Having issues with the SSRS Reports site

Question

So I'm working with SSRS (SQL Server 2005), which some of our applications use to generate downloads. The problem with it, though, is that the Reports website that is used to manage it seems to crash randomly. I haven't yet figured out a rhyme or reason to it - only that it will suddenly bust out with a 'Specified cast is not valid' exception and any further attempts to do anything will fail with 'The item '/' cannot be found (RsItemNotFound)'

Is there a place I can start looking to help me debug this issue? Are there logs that might have more in-depth information than the useless error messages I'm getting?

Answer 1

Is there anything in the standard event logs? You'll probably find lots of logs to go through in (C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.3\Reporting Services\LogFiles)...that's the default path at least.

Answer 2

we have a web app at where i work that occasinally, after it's been left alone for a while, has to "recompile" and will take a few seconds before it'll show a page. i've noticed that ssrs does this at times, and it might or might not be causing your problem.

you could test this by setting up an instance of ssrs on your local machine (that you know no one will get on) and running your downloads against that.

also, check and make sure no one is turning anything off or doing any backups when you are doing the downloads.