376 posts from: Brian Smith's Project Support WebLog
Project Server: June CU Announcement
(Indexed 2013-06-14):
Just posted the June 2013 Cumulative Update (CU) announcement over on the Project Support blog - http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectsupport/archive/2013/06/14...(truncated)... Updates for Project and Project Server 2010 and 2013, as well as one fix for Project Server 2007. The rollup package for 2013 is delayed a week or two, but the individual package for Project Server 2013 is available if you need to test some fixes. One question I had this week on the individual package is is it cumulative? ...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Do you need to see your summary tasks in your assignments view?
(Indexed 2013-05-31):
If you do want to see your summary tasks appearing in your 2010 Resource Assignments view, like they did in Project Server 2007, then head over to Rob Casons new posting on the Project Support blog - Project Server 2010- Unable to Add Summary Task to Resource Assignments View. Good job Rob![Image]
Project Server and Project Online: New posts this week
(Indexed 2013-05-22):
A few new posts this week over on the Project Support blog. For the most recent I got to play with new shiny stuff a MacBook Pro, and put it through its paces running against Project Online. The April 2013 rollup CU package for Project Server 2013 was released (contrary to my initial posting) I covered a UI issue in Project Server 2013 and Project Online transparent dropdowns. A walk-through of the access points for PWA in Project Online covering navigation, licensing and permiss...(truncated)...
New Project Online posting over on ProjectSupport
(Indexed 2013-05-01):
Ive covered off a few of the issues we see our early customers struggling with signing up, the difference between Project Online and Project Pro for Office 365, licensing the users and sharing access to the Project Web App (PWA) and a quick mention of trials. Head over to Getting started with Project Online for the full story.[Image]
Project Server: April 2013 CU Announcementand important information on the March 2013 Public Update
(Indexed 2013-04-11):
Just posted the April 2013 Cumulative Update announcement for Project and Project Server 2013 and Project and Project Server 2010 on the Project Support blog. No updates for Project or Project Server 2007 – but I have included the WSS and MOSS updates. *** Update 4/12 - the MOSS server package does actually contain just a Project Server 2007 fix - for the switch around of the previous/next buttons - thanks Adrian for pointing this one out - I'd missed that one. ***Also an important postin...(truncated)...
SharePoint 2013: Problems opening documents with Office 2010 if you load Project 2013
(Indexed 2013-04-04):
Thanks to Jorge Ray (sorry Ray!) for this great blog post - http://blogs.technet.com/b/raymond_ris/archive/2013/04/04/ca...(truncated)... explaining how, after loading Project 2013 this can make your SharePoint libraries default to the 2013 versions of the protocol handlers. You might get a Url such as ms-word:nft|u|http://o15psvr:8080/Shared Documents/Forms/template.dotx|s|http://o15psvr:8080/Shared Documents for Word or ms-excel:ofv|u|http://sharePointDocumentlibraryURL for Excel.The fix is e...(truncated)...
Project Online: New posts over on Project Support blog
(Indexed 2013-03-22):
And a new look for this blog thought it was time for a spring clean (just as some more snow arrives), a new header picture and the new Microsoft logo. [Image] The latest post on Project Support is titled Project Online- How do I get a copy of my databases- and people who know me will have guessed that the answer is that you dont. More info over on the blog.[Image]
Project Server 2013 and Project Online: The new world of PWA Settings
(Indexed 2013-03-19):
A couple of postings today over on the Project Support blog and I split this into two to hopefully avoid confusion. The first looks at the changes in location of Server Settings in Project Server 2013 compared to Project Server 2010 - Project Server 2013- Server Settings. The second takes a similar look but at the Project Online PWA Settings to see what is available there - Project Online- Server Settings. So if you are wondering where your favorite server settings have gone to or if they are...(truncated)...
Project Server 2013: February 2013 Cumulative Update delivered with March 2013 Public Update
(Indexed 2013-03-18):
Just posted over on the Project Support blog about the March 2013 Public update for Project Server 2013, which includes the fixes that were due to be delivered in the February 2013 Cumulative Update. The link is here - http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectsupport/archive/2013/03/18...(truncated)... and I have also updated the more general CU release blog. Please note that this release of the March Public Update becomes the new baseline for CU installation meaning that any future CU installations w...(truncated)...
Project Server 2013: Managing Resources in Project Professional 2013
(Indexed 2013-03-11):
A couple of cross blog references here on resource management topics and both affect Project Online as well as the on premise installations. Firstly an issue where you cannot open more than a certain number of resources from your Resource Center in Project Professional 2013 blogged over on the Project Support blog at http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectsupport/archive/2013/03/11...(truncated)... The numbers arent exact but will be around 120 for IE9, then 520 or so for IE10, Chrome and Firefo...(truncated)...
Project Online: Some early questions we are seeing in support
(Indexed 2013-03-07):
I just published a couple of posts on the Microsoft Project Support blog over on TechNet covering a couple of issues that appear to be catching our customers out. The first is one on adding Project Online to an existing Office 365 plan that has not yet been upgraded with the recent service upgrade - Project Online- Why cant I add it to my Office365 yet- and the second relates to adding one plan to another such as adding Project Pro for Office 365 to a Project Online plan - Project Online- How...(truncated)...
Microsoft Project Server 2007, 2010 and 2013 February 2013 CU release
(Indexed 2013-02-14):
Just in case you arent keeping up with the posts on the Project Support blog head on over to http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectsupport/archive/2013/02/14...(truncated)... for the details of the February 2012 Cumulative Updates (CU) for Project and Project Server 2007, 2010 and 2013. As mentioned previously, we are releasing earlier in the month and plan to match Patch Tuesday (the second Tuesday of the month) in the even months.[Image]
Project Server 2013: Project Sites and Alternate Access Mappings
(Indexed 2013-01-11):
If you have started working with Project Server 2013 and have run into issues with Project Sites not being provisioned as you expect, and are using Alternate Access Mappings (AAM), then take a look over on the new Project Support site at the latest posting - http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectsupport/archive/2013/01/10...(truncated)...
Final Posting of 2012Language Packsover on the new Blog
(Indexed 2012-12-31):
Happy New Year to everyone and Ill probably keep these cross postings coming fro a month or two as you get used to the new URL. The latest and last posting for 2012 covers language packs in Project 2013, Project Server 2013 and Project Online - http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectsupport/archive/2012/12/31...(truncated)... Enjoy![Image]
A new URL for Project Support blogsand the December CU posting
(Indexed 2012-12-19):
From now on the team and I will be posting to the new URL - http://blogs.technet.com/projectsupport in place of http://blogs.msdn.com/brismith. Same content and writers just a more descriptive URL. The first posting is now live for the December 2012 CU for Project and Project Server and is posted at http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectsupport/archive/2012/12/19...(truncated)... Dont forget to update your bookmarks, RSS subscriptions etc. for the new feed![Image]
Project Online: How do I re-use an unwanted PWA instance
(Indexed 2012-12-11):
If you have used or are still kicking the tires of the Office 365 Preview and Project Online you may have noticed that you can have up to 3 PWA instances. The first one is provisioned for you as the /Sites/PWA instance, and you can then either use the New > Private Site Collection with Project Web App option to add a new site collection with PWA, or you can use the Project Web App > Add option to add the feature to an existing site collection. Once you have used all three your SharePoint admin c...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Issue installing the October 2012 Cumulative Update
(Indexed 2012-11-14):
The release of the Project Server 2007 Cumulative Update for October 2012 appears to have a problem with the digital signing of one of the files and the installation will fail. This issue affects both the Project Server 2007 - Project Server 2007 hotfix package (Pjsrvapp-x-none.msp; Pjsrvwfe-x-none.msp): October 30, 2012 KB 2687536, and also the SharePoint Server roll-up package SharePoint Server 2007 cumulative update server hotfix package (MOSS server-package): October 30, 2012 KB 2687533. I...(truncated)...
