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SQL Server Reporting Services Overview

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SQL Server Reporting Services Overview

Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) is an enterprise reporting platform supporting traditional paper-based reports and interactive reports delivered over the Web or through custom applications. SSRS is data-source independent. Multidimensional sources and hierarchical sources of reports can also be used.

The Report Server Service, which is the server-side component, hosts reports in a variety of formats, including Microsoft Excel Worksheets and Portable Document Format (PDF) files. The server component is managed through a Web services infrastructure accessible using Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). The client consuming the report might be as simple as a Web browser pointing to a Report Server URL. Reporting Services also has an API that allows reports to be embedded in other applications.

Reporting Service Databases

The Hosted Messaging and Collaboration Reporting Services system works with two database components:

  • PWDB40 database - This database contains data from customer provisioning, Windows SharePoint Services activity and other activities.
  • System Center Reporting database - This is the Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 reporting database where performance metrics samples are gathered and aggregated over a period of time.

There are several related views that expose performance metrics in the System Center Reporting database:

  • dbo.SC_SampledNumericDataFact_View
  • dbo.SC_CounterDetailDimension_View
  • dbo.SC_ComputerDimension_View
  • dbo.SC_ComputerToComputerRuleFact_View
  • dbo.SC_ComputerRuleDimension_View

The view dbo.viewScrSample in the PWDB40 database returns a result set by relating these views in SystemCenterReporting. You can, in turn, see how dbo.viewScrSample is used by looking at one of the stored procedures in the PWDB40 database that returns data for an existing report.

Reporting Services Architecture

The following figure gives a conceptual overview of the Reporting Services architecture showing how data is made available for report generation.

Figure: Reporting Services architecture overview

Figure: Reporting Services architecture overview

For more information about managing SSRS, see the following MSDN online resources: