This is the slidedeck of the presentation delivered to the Belgian SQL user group at 29th January of 2013. It's about automating SSRS deployments using MSBUILD.

1. LEVERAGING MSBUILD TO
AUTOMATE SSRS DEPLOYMENTS
KOEN VERBEECK
1

2. WHO AM I?
2

3. OUTLINE
 INTRODUCTION
 WHAT IS MSBUILD?
 AUTOMATE YOUR DEPLOYMENT
 TIPS&TRICKS
 CONCLUSION
3

4. INTRODUCTION
 SSIS & SSAS both have (somewhat) easy methods to automate
deployments
- DTUTIL
- XMLA
 ... but what about SSRS?
- Visual Studio (not automated)
- RS.exe with VBScripts
 hard to generate yourself and no built-in tool
 RSScripter fills this gap
- but has some shortcomings
- MSBuild (open source)
 has a learning curve
4

5. OUTLINE
 INTRODUCTION
 WHAT IS MSBUILD?
 AUTOMATE YOUR DEPLOYMENT
 TIPS&TRICKS
 CONCLUSION
5

6. WHAT IS MSBUILD?
 platform for building applications
- typically used in conjunction with Visual Studio
- project file (XML) controls how MSBuild processes and builds software
 ItemGroup
- input of the build process
- typically refers to source files
 Task
- unit of executable code used to perform build operations
 Target
- groups tasks together
 Properties
- key/value pairs configuring the build
6

7. WHAT IS MSBUILD?
 requires
- .NET framework
- Visual Studio is not required to run MSBuild
 sample (source: Walkthrough: Creating an MSBuild Project File from Scratch)
7

8. WHAT IS MSBUILD?
 how do we use this to deploy our SSRS projects?
- SQL Server Reporting Services MSBuild Tasks
 C# open source project on Codeplex by Steven Wright (blog | twitter)
 tasks specify how SSRS objects are deployed to a server
- uses the SSRS webservice in the background
- tasks are available for
 SSRS 2008 - Native mode
 SSRS 2008 - Integrated mode
 SSRS 2008R2
8

9. OUTLINE
 INTRODUCTION
 WHAT IS MSBUILD?
 AUTOMATE YOUR DEPLOYMENT
 TIPS&TRICKS
 CONCLUSION
9

10. AUTOMATE YOUR DEPLOYMENT
 solution consists of the following objects
- folder with objects to be deployed
 reports & shared data sets
- bin folder with ssrsmsbuildtasks.dll
 contains actual code
- ssrsmsbuildtasks.R2.tasks in home folder
 maps tasks to the assembly containing the task implementation
- MSBuild project file
 specifies what to deploy and in what order
- batch file to start the build process
 schedule this to automate your deployment
10

11. AUTOMATE YOUR DEPLOYMENT
 ssrsmsbuildtasks.R2.tasks
11

12. AUTOMATE YOUR DEPLOYMENT
 breakdown of the MSBuild project file
- project element (required) (line 1)
specifies optional targets
imports build tasks
- import element (line 3)
 imports content from one project file into another
 in this solution, tasks are defined in assembly, not in project file itself
12

13. AUTOMATE YOUR DEPLOYMENT
 PropertyGroups
- ReportServer: defines URL and folders (lines 6-12)
- Target Dependencies (lines 60-71)
other targets
13

14. AUTOMATE YOUR DEPLOYMENT
 ItemGroups
- Reports and DataSets (lines 15-38)
set properties wildcard
object path
14

15. AUTOMATE YOUR DEPLOYMENT
 ItemGroups
- Data Sources (lines 41-58)
 needs to be fully specified in project file (no object to import)
name of the data source
SQL Server
SSAS
15

16. AUTOMATE YOUR DEPLOYMENT
 Targets/Tasks (lines 76-112)
- GetFullServerURL: uses GetFullURL to find the URL of the webservice
- DeleteFolders: uses ReportfolderExists & DeleteReportfolder
- CreateReportingFolders: uses CreateReportFolder
16

17. AUTOMATE YOUR DEPLOYMENT
 Targets/Tasks
- CreateConnectionSources: uses CreateReportingDataSource to create
shared data sets
- CreateShareDataSet: uses AddShareDataSets to deploy shared data sets
- DeployReports: uses AddReports
17

18. AUTOMATE YOUR DEPLOYMENT
 Targets/Tasks
- SetReportDataSet: uses SetReportDataSet to link reports with shared data
sets
- SetReportsDataSource: uses SetReportDataSource to link reports with
shared data sources
18

19. OUTLINE
 INTRODUCTION
 WHAT IS MSBUILD?
 AUTOMATE YOUR DEPLOYMENT
 TIPS&TRICKS
 CONCLUSION
19

20. TIPS&TRICKS
 possible to exclude items
 specify aliases for datasets
- not possible for data sources
20

21. TIPS&TRICKS
 specify folder properties
 specify authentication
 single report deployment?
- every data source and dataset has to be redeployed!
21

22. TIPS&TRICKS
 other objects can be deployed as well
- subscriptions
 data and e-mail/file
- schedules
 out of scope for this session
 check out the sample from codeplex
22

23. OUTLINE
 INTRODUCTION
 WHAT IS MSBUILD?
 AUTOMATE YOUR DEPLOYMENT
 TIPS&TRICKS
 CONCLUSION
23

24. CONCLUSION
 MSBuild uses open source SSRSMSBuildTasks
- download from Codeplex
 can deploy all SSRS 2008R2 objects
 allows for automatic deployment
 has a learning curve
 has some disadvantages
- difficult iterative deployments
- lots of unnecessary warnings
- hard to debug
24

25. RESOURCES
 MSBuild
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/dd393574.aspx
 Walkthrough: Creating an MSBuild Project File from Scratch
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/dd576348.aspx
 MSBuild Command-Line Reference
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/ms164311.aspx
 SQL Server Reporting Services MSBuild Tasks
http://ssrsmsbuildtasks.codeplex.com/
 Jamie Thomson - Deploying Reporting Services reports using msbuild
http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jamie_thomson/archive/2009/10/31/deploying-reporting-services-
reports-using-msbuild.aspx
25

26. Q&A
26

27. THANK YOU
koen.verbeeck@ordina.be
@Ko_Ver
http://www.linkedin.com/in/kverbeeck
Blog @ LessThanDot
27