03 September, 2012

Switching from SSRS Native Mode to SharePoint Integrated Mode

SharePoint integrated mode enables Reporting Services to integrate with the SharePoint(SP) databases and security model. These features become available when you configure a report server to run within a larger deployment of a SharePoint 3.0 product or technology.

In SP integrated mode, a report server must run within a SP server farm. A SP site provides the front-end access to report server content and operations with  all report processing and rendering. The advantage of integrated mode is a rich level of integration that allows you to access and manage report server content types using the application pages and data stores of a SP Web application.

Reports, data sources, and data models in a SP document library are stored as files in the SP content database for that SP document library. Files are stored in the .rdl, .rsds, and .smdl extensions.

Advantages of SharePoint Integrated Mode:
1)   Uniform UI to access reports – No need to access reports using SP and manage using the SSRS report manager. Everything will be done through SP UI.
2)   An ability to create and manage SSRS reports, SSRS data sources, and SSRS report models from the SP UI.
3)   Reports stored in the document libraries to enable versioning, workflow capabilities, collaboration, and document management features
4)   Shared Storage – Report Catalogs stored in the SP Content DBs
5)   Shared Security – No need to manage security at both SharePoint and Report Manager
6)   Inherited Governance Policy including SLA, Backup and Restore, Support, High Availability, Disaster Recovery, and Redundancy Policies

How to Switch from SSRS Native Mode to SharePoint Integrated Mode:
Steps to switch an existing SSRS server to SharePoint Integrated mode. This does not include any steps for migrating reports—we have to do them separately.
Switching to SSRS Integrated mode:

1.   Open SQL Reporting Services Configuration Manager on your SQL Server
·         Start
·         All Programs
·         Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2
·         Configuration Tools
·         Reporting Services Configuration Manager

2.   Click on Databases, and note the current “Report Server Mode” is “Native”
3.   Select Change Database
4.   Select “Create a new report server database,” and click “Next”

5.   Enter your server name and credentials, and select “Next”
6.   Select a new “Database Name” and change “Report Server Mode” to “SharePoint Integrated Mode,” and click “Next”
7.   Enter authentication information, and click “Next”
8.   Verify Summary, and ensure “Report Server Mode” is set to SharePoint integrated
9.   Click next and ensure everything gives success status.
10.  In Reporting Services Configuration Manger, click on Web Service URL, and then click the URL link to open
11.  We should get an error that reads something like this:
12.   Reporting Services Error:

The report server has encountered a configuration error. If the report server is configured to use SharePoint integrated mode, verify that the server is joined to a SharePoint farm and that the Report Server service account has been granted access to the SharePoint farm. (rsServerConfigurationError)

13.  This error is expected, because we need to configure Reporting Services Integration in SharePoint.
14. Continue to next step.
15. Open up SharePoint Central Administration:
16. Go to “General Application Settings,” and click “Reporting Services Integration:”
17. Fill out “Report Server Web Service URL,” and your credentials:
18. Note that the Web Service URL should be what was specified in the Report Services Configuration Manager

How to create the DPMRecoveryWebApplication

1.   Open the SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration console from the Start Menu.
2.   Once the SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration console is open, click on the Application Management tab which opens to display all of the various options for managing your SharePoint installation.
3.   Under the SharePoint Web Application Management heading, click on the Create or Extend Web application.
4.   The Create or Extend Web application page appears with two options. Choose Create a new Web application.
5.   After clicking the Create a new Web application link, the Create New Web Application page appears displaying various necessary fields for details about the web application that is being created. Here is a brief summary of the important fields of this page.
o   Chose the Create a new IIS web site and in the description, name it “DPMRecoveryWebApplication”.
o   In the Port field, give it a unique port which is not shared by any other internal application.
o   The Host Header and Path fields can remain unchanged.
o   Scroll down to the radio button Create new application pool and in the Application pool name box, note that the entry name includes the port number and the SharePoint recovery server name.
o   Under the Select a security account for this application pool, select the Configurable radio button and type in a suitable account and password in the fields that follow.

This is the last entry to make before hitting OK to have the web application created. Upon completion of the DPMRecoveryWebApplication web application, Application Created screen appears. At this point, schedule time to run ‘iisreset /noforce’.

If you have any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know, Thank you

Share Point Recovery -- Site recovery on the share point farm itself


Before DPM can be used to recover any individual site/contents on to a protected Farm, following requirements needs to be completed:

1)   An additional dummy SharePoint farm [called as Recovery Farm] is required.
2)   This farm may be a single server and may be hosted in a virtual environment. If you are recovering a WSS 3.0 site, your recovery farm should be WSS 3.0; if you are recovering a MOSS site, your recovery farm should also be MOSS.
3)   The list of features and templates present on the recovery farm must be the same as those on the production farm that is SharePoint Farm build and the SQL SKU installed should be same as the original production farm.
4)   On the Recovery Farm, create a DPMRecoveryWebApplication which would be used by the DPM Application to restore the data on production farm.
5)   Once the Recovery Farm is online, install the DPM Agent, attach the Recovery Farm to the same DPM server and run Configure Protection.exe to configure the WSS Writer.

If you have any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know, Thank you

Share Point Recovery -- Restore the Farm to a Network Folder


Note: Only, if the recovery point was created from an express full backup rather than an incremental synchronization, then you have the option to recover a site to a network folder.

§  Click the Recovery tab.
§  Expand Data on Disk and Tapes->DPM Server->SharePoint Server->and click All Protected SharePoint Data.
§  In the Recoverable Item list, Select SharePointFarm\SharePoint_Config.
§  Click Recover.
§  On the Review Recovery Selection page, click Next.
§  On the Select Recovery Type page, select Copy all SharePoint content and components to a network folder.
§  Click Browse.
§  Expand SharePoint Server->Volumes/Shares->select the Network folder and click OK.
§  Click Next.
§  On the Specify Recovery Options page, click Next.
§  On the Summary page, click Recover.
§  Wait until the recovery status is successful and then click Close.
§  Wait until the status is successful and then click Close

If you have any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know, Thank you

Microsoft System Data Protection Manager 2007 – Recovering SharePoint Server

In this series, I will cover three main sections as follows:
Share Point Recovery -- Restoring the SharePoint at Farm level.
Share Point Recovery -- Restore the Farm to a Network Folder.
Share Point Recovery -- Site recovery on the share point farm itself.

SharePoint Recovery Options using DPM

Data Protection Manager 2007 can be used to protect the data on SharePoint server 2007 and Windows SharePoint services 3.0. DPM can protect the SharePoint at the farm level and can be used for recovering the data at multiple levels like:
·         Farm
·         Content databases
·         Sites
·         Webs/Sub Sites
·         Lists
·         Items/Documents

Share Point Recovery -- Restoring the SharePoint at Farm level.
Please follow the steps given below to restore the complete SharePoint production farm:

1.   Click the Recovery tab.
2.   Expand Data on Disk and Tapes--<Server Name>--MOSS27 and click All Protected SharePoint Data.
3.   In the Recoverable Item list, select SharePoint under the SharePoint Farm
4.   Click Recover
5.   On the Review Recovery Selection page, click Next
6.   On the Select Recovery Type page, point to Recover All SharePoint content and components
7.   Click Next
8.   On the Specify Recovery Options page, click Next
9.   On the Summary page, click Recover

Wait until the status is successful and then click Close

If you have any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know, Thank you