SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services Error

We were upgrading one of our SQL Server 2008 R2 server to SQL Server 2012. Everything went smooth expect for one report in which was using reporting services. This report was calling the reporting service webservice and was passing in a huge xml parameter. This XML parameter would work fine for smaller string lengths but failed for larger strings. The error was specifically:

library!ReportServer_0-2!4ac!05/11/2012-14:26:30:: e ERROR: Throwing Microsoft.ReportingServices.Diagnostics.Utilities.InternalCatalogException: Internal error, Microsoft.ReportingServices.Diagnostics.Utilities.InternalCatalogException: An internal error occurred on the report server. See the error log for more details. ---> System.UriFormatException: Invalid URI: The Uri string is too long.
   at System.Uri.EscapeString(String input, Int32 start, Int32 end, Char[] dest, Int32& destPos, Boolean isUriString, Char force1, Char force2, Char rsvd)
   at System.Uri.EscapeDataString(String stringToEscape)
   at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Common.UrlUtil.UrlEncode(String input)
   at Microsoft.ReportingServices.ReportProcessing.ParameterInfoCollection.UrlEncodeSingleParam(StringBuilder url, String name, Object val, Func`2 cs)
   at Microsoft.ReportingServices.ReportProcessing.ParameterInfoCollection.ToUrl(Boolean skipInternalParameters, Func`2 cs)
   at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Library.ReportExecutionBase.WriteParametersToJobContext(RunningJobContext jobContext)
   at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Library.ReportExecutionBase.Execute()
   at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Diagnostics.CancelablePhaseBase.ExecuteWrapper()
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---;

As you can see, the error message is “Invalid URI: The Uri string is too long.”. We knew the problem was with the huge XML parameter and wanted to find out what got changed from SQL Server 2008 R2 to SQL Server 2012. So, I opened up reflector and started comparing the code in 2008 R2 with the one from SQL Server 2012.

SQL Server 2008 R2 execution path

private void WriteParametersToJobContext(RunningJobContext jobContext) { if (this.EffectiveParameters != null) { if (this.EffectiveParameters.Count > 0) { jobContext.ExecutionInfo.Parameters = this.EffectiveParameters.ToUrl(); } } else if ((this.RequestInfo.ReportContext.ReportParameters != null) && (this.RequestInfo.ReportContext.ReportParameters.Count > 0)) { jobContext.ExecutionInfo.Parameters = ParameterInfoCollection.ToUrl(this.RequestInfo.ReportContext.ReportParameters); } } public string ToUrl() { StringBuilder url = new StringBuilder(); foreach (ParameterInfo info in this) { if (info.Values != null) { foreach (object obj2 in info.Values) { EncodeSingleParamForUrl(url, info.Name, obj2); } } } return url.ToString(); } private static void EncodeSingleParamForUrl(StringBuilder url, string name, object val) { if (url.Length > 0) { url.Append('&'); } EncodeForUrlAndAppend(url, name); if (val == null) { EncodeForUrlAndAppend(url, ":isnull"); } url.Append('='); if (val == null) { url.Append("true"); } else { EncodeForUrlAndAppend(url, val.ToString()); } } private static void EncodeForUrlAndAppend(StringBuilder builder, string unencodedStr) { int length = builder.Length; builder.Append(unencodedStr); builder.Replace("=", "%3D", length, builder.Length - length); builder.Replace("&", "%26", length, builder.Length - length); }

SQL Server 2012 execution path

private void WriteParametersToJobContext(RunningJobContext jobContext) { if (this.EffectiveParameters != null) { if (this.EffectiveParameters.Count > 0) { jobContext.ExecutionInfo.Parameters = this.EffectiveParameters.ToUrl(false); } } else if ((this.RequestInfo.ReportContext.RSRequestParameters.ReportParameters != null) && (this.RequestInfo.ReportContext.RSRequestParameters.ReportParameters.Count > 0)) { jobContext.ExecutionInfo.Parameters = ParameterInfoCollection.ToUrl(this.RequestInfo.ReportContext.RSRequestParameters.ReportParameters); } } public string ToUrl(bool skipInternalParameters) { return this.ToUrl(skipInternalParameters, null); } public string ToUrl(bool skipInternalParameters, Func<object, string> cs) { StringBuilder url = new StringBuilder(); foreach (ParameterInfo info in this) { if (skipInternalParameters && !info.PromptUser) { continue; } if (info.Values != null) { foreach (object obj2 in info.Values) { UrlEncodeSingleParam(url, info.Name, obj2, cs); } continue; } UrlEncodeSingleParam(url, info.Name, null, cs); } return url.ToString(); } private static void UrlEncodeSingleParam(StringBuilder url, string name, object val, Func<object, string> cs) { if (url.Length > 0) { url.Append('&'); } url.Append(UrlEncodeString(name)); if (val == null) { url.Append(":isnull=true"); } else { url.Append('='); url.Append(UrlEncodeString((cs == null) ? val.ToString() : cs(val))); } } private static string UrlEncodeString(string param) { return UrlUtil.UrlEncode(param).Replace("'", "%27"); } public static string UrlEncode(string input) { if (input == null) { return null; } return Uri.EscapeDataString(input); } public static string EscapeDataString(string stringToEscape) { if (stringToEscape == null) { throw new ArgumentNullException("stringToUnescape"); } if (stringToEscape.Length == 0) { return string.Empty; } int destPos = 0; char[] chArray = EscapeString(stringToEscape, 0, stringToEscape.Length, null, ref destPos, false, 0xffff, 0xffff, 0xffff); if (chArray == null) { return stringToEscape; } return new string(chArray, 0, destPos); } private static unsafe char[] EscapeString(string input, int start, int end, char[] dest, ref int destPos, bool isUriString, char force1, char force2, char rsvd) { if ((end - start) >= 0xfff0) { throw GetException(ParsingError.SizeLimit); } ........

