How to Migrate SSRS Reports from One Server to Another (Step-by-Step)

Migrating SSRS reports from one server to another is a common task for developers, DBAs, and DevOps engineers during SQL Server upgrades, cloud migrations, or environment rebuilds. With SSRS deprecated in SQL Server 2025, organizations now face a hard deadline, making a reliable, repeatable migration process more critical than ever.
Managing SSRS report migrations can be a time-consuming and error-prone process, especially when dealing with large enterprise report servers that contain hundreds of reports, datasets, data sources, and subscriptions. To simplify this process, we created the SSRS Reports Migration Wizard, a Visual Studio extension and standalone utility that helps you automate and validate migrations with minimal manual steps. This guide walks through a production-safe, step-by-step SSRS report migration process, covering reports, shared data sources, subscriptions, permissions, and post-migration validation.

What Is SSRS Reports Migration Wizard?

SSRS Reports Migration Wizard is a tool that enables you to:

• Migrate reports, shared datasets, shared data sources, linked reports etc.
• Copy subscriptions (standard and data-driven)
• Review and update connection strings and credentials
• Migrate between servers, folders, or environments
• Export and import SSRS items using a lightweight .SRMW file format
• Perform offline review and validation before actual migration

The wizard is available as a Visual Studio extension and as a standalone tool.

Prerequisites:
Before Migrating SQL Server Reports
1. You have access to both source and target SSRS servers.
2. Your user account has:
-at least Browser role on the source–
-at least Publisher role on the target
If you’re unsure how to grant access, follow the instructions in the Granting Access Guide.

Use Cases

• Migrating from dev to test/prod environments
• Consolidating multiple SSRS servers
• Backing up and archiving SSRS artifacts
• Migrating from the old SSRS report server to the new server.
• Migrate SSRS reports to Power BI report server.
• Moving SSRS content before end-of-support deadlines.
• Automating report deployments using the command-line utility.
• Compare source and target servers and export a diff CSV before committing changes.

Step-by-Step SSRS Report Migration Process

Follow the below steps to achieve SSRS report migration from one server to another.

Step 1: Select the Source

Choose your source SSRS server or a .SRMW file created from a previous export.

Step 2: Select the Target

Provide connection details for the destination SSRS server. You can migrate to a different server, or a different folder on the same server.

Step 3: Choose Report Items to Migrate

Select specific folders, reports, datasets, and data sources using a tree view. Filters and checkboxes make large-scale selection easy.

Before finalising the migration, use the Compare with Target feature to export a CSV diff of what exists on the source vs. the target server. This gives you a full audit trail — useful for compliance reviews, change management approvals, or simply verifying nothing was missed. The export includes item-level status: new, changed, unchanged, or missing.

Step 4: Manage Folder Mapping

This step is available only when Rename target folders during migration is enabled. Use this screen to define how source folders should be created in the target environment.

Step 5: Update Data Source Connection Strings – Migrating SSRS Data Sources

SSRS Reports Migration Wizard includes an optional step to update data source connection strings during the migration process. This is particularly useful when migrating reports and datasets from a source server to a target server that uses different connection details.

Fetch Data Sources

On this screen, click the Fetch Data Sources button. The wizard will scan the selected SSRS items (from the previous screen) and populate a grid with all connections that can be updated.

Each row represents a unique connection used by your reports or shared data sources.

View and Manage Connections

The grid displays the Extension, Connection String, and Credential Retrieval method for each data source. Click the Edit link in the Manage column, which allows you to modify the connection.

Convert to shared data sources if connection exists – If this option is selected, the wizard will attempt to convert embedded data sources in reports to shared data sources during deployment, provided a shared data source with the same connection details is available in the selected SSRS items for deployment.

Update Properties

When you click Edit, a new dialog box appears (labeled “Manage Connection Properties”). Here you can:

• Review the Shared Data Source(s) using this connection and Report(s) using this connection as an embedded data source.
• Modify the Connection String.
• Specify Credentials (e.g., Windows credentials or a user name and password) under “Log into the data source”.
• Click Save to apply the changes.

Important Notes

• The wizard cannot retrieve passwords from embedded or shared data sources on the source report server. The wizard will guide you to convert them ot shared data sources and provide credentials.
• The Dependent Objects shown in the grid are those that have a connection embedded within them. These objects are directly using this connection.
• The changes you make are not committed to the target server until the wizard completes the migration.
• If no connections are found for the selected items, a message box will inform you that there are no connections available for update.

Step 6: Review Changes

The wizard shows a migration summary with new, changed, or skipped items. You can export this list or proceed with the migration.

Step 7: Finish and Validate

Once migration is complete, a final summary screen shows migrated item counts and logs. You can rerun this process anytime.

Installation

SSRS Reports Migration Wizard can be installed as an extension to:

1. Visual Studio 2017, Visual Studio 2019, Visual Studio 2022 & Visual Studio 2026.
2. SSMS 18, 19, 20, 21, 22
3. Standalone tool.
4.Command-Line Usage.

Standalone Usage

Don’t use Visual Studio? You can still run the wizard as a standalone tool:

1. Download the .vsix from here.
2. Rename the .vsix to .zip and extract it.
3. Launch SSRS.Reports.Migration.Wizard.exe.

Pro tips:
1. Use export-then-import (.SRMW file) rather than direct server-to-server when network access between environments is restricted — especially useful for cloud or air-gapped targets.
2. Run Compare with Target first to get a full diff before committing any changes.
3. Migrate permissions separately using the role migration step — verify subscription accounts exist on the target before migrating subscriptions to avoid silent failures.
4. Use the CLI for repeatable deployments — once you’ve validated your migration manually, script it for future environment rebuilds.
5. Learn how to export all SSRS objects from the report server. Learn how to migrate SSRS Reports to Power BI Report Server.