Justin Saraceno's Blog

Migrating SSRS Manager to a new IIS Server: Part 2

justinsaraceno — Fri, 22 May 2009 19:17:00 GMT

In my previous post I blogged about my seemingly not so common problem where an SSRS database is on one server, the Reports Manager is hosted on another server, and I need to migrate the Reports Manager to a new IIS server. Sound confusing? Well it was for someone who has never done that; plus it's no secret that SSRS isn't the easiest beast to configure.

After waisting pleanty of time researching what turned out to be oddities (read: misconfigurations) of the new domain account SSRS services needed to run under, I finally got it with the help of some online resources. Here's a play-by-play of what I ran in to when migrating the web end of SSRS to another server:

As I mentioned in the previous post, when attempting to initialize SSRS and pointing to a Reports database already being used by another server's SSRS service, SSRS assumes you are scaling out your web deployment. Since I didn't want to do that, I had to shut off the SSRS service on the old IIS box before I could start it on the new server I was migrating to.

Once started, I opened SSRS Configuration Manager and navigated to the Initialization tab. I saw both the old and new servers listed in the Initialization list and deleted them both. Next, I closed the SSRS Configuration Manager and re-opened it to get a fresh look. I went back to the Initialization tab and saw only the new server listed and thought I was on the road to success. I pressed the Initialize button at the bottom of the screen and I got an error with the key word in it: RSReportServerNotActivated. I had no clue what this meant. Was the server running a trial of SQL Server that wasn't registered? No. Will the log files help me? They didn't. Well, let's Google it! And it brought me here:

This MSDN article explaining how to initialize a Report Server is where I started. It's a short article worth a read for anyone doing this. The article didn't go deep in to my situation of migrating the web end of SSRS to another server but it did give me another link discussing the RSReportServerNotActivated error.

That article was about troubleshooting initialization and encryption key errors. What I got out of that article was the new web server wasn't referencing the SSRS encryption keys (see the SSRS Configuration Manager's Encryption Keys tab) and was therefore failing. The answer was to load those encryption keys on the new server or delete them. Since I didn't know where the key was, I ended up deleting the reference to the encryption keys. This wasn't as big of a deal as it sounded because the only encrypted content I had was the connection string in a report datasource object. So after deleting the keys, I went back to the initialization tab, initialized the server, and all was good to go - or so it seemed.

Now it was time for the moment of truth. I opened up IE and navigated to the local reports manager site. The home page opened but it was almost blank. There was no link to add reports, no links for my existing reports. Time to hit Google again! That's when I found this MSDN forum article where someone had the same exact problem. Turns out the problem was solved with some IIS configuration setting changes for the Reports and Reports Manager web sites. Once I disabled anonymous access to those sites, SSRS was able to authenticate me as a Reports admin and I was able to see and manage everything.

The final step was to reconfigure that reports datasource object that got nuked when I deleted the reference to the encryption key. Once I re-added the conection string to the datasource, reports were being served from the new IIS box and I was good to go!

Migrating SSRS manager to a new IIS server

justinsaraceno — Fri, 15 May 2009 02:13:00 GMT

We have a setup where I work where SSRS 2005 is running with the reports database on a database server and the report manager/reports are hosted on a separate IIS server. This works out good because it avoids the need to run SQL Server on the IIS box.

Now we’re upgrading to a new IIS web server and the move hasn’t been as straight-forward as I had hoped. Since this isn’t a very common setup or scenario, I’ve been learning things the hard way during this move. We are keeping the current IIS server up and running until the new web server gets tested.

So I started out by installing the Report Server components on the new web server. The install went fine until I started in to the Report Server Configuration Manager. In the Config Manager you can set what database the report server should use. I chose the current existing report server database on the separate SQL server. It turns out, that was a mistake.

I didn’t realize that because I was adding a second report manager/reports web site to be associated with the one reports database, SSRS assumed I was scaling out the report manager to a web farm. That’s right, you can not have two instances of report manager/reports web site point to one single reports database unless you are scaling out your web operations. It totally makes sense now that I know about it, but I don’t administer SSRS very often so I had no clue.

Doing this not only set up SSRS scale-out settings on the new IIS box, but also modified the old IIS box’s SSRS settings to assume a scale-out deployment. The result was all SSRS web interfaces were broken. I proceeded by shutting down the SSRS service from the new IIS box so I could fix things on the older IIS box.

On the older IIS box I had to get in to the Reporting Services Configuration Manager and navigate to the Initialization tab. The tab showed it was trying to initialize SSRS on the local box and the new IIS box in order to scale out (which is not what I wanted to do). I had to remove both items from the Initialization list, restart SSRS service, and things were working again the way they were before I started all this.