As you can see above, SQL Server 2008 R2 while using the String Builder type is not performing any checks on the size limit. But SQL Server 2012 is throwing an exception when the site is greater than 65520 characters. This was the problem and we ended up modifying our code to fix this issue.

Remote Desktop – Multiple monitors

This post is useful for those who:

• Use Remote Desktop
• Use Multiple monitors

If you are like me who remote’s into virtual machines or physical machines frequently, then here is a tip. When remotely logging  into machines, do you use multiple monitors ? Does the remote machine view scale across multiple monitors ? By default it does not. When you click Remote Desktop or MSTSC.exe, the below screen comes up without the option for multiple monitors.

But, once you click options and then click on Display tab, there is an option to enable multiple monitors for your remote session.

Click the checkbox “Use all my monitors for the remote session” and you can use multiple monitors for current remote session. Hope this helps !

Windows Server 8 Part 2–VMware Tools

After installing Windows Server  8, I did not install the VMware tools immediately.  When I eventually did, I was no longer able to get into the Server.
It would boot fine, but come up with the a blank Windows 8 Server screen. So looks like Windows Server 8 does not like VMware tools yet. Or, there is an update for WorkStation 8 which supports Windows Server 8. My co-worker suggested that he might have had the same problem and mentioned about an update. So, I upgraded Workstation to 8.0.3 build-703057. Did that solve the problem ? Nope…It did  not.  Since, the VM boots properly and has issues displaying,  I enabled the “Accelerate 3D graphics” option in the Hardware Settings of the VM. That’s it….It did the trick and now, I can get to my VM. More later…

Windows Server 8 Part 1 – Basic Install

Recently, I started testing Windows Server 8 (or Windows Server 2012 as officially called now) and wanted to blog about this for sometime now. This is going to be the beginning of a series of posts related to Windows Server 8/2012.

The first post will cover the basic install steps of building a Windows Server 8 virtual machine using VMWare Workstation.  So let’s get started.
First, let’s fire up VMWare Workstation and start creating a new virtual machine. Let’s pick the “Typical” configuration.

In the next step, we will use the Windows Server  8 Beta ISO as the install software.

Now, let’s pick Windows Server 2008 R2 as the template. I did try it using the “other” option, but the install crashed and kept on rebooting.

The next screen is used for easy install. You can leave the default settings. There is no need to enter a product  key here. Actually, easy install will not work here. In a later step, we will see how to remove the install configuration file and get through the error message.

You can change the name of the virtual machine in the next screen and the path to the virtual machine folder.

Next, we will specify the disk size. You can leave the default settings or use a custom size.

Next, will be the summary screen.

Click on the customize hardware to change the hardware settings. After finishing the hardware settings, click “Finish” to create the virtual machine.

The virtual machine should start the process of creating a new Virtual Machine.

Since, VMWare WorkStation uses easy install the process and will fail when looking for a product key. You will need to remove the install configuration file in the settings window to continue the install process.


Make sure the floppy drive is not connected and uses the “use physical drive” option instead of floppy image file. The floppy image file is pointing to a configuration file which will look for product key screen.  After you change the settings, click close and restart the virtual machine.
The next steps are self explanatory. The first step involves setting few basic options.
  
Next, you can pick Core/GUI option for configuring Windows Server 8. This is not new in Server 8. It was available in Windows 2008 R2.
Also, you can pick custom install as the option when prompted.
  
Pick the drive where the OS needs to be installed and the install will continue to copy, install features and reboot.
  
When prompted, enter and confirm the admin password.
 
Voila ! You are done and ready with Windows Server 8.
 

SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services Upgrade Error

 

During the In-Place upgrade from SQL Server 2008 R2 to SQL Server 2012, sometimes the Reporting Services component upgrade would error out with  different types of error messages:

Specifically, the errors would be something like:

• A Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate is not configured on the Web site
• An SSL binding already exists for the specified IP address and port combination. The existing binding uses a different certificate from the current requests. Only one certificate can be used for each IP address and port combination. To correct the problem, either use the same certificate as the existing binding, or remove the existing SSL binding and create a new binding using the certificate of the current request.

To resolve this issue, it is important to understand the workflow of the Reporting Services upgrade path. Your best friend in this case is MSDN. I could not find anyone else having the same problem.

Going to MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143747.aspx (Upgrade and Migrate Reporting Services), the first thing you will notice here is :

• Run the upgrade advisor before you do the upgrade
• Remove invalid SSL certificates.  This includes certificates that are expired and you do not plan to update prior to upgrading Reporting Services.  Invalid certificates will cause upgrade to fail and an error message similar to the following will be written to the Reporting Services Log file: Microsoft.ReportingServices.WmiProvider.WMIProviderException: A Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate is not configured on the Web site.

I ran the upgrade advisor and not find any issues.  The SSL Certificates on the server were still valid and not expired.

So, I took a snapshot of the VM and ran the upgrade. It failed giving me the second reporting services error. I reverted back the snapshot and then opened up reporting services configuration manager. In here, I made the below two changes before the upgrade was restarted:

• Under Web Service URL
• IP Address –> Changed it to “All Unassigned”
• Under Advanced –> Removed the SSL Certificates
• Under Report Manager URL
• Click Advanced –>  change the IP Address to Unassigned and Remove the SSL bindings.

Both the above steps are necessary. Even if you don’t do one piece, the Upgrade fails.

Once the above steps were done, the upgrade was very smooth and successful.

Infopath Forms Exception after Windows Updates

Our production servers receive Windows update immediately and during one of the maintenance periods, the InfoPath forms on a SharePoint Site stopped working.
Looking at the ULS logs, I saw the below error:
System.IO.FileLoadException: Loading this assembly would produce a different grant set from other instances. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131401)    at Microsoft.Office.Server.Diagnostics.FirstChanceHandler.ExceptionFilter(Boolean fRethrowException, TryBlock tryBlock, FilterBlock filter, CatchBlock catchBlock, FinallyBlock finallyBlock)     at Microsoft.Office.InfoPath.Server.DocumentLifetime.ErrorPageRenderer.RunAndGetErrorRendererOnException(HttpContext context, EventLogStart eventLogStart, TryBlock tryblock, CatchBlock catchblock)     at Microsoft.Office.InfoPath.Server.Controls.XmlFormView.LoadDocumentAndPlayEventLog()     at Microsoft.Office.InfoPath.Server.Controls.XmlFormView.OnDataBindHelper()     at Microsoft.Office.InfoPath.Server.Controls.XmlFormView.OnDataBinding(EventArgs e)
Anytime the error “Loading this assembly would produce a different grant set from other instances” shows up, it means that the application pool needs to be recycled. It is almost like the app pool got loaded into memory during the updates.
So, I quickly recycled the application pool and it fixed the error.

Windows 8 Consumer Preview (CP)–After a month

 

I have been using Windows 8 since the developer preview and currently using the CP since its release. Windows 8 CP is currently my main workstation with all the developer tools installed. When using the developer preview, I was running into frequent crashes but CP has been really great. The frequent crashes are not happening anymore. Windows 8 is a huge shift for Microsoft Users as the user interface has been completely redesigned and is based on Microsoft’s Metro User Interface. Microsoft is aiming towards a single operating system for both desktop, tablet and phone users. The trick will be to satisfy all the different types of users and this will be a difficult task to accomplish. If Microsoft can pull this off, it will be a huge accomplishment on their part. Historically, it has been proven to be difficult to satisfy all types of consumers. Each area like tablet, desktop and phone has a niche of users with their own requirements.

Coming to Windows 8, here is my analysis:

• Will work great on Tablets. Have been using Samsung 7 Slate and is awesome !
• Enterprises  will embrace it quickly because of some of the nice features
• What are the nice features ?
• Single interface for tablets and PC’s
• Metro Applications
• Reset and Refresh – easily restore your PC
• Sky Drive integration
• File History
• Charms
• Snap Multi-Tasking
• Windows 2 Go
• Better Support for multiple monitors
• Excellent Search – search for anything and everything
• More (another blog post)
• Now to the sore points
• No Start button –> This will take time to sink in
• Power and Restart buttons –> not easy to find
• Turn off Metro interface if needed –> cannot do it in DP or CP (may be in Release Preview)
• Close background applications –> no easy way to do this (right click on the top left of the screen actually shows the applications which can be closed OR task manager)