It may come as a shock to many (wink wink) but the SQL Server 2005 install rejects installing Reporting Services or anything else other than the client tools on 2003 Server Web Edition. After wondering why a “web edition” cannot display the “web” front end of reporting services reports {boggle}, I had to resort to finding a work around. After searching on Google for a work around, and coming up empty, I had to take matters into my own hands. I have made an easy 3 step plan to install SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on 2003 Server Web Edition.
Step One: Install the SQL 2005 Native Client and the Install Support Files.
Launch your normal SQL Server 2005 install and click to install the client tools. The first thing the installer will do is install the above 2 items. Next, you can go ahead and install the client tools if you want or cancel out from there if you don’t need them on your IIS box. I cancelled out of mine since I’ll mostly be connecting to SQL Server from my development machine.
Step Two: Install Reporting Services
Fortunately Microsoft isn’t the most thorough company in the world and there is a way to install reporting services. Open “My Computer” and right click on the SQL Server 2005 CD and select “explore”. Next, navigate to the “\Servers\Setup” directory and double click the SqlRun_RS.msi file. This will bypass the normal installer and allow you to select reporting services and install it.
Step Three: Configuration
After the setup is complete, run the “Reporting Services Configuration” program under STARTàMicrosoft SQL Server 2005àConfiguration Tools menu. Here is where you configure reporting services with your SQL Server. You’ll need to complete all the menu options in order to get Reporting Services to “Initialize”.
That’s all there is to it. Once you have step three configured correctly with your SQL Server, deploy your reports and check them by launching your browser and going to http://localhost/reportserver. Remember to set the reports permissions at http://localhost/reports.
Hope this article was helpful to some of you who use SQL Reporting Services in an Enterprise deployment scenario.