Can't schedule a refresh from a shared folder

[Alanoudfahad]

Hello!

I have a dashboard that is using data from a shared folder and I want to schedule a refresh in the report server but I keep getting this error message:

An error has occurred.
The SQL Agent service is not running. This operation requires the SQL Agent service.

The data I'm using is from an excel file in a sharedfolder so I was wondering why is the SQL agent service neccessary?

I appreciatre the help!

[d_gosbell]

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@Alanoudfahad wrote:

Hello!

The data I'm using is from an excel file in a sharedfolder so I was wondering why is the SQL agent service neccessary?

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SQL Agent is the mechanism that Report Server uses internally to trigger the refresh at the time you specified in the schedule regardless of what the source of your data is. It needs to be running if you want any timed operations to occur. 

[Alanoudfahad]

Thank you for your replay..

if you can share the process of how to setup a SQL agent in report server? This is my first time using RS and not sure how to configure the SQL agent

[d_gosbell · Accepted solution]

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@Alanoudfahad wrote:

if you can share the process of how to setup a SQL agent in report server?

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SQL Agent is normally installed and enabled as part of the default install of SQL Server, so the bigger question is how did it get switched off in the first place.

If you remote desktop onto your SQL Server and start the SQL Server Configuration Manager tool you can click on services then right click on the SQL Agent service and start it from there.

If you don't see SQL Agent at all then you would need to run the SQL Server install again and add SQL Agent to your instance.

I would also recommend going into the Properties, then under the service tab make sure the startup type is set to Automatic so that SQL Agent will restart whenever the server is re-started.