Category Archives: SQL Server

Microsoft SQL Server issues and processes

Adding SSRS Reporting Services to an existing SQL 2008 Instance

Trying to add Reporting Services to an existing database instance and when I select the instance in the SQL installer Reporting Services is not an option.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6987741/cannot-add-reporting-services-to-an-existing-instance-of-sql-express-2008

3 Years ago this question was raised and there is still no answer. Why? Because there is a trick to all of this.

So what is the issue that prevents an instance of SQL Server Express 2008 from having Reporting Services added as a feature?

Simple. The installed instance is not the same version as the installing version being used to add the feature.

Using, for example as I was, a server with multiple instances, SQL Express 2008 R2 Advanced, the Reporting Services feature was not available for the instance that I wanted to add it to.

Installing a new instance worked fine as I tested this to make sure. This meant that it was not a service prerequisite that was missing.

Using http://stackoverflow.com/questions/141154/how-can-i-determine-installed-sql-server-instances-and-their-versions to get the following query:

[text]

<code>SELECT SERVERPROPERTY(‘productversion’), SERVERPROPERTY (‘productlevel’), SERVERPROPERTY (‘edition’)</code>

[/text]

Check each instance for its version. In my case I got

Original instance that will not accept Reporting Services showed as 10.50.4000.0 SP2 Express Edition (64-bit)

and

The newly installed instance with SSRS showed as 10.50.1600.1 RTM Express Edition with Advanced Services (64-bit)

Checking at http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2013/01/18/sql-server-a-list-of-various-sql-server-rtm-and-service-pack-number/ for the list of SQL editions I get:

SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2 10.00.4000.00

and

SQL Server 2008 R2 RTM 10.50.1600.1

Ok, so what to do about it?

Upgrading a single instance of SQL does not appear to be an option, at least I could not find a way to do so, when the server already had other instances with the later version.

In any case, the outcome was to install a fresh instance for the application with Reporting Services.