Reporting Services Unable to connect to Remote Server in SQL Server 2005

Hi Friends,

I was installing & setting up SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on my new laptop 🙂 – OS being Windows Server 2008 R2. After SSRS 2005 setup, I setup SSRS 2008. And now I am going to setup SSRS 2008 R2. But before I setup SSRS 2008 R2, I thought, let me check and verify the SSRS 2005 & SSRS 2008 installations even though the straight forward installations were successful.

So I began with SSRS 2005. As expected, I was able to connect to SSMS – no issues. Then, I tried to browse the Report Manager at http://localhost/Reports$sql2k5 – and boom – there you go the screen shot below:

1_SQL_Server_2005_Reporting_Services_Unable_to_connect_to_Remote_Server

The above error could pop up due to multiple issues – but the error describes connectivity issues – thanks to Microsoft, error descriptions make life really easy (yes pun intended). So, after some googling & binging – here is the actual problem & solution.

As you know, SSRS installation will create 2 virtual directory, one for the Report Manager and another for Report Web Services (Report Server). You need to make sure that Scripts & Executable permissions are granted for ISAPI.dll for Report Server Virtual Directory. Here is what you should do:

Start IIS -> Start -> Run -> inetmgr

Select Report Server as shown below:

On the right side, under IIS, select Handler Mappings. You will notice that ISAPI-dll is disabled as shown below:

   

2_SQL_Server_2005_Reporting_Services_Unable_to_connect_to_Remote_Server

You need to enable it. Select ISAPI-dll, on the right side click on Edit Feature Permission (see below)

3_SQL_Server_2005_Reporting_Services_Unable_to_connect_to_Remote_Server

Make sure all permissions are granted:

4_SQL_Server_2005_Reporting_Services_Unable_to_connect_to_Remote_Server

That’s it. It’s done.

Moral of the story: “When installations are straight forward, smooth and successful; there’s more concern that things might not run ;)”

Sorry friends, I am not done. As mentioned earlier, I also installed SSRS 2008 and faced another issue. See my next blog post on that.

 

 

   

About Amit Bansal

Amit Bansal is always brainstorming around SQL Server. Despite working with SQL since 1997, he is amazed that he keeps learning new things every single day. SQL Server is AB's first love, and his wife does not mind that. He tries to share as much and spreads the SQL goodness. Internals and Performance Tuning excites him, and also gives him sleepless nights at times, simply because he is not a genius, but quite a hard worker and does not give up. It has been a long and exciting journey since 1997, you can read here: http://sqlmaestros.com/amit-bansal/ He is on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/A_Bansal

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