How to: Create or Edit a Shared Data Source (Report Designer)

To create a shared data source

In Solution Explorer, right-click the Shared Data Sources folder in the report server project, and then click Add New Data Source.
In Data Link Properties, follow the instructions on the Connection tab. The contents of the Connection, Advanced, and All tabs vary depending on the type of data source. To change the data source type, click the Provider tab and select a data provider.

In Solution Explorer, right-click the data source in the Shared Data Sources folder, and then click Open. Alternatively, you can double-click the data source.
In Name, type a name for the data source.

Note

The data source name is used as the name of the shared data source stored on the report server. For clarity, it is recommended that the name of the data source contains the name of the database that is specified in the connection string.
From Type, select a type of data source; for example, SQL Server or OLE DB.
Click the build (...) button to build the connection string. Alternatively, type the connection string in Connection string and skip the following step.
In Data Link Properties, follow the instructions on the Connection tab. The contents of the Connection, Advanced, and All tabs vary depending on the type of data source. To change the data source type, click the Provider tab, and then select a data provider.