Same encryption key across multiple instances of SSRS

Question

Same encryption key across multiple instances of SSRS

wannabe1

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Points: 1960
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December 30, 2014 at 12:13 pm

#397818

Gurus please let me know if there is a way to use the same encryption key across multiple instances of SSRS?
I also want to know how the encryption key is generated, what algorithm and/or factors that influence the key and a way to manipulate it.
Thanks in advance

Viewing 5 posts - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

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Lowell SSC Guru Points: 323504 More actions · Answer 1

only if you are creating new instances; i think you'll have issues if you import an existing key over an pre-existing SSRS isntallation.

if you have, say five SSRS instances, and they are all already set up, then you need to save five separate encryption keys for disaster recovery.

if they were all new, or you were going to scrub and re-deploy, you'd create once instance,export out the key, and then import it into the other instances as you set them up.

Lowell

--help us help you! If you post a question, make sure you include a CREATE TABLE... statement and INSERT INTO... statement into that table to give the volunteers here representative data. with your description of the problem, we can provide a tested, verifiable solution to your question! asking the question the right way gets you a tested answer the fastest way possible!

wannabe1 SSCommitted Points: 1960 More actions · Answer 2

Thanks for the response.

how or when do you specify the encryption key to be used if I start from scratch?

Lowell SSC Guru Points: 323504 More actions · Answer 3

here's how i wold do it:

for an instance that i'm resetting or just deploying:

1. in the [source] Reporting Services Configuration Manager, export the encryption key from an instance i want to use as the source of truth for the one-key-to-rule-them-all

2. Find the OTHER SSRS Instance i want to fiddle with , and open the [target] Reporting Services Configuration Manager

3. Export out all the objects and reports from the database just in case, but you probably have all the projects with teh reports ready to be deployed anyway, right?

4. in [target] Reporting Services Configuration Manager,delete the ReportServer and ReportserverTemp databases they used to use.

5. in [target] Reporting Services Configuration Manager,import the encryption key i want to use

6. in [target] Reporting Services Configuration Manager, create the reporting services databases again.

7. deploy reports to the instance again.

hopefully someone with more experience will tell us whether this is a waste of time, repetitively redundant, or other faults int eh logic.

Lowell

--help us help you! If you post a question, make sure you include a CREATE TABLE... statement and INSERT INTO... statement into that table to give the volunteers here representative data. with your description of the problem, we can provide a tested, verifiable solution to your question! asking the question the right way gets you a tested answer the fastest way possible!

wannabe1 SSCommitted Points: 1960 More actions · Answer 4

Thanks for the info.

I will play around in the test environment and will let you know.