Discontinued Functionality in SQL Server Reporting Services

Starting in SQL Server 2008 R2, the Reporting Services component no longer supports Itanium-based servers running Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2003 R2. Reporting Services continues to support other 64-bit operating systems, including Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-Based Systems and Windows Server 2008 R2 for Itanium-Based Systems. To upgrade to SQL Server 2008 R2 from a SQL Server 2008 installation with Reporting Services on an Itanium-based system edition of Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2003 R2, you must first upgrade the operating system.

The URL access parameter strings dsu:datasourcename=value and dsp:datasourcename=value are now discontinued. In prior versions, these parameter strings are stored in plain text in the browser cache, which is not secure.

Starting in SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 (SP2), the Report Server service is able to auto-detect the version of the report server database and upgrade it to the schema that matches the version of the current report server instance. When an older version of the database is detected, you are prompted to upgrade it. If you proceed to upgrade it, the schema is updated to the new format and you cannot roll it back to a previous format.

Because the auto-upgrade feature has been added, there is no longer any need for you to create a database upgrade script or for having a manual upgrade option in the Reporting Services Configuration tool. In SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services, the button to create the script and the button that performs the upgrade action are removed from the Database Setup page in the Reporting Services Configuration tool. For more information about upgrade support, see Upgrading a Report Server Database.

Deprecation of Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 support was announced in Reporting Services 2005 Service Pack 2. This version of Internet Explorer is not supported in the SQL Server 2008 release of Reporting Services.

The SQL Server 2000 Report Server Web service endpoint is discontinued in this release. For more information about current endpoints, see Report Server Web Service Endpoints in SQL Server Books Online.

The HTML with Office Web Components (OWC) rendering extension is discontinued in this release.

The HTML 3.2 format in the HTML rendering extension is discontinued in this release. The rendering extension is no longer included in a Reporting Services installation.

For Reporting Services in native mode, running Report Builder in partial trust mode is discontinued in this release. Reporting Services in either native mode or SharePoint mode supports running Report Builder in full trust mode only. 

The Surface Area Configuration Tool is discontinued for SQL Server 2008. For more information, see Backward Compatibility.

Notification Services has been removed from SQL Server 2008. You can use existing Reporting Services functionality, such as data-driven subscriptions, to obtain some of the functionality that was provided by Notification Services in previous versions of SQL Server.