Local vs. Remote Instances of SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services
In System Center Essentials 2010 setup, the installation of Essentials Reporting Server, whether on the Essentials server or on a remote database server, requires that a local, supported instance of SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services be installed. If Reporting Services is installed on another server, you will have to install Essentials Reporting locally on that computer. Consider the following scenarios before installing Essentials Reporting Server.
Using Local Databases and Local Reporting Servers
If you want to install Essentials 2010 with all components on a single server and do not already have SQL Server 2008 installed, you can install the SQL Server 2008 that is included with Essentials 2010, which will create local instances of SQL Database Services and Reporting Services for use. If SQL Server 2008 is already installed on the server, you can specify the existing local SQL Database Services and Reporting Services instances during setup instead.
Using Remote Databases and Local Reporting Servers
If you want to install Essentials Reporting on the Essentials server and the server does not have a local SQL Database Services instance but does have a local, supported instance of SQL Reporting Services, specify the remote SQL Database Services instance and select the local SQL Reporting Services instance during setup.
Using Remote Databases and Remote Reporting Servers
You cannot install Essentials Reporting on a server that does not have a local, supported instance of SQL Reporting Services. Reporting must be installed on the same server that hosts the remote Essentials databases. Specify the remote, supported SQL Database Services instance when you install Essentials 2010 on your server, but do not install Essentials Reporting. Instead, launch Essentials 2010 setup again on the remote computer that has SQL Server 2008 Database Services and Reporting Services installed and install Essentials Reporting there.