SQL Express and SQL Reporting Services 2005 – Soon, but not yet

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2005 Books Online and/or microsoft.com readers know that you can use SQL Express and SSRS together (with a few caveats – hit https://www.microsoft.com/sql/technologies/reporting/rsfeatures.mspx to view them).

However, you're going to have to wait a little while longer before you actually can start putting SSRS and SQLExpress together. Mike Wachal (a SQLExpress PM) and Brad Syputa got into a conversation about same, and here are the take-aways:

 

  • SQLExpress SSRS will only "play" with SQLExpress (see the link above). SQLExpress most host the reportserver catalog and you must report against data in the local instance of SQLExpress...you can't access remote data.
  • There will be a specific version of Express which will "do" SSRS called SQL Server 2005 Express Edition with Advanced Services, but it hasn't been released yet. Look for them early next year, around the same time that SP1 hits.
  • In other words, "No" - you can't use SSRS from Standard / Dev / Enterprise edition and install it against SQL Express. You'll get an error message along the lines of the following if you try:

"The feature: "Using other editions of SQL Server for report data sources and/or the report server database" is not supported in this edition of Reporting Services."

 

....a few weeks later....

 

Here are some more details about what Express Edition with Advanced Services will / won't do vis-a-vis SSRS (Thanks to Heidi Steen!):

 

  • No Report Builder or ad-hoc reporting
  • Only on-demand report processing: No snapshots, history, scheduled operations, delivery, subscriptions
  • The ReportServer database must reside on SQL Express
  • You can only report against the databases on the local Express instance
  • No XML and CSV rendering