So how am I going to get SSRS running on the new IIS box? I see that I have two options. One would be to shut down the SSRS service on the older IIS box and then reconfigure the new IIS box to use the existing reports database. That will cause some down time that we can’t afford. The other option is to create a new SSRS reports database on the database server and have the new IIS box utilize that. It will be a little more work but seems to be the cleanest way to upgrade to a new IIS box for SSRS.

UPDATE: see the follow-up post to this here: http://weblogs.asp.net/justinsaraceno/archive/2009/05/22/migrating-ssrs-manager-to-a-new-iis-server-part-2.aspx

Linkbutton with image and text

justinsaraceno — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:06:00 GMT

I ran across the need to have a linkbutton that contained an image and text. A little background... I was creating a file structure-like list in a repeater control. Each row had to be clickable by the folder name or folder icon; just like in Windows Explorer.

By default, the linkbutton has a Text property but this was of no help for trying to also squeeze in an image too. But did you know you could do this with a linkbutton:

<asp:LinkButton ID="lbYear" runat="server" CausesValidation="false">

<asp:Image ID="imgFolder" runat="server" ImageUrl="~/images/folder.jpg" />

<%# Container.DataItem %>

</asp:LinkButton>

Here you see the LinkButton control acts like a template for the image control and text it needed to display.
Seriously, I know this isn't rocket science but it took me a few minutes to think about how this works because how often do you do this with the linkbutton control? Enjoy!

Google's Chrome Browser: First Impressions

justinsaraceno — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 02:48:00 GMT

First let me say WOW! Chrome beta looks very promising. I was first impressed before the browser's download was available by the Chrome comic book. It provides a great developer-centric explination to why Chrome is fast, secure, and quite possibly the future model of all internet browsers.

Once I got it downloaded and installed (very easy process by the way), most of my favorite web sites rendered fast and seemlessly. My favorite feature so far is being able to search from the address bar. For instance, if you type in google and then <tab>, it will prompt you to enter a search term and will search for it via Google. The same principle holds true for any web site you visit that has search enabled for it. Once you visit the site and if it has searching capabilities, you can run a search from the browser address bar. It works for non-search engine sites too; for instance it will work for searching cnn.com.

Of course this beta isn't without its faults (or faults of non-confirming web sites?). Here are some of them I have found so far:
- In other tabbed browsers, if you close the browser and there are multiple tabs open, the browser warns that you are closing everything, not just the current tab. Chrome doesn't do that but I wish it did.
- It's new so some plugins naturally aren't available. Silverlight, for instance.
- I've noticed some very minor CSS conformity problems
- I use a web site that has a free textbox-style editing control and the toolbar to edit the text wasn't visible
- Hotmail: yeah it works but it prompts you that you aren't using a known browser and proceedes to display a stripped-down version of Hotmail. Any site that relies on custom code to target certain browsers will most likly have a similar problem.

So, I'm keeping the browser installed and will use it as much as possible because I see lots of potential here. If you're a web developer: really - take a look at that Chrome comic book for an excellent explination of what Google has done here. It's really impressive and way outside the box.

ZoomIt

justinsaraceno — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:46:00 GMT

A couple weeks back Brad Abrams came to speak to the Triangle .NET Users Group (TriNUG). During his presentation he used and breifly mentioned ZoomIt, a utility for zooming in to sections of your screen.
I downloaded it and I've got to say ZoomIt is great. I think it was a 3rd party utility at one point but now it's a free Microsoft download. If you've got a presentation in your future, it's a must have.

More Rain = Better Developer

justinsaraceno — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 23:55:25 GMT

I think I figured out why Seattle is such a hot spot for technical innovation: it rains a lot.

Raleigh's been having one of those patterns where it seems to be raining every weekend lately. Usually that's bad news but we're emerging from a drought so I'm not going to complain. There's only so much you can do when it's raining so I spent the weekend learning how to use Subsonic and the Ajax Control Toolkit's Cascading Dropdown Extender. And then I figured out how to use both of them together.

Subsonic is a DAL code generator. Usually when I hear the phrase 'code generator' I shudder. I've dealt with some pretty nightmarish code generation tools in my years of development. Subsonic has really made me rethink how I view code generation, at least for the DAL. It is surprisingly easy to use and and I really like their Query Tool; it's very T-SQL orientated. The fast track to learning Subsonic is viewing and practicing along with their tutorial web casts. The best ones to start off with are the Getting Started and Database Query Tool web casts.

