lesson-2-specifying-connection-information-reporting-services.md

title	Lesson 2: Specify Connection Information (Reporting Services)
description	In this lesson, you define a data source: connection information the report uses to access data from a relational database or other sources.
author	maggiesMSFT
ms.author	maggies
ms.date	12/09/2019
ms.service	reporting-services
ms.subservice	reporting-services
ms.topic	conceptual
ms.custom	updatefrequency5

Lesson 2: Specifying Connection Information (Reporting Services)

In lesson 1, you added a [!INCLUDEssrsnoversion-md] paginated report to your Tutorial project.

In this lesson, you're going to define a data source, connection information the report uses to access data from a relational database or other sources.

For this report, you're going to add the [!INCLUDE sssampledbobject-md] sample database as your data source. This tutorial assumes that the database is located in the default instance of [!INCLUDEssNoVersion] [!INCLUDEssDE] and installed on your local computer.

To set up a connection

1. In the Report Data pane, select New > Data Source. If the Report Data pane isn't visible, then select View menu > Report Data.

   

   The Data Source Properties dialog box opens with the General section displayed.

   

2. In the Name text box, type "AdventureWorks2022".

3. Select the Embedded connection radio button.

4. In the Type dropdown selection box, select "Microsoft SQL Server".

5. In the Connection string text box, type the following string:

   Data source=localhost; initial catalog=AdventureWorks2022

   [!NOTE] This connection string assumes that [!INCLUDEssBIDevStudioFull], the report server, and the [!INCLUDE sssampledbobject-md] database are all installed on the local computer.

   Change the connection string and replace "localhost" with the name of your database server/instance if the assumption isn't true. If you're using [!INCLUDEssExpress] or a SQL Server named instance, you need to modify your connection string to include instance information. For example:

   Data source=localhost\SQLEXPRESS; initial catalog=AdventureWorks2022

   For more information about connection strings, you can refer to the See also section below.

6. Select the Credentials tab, and under the section Change the credentials used to connect to the data source, select the Use Windows Authentication (integrated security) radio button.

7. Select OK to complete the process.

Report Designer adds the data source AdventureWorks2022 to the Report Data pane.

Next steps

In this lesson, you've successfully defined a connection to the [!INCLUDE sssampledbobject-md] sample database. Continue with Lesson 3: Defining a Dataset for the Table Report (Reporting Services) to define a dataset for the report.

See also

Create data connection strings - Report Builder & SSRS