Web Service and Report Manager don't load (Sql Server Express 2008 with Reporting Services)

Question

I've just installed Microsoft SQL Server Express 2008 (with Reporting Services). My installation is side by side with SQL Server 2005.

So far creating reports and testing them in the development environment has worked fine, however I can't get the web server or report manager working.

In the Reporting Services Configuration Manager, it appears that they have been configured and have a working address (eg: http://mymachine:8080/ReportServer_EXPRESS2008/ and http://mymachine:8080/Reports_EXPRESS2008/).

The Virtual Directories don't exist in IIS, and clicking on the links in the config manager results in a "The page cannot be found".

If I create the Virtual Directories in IIS, and then use Reporting Services Configuration Manager to modify the two sites, Reporting Services Configuration Manager appears to be working correctly (all the right messages appear, indicating that it created the new site and dropped the old site successfully). However, it only drops the existing Virtual Directory and does not create a new one.

Has anyone had this problem before and/or know of a possible solution?

Answer 1

Basically, Reporting Services 2008 doesn't use IIS anymore.

By coincidence (or default?), I already had IIS (with Reporting Services 2005) running off port 8080. Reporting Services 2008 also wanted to run off port 8080.

It appears that the new IIS free address reservation system doesn't work in this situation. Changing the port number fixes the problem.