Overview of SQL Server Reporting Services 2012 Architecture, Features, and Tools - Learning SQL Server Reporting Services 2012 - page 124

• SharePoint Services 2010
• Creating a Reporting Services service in SharePoint
Each of the mentioned elements has its own individual architecture, topology of
deployment, and features. It is important to see how users interact with them in
doing the tasks assigned to them while working with Reporting Services as a whole.
In order to interact with, author reports and manage them, tools are available and a
good understanding of the tools and what support they provide is crucial in carrying
out the tasks. The individual elements as well as the tools used in carrying out
various tasks are described in the rest of the chapter.
Structural design of SQL servers and
SharePoint environment
Depending on the business and the resources available, the various servers may be
located in distributed locations and the Web applications may also be run from Web
servers in a farm and the same can be true for SharePoint servers. In this topic, by
the word architecture we mean the way by which the preceding elements are put
together to work on a single computer. However, it is important to know that this
is just one topology (an arrangement of constituent elements) and in general it can
be lot more complicated spanning networks and reaching across boundaries.
The Report Server is the centerpiece of the Reporting Services installation. This
installation can be deployed in two modes, namely, Native mode or SharePoint
Integrated mode. Each mode has a separate engine and an extensible architecture.
It consists of a collection of special-purpose extensions that handle authentication,
data processing, rendering, and delivery operations. Once deployed in one mode
it cannot be changed to the other. It is possible to have two servers each installed
in a different mode.
In Chapter 1 , Overview and Installation - SQL Server Reporting Services 2012 , we have
installed all the necessary elements to explore the RS 2012 features, including Power
View and Data Alerts. The next diagram briefly shows the structural design of the
environment used in working with the topic: