Trouble with MS SQL 2000 Reporting Services

[pgoudswa]

Need help or at least some guidance with MS SQL 2000 Reporting Services. There are 3 servers that are important in this configuration:

Server 1: Windows 2000 Server running IIS 5.0

Server 2: Windows 2000 Server running MS SQL Server 2000 Std, also primary DC

Server 3: Windows 2000 Server running Terminal Services, and MS Visual Web Developer Express 2005.

Because I work from home most of the time I figured that I'd install VWDE on the TS. I could not find out which of the machines I should install Reporting Services (RS) on, so I started by putting it on server #3, figuring I could work from home on the reporting stuff. The install failed, it said RS requires IIS 5.0, ASP.NET 1.1, and Visual Studio .NET 2003 and SQL server. It doesn't seem to recognize VWDE 2005 as an upgrade path to VS .NET 2003 (is it? I'm not sure).

So then I tried the install on the SQL Server (#2). The install gave me warnings about: no IIS 5.0, no ASP.NET 1.1, no Visual Studio .NET 2003. Then I clicked continue and it gave me an error code 1603 "SetDialogs".

At that point I gave up for the time being subject to more research. What I discovered was some info on the error 1603 here and here, but am I going down a path to failure anyway?

Rather than solve the technical problems with the install, I'm looking for guidance in terms of getting SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services to work when IIS 5.0, SQL Server 2000, and MS Visual Web Developer Express 2005 are all on different computers. I can't seem to find anything that tells me outright whether it is a valid setup or not. Also I don't know if RS will work with VWDE 2005 instead of VS .NET 2003? The goal is to get reporting set up for administrators and end users.

Failing this, I will be evaluating Crystal Reports and a few open-source reporting packages. Also should mention that what is not up for discussion at this point is upgrading the servers to more current versions.

Any help would be most appreciated.

[bobbba]

I don't know for sure but I suspect it is the VWDE 2005 instead of the Visual Studio .NET 2003 that it doesn't like. If you install that and ASP.NET 1.1 on server1 with it's database on server2 it should work.

[pgoudswa]

Thanks for your help bobbba, I discovered in the meantime that RS 2000 only plays nice with VS .NET 2003 but not any of the current 2005 tools. I can't risk going to all the trouble of getting old reporting tools to work only to have something else in the future break them, so I'll be looking at non-MS reporting. Props to you btw, I got no replies in the last 2 days on MSDN or MS Technet regarding this... :(

[bobbba]

I heard from a work colleague that there is some kind of patch/update for SQL2000 reporting services that allows you to install it without VS. I will try to get the details for you.