As the rain continued I caught the web casts for the Ajax Toolkit's Cascading Dropdown Extender. The basics are covered in a web cast that binds to an XML file data source. There is also a new web cast explaining how to bind to a SQL data source. After watching both of them I was able to do the data binding via Subsonic. Maybe that should be a future blog post for me?

So anyway, thanks to the rain and some web casts I'm a little smarter after this weekend. Sadly, it also helped that my Red Sox were swept by Toronto during this weekend's series. I just picked up the MLB package on TV for the season but couldn't watch the slaughter. So that meant more time to watch web casts; oh the fun! I hope next weekend is sunny.

Help Wanted: ASP.NET Experience Not Considered

justinsaraceno — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:54:19 GMT

One way to make sure you're current in your developer skills is to surf the job sites. I'm very happy with my current position but I know I need to keep my skills current and marketable so every once in a while I surf the job boards and see what technologies are in hot demand. If I'm unfamiliar with a skill or technology, I make an effort to get on it.

Usually doing this results in no shockers but I just found a recent exception. One local company is seeking a Principal Software Engineer with strong C# experience in .NET 1.1 and 2.0. Then the ad goes on to state, "Please Note: ASP.NET experience not considered". What?!? How can this be? An ASP.NET developer doesn't need to know .NET code?

Now I can maybe see someone looking for a C# developer not considering Classic ASP experience as relevant, but ASP.NET? If you are on the level to be considered for a Principal Software Engineer, the font-end interface of your development projects shouldn't matter. That's the beauty of OO and multi-tiered programming. A DAL and BAL written in C# should be able to be plugged in to a Windows form app or Web form app with little or no changes. In today's .NET world a Windows form developer and Web form developer need the same C# skills because it's all the same code base, same objects, same everything until you get to the UI. I've switched back and forth from Web and Windows forms development and I prefer the stateless challenges of Web form development but never considered either type of app less demanding of coding skills.

Does anyone else think different? I can't even come up with a remotely feasible argument why ASP.NET experience should be discounted for a senior level C# coder position.

ReorderList with ObjectDataSource

justinsaraceno — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 01:36:00 GMT

If you ask me, the AJAX Control Toolkit's ReorderList is the most under appreciated control in the Toolkit. Compared to many of the other controls, it gets no love. The Toolkit demo site's sample for this control isn't really all that helpful and third party samples are sparse. And how do you bind it with an ObjectDataSource control? Read on to find out...

The ReorderList had a 'real word' use for me. There was a situation where I inherited a web form with a priority ranked list that was composed of a list of items that each had a textbox control to the left of them. The textbox contained the priority order for the item in the list. If the user wanted to change the order, he or she would change the numbers in the textboxes and then press a Save button which updated the priority order for the list. Obviously, the users were having a difficult time making this work.

In comes the ReorderList, the magical key to this situation. But how does this work; the Toolkit sample site didn't go far enough. I wanted to bind this with an ObjectDataSource control and it just wasn't working. Well I eventually figured it out and the first thing I thought of was I needed to write an article about this. Of course this was over 6 months ago but now that I have this blog I thought that someone may benefit from my pain.

I am including the sample project for this but let's walk through it.
First thing's first - we need some data to reorder. How about a Wish List? The below image shows a WishList table which is included in the project in a SQLExpress database. There are only three columns: WishID (uniqueidentifier) which is the primary key; WishDescription (varchar) which is the wish text; and WishOrder (int) which holds the order of my wishes. It is pictured here:

So next create a class in App_Code for the ObjectDataSource to bind to. I've called it ReorderClass. First we need to have a method return a DataSet containing the wish data in from the database. Here is the code for that:

Since the order number from the ReorderList needs to be saved back in the database, we also need an Update method for our ObjectDataSource control. The key here that many people miss is the Update method MUST have a method parameter for each of the data items that were selected in the above DataSet. Not only is that true, but the method signatures must also be the same data type of the items returned from the Select method's DataSet. Yes, even if you are not updating all the fields, you still need all the Selected fields in the Update method's signature. So the DataSet in the Select method returned WishID, WishDescription, and WishOrder. So, this Update method needs all three of those fields in its method signature. The three method parameters are WishID which is of type Guid, WishDescription of type string, and WishOrder of type integer. The code for this is here:

Now it's time for the ReorderList control. You can bind data to the ReorderList but unlike the GridView control, there is no built-in auto binding option. You have to create the template to bind the data to. Here I've created a table for that contains the Wish Order number and Wish Description. Also note that the ReorderList has properties including SortOrderField and DataKeyField. The SortOrderField needs to be bound to the data item containing the sort order for your items. The DataKeyField needs to be bound to your data item's identifier field (most likely its primary key in the database).

