SSRS EMERGENCY !!! - Restoring Encryption Key is taking forever

  • Hi all,

    Am desperate for a solution here.   Due to a problem, an IT vendor changed the service account for SSRS, and in doing so, invalidated the encryption key.   I have a backup, and so Friday morning, I used the SSRS configuration tool to try and restore the key that I backed up.

    It's been sitting there with an hourglass cursor ever since.   SSRS is effectively down as a result.   Anyone know how long this is supposed to take?   It's not as if I have some giant SSRS database.  I'm pretty sure there are no more than maybe 50 to 60 reports, and they ALL use just shared data sources.  I can't imagine that such a key restoration would take very long.   Does the SSRS service need to be down for this to occur?  Is there anything specific I'd want to look for in the log files?  Is there anything that could interfere with this process?   I have no idea what I should do at this point, never having been through this before.   I'll be happy to provide a phone number that someone can call if they think it would be the most expeditious way to provide sufficient detail in either direction.   Thanks in advance!

    Steve (aka sgmunson) 🙂 🙂 🙂
    Rent Servers for Income (picks and shovels strategy)

  • Well, ... the problem has been solved.   Apparently, if you don't reconfigure SSRS's service account using the Reporting Services Configuration Tool, SSRS never thinks that the account has changed.   The attempt to restore the encryption key was stopped, and appears not to have caused any harm.   When I then had the vendor re-apply the original service account, I was able to use the tool to re-enter the original account's password and apply it, which then forced a backup of the key.   However, that was insufficient to restore operation, as going to the SSRS web page gave a 503 error (Service Unavailable), even though the SSRS service was running.  I then chose to go ahead and restore the key from this new backup, and everything was fine.  And I didn't know it, but it appears that SSRS 2016 automatically re-runs missed subscriptions.

    Steve (aka sgmunson) 🙂 🙂 🙂
    Rent Servers for Income (picks and shovels strategy)

  • FYI, the final key restore was about 5 seconds in duration.  I'd still love to know why the initial attempt to restore the key just hung up and sat there all weekend.

    Steve (aka sgmunson) 🙂 🙂 🙂
    Rent Servers for Income (picks and shovels strategy)

Viewing 3 posts - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply