SSRS- database and Report Server - can they be different?

Question

I have inherited a few database servers. I am currently planning for a Server upgrade, but this DB server has a ReportServer and ReportServerTempDB database in it.
When I open Reporting Service configuration Manager I am not able to connect to the above mentioned database server.

Is it possible that the Reporting Server for the above databases is configured in a different server other than the database server? How should I go about identifying these for further information.

I am asking because I have to move the ReportServer and ReportServerTempDB but I am not able to access the ReportServer Configuration Manager for the encryption keys.

Answer 1

Yes, the report server can be installed on another machine than the server where the databases reside, there can even be more than one report server instances connected to the same reportserver database (this is called scale out deployment).

Two or more report server instances sharing a single report server database.

You can run

exec ListInstallations 

In the reportserver database to list the Report servers connected to this database.

Answer 2

It could be installed on a different server, it is a better practice to do that.

Check out this stack overflow post for an 'unsupported' way to query the reportserver db for the connection string:

Get SSRS Datasources from reportserver