SQL Server Reporting Services SSRS 2016 In-place upgrade to 2019

Question

I want to upgrade a SQL Server 2016 to 2019 by performing an in-place upgrade and also upgrade SSRS.

Microsoft documentation instructs me to migrate the SSRS databases.

To upgrade from Reporting Services 2016 and older versions to Reporting Services 2017 and later, follow the Migrate a Reporting Services Installation (Native Mode) article, with Reporting Services 2017 or later as your destination instance.

Is a migration necessary? If so, does that mean I should do a side-by-side upgrade of the SQL Server engine? I hoped that I could:

1. Clone the entire server as a backup. Run the Database server upgrade (in-place).
2. Run the SSRS 2019 standalone installer.
3. Restore the SSRS encryption keys.
4. Configure SSRS to use the existing (and newly upgraded) databases.

I don't understand why I would need to follow the migration procedure? Is it just that in-place database engine upgrades are not recommended? I have some dependencies that make me reluctant to create a new server or install 2019 next to 2016.

Answer 1

No, the migration was not necessary. Yes, the in-place SQL Server upgrade worked.

1. We uninstalled SSRS 2016 and then performed the SQL Server upgrade to 2019.
2. Then we installed SSRS 2019 (a separate installer, apart from SQL Server).
3. We restored the SSRS encryption keys. Here, we ran into an issue.

Unexpected error: This edition of reporting services doesn't support scale out, but the database has other servers registered. We'll need to remove those to continue. Do you want to remove the other registered servers?

I was able to find a solution here and here . I had to delete the 2016 SSRS instance from the table dbo.keys.

4. The last step was to complete the SSRS configuration, and SSRS was available.

• Configuration included pointing SSRS at the existing 2016 databases
  (reportserver and reportservertempdb) by selecting Change Database and choose an existing database .
• The database upgrade did not change the compatibility level of the two databases.