SQL Server Mobile Report Publisher does not have an intuitive way for moving a mobile report across servers, and I wasn’t able to find any documentation about this online. So how do you go about doing this? I came across a couple of options while testing different approaches, which are described below. If you have found a different approach, feel free to add it in the comments below!
Important note before proceeding: Both of these options require that you have deployed the dataset(s) that your mobile report is using on to the target server, otherwise the report will not render.
Option 1 – Deploy through Mobile Report Publisher
This seemed like the most logical approach, as my idea was to open the report, do a “Save mobile report as…”, and point it to the new server. As it turns out, when you open a report that is leveraging a dataset from a report server, it won’t let you pick any other server from the dropdown:
In order to work around this, you will need to:
- Create a new server connection to the target server you want to deploy the report.
- Delete the existing connection that the report is connected to.
The first server here is my source (existing) server. The second server is the target server where I want to deploy my report to.
Click OK when prompted to remove the existing connection.
Once these steps are done, you can do “Save mobile report as…” and you will now see the target server (as well any other server connections) in the drop down list:
Click Save and click OK on the message saying that the report requires a connection to the existing server.
You will get a warning saying that a connection to the Dev (source) server is required. This is not entirely true, as it will look for the dataset in the new server.
Navigate to the new report server and check that the report was published. Although you got a warning when saving the report saying that it required a connection to the dev server, this new report is now leveraging the dataset(s) that are deployed on the new server.
One way to test this, is to rename/delete the dataset from the server and try running the report. You will get an error like the one below when trying to render it:
Option 2 – Deploy through Report Server
This option is a bit more straightforward and does not involve the Mobile Report Publisher application.
- Download the Mobile Report from the source server to your local machine.
- Connect to the target server and select Upload.
- Choose the mobile report (.rsmobile) file from your machine and click OK.
The report will be added to the new server and will look for the same datasets that existed in the source server.
Power BI reports in SQL Server Reporting Services can you please share your experience