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Guidelines and Limitations for Windows Azure SQL Reporting
This topic lists guidelines and limitations that are important to consider when using Microsoft Windows Azure SQL Reporting.
Known Issues
For an up-to-date list of known issues for the latest release of Windows Azure SQL Reporting, see Known Issues (Windows Azure SQL Reporting).
In This Article
Security
Consider the following guidelines and limitations when managing the security of your SQL Reporting report servers, reports, and report-related items:
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To develop applications that include an embedded report control, use best practices to secure your connection string. For more information, see Getting Started with SQL Reporting for Application Developers.
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To grant access to reports, you must provide report readers with a URL, user name, and password. You can create user accounts in the management portal and assign roles to them that grant appropriate permissions and then provide report readers with those user names and passwords. For more information, see How to: Manage Users (Windows Azure SQL Reporting).
For more information about when to use which credentials, see Credential Summary. -
Reports can only use data from SQL Database databases. Only SQL Database user name and password authentication is supported. The recommended way to provide access to shared data sources is to create and deploy shared data sources for reports to a folder on the report server, and to store credentials for each shared data source on the report server.
When you create reports, use the Microsoft SQL Azure connection type in report data sources. For more information, see Data Connections, Data Sources, and Connection Strings (SSRS). -
By default, report items inherit security based on report folder permissions. The folder that you deploy report items to matters. If you assign specific permissions to a folder, you break the inheritance for permissions in the folder hierarchy. This behavior is the same in SQL Reporting as in on-premise Reporting Services report servers. For more information, see Granting Permissions on a Native Mode Report Server.
For more information about SQL Database security, see Security Guidelines and Limitations (SQL Database).
High-Level Comparison of Reporting Services Features and Windows Azure SQL Reporting Features
Use the following table to compare features between SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) configured in native mode and SQL Reporting. SSRS SharePoint-integrated mode is not supported in SQL Reporting.
| Feature | Windows Azure SQL Reporting | SQL Server Reporting Services |
|---|---|---|
|
Design tools |
Report Designer in SQL Server Data Tools Report Builder 3.0 |
Report Designer in SQL Server Data Tools Report Builder 3.0 |
|
Data Sources |
Windows Azure SQL Database |
Built-in or customizable data sources. For more information, see Data Connections, Data Sources, and Connection Strings (SSRS). |
|
Report Management and Delivery |
Windows Azure Management Portal Includes displaying reports and rendering reports to multiple formats Reports can be viewed in browsers, Report Viewer Windows Forms and ASP.NET applications. |
Use Report Manager for native mode or SharePoint application pages for SharePoint integrated mode Includes displaying reports, rendering reports to multiple formats, creating subscriptions and scheduled deliveries, managing cached reports and shared datasets Reports can be viewed in browsers, Report Viewer Windows Forms and ASP.NET applications, and in SharePoint web parts. |
|
Extensibility |
No extensions are supported in this release. |
Custom extensions for data, processing, rendering, delivery, and security |
|
Security Model |
Windows Azure SQL Database username and password authentication Permissions to reports and report-related items are controlled by role assignment. |
Windows authentication and other authentications are supported. Permissions to reports and report-related items are controlled by role assignment. |
Reporting Services Features Not Available in SQL Reporting
The following features are not available in this version of SQL Reporting.
| Unsupported Features | Description |
|---|---|
|
Subscription and scheduling functions |
Creating subscriptions or schedule report snapshots or histories is not supported. |
|
Semantic Model Definition Language (SMDL) Models |
Creating SMDL report models is not supported. |
|
Client report authoring environments. |
Creating reports from Report Builder 1.0 or 2.0 is not supported. You can create reports using Report Builder 3.0 and then upload the reports. You can also create and deploy multiple reports using Report Designer in SQL Server Data Tools. For more information, see Install SQL Server Data Tools to create reports on Windows Azure and How to: Deploy a Report Project (Windows Azure SQL Reporting) |
|
Report Manager |
Report Manager is not available. However, the management portal provides similar functionality Use the management portal to provision report servers. Use URL access syntax, or navigate to the report server from management portal, and click the report. For more information, see Windows Azure SQL Reporting Portal, Getting Started Guide for Report Readers (Windows Azure SQL Reporting), and Getting Started with Windows Azure SQL Reporting.
