Migrating SSRS 2012 Farm to SSRS 2016 Farm

SSRS 2016 Scale Out Deployment consists of

• three SSRS application servers 
• a reportserver and reportservertempdb databases on alwaysOn AG server
• a network load balancer

SSRS 2016 Load Balanced Farm

Install SSRS service in all three nodes which participate in SSRS Scale Out Deployment

First, install SSRS service on three windows 2012 R2 servers - with install only option. SSRS service is running under a service account. The service account is added as a local administrator on each server.

AlwaysOn AG Servers

In this section, I will not blog about how to build AlwaysOn AG servers. I assumed that readers know how to build alwayson availability group. I have already built SQL sever 2016 AlwaysOn Availability group. Listener name is SQL2016List.

Important Steps

SQL Server Reporting Service (SSRS) is installed on three application servers (Not configured yet) .

Backup

• Back up reportserver and reportservertempdb database from SSRS 2012 Farm
• Back up encryption key from one of the SSRS 2012 application servers from SSRS 2012 Farm. Keep the password of the encryption key

Restore

• Restore reportserver and reportservertempdb on Primary node on AlwaysOn Available Group server
• Add reportserver and reportservertempdb to Availability group on AlwaysOn server

Script

• On primary node of alwayson availability group, run the following script

           use ReportServer
           go

           select * from ReportServer.dbo.Keys


The query returned SSRS 2012 application servers because we restored a reportserver database from SSRS 2012.

• Delete the rows which are SSRS 2012 (old server) server names. 

Delete from reportserver.dbo.Keys where MachineName = 'Old SSRS 2012 app server name '

SQL Server Reporting Service Configuration (Do these steps in all SSRS servers )

Log in to first SSRS 2016 server and configure SSRS service.

Web Service URL

Click Apply

Database

Change the database to point to a Listener (SQL2016List) and connect to reportsever database.

SQL server Name : SQL2016List

Database : Reportserver

Web portal

Email

In Email settings, we need to fill out SMTP Server and Sender email. The SMTP information is used in subscription reports.

Execution Account

Execution Account is a different service account (not a service account running under SSRS) . It has read/executte access to Datamart and Data warehouse data sources.

Encryption Keys

Restore an encryption key from SSRS 2012 Farm to SSRS 2016 with password

After configuring every tab, SSRS servers joined in Scale out Deployment.

Test SSRS reporting individual link

Test each reporting service link - example http://ssrs01/ReportServer and http://ssrs01/Reports . All three SSRS reporting service web portal links must be working before setting up in a network load balancer.

View Server State Configuration ( do this in all SSRS app. server)

Generate a machine key

First, generate a machine key from the website http://www.developerfusion.com/tools/generatemachinekey/

• In three SSRS 2016 application server, Go to \Microsoft SQL Server\MSRS13.MSSQLSERVER\Reporting Services\ReportServer. 
• Make a copy of web.config file
• Open original web.config file in notepad as administrator
• Paste the machine key tag between system.web Tag
• Save the file
• Verify that all web.Config files in all SSRS servers contain identical elements in the section 
• Restart SSRS service

Configure Hostname and URL Root  (do this in all SSRS app. server)

• Go to \Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSRS13.MSSQLSERVER\Reporting Services\ReportServer
• Make a copy of rsreportserver.config file
• Open rsreportserver.config with notepad as administartor
• add Hostname and UrlRoot between Service tag
• Hostname is SSRSVirtualIPaddress.domain.dom --load balanced virtual ip address
• Urlroot is http://SSRSVirtualIpAddress.domain.dom
• Save the file
• Restart SSRS service

Update Host File (do this in all SSRS app. server)

• Go to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
• Open host file in notepad as administrator
• Add SSRS app. server IP address and Load Balanced SSRS Virtual IP address
• Save the file

Example:
# Copyright (c) 1993-2009 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
#      102.54.94.97     rhino.acme.com          # source server
#       38.25.63.10     x.acme.com              # x client host

# localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
# 127.0.0.1       localhost
# ::1             localhost
10.31.22.39 ssrsvip.domain.us.dom

Back Connection Hostname Registry (do this in all SSRS app. server)

• Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
• In Registry Editor, locate and then click the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\MSV1_0
• Right-click MSV1_0, point to New, and then click Multi-String Value.

• Type BackConnectionHostNames, and then press ENTER.
• Right-click BackConnectionHostNames, and then click Modify.
• In the Value data box, type

SSRSPRDVIPR01SSRSPRDVIPR01.domain.us.domSSRSPRDAPPR01SSRSPRDAPPR01.domain.us.domSSRSPRDAPPR02SSRSPRDAPPR02.domain.us.domSSRSPRDAPPR03SSRSPRDAPPR03.domain.us.dom 

• OK
• Restart the server

Database Permission

Verify RSExecRole exists in master, msdb,Reportserver and ReportServertTempDB databases on Primary and Secondary node. If not,  please run the following script

USE [master]
GO

/****** Object:  DatabaseRole [RSExecRole]    Script Date: 8/31/2017 2:01:51 PM ******/
CREATE ROLE [RSExecRole]
GO

Assume that the same service account is running SSRS service on there SSRS application servers. It must have the following permission.

master - Public,RSExecRole

msdb - db_owner,RSExecRole,SQLAgentOperatorRole,SQLAgentReaderRole,SQLAgentUserRole

ReportServer - db_owner, RSExecRole

ReportServerTempDB - db_owner,RsExecRole

Master Script

Run the following script in master database on where reportserver and reportservertempdb exist.

