SSRS: Accessing Report Builder 3

This blog post covers accessing and installing the "Report Builder" tool that comes with Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) 2008R2.


All access to Report Builder is obtained via Internet Explorer. In order to get access to the system you will require specific permission – without it the instructions below will not work (the “Report Builder” button will not be visible).

To start Open “Internet Explorer” and go to the following URL:

https:///Reports/

Where is the name of the SQL Server on which Reporting Services has been installed.

After a few seconds pause Internet Explorer will display something similar to:

The available options on your screen will depend on the permissions the administrator of the system has defined for you.

This is the "main" page for SQL Server Reporting Services. This version is slightly updated for the latest 2008R2 version of SQL Server.

Looking at the "buttons" on the menu bar click on the one labelled "Report Builder":

This will bring up a dialog:

If this is the first time you've clicked "Report Builder" then the software will download and install on your machine. The installed software is user-specific so no-one else using your computer will have access to it and it does not require elevated permissions to install (i.e. it will not trigger UAC on Vista or Windows 7).

It's about 70MB so the download could take a few minutes. Once it's completed you will see a splash screen as Report Builder starts up:

This splash screen is displayed while the application starts, as soon as the application is setup you will see a selection screen:

Select the type of report you want to proceed (i.e. Table or Matrix Wizard).