Reporting Services 2008 over SSL - Certificates

(If you are trying to run RS over SSL and want to cut to the chase, skip this paragraph of frustration)

Disclaimer – I am not that savvy with administration – better at the nuts & bolts of programming, so most of this was learning.

Today I needed to experiment with the LogonUser method of the web service – the only way to call it is over SSL.  OK, easy enough, just tell Reporting Services to use SSL – just a check box, right?  Nope.  Do a little reading – all signs point to HttpCfg.exe.  Unless using Vista.  Then it’s netsh.exe.  Need a certificate – must generate one.  Use MakeCert.  OK, got all my parameters in check – generated.  What’s the hash?  Use certutil to get the hash (thumbprint), guid (app id).  Register it with netsh http add …..   ok, everything all lined up.

Now let’s go back into Reporting Services Configuration Manager and instruct it to use the certificate.  Piece of cake, select it from the drop down and fire it up.  Error?  Certificate is not trusted?  Oh good gracious.  Keep on researching, find out just how easy it is to do in XP.  Nothing about how easy it is to do in Vista, just lots of people complaining about how incredibly hard it is.

Oh, what’s this?  IIS 7 has an easy way to do it?  Oh YEAH!  Here are the steps to quickly create a test certificate you can use seamlessly:

1. Open IIS 7, click on the computer you wish to create the certificate for.  In the Content View double click on Server Certificates.

2.    2. The top right has an “Actions” menu.  Click on “Create Certificate Request” – could it really be this easy?

3. Type in a name for your certificate (yes, it really is this easy)

4.  Launch Reporting Services Configuration Manager, go to “Web Service URL”, select your newly created SSL certificate from the list and click apply.  It is just that easy!

And now you can do all of your development testing over SSL locally.