Executing post-installation tasks

Although the installation and configurations are done and everything works fine as you expected, it does not mean that the process of installation and configuration is completed. You have to do a few more tasks to complete it. These tasks make sure that your Reporting Services is protected and maintained properly.

Getting ready

There are a few key tasks you should perform after installation and configuration:

• Make sure that report database is a part of your backup strategy
• Back up the rsreportserver.config file
• Make sure you have backed up Encryption Keys
• The startup type of the services related to Reporting Services and database engine are set as Automatic

How to do it...

The required tasks can be performed using standard techniques and available tools:

1. Taking a backup of the ReportServer database is easy with Management Studio. Or it can be a part of your scheduled backup job. The main thing to consider is that it should be treated as a normal database and backed up regularly. You may implement a strategy that has one backup type, such as Full Database backup, or based on the complexity in terms of number of reports it holds, frequency of changes, or heavy user interaction. There can also be a strategy that has a combination of various backup types, such as Full, Differential, and Log.
2. To back up the rsreportserver.config file, you can take a copy of it and keep it in a safe place. Since most settings related to report server are held with this, you need to make sure that you have a backup copy of it.
3. You can use Reporting Services Configuration Manager to back up Encryption Keys. This should be done because this requires many instances when recovering after failure. We will discuss Encryption keys in more depth in Chapter 10, Administering and Managing Reporting Services.
4. In order to make the startup type of related services automatic, use Services Desktop Application. Note that you should not use this application to change any other settings.

How it works...

The key thing to understand is how quickly you respond to an issue, troubleshoot an issue, or how you can recover your reporting environment in a disaster. There are a few standard recovery strategies for reporting environments, but these post installation tasks will definitely help you to recover in most situations. As an example, if you make a mistake while changing the rsreportserver.config file manually, you can simply restore it to the previous stage if you have a backup copy of it. If, for some reason, your ReportServer database becomes corrupted, you can get it recovered using the database backup. Therefore, post installation tasks should not be ignored and must be a part of the installation and configuration process.

There's more...

You can secure your reporting server more by configuring a High Availability and Disaster Recovery strategy. Considering the demand, requirements, and the budget, a proper HA and DR should be implemented.