Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Bible

Managing Security with Reporting Services

Security poses the greatest challenge for most reporting solutions. Sensitive data must be protected, and the SSRS administrator must leverage features of reporting services to do so.

In native mode, it is best to use Report Manager for all content-related management and permission assignments, and to use SQL Server Management Studio for management of server properties and role definitions. This is because since SQL Server 2008, those respective interfaces have been streamlined for these purposes.

Accessing Remote Data Sources in Reporting Services

A common infrastructure set up for Reporting Services involves a client consuming reports, a report server, and a data source, such as an SSAS cube, residing on a separate server. This requires that the user's credentials pass from the client to the Report Server and then to the Cube, often called the Double Hop. A common way to implement this is with Kerberos in Active Directory. Kerberos is a ticket-based computer network authentication protocol. Kerberos in BI can be explored in “Kerberos for Microsoft BI” located at http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/1406.kerberos-for-microsoft-bi-en-us.aspx.

To avoid using Kerberos, the data source must be configured to specify the credentials to the remote data source. For more information, see “Specify Credential and Connection Information for Report Data Sources,” located at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms160330.aspx ...