Dec 19, 2011

Setting up Anonymous Access for Reporting Services in SQL Server 2008 R2.

DISCLAIMER: ANONYMOUS ACCESS IS NOT RECOMMENDED as it may give direct access to your report server or report objects to any one who knows the URL of your reporting services. Additional security measurements are required while handling with anonymous access.
Microsoft has made some fundamental modifications with SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services security architecture. Reporting Services and Web Component now do not need IIS or Web Server as Reporting Services now run on it's own http.sys and serves the reports request from within http.sys.
The biggest challenge I faced while configuring Reporting Services was Anonymous Access as Anonymous Access is no more an option available to be configured easily. To enable Anonymous Access you need to configure config files and also compile dll to provide extension to Reporting Services to allow Anonymous access.
Here are the steps which can be performed to enable Anonymous Access in Reporting Services.

  • Change the authentication mode in rsreportserver.config to Custom
<Authentication>
<AuthenticationTypes>
<Custom/>
</AuthenticationTypes>
<EnableAuthPersistence>true</EnableAuthPersistence>
</Authentication>
  • Change the Authentication mode in web.config file in ReportServer to None. Also change the Impersonation to false.
<authentication mode="None" />
<identity impersonate="false"/>
  • Compile the code from this location to bin folder as Microsoft.Samples.ReportingServices.AnonymousSecurity.dll Or copy it from this location and paste it to bin folder in ReportServer.
  • Add Extensions in rsreportserver.config
    • Add the additional extension in Security Tag
<Security>
<Extension Name="None" Type="Microsoft.Samples.ReportingServices.AnonymousSecurity.Authorization, Microsoft.Samples.ReportingServices.AnonymousSecurity" />
</Security>
    • Add the additional extension in Authentication Tag
<Authentication>
<Extension Name="None" Type="Microsoft.Samples.ReportingServices.AnonymousSecurity.AuthenticationExtension, Microsoft.Samples.ReportingServices.AnonymousSecurity" />
</Authentication>
  • Add the following codegroup to configure the code access security in rssrvpolicy.config
<CodeGroup
class="UnionCodeGroup"
version="1"
PermissionSetName="FullTrust"
Name="Private_assembly"
Description="This code group grants custom code full trust. ">
<IMembershipCondition
class="UrlMembershipCondition"
version="1"
Url="C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSRS10.MSSQLSERVER\Reporting Services\ReportServer\bin\Microsoft.Samples.ReportingServices.AnonymousSecurity.dll"
/>
</CodeGroup>
Restart the reporting services, Anonymous Access should work.

Oct 21, 2011

Cannot print report from Microsoft Reporting Services 2000 report.

This is a security issue with Reporting Services 2000 SP2. To fix this issue apply the patch from KB Article KB954609 on Reporting Server..

Once this patch is installed, reboot is not required. Clients will get a request to install a component on their machines if they click on print (One time only). Once installed, it will allow to print reports.

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