SQL Reporting Services Installation Quandry
I have spent the past day attempting to install SQL Reporting Services 2000 on a pair of servers running Windows Server 2003. One server is a web server running IIS 6, the other is a database server running SQL Server 2000. Reporting Services was installed on the web server, with its database residing on the database server. A configuration I have done several times in the past.
One difference is that my customer has not included these machines into a domain - the two servers are merely part of a workgroup named WORKGROUP. I use the same logon and password for each server, a logon that is part of the Administrator's Group of each machine.
After I install Reporting Services on the web server, when I attempt to go to the Report Manager (either via the start menu or directly viahttp://localhost/reports orhttp://<web server name>/reports, after the normal delay, I get a login prompt for the web server. I enter my user name and password, and the prompt returns. I go through this three times, then I 401.1 message ("You are not authorized to view this page - you do not have permission sto view this directory or page using the credentials that you suppplied").
I have tried a number of items to get this to work, such as:
- Uninstalled Reporting Services and IIS and re-installed
- Installing the RS Service Pack 2
- Checking the permissions and directory settings in the ReportServer, Reports, and aspnet_client entries in IIS
- Trying from the database server using its browser. Same result.
- Read a Microsoft article "Receiving 401.1 when browsing a site using Integrated Authentication ..." (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896861.) I tried method 1, which involved disabling a loopback check that was added in Windows Server 2003 SP1. Didn't help.
- Read another Microsoft article on running a web site on IIS 6 with Integrated Authenticationi and permission conditions for the Application Pool. Workaround involved setting NT Permission Providers to NTLM (whatever that is). Still no effect.
- Using the RSConfig utility to try various different connections to the database server
- Trying RSActivate.
- Trying the suggestions of Kevin Potgieter (http://dotnet.org.za/kevinp/archive/2005/03/21/15763.aspx). I temporarily set my login and password into the anonymous access boxes for both Reports and ReportServer resources. This got rid of the authorization requests - but the result was now "Cannot Find Server or DNS Error" - even when done via the browser from the database server..
- I occasionally see an event log message from the RS Scehduler indicating that it cannot connect to the database. I know I can get to the database via an OBDC connection; is there anyway to directly test RS's ability to get to its tables? (Clearly it did at installation time since the ReportingServices and ReportingServicesTemp databases are there and appropriately populated.)
As stated in many articles, Reporting Services can be horribly difficult to install. But this one takes the cake.
One other point: the servers are also running vmware. I know little about vmware other than being told that Windows still works the same. Hmmmm.
Anyway, my suspicions are with vmware and with the fact that the servers are only part of a workgroup not a domain. But ... there could be a much simpler reason that I'm just plain missing. Suggestions of other things to try would be appreciated!
Mark Gruensfelder
Infocom Systems Services, Inc.
[5380 byte] By [MarkGruensfelder] at [2007-12-24] 