Anyone producing a large number of reports per day?

I'm evaluting Reporting Services for my client. They need to produce 5000+
reports per day, mainly output in PDF format. The PDF's are 6-8 pages long.
Does anyone have any experience of getting this kind of performance out of
SQL-RS?
They have an 8-processor 2.8Ghz server running SQL Server that will be the
Reporting Services server. It has 4gig of memory. Will it be up to the job?
Thanks,
Andy.I am able to render about 70reports (PDF format) in less than 10mins. Each
report has about 200 pages.
"Andy Smith" wrote:
> I'm evaluting Reporting Services for my client. They need to produce 5000+
> reports per day, mainly output in PDF format. The PDF's are 6-8 pages long.
> Does anyone have any experience of getting this kind of performance out of
> SQL-RS?
> They have an 8-processor 2.8Ghz server running SQL Server that will be the
> Reporting Services server. It has 4gig of memory. Will it be up to the job?
> Thanks,
> Andy.|||Don't forget to set boot.ini to use /3GB switch in order to take advantage
of the memory.
To verify RS can handle this load, consider using a test tool like
Application Center Test (ACT), part of Visual Studio, to run a Proof Of
Concept. Below is sample ACT script you might use to run such a test:
' --
CONSTANTS --
const ENABLE_DELAYS = True
const REQUESTBUFFERSIZE = 15000
const REPORTSERVERNAME = "localhost"
' --
' -- Think time variables - examples shows between 2-3 seconds
' --
const MIN_SLEEP_MSEC = 2000
const MAX_SLEEP_MSEC = 3000
' --
' -- Think time logic if desired
' --
Function RandomSleep()
if (NOT ENABLE_DELAYS) then
RandomSleep = 0
return
end if
Dim lMinSleep, lMaxSleep, lSleep
lMaxSleep = MAX_SLEEP_MSEC
lMinSleep = MIN_SLEEP_MSEC
' create a random int within our range
Call Randomize()
lSleep = Int((lMaxSleep - lMinSleep + 1) * Rnd(1) + lMinSleep)
' Test.Trace "Sleeping: " + Cstr(lSleep)
Call Test.Sleep(lSleep)
' return the delay time
RandomSleep = lSleep
End Function
Function SendGetRequest(reportServerUrl)
Dim oConnection, oRequest, oResponse, oHeaders, statusCode
Set oConnection = Test.CreateConnection(REPORTSERVERNAME, 80, false)
If (oConnection is Nothing) Then
Test.Trace "Error: Unable to create connection to server"
Else
' TODO: uncomment this after debugging
' Test.Trace(reportServerUrl)
Set oRequest = Test.CreateRequest
oRequest.ResponseBufferSize = REQUESTBUFFERSIZE
oRequest.Path = reportServerUrl
oRequest.Verb = "GET"
oRequest.HTTPVersion = "HTTP/1.1"
set oHeaders = oRequest.Headers
oHeaders.RemoveAll
oHeaders.Add "Accept", "image/gif, image/x-xbitmap, image/jpeg,
image/pjpeg, application/vnd.ms-excel, application/vnd.ms-powerpoint,
application/msword, */*"
oHeaders.Add "Accept-Language", "en-us"
oHeaders.Add "User-Agent", "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0;
Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.0.3512; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)"
oHeaders.Add "Host", "(automatic)"
oHeaders.Add "Cookie", "(automatic)"
Set oResponse = oConnection.Send(oRequest)
If (oResponse is Nothing) Then
Test.Trace "Error: Failed to receive response for URL to " +
reportServerUrl
Else
statusCode = oResponse.ResultCode
'DEBUG
Test.Trace "Received: " + CStr(statusCode) + " for: " + REPORTSERVERNAME
+ reportServerUrl
' delay in case of errors - to avoid the snowball effect
' Test.Trace "Response code of: " + CStr(statusCode) + "
recieved for " + reportServerUrl
if (statusCode = 503) Then
Test.Trace "Server too busy error: " + CStr(statusCode) + "
recieved for " + reportServerUrl + " - Process Put To Sleep"
End If
End If
oConnection.Close
End If
End Function
Sub Main()
Dim Url
'--
'-- URL of report to call for test. This one calls report named "Simple"
located in dir /Benchmark
'-- passing in a parm of &RowNumber '--
Url ="/ReportServer?/Benchmark/Simple&RowNumber=20&rs:Command=Render&rc:Toolbar=false&rs:Format=PDF"
SendGetRequest(Url)
RandomSleep()
End Sub
Main
--
-- "This posting is provided 'AS IS' with no warranties, and confers no
rights."
jhmiller@.online.microsoft.com
"Raj Chandra" <RajChandra@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:C23DE604-F4E0-4F3E-BD7B-1C4516C1987C@.microsoft.com...
>I am able to render about 70reports (PDF format) in less than 10mins. Each
> report has about 200 pages.
> "Andy Smith" wrote:
>> I'm evaluting Reporting Services for my client. They need to produce
>> 5000+
>> reports per day, mainly output in PDF format. The PDF's are 6-8 pages
>> long.
>> Does anyone have any experience of getting this kind of performance out
>> of
>> SQL-RS?
>> They have an 8-processor 2.8Ghz server running SQL Server that will be
>> the
>> Reporting Services server. It has 4gig of memory. Will it be up to the
>> job?
>> Thanks,
>> Andy.sql

Any backup vendor can provide?

Some of my customers ask for backup their databases, mainly MSSQL & MS Exchange.
I search for any of backup vendor; there are 2 choices, service provider and software publisher. Service provider eliminates my technical support on backing up my clients databases:cool: ; software publisher offer a chance for me to create new business line:rolleyes: .
What would your gurus prefer and why?
Any admirable company you can name?I back up MSSQL using MSSQL backup procedures.
MS Exchange is not a database server, so I don't know the best way to back it up.|||Thanks blindman.
How about the servers are Windows-based, some are Linux-based?|||As Blindman says, the easiest and best way to back up SQL databases is by using the built-in backup utilities that come with SQL Server.

Your server support team might want to include SQL Server boxes as part of their backup routine, in which case there are various applications that typically use an Agent to backup SQL Server databases either at a database or filesystem level, e.g. Veritas, Legato, Litespeed.

Bottom line; you as a DBA should be in charge of your database backups.

Lempster|||I have the same issue. However, FreeBSD adds to my heterogeneous environment.|||I was sourcing for such a solution earlier. I gathered info from other forums and identified some data backup solutions targeting ISPs and web hosting businesses like ours. Heres a list which Ive evaluated:

1. NovaNet (www.novastor.com)
2. Ahsay (www.ahsay.com)
3. Storgrid (www.vembu.com)
4. RBS (www.remote-backup.com)

Only Storegrid and Ahsay are multi-platform. I was lured into NovaNet with its attractive look. However, once I tested it on my server, I was disappointed with its instability. RBS is another piece of crappy software.

In the end I went with Ahsay and was pretty satisfied with it. Back up and restore worked as it says on the tin.