Sql Server Reporting Service (SSRS) 2005 Operation timeout issue

Question

I know similar questions have been asked before... I am using SQL server 2005, with SSRS 2005 installed on the same box. (aka. production DB, Report DB/TempDB, Database engine, and SSRS all in the same box). We have about 200 reports deployed in the box. SSRS/DB is running on a W2k3 64-bit VM.

Now the problem...

Occasionally almost on a daily basis our users get the 'operation timeout' error (error in XML document....). At first I thought it was a report size problem, but then when I try the Report Manager URL (http://<>/reports), nothing appears on the browser. The only thing I can do is to recycle the Report server IIS pool and it will work again. Everytime when the 'operation timeout' happens, the Report Manager URL will not work, and I can't find any logs in IIS to indicate there's a problem.

I researched on the net and found that some people have put a dummy report as part of the SQL server agent job which runs every 10 minutes from 9-5 to 'warm up' the SSRS. The dummy report made a small connection to the DB on one row from a very small table. The operation timeout problem seems to have disappeared for 95% of time, but it still happens. Strange enough, when the operation timeout problem happens, I notice the dummy report job has also stopped working. In this case, I had to recycle the IIS pool, and start the SQL server job again, and then SSRS will work again (until the same problem happens next time)

The error I got from the SQL server job is: System.IO.IOException: Unable to read data from the transport connection: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host

However I am totally confused by how the IIS issue on the report server somehow affects the SSRS job. Maybe I am on the wrong track but that's bizzare.

My observation so far is if it takes forever for the Report Manager URL (http://<>/reports) to appear it is a bad sign that something has gone terribly wrong on SSRS.

I have also added a new task which call the SSRS Report Manager http://<>/reports URL using PowerShell in order to 'warm-up' the IIS but it does not seem to make much difference.

Can someone point me to the right direction? Thanks. WM

Answer 1

In the past, after much research, I've found memory allocation for SSRS to be the root of many issues. You can try this.

Add the following into the <Service> node in the rsreportserver.config file

<WorkingSetMaximum>4000000</WorkingSetMaximum>

The file is typically in c:\\program files\\Microsoft SQL Server\\MSRS11.iMIS\\Reporting Services\\ReportServer

This sets the maximum memory available for the report which also set the minimum memory to 60% of the maximum.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms159206(v=sql.110).aspx