CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCING THE REPORTING SERVICES ARCHITECTURE
Figure 1-3. BIDS environmentCommand-Line Utilities
In addition to graphical applications such as BIDS and SSMS, SSRS provides several command-line
utilities that are considered Web service clients. The tools have the added benefit of being automated by
using built-in task scheduling in Windows. SSRS includes four main command-line utilities:- rs: Processes reporting services script (RSS) files that are written with VB.NET
code. Because you can access the full SSRS API via the code in the script, all SSRS
Web service methods are available. - rsconfig: Configures the authentication methods and credentials for connecting
SSRS to the ReportServer database. The rsconfig utility also sets the unattended
SSRS execution credentials. - rskeymgmt: Manages the encryption keys that SSRS uses to store sensitive data
securely, such as authentication credentials. Chapter 11 covers the use of
rskeymgmt. - rsactivate: Adds another instance of Reporting Services to a Web Farm, and is
useful for replacing a corrupted instance.
Report Builder
The Report Builder application develops reports in an environment much like other Microsoft Office
products, with a ribbon style interface. Report Builder 3.0, released with SSRS 2008 R2, provides nearly
all of the capabilities of the Report Designer within BIDS. You can install it using standard ClickOnce