Installing SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on Windows Server 2008

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Installing SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on Windows Server 2008

After attending the MS Launch event in Houston, I figured I would jump right into Server 2008 by using it to run my Team Foundation Server at home. I chose to run SQL Server 2005 since 2008 was not yet available on MSDN. That decision caused me to run into a couple snags along the way.

Reporting Services is a prerequisite for TFS and when running through the installation of SQL Server 2005 on Windows Server 2008, you may notice the option to install Reporting Services is grayed out. This is most likely happening because as far as SQL Server 2005 is concerned, IIS is not installed. It may be true that IIS is not installed in which case you will have to go back and install IIS 7 before continuing with the SQL Server 2005 installation. However, if IIS 7 is installed and the SQL Server 2005 installer cannot recognize it, then it will be necessary to enable IIS 6 compatibility mode before the SQL Server 2005 installation will recognize IIS. There are a few articles out there on how to enable compatibility mode on Vista but I had a tough time finding the exact procedures on Windows Server 2008 so I figured I would post them here in case anybody else is having trouble. The steps on each OS are considerably different. Follow the steps below to enable compatibility mode in IIS 7 on Windows Server 2008.

1. Click on Start > Control Panel

2. Double click "Programs and Features"

3. On the left side of the window, select the link to “Turn Windows features on or off"

4. In the “Server Manager” window under the “Roles Summary” section, click “Go to Roles”. Note that at this point it is assumed that you have already installed IIS 7.

5. In the “Roles” window, find the section titled “Web Server (IIS)” and click “Add Role Services”.

6. In the “Select Role Services” window, scroll toward the bottom of the list and find Management Tools. Under Management Tools you will see a sub-section named “IIS 6 Management Compatibility”. To enable the SQL Reporting option during the install, I had to enable all check boxes under IIS 6 Management Compatibility.

7. Then just click Next to finish the installation wizard.

Now when you run the SQL Server 2005 installation, Reporting Services should be enable as an available option.

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Print posted @ Tuesday, April 01, 2008 11:09 AM

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# re: Installing SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on Windows Server 2008

Thanks! I was wondering why it was checked out. Can I uninstall backward compatability once SSRS is installed? 5/1/2008 11:08 PM | Stephen Wells

# re: Installing SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on Windows Server 2008

I'm having this exact problem.. ran through the steps here and Reporting Services is still greyed out.. no idea why it would be. 5/12/2008 3:41 PM | Ryan Langton

# re: Installing SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on Windows Server 2008

Ok I found the solution. Yours is right but you're missing some other things that need to be installed in Role Services. Microsoft has a knowledgebase article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938245/ 5/13/2008 7:52 AM | Ryan Langton

# re: Installing SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on Windows Server 2008

THANK YOU FOR THIS POST! 6/4/2008 12:58 PM | SQLadmin

# re: Installing SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on Windows Server 2008

Thanks a ton! I spent hours trying to track down the issue before finally coming across this article. You have really taken the pain to explain the steps in detail. I wish Microsoft had this as the default documentation somewhere on their website. Great post and extremely useful! 8/27/2008 7:59 PM | Joe Thomas

# re: Installing SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on Windows Server 2008

Perhaps I am missing something, this only installs the 32bit version of reporting services, I am trying like mad to install the 64bit. Everything else installs 64 bit, only reporting services installs as 32bit. Anyone have any advice? 10/8/2008 12:42 PM | Megan

# re: Installing SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on Windows Server 2008

I have a scenario where i need to install reporting services in a server without IIS while IIS is installed in another server. The two servers can be shared. Is it possible?
11/8/2008 4:54 AM | Ajay

# re: Installing SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on Windows Server 2008

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934164

Check this site for details of the IIS 7 Role features needed for installation of SQL 2005, Reporting Services.
The above recomendations are not complete.
Although this site refers to Vista, IIS 7.0 is part of Vista so the solution works. You must use Server Manager on serv 2008. 1/13/2009 9:41 AM | Michael Newell

# re: Installing SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on Windows Server 2008

How to: Install and Configure Reporting Services on Windows Server 2008

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb839480(SQL.90).aspx 2/4/2009 12:11 AM | sa

# re: Installing SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on Windows Server 2008

excellent article... 3/17/2009 8:50 AM | Vishal Sharma

# re: Installing SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on Windows Server 2008

Thanks for posting this. It was helpfule for my install. 8/27/2009 12:06 PM | Hiren

# re: Installing SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on Windows Server 2008

Thank you! 3/16/2010 4:05 PM | Blaine Kehl

# re: Installing SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on Windows Server 2008

Thank you this is excellant 4/29/2010 10:35 AM | Ken Masseu

# re: Installing SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on Windows Server 2008

Thanks for the info, very useful! 6/29/2010 6:45 PM | Fred

# re: Installing SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on Windows Server 2008

is it possible to have 64 bit SQL Server 2008 and 32 bit reporting Service 2008 and if yes then how to do that? 7/5/2010 9:41 PM | Neha Patel

# re: Installing SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on Windows Server 2008

Much appreciated. Installing MS Forefront and it's a pain, to say the least. 9/30/2010 5:45 AM | BBrian

# re: Installing SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on Windows Server 2008

Good info, thanks for publishing the article.
Here's what I experienced when trying to install SQL 2005 Reporting Services. After installing IIS7, then IIS6 Compatability, Reporting Services was still grayed out. I went back through the available Roles and found that ASP.net wasn't installed, so I installed it.
RS is STILL grayed out! Any ideas? 4/14/2011 10:35 AM | Brian Jaramillo

Jim Hlavin