Correct Edition of Reporting Services

Hi,

We are in the process of replacing our Microsoft Access(.adp)/SQL2000 based reporting tool to ReportingServices/SQL2000 one. Our development team would be in charge of converting the existing Access based reports to Reporting Service format and and any new reports thereafter. Keeping that in mind which of the existing version(Standard, Enterprise, Developer) of Reporting Services would best suit our environment? The final picture would be something like all the reports will be residing on the Reporting server and it will be accessed by clients with the help of a custom reporting application(made in .net) that calls these reports based on user level permissions to these reports.

Will this be possible by using a Standard edition of RS?

Looking forward to your replies..

sk

Do you mean SQL 2005? I've never used SQL 2000 RS so I couldn't really comment.

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No, i meant SQL2000. I know that RS is bundled into the SQL2005 installation media but as far as SQL2000 is concerned, it was only released quite some time after SQL Server was released. I have read in the help file that the Standard edition of SQL2000 does support the standard as well as enterprise edition of RS2000. Therefore i was looking for the correct edition that best suits our requirement which i have mentioned in my earlier post...

sk

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Here is the feature mix information for SQL Server 2005 - it is applicable to SQL 2000 also with the exception of features that were new to 2005 (Report Builder, for example).

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/technologies/reporting/rsfeatures.mspx

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Thanks Carolyn for the link. So can i safely presume that i could deploy my reports created with Standard Reporting Services for my my users to access in a client-server setup?

Last But not least, I had downloaded the 120 days Eval copy of RS for SQL2000. Since my SQL2000 server is already licensed, should i need extra licensing to use Reporting services?

sk

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You should be able to use the standard edition of SRS 2000 to accomplish what you require. The version that you are licensed for matches the version of SQL Server that you have. Developer edition is never licensed for production work.

If you are developing using VS 2005, you have access to the ReportViewer control even if you don't have SSRS 2005 in your environment. You could also embed your reports into your application using it. From your post I don't know if you are doing a WinForm or WebForm, but the ReportViewer control works well in either case. You could source data from your SQL Server 2000 instance, but I don't believe you will be able to display SRS 2000 reports from it directly.

You will need the Visual Studio 2003 environment for anyone you want to be able to create reports. That yet another big difference between SRS 2000 and SSRS 2005. SSRS 2005 does not require VS to be installed, it is capable of installing the pieces it requires.

RE the licensing, short answer: SRS is a component of SQL Server. Anywhere you are licensed to have SQL Server installed, you can also have SRS installed. Here is a page that describes some of the different scenarios:

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/previousversions/rs/howtolicensers.mspx

Regarding your eval copy, if you do not want an interruption of services, go to the link below and order your copy of SRS for S/H cost. Do it now, before the eval expires.

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/previousversions/rs/retailfulfillment.mspx

Make sure to get SP2 for SRS 2000 (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=502C0D89-1308-4662-8F58-CEC55EF1235B&displaylang=en) as it expands the feature set (adding client printing) as well as fixes some bugs.

Good luck with your migration!

Larry Smithmier

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Thanks for your input Larry.

So once i get the licensed copy of SRS2000, i would have to un-install the existing eval copy and install the licensed one?

If thats the case i would want to warn my developers against deploying anything on the server untill a licensed copy is avalable...

Would i have to re-install the client components too on the developers machines? And finally, would i have to apply the SRS2000 SP2 to the developers machines too?

sk

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I believe that installing the full version over the evaluation should upgrade the instance in-place. You should not have to uninstall the eval copy.

Let your developers deploy at will. I believe that the installation will upgrade your version. The worst case scenario would be that your developers would need to re-deploy the reports after you uninstalled and reinstalled.

Yes, you would want to apply SP2 to development boxes also.

Larry Smithmier