharePoint mode.

  • If you're integrating Reporting Services with a SharePoint farm that has multiple Web front end applications, install the add-in to each computer in the farm that has a Web server front-end. Install this add-in only for Web front ends used to access report server content.

  • To install the Reporting Services Add-in, you must be an administrator on the computer. For example if you're going to run the rsSharePoint.msi at the command prompt, you should open the command prompt with administrator privileges by using the Run as administrator option.

  • To install the Reporting Services Add-in, you must be a member of the SharePoint Farm Administrators group.

  • You must be a Site Collection administrator to activate the Reporting Services integration feature.

What does the add-in install?

The add-in setup process is composed of two phases, both are completed automatically when you complete a standard installation:

  • The first phase is to install files to the proper folders. The folders are standard for SharePoint deployments. One of the files that is installed is rsCustomAction.exe.

  • The second portion of the installation is to run a set of custom actions to register the Reporting Services files with SharePoint. The custom actions are run from rsCustomAction.exe. The exe is removed when the full two phase installation completes. You can run a files only installation and rsCustomAction.exe isn't run at the end of installation and it remains on the drive.

The Reporting Services installation order

The add-in can be installed before installing SharePoint or after SharePoint installation. The add-in follows SharePoint predeployment standards and installs files in locations used by the SharePoint installation.

Note

The advantage of installing the add-in prior to the SharePoint product is that as new servers are added to the farm, the Reporting Services Add-in will be configured and activated by the SharePoint farm.

Overview of the installation methods

The SQL Server 2016 Reporting Services Add-in for SharePoint products can be installed using one of the following two methods:

  • The installation wizard: In SQL Server 2016, you can install the add-in with the SQL Server installation wizard. Choose Reporting Services Add-in for SharePoint Products on the Feature Selection page of the wizard.

  • rsSharepoint.msi: The add-in can be installed directly from the installation media or downloaded and installed. The rsSharepoint.msi supports both a graphical user interface and a command line installation. You must run the .msi with administrator privileges by first opening a command prompt with elevated permissions, and then running the rsSharepoint.msi from the command line. For more information on downloading the add-in, see Where to find the Reporting Services add-in for SharePoint products.

    Note

    If you use the /q switch for a silent command line installation, the end-user license agreement won't be displayed. Regardless of the installation method, the use of this software is governed by a license agreement and you're responsible for complying with the license agreement.

Install the add-in using the installation file rsSharePoint.msi

This section is related to installing the rssharepoint.msi directly, by either running the .msi installation wizard or a command line installation. If you installed the add-in using the SQL Server installation Wizard, you don't need to follow these steps.

You can see a full list of command line switches by running the following command:

Rssharepoint.msi /?  
  1. Download the Setup program (rsSharepoint.msi) for the Reporting Services Add-in. For more information on downloading the add-in, see Where to find the Reporting Services add-in for SharePoint Products.

  2. As an administrator, run rsSharepoint.msi to run the Installation Wizard. The wizard displays a Welcome page, the Software license terms, and a registration information page. Setup creates folders under the following path and copies files to the folders:

    %program files%\common files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\15\ (SharePoint 2013)

    or

    %program files%\common files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ (SharePoint 2016)

  3. Configure the report server settings and feature activation in SharePoint Central Administration. For more information on installing and configuring Reporting Services SharePoint mode, see Install the first Report Server in SharePoint mode.

Files-only installation

To install the files but skip the custom action phase of installation, run the rssharepoint.msi from the command line with the SKIPCA option.

  1. Open a command prompt with administrator permissions.

  2. Run the following command:

    Msiexec.exe /i rsSharePoint.msi SKIPCA=1  
    

The installation user interface opens and runs as normal and the rsCustomAction.exe file is installed. However, the .exe doesn't run at the end of the installation and rsCustomAction.exe remains on the computer when the installation is completed.

Use a two-step installation to troubleshoot installation issues

If you get errors during installation, you can run Setup as a two-step process from the command line:

  1. Open a command prompt with administrator permissions and run a files only installation as described in the previous section.

  2. Run the custom actions executable:

    1. Navigate to the folder that contains the file rsCustomAction.exe. The files only installation of the add-in copies this file to your computer. rsCustomAction.exe is located in the %Temp% directory. To navigate to the file, enter the following example in the command prompt:

      CD %temp%.

      The file should be located in: \Users\<your name>\AppData\Local\Temp

    2. Enter the following command. This configuration step takes several minutes to finish. The W3SVC service restarts during this process. Several Status messages display as the program copies files, registers components, and runs the SharePoint Product Configuration Wizard.

      rsCustomAction.exe /i  
      
    3. The amount of time it takes for the changes to take effect might vary, depending on your server environment. You can also run iisreset to force a quicker update.

Quiet installation for scripting

You can use the /q or /quiet switches for a "quiet" installation that don't display any dialogs or warnings. The quiet installation is useful if you want to script the installation of the add-in.

Note

If you use the /q switch for a silent command line installation, the end-user license agreement won't be displayed. Regardless of the installation method, the use of this software is governed by a license agreement and you're responsible for complying with the license agreement.

To perform a quiet installation:

  1. Open a command prompt with administrator permissions.

  2. Run the following command:

    Msiexec.exe /i rsSharePoint.msi /q  
    

How to remove the Reporting Services add-in

You can uninstall the Reporting Services Add-in for SharePoint Products from Microsoft Windows control panel or the command line.

  1. Using control panel runs a complete uninstall of the files on the current computer AND it removes the Reporting Services object and features from the SharePoint farm. When the Reporting Services object and features are removed, you can no longer review and update reports.

