• Article

Troubleshooting Techniques for Report Problems

Use the information in this topic to troubleshoot problems you have with designing a report, previewing a report, publishing a report to a report server in native mode or SharePoint integrated mode, viewing a report on the report server, or exporting a report to a different file format.

Technique: Monitoring Report Servers

You can use system and database tools to monitor report server activity. You can also view report server trace log files, or query the report server execution log for detailed information about specific reports. If you are using Performance Monitor, you can add performance counters for the Report Server Web service and Windows service to identity bottlenecks in on-demand or scheduled processing.

For more information, see Monitoring (Reporting Services).

Technique: Viewing the Report Server Logs

Reporting Services records many internal and external events to log files that record data about specific reports, debugging information, HTTP requests and responses, and report server events. You can also create performance logs and select performance counters that specify which data to collect. The default directory for log files for a default instance installation is <drive>\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSRS10.MSSQLSERVER\Reporting Services\LogFiles. For more information, see Reporting Services Log Files.

To determine specifically whether report waits are due to data retrieval, report processing, or report rendering, use the Execution Log. For more information, see Report Server Execution Log.

Technique: Viewing the Call Stack for Report Processing Error Messages on the Report Server

When you view a published report in Report Manager, you might see an error message that represents a general processing or rendering error. To see more information, you can view the call stack.

To view the call stack, log on to the report server by using the local administrator credentials, right-click the Report Manager page, and then click View Source. The call stack provides detailed context for the error message.

Technique: Using SQL Server Management Studio to Verify Queries and Credentials

SQL Server Management Studio is part of SQL Server Management tools that is part of SQL Server 2008. You can use this tool to validate complex queries before you include them in your report. You can also run Management Studio by using the Microsoft Windows Run As command, and access a data source using a different security context.

For more information, see SQL Server Management Studio Database Engine Query Editor Window and Using Object Explorer.

Technique: Analyzing Problem Reports with Report Data Cached on the Client

When a report author creates a report in Business Intelligence Development Studio, the authoring client caches data as an .rdl.data file, which is used when you preview a report. Every time the query changes, the cache is updated. To debug report problems, it is sometimes useful to prevent the refresh for report data so that the data does not change when you are debugging.

To control whether BI Development Studio can only use cached data, add the following section to devenv.exe.config in the BI Development Studio directory. The location of the default directory is: <drive>:Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE.

<system.diagnostics>
      <switches>
         <add name="Microsoft.ReportDesigner.ReportPreviewStore.ForceCache" value="1" />
      </switches>
   </system.diagnostics>

As long as the value is set to 1, only cached report data is used. Be sure to remove this section when you have finished debugging the report.