Extra blank page when Save to PDF from SQL Reporting Service

When you save a report as PDF from Sql Reporting Services, you might see an extra blank page in between the pages in the report. This is due to the actual print out size exceed the page size that is specified.

For example, you specify your report size to be width (11 in) x height (8.5 in) which is a A4 size. However in the body of the report, you might have specify (intentionally or unintentionally) the size to be larger than that. When you save the report to PDF, you will see a blank page because the report size actually run over the page size.

To solve this problem, make sure you check the Size and Margin property of both the Report and Body (you can access this from the properties window).

DataBoy v1.0.6.2 is Out!

DataBoy v1.0.6.2 is released!

New features include:

• Ctrl + Shift + (Left/Right cursor) short cut key to switch between Result and Message tab.
  
• Connection time out setting for SQL Server connection.
  
• Open and Save connection as Connection Group to a file.
  
• Remember last session.
  
• Option to persist login info. Select Persist Login Info if you want database user name and password to be saved with the connection when you save a connection group.
  
• Table column ordering in the data explorer panel tree view is now according to the sequence in the meta data.
  

You can download Databoy from Codeplex : Databoy

Licensing Requirement to Install Reporting Service on separate server

I was asked if the SQL Server Reporting Service is installed in a separate server from where the SQL Server database engine is installed, does it need another SQL Server license?

Although I am not a licensing expert (and not many people seem to be able to understand Microsoft Licensing scheme), but I can confidently say Yes to the question above.

The answer lies in the following document:

Licensing Doc

In the above scenario, you need two SQL Server license.

I hope Microsoft can be more open and clear in communicating licensing issue and requirement in the future. It will be good if they can include some of the common deployment scenario for their software together with the licensing requirement in Technet.

Installing SQL Server 2005 and Reporting Service on Windows Server 2008

Some helpful link to install SQL Server 2005 and Reporting Service (especially) on Windows Server 2008

You receive a warning message on the System Configuration Check page of the SQL Server 2005 Setup program on a computer that is running Windows Vista or a Server Core installation of Windows Server 2008

How to install and how to configure SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008

How to install SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on a Windows Vista-based computer