RSS Reporter for SQL Server
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is RSS Reporter?
RSS Reporter is an RSS feed generator for SQL Server. It provides a
web interface for feed configuration and management. It can
generate feeds for SQL Server job execution status, feeds
containing the output of ad-hoc queries and feeds reporting
database size and space usage. Feeds can be consumed in any RSS
Reader.
- What does RSS Reporter require to install?
You can install and run RSS Reporter on any machine that has IIS
5.0 or higher and .NET framework 2.0.
- I successfully installed the RSS Reporter, but, when I open
it, I get the error message: "An error occurred during the
processing of a configuration file required to service this
request. Please review the specific error details below and modify
your configuration file appropriately".
This error occurs when the RSS Reporter virtual directory has not
been configured to use ASP.NET 2.0. To correct it, open the
property page of the RSS Reporter virtual directory (usually
RssReporter under the default website) and, in the ASP.NET tab,
select ASP.NET 2.0 from the "ASP.NET version" drop-down list.
- Since RSS Reporter for SQL Server requires .NET 2.0 can I
run it on a machine where websites built on .NET 1.0/1.1 are also
running?
Yes. You can run .NET 1.0/1.1/2.0 applications/websites side by
side on both IIS6 and IIS5. Please exercise caution and refer to
Microsoft documentation on this topic.
- I am creating a new user, I entered all the required
information, but when I click on the "Add and Continue" button I
get the error: "Failed to save the user information due to
insufficient permissions. Write access to the path
C:\inetpub\wwwroot\RssReporter\App_Data is denied".
RSS Reporter saves the user and profile information in the App_Data
subfolder located under the main installation folder. You should
assign write NTFS permission to IIS worker process account on this
subfolder. If RSS Reporter has been installed on Windows XP or
Windows 2000, assign write permission to machinename\ASPNET
account, (where machine name is the computer on which RSS Reporter
is installed); if you are using Windows Server 2003, assign write
permission to the NETWORK SERVICE account.
- When I open the RSS Reporter I get "Page not
Found".
Assuming that you did not change the website or virtual directory
during the installation you should be able to access RSS Reporter
at http://machinename/RssReporter; otherwise the url should be
adjusted accordingly. If youre still getting "Page not Found",
check the ASP.NET extension on the IIS manager snap-in and ensure
that it is allowed.
- I can only add one SQL Server in my profile.
RSS Reporter is provided free for one SQL Server instance. To
manage additional SQL Servers you need to purchase a license.
- I have defined a SQL Server expression filter in the "Job
Preferences" page, but I see no jobs in the RSS feed.
"SQL Server expression" is a filter that behaves like the where
clause in a SQL Server select statement. RSS Reporter exposes the
field job_name that you can write your criteria against. You can
specify, for example:
job_name like 'backup%' and right(job_name, 3) <>
'tmp'
This criteria selects only SQL Server jobs the name of which starts
with the word "backup" and do not end with the "tmp".
- I created an ad-hoc query, but some of the fields do not
appear in the feed.
RSS Reporter excludes from the ad-hoc query feed all the fields of
data type binary, varbinary, text, ntext, image, timestamp and
xml.
- How can I use more than one field as the title of the feed
item in the ad-hoc query page?
You can define a combined field in your query and use that field as
the item title.
- Database Info feed does not appear properly formatted in
some rss reader.
Database Info feed displays the database space used vs. space
available graphically using a proportional bar. This graphic is not
rendered properly in some RSS readers. You can switch to simple
text feed by changing the ChartedDatabaseInfoFeed parameter
to false in the Web.Config file.
- I can sort or filter the feeds in Microsoft IE 7, but not in
some other RSS readers.
RSS Reporter feeds implement Microsoft Simple List Extensions,
which provides sorting and filtering functionally. Other RSS
readers may not support this extension and consequently the sorting
and filtering may not be available.