Chris Testa-O’Neill
EMC Consulting
Who am I
 Chris Testa-O’Neill
 Practise Consultant at EMC Consulting
 Technical Author for Microsoft E-Learning
 Author of the SQL Server 2008 E-Learning track
 SQLBits Organiser
 www.SQLBits.com
 Manchester SQL Server User Group Organiser

www.sqlserverfaq.com
Europe’s Premier
Community
SQL Server Conference
Agenda
 Parameters and Filters
 Caching
 Snapshots
 History
 Subscriptions
 Q and A (if time permits)
Parameters and Filter
 From a users perspective, parameters and filters look
the same
 Parameters restricts the data at the source
 Filters returns all of the data and filters in place
 Parameters and filters affected by caching and
snapshot settings
Caching
 Caching is not enable by default
 Can be used to improve the performance of retrieving
reports by storing a copy in the ReportServerTempDB
 Configured to set an expiry time for the cache
 Consider “pre heating” the oven using data driven
subscriptions
Execution process for cached instances
1.
Retrieves most up-to-date data and processes report
2.
Creates intermediate report and stores intermediate result in the cache in
ReportServerTempDB
3.
Flags intermediate report as a cached instance
4.
Renders report from cached instance
5.
Later requests for the same report are retrieved from the cached copy
Other Report
Request
First Report
Request
Published
Report
Report Server
Intermediate
Report
Cache
Rendered
Report
Snapshots
 Snapshot are created in advance of the user browsing
 Stored in the ReportServerDB and are persistent
 Can be used to create historical data
• Execution process for snapshots

Creation of snapshot is scheduled for a specific point in time

The intermediate report is created and the result is stored as a
snapshot in the report server database

Requests are satisfied by retrieving and rendering the snapshot
Report Request
Snapshot Creation
Published
Report
Report Server
Intermediate
Report
Snapshot Cache
Rendered
Report
Demonstration
Creating Parameters and Filters
Creating Cache settings
Creating Report snapshots
I need a report from.....yesterday
 Historical data provides a point in time copy of reports
 Impact on parameters and filters
 Control the number of reports stored
 BE AWARE – Reducing the number of reports stored
will truncate the reports
Demonstration
Creating Historical Reports
Subscriptions
 Standard Subscriptions
 User and Administrator driven
 Data Driven Subscription
 Administrator driven
 Requires the creation of a subscriber table
 Can be used to pre populate a cache
Demonstration
Creating User Subscriptions
Creating Data Driven Subscriptions
Available courses
 Microsoft Official Curriculum courses
 SQL Server 2005

2793 – Implementing and Maintaining SQL Server Reporting Server
2005
 SQL Server 2008
 6236 - Implementing and Maintaining SQL Server Reporting Server
2008
 Microsoft Elearning
 Collection 6322: Implementing and Maintaining Business
Intelligence in SQL 2008: Integration Services, Reporting
Services and Analysis Services (available late 2009)
Thank you