I'm looking for any Tutorials and White Papers that are out there related to Report Models in SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services. The exact situation I looking to resolve is how to create a report model from various sources. These sources could be other sql server databases, oracle databases, excel spreadsheets or anything else out there that may have value. In addition, any best practices white papers would be appreciated too.

Shameless self-promotion I included two chapters in my "Applied Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services" book with tutorials that walk you through the stepsto create Report Builder 1.0models and reports. As a side note, Report Builder 1.0 models are somewhat deprecated and may not be supported in the next release. Without knowing too much about your requirements, youmay want to consider an Analysis Services OLAP layer instead of a report model for ad-hoc reporting.

Coming from the product team, I have to object to this statement: "Report Builder models are somewhat deprecated and may not be supported in the next release." This is absolutely false. Many or most of our plans around the next Report Builder release revolve around enhancing support for report models. They play a prominent position in our short and long-term ad hoc reporting road maps. As for your question about data sources, we currently support report models over a SQL Server, Oracle, or Teradata data source. The best solution to combine multiple data sources is to use the linked server or OPENQUERY features of SQL Server, which allows you to include references toany OLEDB/ODBC data sources (other DBs, Excel, etc). Depending on your requirements though it may be best to use SSIS to bring the data into a physical SQL Server database for query performance and scalability reasons. Besides the MSDN documentation, Bob's blog has a lot of good content on report models and Report Builder: http://blogs.msdn.com/bobmeyers/

Hi Aaron, Thank you for clarifying this. Somehow, I was left with the impression that moving forward to Report Bulder 2.0 and beyond, we'll de-emphasize the report model as an ad-hoc model in favor of connecting directly to the data source. Apparently this is not case and I stand corrected. Anyhow, I'd recommend a careful consideration of the two ad-hoc models that Microsoft provides today (Report Builder report models and Analysis Services UDM) before deciding which way to go.In my experience I've found thatRBmodels are more suitable for smaller and simpler databases so business users can produce ad-hoc reports withoutsignificant upfront effort. "Graduate" to UDM for more advanced data analytics requirements, larger data volumes and wider client base (SSRS, Excel, third-party). On the downside, UDM usually requires more design effort required to "dimensionalize" the data source and learn MDX. Looking forward to seeing how RB models will evolve in the next release and if they will fulfillmore ad-hoc needs.

Aaaron and Teo, Thanks for your help.

"SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services Deprecated Features... Report Models" http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143509.aspx Three-years out... any comment on Teo's prescience or MSFT's (as yet uncommunicated) ideas on migrating SMDLs to BISMs?