How to: Configure Reporting Services to Use a Non-Default Web Site (Reporting Services Configuration)

You can create virtual directories for the report server and Report Manager under a custom Web site. To use a non-default Web site, you must create the site, select it when you create the virtual directories, update the URLs in the Reporting Services configuration files, and then test your installation to make sure the report server is available. How you specify the URLs and test your configuration will vary depending whether you identify the Web site through a unique IP address, port number, host header name, or a combination.

Depending on how your Web site is configured, you might encounter one or more HTTP 401 errors when verifying the URL:

• "HTTP 401.1 - Unauthorized: Logon failed" can occur if you are running Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Server 2003 Service Pack, and the fully qualified domain name of the Web site is different from the local computer name. There are several workarounds for resolving this error. For more information about the error and possible workarounds, go to https://support.microsoft.com/kb/896861.
• "HTTP 401.1 - Unauthorized: Access is denied due to invalid credentials" can occur if the application pool is a local account or domain user account, and the Web site is configured to use integrated security. Because the report server virtual directories use integrated security by default, you can expect to encounter this error when you access the report server. For more information about the error and possible workarounds, go to https://support.microsoft.com/kb/871179.

You can run multiple report server instances on the same computer without having to create custom Web sites for each instance. For more information, see Installing Multiple Instances of Reporting Services.

To create the virtual directories in a new custom Web site

1. Create a new Web site in IIS Manager. Creating a custom Web site requires that you either configure the Web site to use a specific IP address or host header name. For instructions on how to create a Web site, see the Hosting Multiple Web Sites on a Single Server topic in the Internet Information Services (IIS) product documentation.

2. Verify that the Web site is accessible and that you do not encounter authentication errors when you access the site.

3. Start the Reporting Services Configuration tool and connect to the report server that will use the new Web site.

4. On the Report Server Virtual Directory page, click New.

5. Select the Web site you just created, and click OK.

6. If you are configuring the Report Server for Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connections, select the Require Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) checkbox.

7. Click Apply to create the report server virtual directory.

8. On the Report Manager Virtual Directory page, click New.

9. Select the Web site you just created. Click OK.

10. Click Apply to create the Report Manager virtual directory.

11. Verify that you can access the report server by testing the URL. To do this, type the URL in a browser window. If you get HTTP 401 errors, review the Microsoft Knowledge Base articles noted at the beginning of this topic.

    A fully qualified report server URL includes the prefix, server name, and virtual directory:

    If you assigned a host header to the custom Web site, use the following syntax: http://<hostheader>/reportserver.

    If you assigned an IP address to the custom Web site, make sure the IP address resolves to a host name, and then use the following syntax: http://<IP address>/reportserver.

    If you assigned a unique port number to the custom site, append the port number to the Web server name: http://<servername>:<portnumber>/reportserver.

12. (Optional for some Web site configurations). Edit the RSWebApplication.config file to update the report server URL that Report Manager uses to connect to the report server.

    You can omit these steps if the custom Web site is mapped to a specific IP address, and the host name resolves to the IP address. You can also omit this step if the Web site uses SSL and port 443, and you selected the SSL option when creating the report server virtual directory.

    You must perform these steps if the custom site uses host headers or a custom port number:

    1. Open the RSWebApplication.config file.
    2. Delete the entry in ReportServerVirtualDirectory. Remove just the value; do not delete the tags.
    3. In ReportServerUrl, type a fully qualified name to the report server instance. It should be the same value that you use previously to confirm the report server URL.

    The settings should look similar to the following example:

    <ReportServerUrl>http://myhostheader/reportserver</ReportServerUrl>
    <ReportServerVirtualDirectory></ReportServerVirtualDirectory>
    

    If you are configuring multiple report server instances, repeat this step for each instance. For more information about this configuration file, see RSWebApplication Configuration File in SQL Server Books Online.

13. Verify that you can access Report Manager by testing the URL. For example, if the report server URL is http://<hostheader>/reportserver, the Report Manager URL is most likely http://<hostheader>/reports.

    If you get the error "The request failed with HTTP status 400: Bad Request", the URL that you specified in RSWebApplication.config is not valid.

14. If you are using report server e-mail delivery, edit the RSReportServer.config file and specify the UrlRoot configuration setting. The value should be the fully qualified report server URL. It should be the same value that you used previously step to confirm the report server URL. For more information about this configuration file, see RSReportServer Configuration File in SQL Server Books Online.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Start Reporting Services Configuration

Concepts

Configuring Report Server Virtual Directories
Creating a Report Server Database
Reporting Services Configuration How-to Topics

Other Resources

Installing Multiple Instances of Reporting Services

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance