Alll things MS SQL Server
So in the next coming months I hope to begin 2 blog series.
1. Back to Basics –targeted to the Accidental DBA or just a new DBA
2. SQL Padre’s Monitor Solution — this will be a record of my efforts to build a home grown SQL monitoring solution.
Ambitious? Yes, but I have never been known to take on only one task!
So here’s to more active blogging and hopefully some little tidbits of information along the way.
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So I thought I would install SQL 2012 Express with Advanced Services on a Windows 2008 R2 box in the hopes of playing with the new edition and using it as a platform for a new SQL Monitor Solution I am building.
First thing I learned, the hard way, was .NET 3.5 SP1 (which is required for SQL 2012) is not “enabled” by default on Windows 2008. It is installed, but not enabled. Open System Manager and find “Features”. Click “Add New Feature” and select .NET 3.5. This will prompt you to enable IIS and all associated features need to enable .NET 3.5.
Once this pre-requisite was “installed” installation of SQL Express went without a hitch. I used default settings in most places, except for Service Account information. I setup a domain service account to run the SQL Services. All was good.
I then opened SQL Server Configuration Manager to enable TCP/IP connection so I could have remote access. Except one simple problem, I couldn’t connect. I double checked all my steps, and still could not connect. After some “Bing”-ing (I dislike that G company), I realized my “rookie mistake”. Thanks to this 7 YEAR OLD blog post, realized I forgot to enable SQL Browser. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlexpress/archive/2005/05/05/415084.aspx
Silly, silly me!
One new key feature
“Reporting Services in SharePoint Integrated Mode. SQL Server 2008 SP2 provides updates for Reporting Services integration with SharePoint products. SQL Server 2008 SP2 report servers can integrate with SharePoint 2010 products. SQL Server 2008 SP2 also provides a new add-in to support the integration of SQL Server 2008 R2 report servers with SharePoint 2007 products. This now enables SharePoint Server 2007 to be used with SQL Server 2008 R2 Report Server.”
MS SQL Reporting Services is a very valuable and powerful reporting engine; however, “personalizing” or “branding” it is not the easiest task. The following MSDN article was very helpful in configuring SSRS using a DNS Alias and a host header in an intranet domain.
The key to this is to create the Web Site first using the DNS alias, with port 80. Then using RS Configuration Tool, create a new “Report Server Virtual Directory” Site and a new “Report Manager Virtual Directory” based off the new site you have created. The RS Configuration will automatically create the necessary virtual directories for the Report Services to work.
Now that I had all the configurations done, I opened my web browser entered the new URL and….nothing. Then I realized that the actual Report Server is a virtual directory of the website I just created, not the ROOT website. So I then added a simple index.htm page to redirect to the virtual directory.
<HEAD>
<SCRIPT language="JavaScript">
window.location="http://reports.mydomain.com/Reports/";
</SCRIPT>
</HEAD>
That did it! Now my SQL Reporting Services worked using a DNS alias, mapped to a IIS website configured to use Host headers.
Padre's SQL Resort 