SSRS Interview Questions & Answers (Part-1)

Q: What is SSRS?

• SSRS or SQL Server Reporting Service is a server-based report generation software systems from Microsoft and is part of Microsoft BI.
• It is used for preparing and delivering interactive and variety of reports.
• It is administered through an web based interface.
• Reporting services utilizes a web service interface for supporting and developing of customized reporting applications.
• SSRS lets you create very rich reports (Tabular / Matrix / Graphical/Interactive) from various datasources with rich data visualization (Charts, Maps, sparklines)
• SSRS allows are reports to be exported in various formats (Excel, PDF, word etc)

Q: Explain SSRS Architecture?
Reporting services architecture comprises of integrated components. It is a multi-tiered, included with application, server and data layers. This architecture is scalable and modular. A single installation can be used across multiple computers. It includes the following components: -
Report Manager, Reporting Designer, Browser Types Supported by Reporting services, Report server, Report server command line utilities, Report Server Database, Reporting Services Extensibility, Data sources that is supported by Reporting Services.

Q: Explain Reporting Life Cycle?
Reporting Services has mainly three phases:

• Development of Reports (Developer) – First of all a report needs to be design which is primarily done by report developer
• Management of Reports (DBA) – Once the Report is being developed, DBA need to ensure
• Security – Only authorized user should access the report
• Execution – How the report will be executed to optimize data sources performance
• Scheduling of reports – so that report are executed on scheduled timings
• Report Delivery (DBA + Developer) – Once the report is being developed and executed now the report should be reached to final recipients (business users) who are going to understand / analyze report data. if any changes, we again go back to development stage.

Q: What are the Reporting Services components?
Reporting services components assist in development. These processing components include some tools that are used to create, manage and view reports.

• Report Designer is used to create the reports.
• Report Sever is used to execute and distribute reports.
• Report Manager is used to manage the report server.

Q: SQL Server Reporting Services vs. Crystal Reports.
Crystal reports are processed by IIS while SSRS have a report server. Caching in Crystal reports is available through cache server. On the other hand, caching in SSRS is available for Report history snapshots. Crystal reports have standards and user defined field labels. SSRS allows only user defined field labels.

Q: How does the report manager work in SSRS?
Report manager is a web application. In SSRS it is accessed by a URL. The interface of this Report manager depends on the permissions of the user. This means to access any functionality or perform any task, the user must be assigned a role. A user with a role of full permissions can entire all the features and menus of the report. To configure the report manager, a URL needs to be defined.

Q: How can I add Reporting Services reports to my application?
Visual Studio / SSDT / BI Data Tools (Standard and Enterprise editions) contains a set of freely redistributable Report Viewer controls that make it easy to embed Reporting Services functionality into custom applications. Two versions of the Report Viewer exist, one for rich Windows client applications and one for ASP.NET applications.

Q: Do I need a report server to run reports in my application?
In addition to publishing reports to a report server, you can build reports using the Report Designer that is directly integrated with Visual Studio language projects. You can embed reports directly in any Windows Forms or ASP.NET Web application without access to a report server. The data access in embedded reports is a natural extension of the Visual Studio data facilities. Not only can you use traditional databases as a source of data for your reports, you can use object collections as well.

Q: What are different types of roles provided by SSRS?

• Browsers
• Content Manager
• My Reports
• Publishers
• Report Builder

Q: Name and Describe few console utilities for SSRS?

• RSConfig.exe: Configuration of connection properties between the Report Server to the repository database.
• RSKeyMgmt.exe: Management of encryption keys via command-line
• RS.exe: Utility used for deploying the report on report server

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