What's the process for SSRS migration/upgrade from 2017 instance to 2019?

  • I'm having trouble finding info on migration/upgrade from 2017 instance to 2019. The things I'm finding don't indicate that an actual upgrade of the db is part of the process. Does SSRS upgrade the db when the service starts?

    I guess I could just try it and see what happens.

    Any thoughts on this?

  • I think that depends on what you consider an upgrade.  The schema in the database may or may not be upgraded - that is going to depend on the changes in 2019 vs 2017 for SSRS.

    The database cannot be upgraded to SQL Server 2019 unless the database engine is also upgraded.

    If both the database engine and reporting services are hosted on the same system, then upgrade both at the same time would upgrade both to 2019.  If the database engine is not hosted on the same server, then only internal schema changes will be made to the reporting services databases.

    Jeffrey Williams
    “We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”

    ― Charles R. Swindoll

    How to post questions to get better answers faster
    Managing Transaction Logs

  • Ok yeah I guess I'm not talking about upgrading SSRS I'm talking about moving the SSRS databases, reports, subscriptions, etc.... to a new server which is a higher version. So migration to a higher version is what I mean. SSRS has already been installed on the new server.

    Source is SQL 2017 running SSRS build 14.0.600.1109

    Destination is SQL 2019 CU16 instance with SSRS build 15.0.1102.911

    Both servers are running SQL and SSRS.

    I'm just trying to find the procedure to do the migration. I see there is a migration tool from MS but it's a decade old.

  • Ok so I've confirmed now the process of upgrading a ReportServer database to a new version of SSRS is handled by the SSRS service.

    I backed up a 2017 set of SSRS databases and restored them on a new 2019 server with the latest version of SSRS installed. Restored the key backup from the old server and started the SSRS service. Took a moment before it was up and running.

    I stopped it and ran a SQL compare between the 2017 and 2019 databases. There were 23 updated and 30 new objects and one removed. It was mostly stored procedures but also a handful of tables that were new or updated.

    It also created all the jobs and I was able to run reports. Pretty simple process actually.

    The process I linked above is valid and work well.

  • Good to know - thank you for the feedback.

    Jeffrey Williams
    “We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”

    ― Charles R. Swindoll

    How to post questions to get better answers faster
    Managing Transaction Logs

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