Use master

GRANT EXECUTE ON master.dbo.xp_sqlagent_enum_jobs TO RSExecRole

GO

GRANT EXECUTE ON master.dbo.xp_sqlagent_notify TO RSExecRole

GO

Test Report Subscription

Create a test subscription on each SSRS link and verify subscription email works on all SSRS portal which participate in Scale Out deployment.

Last, create a test a subscription on SSRS load balance VIP link. SSRSPRDVIPR01.domain.us.dom\Reports

Below is subscription test cases via SSRS Load Balanced link.

Test	Result
Create a subscription	Passed
Send email via a subscription	Passed
Does a subscription create a job in primary	Passed
Does a subscription create a subscription job in  secondary	Failed
Failover databases from primary to secondary
	Passed
After SSRS restart, does a created subscription job created in a primary(previously secondary)	Passed
Delete a subscription in SSRS load balanced link	Passed
Does deleting a subscription from SSRS load balanced link remove a subscription job from SQL agent in both primary and secondary node?	Failed
Does deleting a subscription from SSRS load balanced link remove a subscription job from SQL agent in primary node	Passed
Does deleting a subscription from SSRS load balanced link remove a subscription job from SQL agent in Secondary node	Failed

We discovered that subscription jobs are only created in SQL Server Agent in Primary replica and they not created in SQL Agent job in a secondary replica. When availability group failovers from primary to secondary node,  these subscription job are not automatically created in SQL Server Agent upcoming Primary replica. In order to recreate these subscription jobs in SQL Server Agent automatically after AG group failover we have to restart SSRS service on one of the SSRS server node in the farm.

In order to restart one of the SSRS services automatically , we need to detect AG failover events in Primary and Secondary replica. We will detect EventID=41074 or EventID=41075 under applications from System events. Please follow the screenshots below.

Program Script : C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
Add Arguments : noprofile -executionpolicy RemoteSigned -file E:\SSRSLog\SSRSWakeUpCall.ps1

SSRSWakeUpCall.ps1 powershell script is located at E:\SSRSLog\ on AlwaysOn server primary and secondary node.

The powershell script restarts SSRS service on SSRS server node 1 and launch SSRS web link.

SSRS Restart Powershell Script


#WakeUp SSRS resources
Get-Service -Name "SQL Server Reporting Services (MSSQLSERVER)" -ComputerName SSRS01 |Stop-Service
Get-Service -Name "SQL Server Reporting Services (MSSQLSERVER)" -ComputerName SSRS01 |Start-Service
[string] $url = "http://SSRS01/Reports/Pages/Folder.aspx";
[System.Net.WebClient] $wc = New-Object System.Net.WebClient;
$wc.UseDefaultCredentials = $true;
$result = $wc.DownloadString($url);
$wc.Dispose();

Disable Report Subscription jobs in SQL Server Agent on AlwaysOn Secondary replica

To prevent duplicate email report, we need to disable subscription jobs in Secondary node SQL Agent. To disable these job automatically, we need to get a notification of AG failover event. To get notification of AlwaysOn AG group failover, AG Role Change alert is created in SQL Alerts.

USE [msdb]
GO

/****** Object:  Alert [AG Role Change]    Script Date: 8/31/2017 2:23:45 PM ******/
EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_add_alert @name=N'AG Role Change',
@message_id=1480,
@severity=0,
@enabled=1,
@delay_between_responses=0,
@include_event_description_in=1,
@category_name=N'[Uncategorized]',
@job_id=N'6bc97b04-4786-474f-8c48-8aca8bd4c5c7'
GO

The AG Role Change alert will run a job which executes a stored procedure when AG role change from primary to secondary. The stored procedure will disable report subscription jobs in SQL Server Agent on secondary replica.

JOBChange_AGFailover Stored Procedure

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[JobChange_AGFailover]
AS

BEGIN

  SET NOCOUNT ON;

  DECLARE @jobID UNIQUEIDENTIFIER  --variable for job_id
  DECLARE @AG_enable tinyint

  select @AG_enable = sys.fn_hadr_is_primary_replica ('ReportServer')
 
  DECLARE jobidCursor CURSOR FOR   --used for cursor allocation

  SELECT j.job_id
  FROM msdb.dbo.sysjobs j
  INNER JOIN msdb.dbo.syscategories c
  ON j.category_id = c.category_id
  where c.name = 'Report Server'

--update jobs
  OPEN jobidCursor
  FETCH NEXT FROM jobidCursor INTO @jobID
  WHILE @@Fetch_Status = 0  
  BEGIN              
        EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_update_job @job_id=@jobID, @enabled = @AG_enable              
 FETCH Next FROM jobidCursor INTO @jobID  
  END

  CLOSE jobidCursor
  DEALLOCATE jobidCursor

END

Optimize reporting service startup

Recycle time in RSreportserver.config

In current setting, recycle of application domain is every 12 hrs(default). We can optimize slow response by changing recycle time to larger value(24 hr) and initiate the first call of the report..
By implementing the changes, App Domain recycle will occur outside of business hour and respond time of reporting service will improve.

In rsreportserver config file, change RecycleTime to 1440


Powershell Script

SSRS WakeUp Call

I scheduled to run the powershell script every night at 1 am/1:05 amd /1:10 am on all SSRS application servers . The powershell script in scheduled in Task Scheduler. The script stops and starts SSRS service. Starts reporting service web link.

#SSRSwakeupcall.ps
#WakeUp SSRS resources
Stop-Service "SQL Server Reporting Services (MSSQLSERVER)"
Start-Service "SQL Server Reporting Services (MSSQLSERVER)"
[string] $url = "http://SSRSAPP01/Reports/browse/";
[System.Net.WebClient] $wc = New-Object System.Net.WebClient;
$wc.UseDefaultCredentials = $true;
$result = $wc.DownloadString($url);
$wc.Dispose();