SSRS: HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable - reporting-services

Question

I have been wanting to deploy my SSRS reports to a Test server. However I found that on that server the SSRS service had stopped, and I had to change the setting so that it used a built in Network Service account. After doing that I found I could start the service. However when I key in the ReportService url in my browser, I get the above error message.
One problem that I had when I changed the settings to the Network Service account is that I got the error message:
"A connection could not be established with the information provide. Hit OK to change your connection settings.
A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: named Pipes Privider, error: 40 - Could not open a connection to SQL Server)"
Even so, this did not stop the service from starting.
As a result of all this I still cannot deploy my reports. How do I fix this?

Answer 1

If you are running SSRS 2016, restart the SSRS services:
SQL Server Reporting Services (MSSQLSERVER)
SQL Server Reporting Services Web App (MSSQLSERVER)

Answer 2

The best way to find the answer is to check the log files.
You can find the log files for report server at below path:
In SQL Server Reporting Services 2016 or earlier: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSRS13.MSSQLSERVER\Reporting Services\LogFiles
In SQL Server Reporting Services 2017: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services\SSRS\LogFiles
Thanks & Regards
Karan

Answer 3

Error 503 Usually comes if the database credentials are wrong , you can test the connection from Reporting Configuration Manager.
Otherwise, Check the Reportserver config file "rsreportserver" at path
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSRS13.MSSQLSERVER\Reporting Services\ReportServer
and find the following tags are correct or not.!
<Authentication>
<AuthenticationTypes>
<RSWindowsNTLM/>
</AuthenticationTypes>
<RSWindowsExtendedProtectionLevel>Off</RSWindowsExtendedProtectionLevel>
<RSWindowsExtendedProtectionScenario>Proxy</RSWindowsExtendedProtectionScenario>
<EnableAuthPersistence>true</EnableAuthPersistence>
</Authentication>
According to user permissions/properties you can change <AuthenticationTypes> tag.
Restart Following Services
SQL Server Reporting Services (MSSQLSERVER)
SQL Server Reporting Services Web App (MSSQLSERVER)

Answer 4

This error is also generated if you are using a trial version of SSRS and it has expired.

Answer 5

Find <IsWebServiceEnabled>False</IsWebServiceEnabled> and change to
<IsWebServiceEnabled>True</IsWebServiceEnabled> in the rsreportserver
config file.

Answer 6

I was getting this error and tried deleting the URL's from the rsreportserver.config file.
After lots of frustration, I found that the permissions on that file and directory itself did not allow ReportServer user to modify the file. Once I gave the reporting user permission on the file, all was good to remove / update URL's, and returned SSRS back into service.
Try explicitly adding the user permissions to the config file.
Good luck!

Answer 7

In rsreportserver.config, my value was not correct. It was showing up as: http://+:80. Of course, this needs to map to the URL specified in the Report Server Configuration Manager, Web Portal URL (ie the blue URL link that was bringing me to a "not connected" browser screen). It did not, so I got Service Unavailable with a 503 (HTTP error).
The solution: edit the value/address to match the Web Portal URL.
Web Service URL -> URLs: http://MYSERVERNAME:80/Reports
rsreportserver.config -> http://MYSERVERNAME:80/Reports
Once I saved the rsreportserver.config with the edited value to match accordingly (above), I could click on the provided link in the Web Portal section of the Report Server Configuration Manager, and it brought up the SQL Server Reporting Services page. Note: I didn't need to restart anything.
Cheers!