|
|
Deployment limitations |
Deploying the following items to a SQL Reporting report server is not supported:
|
|
Data sources |
Use only the Microsoft SQL Azure data source type. Other data source types are not supported. |
|
Data source credentials |
Use only SQL Server Authentication. Windows Authentication is not supported. |
|
Programmatic access |
The following programmatic access to a report server is not supported:
|
|
Configuration |
Reporting Services Configuration manager is not available. SharePoint integrated mode is not supported. A SQL Reporting service instance is based on native mode Reporting Services. |
|
Images |
Report item images where the image source is a link to an external image is not supported. Images stored in databases have a maximum size of 1 MB. |
Tool Compatibility
When you are working with SQL Reporting, there are several sets of tools that you will use to perform various tasks. Use the information in the following table to help understand which versions of tools you need to perform which tasks.
| Task | Tool and Version | Description and Links | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Author reports |
Report Builder 3.0 Report Designer in SQL Server Data Tools, SQL Server 2008 R2 and later. |
Use either Report Builder or Report Designer in SQL Server Data Tools to author report definitions (.rdl). SQL Server Data Tools can be installed from SQL Server installation media or SQL Server Express Edition with Advanced Services. For more information, see Download Report Builder or Install SQL Server Data Tools to create reports on Windows Azure. |
||
|
Design dataset queries |
Use query designers in Report Designer. |
Use the query designer associated with data source type Microsoft SQL Azure. |
||
|
SQL Server Management Studio |
Use Management Studio SQL Server 2008 R2 or later to connect to a SQL Database database to develop queries. Paste the query into the dataset query pane in your report. |
|||
|
Develop on-premise or Windows Azure Windows Forms or ASP.NET AJAX applications with embedded reporting |
Visual Studio 2010 or Visual Studio 2012
|
For applications that embed report controls, use Visual Studio and Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio. |
||
|
Manage report servers |
Windows Azure management portal page |
Use the management portal page to provision and manage SQL Database, and to provision your report server. You cannot use SQL Server Management Studio to connect to a SQL Reporting instance. |
||
|
Manage report server content |
Applications that interact with the report server Web service |
Programmatically interact with the report server content by calling SOAP methods on report server Web service endpoints. For more information, review Unsupported APIs, and then see ReportService2005 Namespace, ReportService2010 Namespace, and SQL Azure Reporting Samples. |
||
|
View reports |
Browser |
Navigate to the report by using the report server URL or by using URL access syntax. For more information, see Getting Started Guide for Report Readers (Windows Azure SQL Reporting). |
Note Unsupported APIs
The following APIs are not supported in this release.
| Item | List |
|---|---|
|
ReportService2010 Classes |
CacheRefreshPlan, CacheRefreshPlanState, DataRetrievalPlan NoSchedule, Schedule, ScheduleDefinition, ScheduleDefinitionOrReference, ScheduleExpiration, ScheduleReference Subscription ModelCatalogItem, ModelDrillthroughReport, ModelItem, ModelPerspective |
|
ReportService2010 Methods |
CreateReportEditSession, FireEvent, GetReportServerConfigInfo, GenerateModel GetExecutionOptions, UpdateItemExecutionSnapshot, SetItemHistoryOptions CreateCacheRefreshPlan, CreateSchedule CreateDataDrivenSubscription, CreateSubscription |
|
ReportService2005 Classes |
DailyRecurrence, WeeklyRecurrence, MonthlyRecurrence MonthsOfYearSelector, DataRetrievalPlan ModelCatalogItem, ModelDrillthroughReport, ModelItem, ModelPerspective MonthlyDOWRecurrence, Subscription Schedule, ScheduleDefinition, ScheduleDefinitionOrReference, ScheduleExpiration, ScheduleReference |
|
ReportService2005 Enumerations |
ScheduleStateEnum |
|
ReportService2005 Methods |
CreateSchedule, DeleteSchedule, GetScheduleProperties, ListScheduledReports, ListSchedules, PauseSchedule, ResumeSchedule, SetScheduleProperties CreateSubscription, DeleteSubscription, GetSubscriptionProperties, ListSubscriptions, ListSubscriptionsUsingDataSource, SetSubscriptionProperties, CreateDataDrivenSubscription, GetDataDrivenSubscriptionProperties, SetDataDrivenSubscriptionProperties ListSecureMethods CreateModel, GenerateModel, GetModelDefinition, GetModelItemPermissions, GetModelItemPolicies, GetUserModel, InheritModelItemParentSecurity, ListModelDrillthroughReports, ListModelItemChildren, ListModelPerspectives, SetModelDefinition, SetModelDrillthroughReports, SetModelItemPolicies, RemoveAllModelItemPolicies, RegenerateModel |
For more information, see ReportService2005 Namespace and ReportService2010 Namespace.
For More Information
To find more information, provide feedback, or find peer-to-peer support, see Useful Links for SQL Azure Reporting.
See Also
