Attempts to schedule a mailed report in DPM 2012 fail with “Reporting Services Server cannot connect to the DPM database”

~ Mike Jacquet

Hello, Mike Jacquet here, and today I’d like to discuss a problem you may encounter after installing System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager from scratch or after performing an upgrade from DPM 2012 SP1.

When you attempt to schedule a report to be mailed, you receive the following popup error.

Reporting Services Server cannot connect to the DPM database.
To repair the configuration, follow steps for repairing DPM from DPM Setup Help.
ID: 3001
More Information

Figure 1 below shows this error.

Figure 1.

Following the repair steps suggested in the More Information link does not resolve the problem.

To resolve this error, please use the steps below to make proper configuration changes which will then allow DPM reports to be e-mailed.

NOTE: Some steps may not be necessary if you encounter the problem after an upgrade from DPM 2012 SP1. Review and perform the steps as applicable.

1. On the DPM 2012 R2 server, create a new local group called "DPMDBReader$<DPMServerName>" In my example the DPMServername is WINB-DPM.

Figure 2.

2. Create a new local user called "DPMR$<DPMServerName> and provide a strong password that never expires. See figure 3 below.

Figure 3.

3. Add the newly created user to the DPMDBReader$DPMservername group that was created in step 1 above. See figure 4.

Figure 4.

4. Start SQL Management Studio using administrative privileges and connect to the SQL instance used by DPM. Under Security, right-click on the Logins and select New login… then browse to add the local group DPMDBReader$<DPMServerName >. Once the group is added it will be listed as seen in figure 5.

Figure 5.

5. Right-click the group and select Properties. Under the General section, change the default database to the DPMDB name. See figure 6.

Figure 6.

6. Under the User Mapping section, select the checkbox for the DPMDB name and the checkbox for the db_datareader role. See figure 7.

Figure 7.

7. In SQL Management Studio, navigate to the Databases > DPMDB > Security > Users > and select the DPMDBReader$<DPMServerName>" group. See figure 8.

Figure 8.

8. Right-click the DPMDBReader$<DPMServerName>" group and select Properties. Under the Securables section, click on Search. On the add objects dialog, click OK. On the Select Objects dialog, click the Objects type, then check the stored procedure checkbox. Browse and add the following two stored procedures:

Prc_MOM_Heartbeat_Get

prc_MOM_ProductionServer_Get

Grant the Execute permission for both of the stored procedures added. See figure 9.

Figure 9.

9. Exit SQL Management Studio.

Figure 10.

11. Click on the URLs: link. This will open the http://localhost/Reports/Pages/Folder.aspx) portal as seen in Figure 11.

Figure 11.

12. Click on the DPMReports_GUID link to open the DPM reports page as seen in Figure 12.

Figure 12.

13. Click on the DPMReporterDataSource to open its properties as seen in figure 13.

Figure 13.

14. On the DPMReporterDataSource configuration page, perform the following steps:

i. Enable the option: "Credentials stored securely in the report server"

ii. Add the “DPMR$<DPMServerName>” user Account and Password created in step 2.

iii. Check the checkbox to "Use as Windows credentials when connecting to the data source."

iv. Click ‘Test connection’ on to verify whether it can connect successfully.

v. Click the Apply.

15. Close the DPMReporterDataSource configuration page to return to the Reporting Services Configuration Manager screen. Click on the Service Account. On this page change Report Server Service Account service to use Network Service. If you are prompted for the Backup Encryption Key, fill on the parameters and continue. See Figure 14 below.

Figure 14.

16. Reboot the DPM Server to ensure all configuration changes take effect.

17. You should now be able to schedule e-mail reports without experiencing the original error.

Sorry for any inconvenience this has caused. This issue is being investigated by the Data Protection Manager product group and more information will be published as it becomes available..

Mike Jacquet | Senior Support Escalation Engineer | Microsoft GBS Management and Security Division

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