  2. The command line method to uninstall the add-in allows you to use the LocalOnly parameter to only remove the add-in files from the local computer, and the Reporting Services object and features in the farm don't change.

Uninstalling the add-in removes server integration features that are used to process reports on a report server. It also removes the Reporting Services pages from SharePoint Central Administration and other custom Reporting Services pages. You might also want to remove any reports and other report server items that you no longer use on the affected SharePoint sites. They won't run after the Reporting Services Add-in is removed.

To uninstall the Reporting Services Add-in, you must have a SharePoint installation still running. If you uninstall SharePoint first, you must reinstall it to uninstall the Reporting Services Add-in.

The steps for uninstalling the add-in are the same for both stand-alone servers and server farms. Setup removes program files and any configuration settings that were added during installation.

Uninstalling the add-in doesn't remove the following items:

  • Logins created for the Report Server service account that is used to access the SharePoint configuration and content databases. You must delete any logins for the Report Server service account from the SQL Server Database Engine instance used to host the SharePoint databases.

  • Permissions or groups that you created for report users. If you created custom permission levels or SharePoint groups to grant access to report server features, you should revoke any permissions that are no longer required.

  • Data files that you uploaded to a SharePoint library, including report definition (.rdl), shared data source (.rsds), and published report items (.rsc) files. They aren't deleted, but they no longer run. You must delete the files manually.

  • Setup doesn't delete the report server database or modify the report server instance that was used for integrated operations.

Uninstall from Windows Control Panel

To start the wizard from Microsoft Windows Control Panel and remove the add-in:

  1. In Control Panel, in Programs, select Uninstall a Program

  2. Select Microsoft SQL Server RS Add-in for SharePoint. You can also start the uninstall wizard by running rssharepoint.msi from the command prompt with no switches.

  3. Select Remove.

Uninstall from the command line

To uninstall the add-in from the command line:

  1. Open a command prompt with administrator permissions.

  2. Run the following command:

    msiexec.exe /uninstall rsSharePoint.msi  
    
  3. You see a confirmation message box. Select Yes.

Uninstall the add-in from the local server only

The previous methods of uninstalling the add-in remove the Reporting Services features and object from the farm. If you have a multi-server farm and want to uninstall the add-in from only the local computer and leave the SharePoint farm in a functional state, complete the following steps:

  1. Open a command prompt with administrator permissions.

  2. Run the following command:

    Msiexec.exe /uninstall rsSharePoint.msi LocalOnly=1  
    

This step unregisters the Reporting Services components from SharePoint and removes the files, but for the local computer only.

If you want to unregister the Reporting Services features from SharePoint but leave the files on the disk for use later, complete the following steps:

  1. Open a command prompt with administrator permissions.

  2. Run the following command:

    rsCustomAction.exe /p  
    

The above steps assume you completed an installation of the .msi with SkipCA=1 and the rscusstomaction.exe is available. For more information, see the section describing the files only installation.

How to repair rssharepoint.msi from the command line

To repair or uninstall the Reporting Services add-in using the command line, complete the following steps:

  1. Open a command prompt with administrator permissions.

  2. Run the following command:

    msiexec.exe /f rssharepoint.msi  
    

Setup log files

When Setup runs, it logs information to a log file in the %temp% folder for the user who installed the Reporting Services Add-in. For example, c:\Users\\<username\>\AppData\Local\Temp .The file name is RS_SP_<number>.log, for example RS_SP_0.log. Each error in the log starts with the string "SSRSCustomActionError".

Note

AppData is a hidden folder in the Windows operating system. You might need to modify your Windows Explorer folder settings so you can see hidden files and folders.

View a log file with Windows Notepad

  1. The following commands change the command prompt path, list the rs log files and then open one of the files with Windows Notepad:

    cd %temp%  
    
    Dir rs_sp*.log  
    
    notepad rs_sp_3.log  
    

View a log file with PowerShell

  1. Enter the following command from the SharePoint Management Shell to return a filtered list of rows from the file that contain "ssrscustomactionerror":

    Get-content -path C:\Users\<UserName\AppData\Local\Temp\rs_sp_0.log | select-string "ssrscustomactionerror"  
    
  2. The output should look similar to the following example:

    2011-05-23 12:40:12: SSRSCustomActionError: SharePoint is installed, but not configured.

Upgrade

If you have an existing installation of the Reporting Services Add-in, you can upgrade to the current version. The add-in setup detects the existing version and prompt you to confirm the update. The message should be similar to the following example:

A Lower version of this product has been detected on your system. Would you like to upgrade your existing installation?

If you confirm, the older version of the add-in is removed and then the new version installs.

The Reporting Services add-in isn't instance-aware. You can only have one instance of the add-in on a computer. You can't run different versions side-by-side the current version.

RsCustomAction.exe

The following table summarizes the rscustomaction.exe switches:

Switch Description
i Install the custom actions. This action registers the Reporting Services components in SharePoint. The W3SVCservice restarts.
r Repair
u Uninstall. This action unregisters the Reporting Services components from the entire SharePoint farm but leave the files on disk. The W3SVCservice restarts.
p Local uninstall. This action unregisters the Reporting Services components from only the local computer. The files remain on disk. The W3SVCservice restarts.
t SQL Server Reporting Services 2005 only. The switch tests if the report server has a working connection to the report server database.

Configure Reporting Services

After you install the add-in on all the necessary computers, you need to configure the report server from SharePoint Central Administration. The steps that are needed depend on what order the different technologies are installed. For more information, see Install the first Report Server in SharePoint mode and Reporting Services Report Server (SharePoint Mode)

More questions? Try asking the Reporting Services forum.