Backup and restore operations for Reporting Services

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This article provides an overview of all data files used in a Reporting Services installation and describes when and how you should back up the files. Developing a backup and restore plan for the report server database files is the most important part of a recovery strategy. However, a more complete recovery strategy would include backups of the encryption keys, custom assemblies or extensions, configuration files, and source files for reports.

Applies to: Reporting Services Native Mode | Reporting Services SharePoint Mode

Note

Reporting Services integration with SharePoint is no longer available after SQL Server 2016.

Backup and restore operations are often used to move all or part of a Reporting Services installation:

Back up the report server databases

Because a report server is a stateless server, all application data is stored in the reportserver and reportservertempdb databases that run on an SQL Server Database Engine instance. You can back up the reportserver and reportservertempdb databases using one of the supported methods for backing up SQL Server databases. Here are some recommendations specific to the report server databases:

  • Use the full recovery model to back up the reportserver database.

  • Use the simple recovery model to back up the reportservertempdb database.

  • You can use different backup schedules for each database. The only reason to back up the reportservertempdb is to avoid having to recreate it if there's a hardware failure. If you experience hardware failure, it isn't necessary to recover the data in reportservertempdb, but you do need the table structure. If you lose reportservertempdb, the only way to get it back is to recreate the report server database. If you recreate the reportservertempdb, it's important that it has the same name as the primary report server database.

For more information about backup and recovery of SQL Server relational databases, see Back up and restore of SQL Server databases.

Important

If your report server is in SharePoint mode, there are additional databases to be concerned with, including SharePoint configuration databases and the Reporting Services alerting database. In SharePoint mode, three databases are created for each Reporting Services service application. The reportserver, reportservertempdb, and dataalerting databases. For more information, see Backup and restore Reporting Services SharePoint service applications

Back up the encryption keys

You should back up the encryption keys when you configure a Reporting Services installation for the first time. You should also back up the keys anytime you change the identity of the service accounts or rename the computer. For more information, see Back up and restore Reporting Services encryption keys.

For SharePoint mode report servers, see the "Key Management" section of Manage a Reporting Services SharePoint service application.

Back up the configuration files

Reporting Services uses configuration files to store application settings. You should back up the files when you first configure the server and after you deploy any custom extensions. Files to back up include:

  • Rsreportserver.config

  • Rssvrpolicy.config

  • ReportingServicesService.exe.config

  • Web.config for the Report Server ASP.NET application

  • Machine.config for ASP.NET

Back up data files

Back up the files that you create and maintain in Report Designer. These include report definition (.rdl) files, shared data source (.rds) files, data view (.dv) files, data source (.ds) files, report server project (.rptproj) files, and report solution (.sln) files.

Remember to back up any script files (.rss) that you created for administration or deployment tasks.

Verify that you have a backup copy of any custom extensions and custom assemblies you're using.

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