Now we're going to bind this to an ObjectDataSource control. Notice that the Select Method is the method that returns the DataSet. Also notice that the UpdateParameters match the fields that were in the Select statement. Since there is no option for Type of uniqueidentifier, the wishID Parameter has been set to type of Object.

Now that it's all together, it will load, reorder, and save the reorder.

It's not the simplest tool in the Toolkit to use but it is one of the coolest for sure.

Code Camp - so what if they'll laugh at you?

justinsaraceno — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:51:32 GMT

I work from my home office so I'm making more of an effort to get out to any .Net developer event in the Raleigh, NC area. So far this year I have been to an MSDN event, started attending the Triangle .Net Users Group (TRINUG), and just last weekend went to a Code Camp.

This is the second Code Camp I've actually been to. Both of them in Raleigh; both put together by TRINUG.

Now I have to admit, when friends asked me what I'm doing on a Saturday and I said, "Code Camp", well you can imagine the responses I got. But really, how was I going to miss this Code Camp? I don't know how TRINUG did it, but it attracted 5 Microsoft Regional Directors, 11 Microsoft MVP's, plus over a half dozen other other speakers to present at Code Camp. What a lineup! And to top it off, Carl Franklin from .NET Rocks was the keynote speaker. AND the crew recorded an episode of dnrTV during lunch with special guest Migueal Castro. It was like a .Net nerd rock concert with all the big names in the house; all for free.

The day started at 7:30 am and lasted until about 6:15 with 6 tracks of 5 sessions plus lunch was provided. It was a great assembly of people sharing ideas and knowledge. I learned a few new things and met some great people. It was well worth my Saturday.

So these Code Camps are becoming popular and spring time seems to be a popular Camp date. Check with your local .Net users group if or when one is being held near you. Even if you have to travel, it's well worth the effort and expense because you will learn something and IT training ain't cheap these days!

VS 2008 Web Development Hotfix Roll-up

justinsaraceno — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 14:21:00 GMT

Scott Guthrie posted about a VS 2008 Web Development Hotfix Roll-up that is available for download.
I've been using Visual Studio 2008 for about a month and was pleased with its new features but disappointed with its performance. At times I wondered if it was my computer but now it is clear: there were bugs in Visual Studio. I’m glad Microsoft is actively knocking out these problems because I really like VS 2008.

Paint.NET

justinsaraceno — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 04:20:20 GMT

In the past I haven't really done any of the graphics design for the web sites I work on. That could be changing with my discovery of open source Paint.NET.
At first I thought Paint.NET was just MS Paint on steroids. I've discovered that it is far more advanced like Adobe Photoshop than MS Paint.

Tools:
Paint.NET has many of the same tools as many non-freeware applications including the Magic Wand, a curve tool, and gradient tool:

There is even an unlimited history window to track and undo or redo all of your changes to an image; just like in Photoshop:

And possibly best of all, you can manage an image's layers. If you don't know what layers are for images, it's a great time saver and organizer. You can make each component of an image as a layer. For example, if you have a photograph and wanted to add text to it, you could add the text in a new layer. If you needed to remove the text you can simply remove that layer.

Community:
Paint.NET is updated frequently partly as a result of its wide community base support. There is a very active user forum group that answer user questions, provides tutorials and examples, and distribute extensions.

Summary:
I am by no stretch of the imagination a graphics software expert. However, I do know that this open source software has the functionality found in many of the high-end graphics software suites. This has been perfect for me because the price is right and has great community support.

Hello Secure World

justinsaraceno — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 01:24:00 GMT

First, welcome to my new blog on the www.asp.net site. It was set up for me by Microsoft's Joe Stagner.

So what's with Hello Secure World? Well this week MSDN Events brought their roadshow here to Raleigh, NC. I have attended these MSDN events in the past but haven't made it to one in over a year. They usually are packed with an insight to the latest and greatest developer topics but I must admit, this one was a little stale. Content ranged from ASP.NET security (wasn't that a big MSDN event back in 2004) to ASP.NET 2.0 Application Services. Yeah I picked up a few tidbits of info but we are in the ASP.NET 3.5 world now, aren't we?

The best thing I got out of the event was a link to Microsoft's Hello Secure World web site. It's packed with info on how to secure your applications. There are video tutorials, code samples, the works. Everything you need to get started on putting up a defense for XSS, SQL Injection, one-click attacks, and more are right there. The next best thing I walked away with was a Hello Secure World t-shirt. Now I'll never forget that URL!