3-tier deployment

I'm trying to deploy reporting services in an architecture that has an IIS
server outside of the firewall, a middle tier server running web services and
a backend sql server. I understand I need to have the reporting services on
my sql server and I also understand I need to have the reporting client (iis
portion) installed somewhere.
How do I do this and keep my 3 tier architecture. I cannot install software
on the IIS server that talks directly to my sql server (2 tier).
I am not using the portal to view reports. I'm rendering the reports by
creating a hyperlink to the rdl files. Do I use virtual folders mapped to the
middle tier? Will the report clients get installed on both boxes? Front only?You misunderstand the architecture. SQL Server database is an object store.
You can report off of any database for the data for the report but the
object store must be SQL Server database. Reporting Services is an asp.net
application. It is not the client it is the application. That means that you
have to have IIS installed where you have RS installed. You can integrate
with either URL integration or with SOAP. SOAP is more complicated but it
gives you the most control. RS uses the object store which can reside on
another machine. RS does the queries to the data to report off of it.
By my understanding of 3 tier you have the user (using a browser it one
tier), your app is the second tier and SQL Server is the 3rd tier. Having RS
go against SQL Server data does not make it 2 tier. RS is a middle tier app.
You want to do 4 tiers which makes it more complicated, doable but
complicated.
Here is a great link to understand how this all works:
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/reporting/techinfo/techoverview.asp
Also, you might want to investigate the controls that come with Widbey beta
(a new winform and webform control). They will make this sort of integration
easier.
Bruce Loehle-Conger
MVP SQL Server Reporting Services
"Leneise44" <Leneise44@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:15A3BF25-1B83-498F-AE11-CC647E3FF058@.microsoft.com...
> I'm trying to deploy reporting services in an architecture that has an IIS
> server outside of the firewall, a middle tier server running web services
and
> a backend sql server. I understand I need to have the reporting services
on
> my sql server and I also understand I need to have the reporting client
(iis
> portion) installed somewhere.
> How do I do this and keep my 3 tier architecture. I cannot install
software
> on the IIS server that talks directly to my sql server (2 tier).
> I am not using the portal to view reports. I'm rendering the reports by
> creating a hyperlink to the rdl files. Do I use virtual folders mapped to
the
> middle tier? Will the report clients get installed on both boxes? Front
only?|||Perhaps I can help with a few general statements. First, you can absolutely
deploy on 3 servers if that is what you want. Doing so requires that you do
some programming to embed reports on your web page.
Next, Reporting Services is implemented with web services, not straight
DLL's. You have to have IIS installed on the server that renders the
reports. Having said that, you can put RS on the SQL Server box or on a
separate server. Also, you can either let users access the server that has
the rendering web services, or you can hide this server from users.
Note that the Reporting Services databases need to be in SQL Server, but
your reports can access data from a different SQL Server, or any other
source. I will omit any further details about this since this thread seems
to be about business logic on a separate server.
Putting this together, the simplest 3-server implementation involves a
public web server with IIS, a middle tier server with IIS running the RS web
services, and a database server with both the Reporting Services databases
and the report data.
As I said in the beginning, this public web site needs programming to either
embed web pages served up from the middle tier using URL access, or to embed
raw HTML, PDF, JPEG, etc. data from the web service. As Bruse said, the 2005
version will ship new controls that will make this embedding process a lot
easier.
Hope this helps,
Ted
"Leneise44" wrote:
> I'm trying to deploy reporting services in an architecture that has an IIS
> server outside of the firewall, a middle tier server running web services and
> a backend sql server. I understand I need to have the reporting services on
> my sql server and I also understand I need to have the reporting client (iis
> portion) installed somewhere.
> How do I do this and keep my 3 tier architecture. I cannot install software
> on the IIS server that talks directly to my sql server (2 tier).
> I am not using the portal to view reports. I'm rendering the reports by
> creating a hyperlink to the rdl files. Do I use virtual folders mapped to the
> middle tier? Will the report clients get installed on both boxes? Front only?|||Having a WebService as Datasources may help you to have the 3-tiers
WebServices Data Processing Extension
http://www.rdlcomponents.com/DTE/default.aspx
Thanks
Jerry
"Ted K" wrote:
> Perhaps I can help with a few general statements. First, you can absolutely
> deploy on 3 servers if that is what you want. Doing so requires that you do
> some programming to embed reports on your web page.
> Next, Reporting Services is implemented with web services, not straight
> DLL's. You have to have IIS installed on the server that renders the
> reports. Having said that, you can put RS on the SQL Server box or on a
> separate server. Also, you can either let users access the server that has
> the rendering web services, or you can hide this server from users.
> Note that the Reporting Services databases need to be in SQL Server, but
> your reports can access data from a different SQL Server, or any other
> source. I will omit any further details about this since this thread seems
> to be about business logic on a separate server.
> Putting this together, the simplest 3-server implementation involves a
> public web server with IIS, a middle tier server with IIS running the RS web
> services, and a database server with both the Reporting Services databases
> and the report data.
> As I said in the beginning, this public web site needs programming to either
> embed web pages served up from the middle tier using URL access, or to embed
> raw HTML, PDF, JPEG, etc. data from the web service. As Bruse said, the 2005
> version will ship new controls that will make this embedding process a lot
> easier.
> Hope this helps,
> Ted
>
> "Leneise44" wrote:
> > I'm trying to deploy reporting services in an architecture that has an IIS
> > server outside of the firewall, a middle tier server running web services and
> > a backend sql server. I understand I need to have the reporting services on
> > my sql server and I also understand I need to have the reporting client (iis
> > portion) installed somewhere.
> >
> > How do I do this and keep my 3 tier architecture. I cannot install software
> > on the IIS server that talks directly to my sql server (2 tier).
> >
> > I am not using the portal to view reports. I'm rendering the reports by
> > creating a hyperlink to the rdl files. Do I use virtual folders mapped to the
> > middle tier? Will the report clients get installed on both boxes? Front only?