Copying CRM Reports

You will need to copy reports from a server to another server when you're working on a CRM project, right? From development to test, from test to staging, from staging to production. Usually I do add the reports to a release package and describe in the deployment manual how to deploy the reports and how to set the filter, categories etc.

Until today. Since today I will do this completely different. For a friend of mine I was searching for information on an error he receives with reporting:
An error has occurred during report processing. (rsProcessingAborted). Query execution failed for data set 'dsContracts'. (rsErrorExecutingCommand)
Unfortunately I did not find the anwer to that error, but I did land on this page: http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/crm/using/deploy/changesrs.mspx

There is being described how reports can effectively be migrated from one deployment to another deployment! There are two executables which I overlooked: downloadreports.exe and publishreports.exe. By using these two executables you can download the reports and configuration settings for the reports and publish these reports and settings on another machine. That will shorten the deployment time a lot and make it less errorprone!

As you can see, everyday I learn something new. I hope this helps you as well.