Project Server 2013 Requirements to build an OLAP Cube
(Indexed 2012-11-12):
There appears to be an error currently on our TechNet documentation at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee662106.aspx indicating that the version of the Analysis Management Objects required when building an OLAP cube from Project Server 2013 depends on the version of SQL Server you have running Analysis Services. In fact it does not and like previous versions of Project Server we actually require a specific version that our code talks to regardless of which version it will actually b...(truncated)...
Project Server DatabasesPlease dont mess with the default options
(Indexed 2012-11-07):
We have some guidance out on TechNet about the recommended settings for SQL Server for our various versions so for example we recommend for 2010 at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee662107.aspx that you set AUTO_CLOSE to OFF, and AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS_ASYNC to ON. But we dont always make a show of telling you what NOT to change. A good guide is to leave things at the default settings unless we recommend otherwise. For example, in 2013 we dont recommend the UPDATE_STATISTICS settings...(truncated)...
Project and Project Server October 2012 Cumulative Update
(Indexed 2012-11-05):
Just posted at http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/201...(truncated)... Remember, if you didnt load the 2010 August 2012 Cumulative Update (CU) that the October one will also require SP1 to be installed. Delays on the 2007 SharePoint and Project packages, and also the roll-up SharePoint/Project package for 2010. No 2007 client CU this cycle. So if you just need the individual Project Server 2010 October CU you are good to go! Ill post again once I have an idea on the targe...(truncated)...
New Project and Project Server support site for you to bookmark
(Indexed 2012-10-29):
With the release of 2013 we have a new support home page for Project and Project Server. This covers not just the new release, but also features 2010 and 2007. [Image] This is the place to find all you support options both self help and forums as well as the paid support options available.[Image]
PSVR2010: Im sure I added some users to that SharePoint group?
(Indexed 2012-10-24):
Ive been working on a recent case and there have been some in the past that were very similar where a customer had added users to a custom SharePoint group, then later found those same users were gone! We had an idea what could trigger it but this time we managed to nail the root cause and will be requesting a fix from the product group. But first a quick recap of how Project Server and SharePoint permissions play together and it isnt always nicely Project Server will control the membership ...(truncated)...
Project 2013 now available to MSDN Subscribers
(Indexed 2012-10-24):
The Office and SharePoint 2013 products are beginning to appear on the MSDN subscriber download pages - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions , including Project 2013 and SharePoint Server 2013. I guess Project Server 2013 will be following shortly. If you have a subscription then no time like the present to start looking at the new products. Remember, the MSDN Licensing is per-user and is to design, develop, test, or demonstrate not to be used for production use. To give you a head s...(truncated)...
End of the mainstream support road for Project 2007 and Project Server 2007
(Indexed 2012-10-10):
Just catching up on a few recent topics of interest and the first is the end of mainstream support for Project and Project Server 2007 which was yesterday. Christophe blogged about this too - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/chrisfie/archive/2012/10/03/project-...(truncated)... or if you prefer Spanish then Jorge blogged the same at http://blogs.technet.com/b/elfarodeprojectserver/archive/201...(truncated)... This doesnt mean an complete end to support but does mean the Microsoft complimentary supp...(truncated)...
When your Project Server queue slows down
(Indexed 2012-09-19):
There can be a whole load of different reasons why a queue in Project Server might not be processing as fast as you’d like – and after listing a few of them I am going in to detail on one condition we have seen with a few different customers now, under some different scenarios. All of these are equally as applicable to Project Server 2007 as to Project Server 2010 queue processing.1. Poor database maintenance – see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc973097.aspx for P...(truncated)...
Project and Project Server August 2012 Cumulative Update
(Indexed 2012-09-19):
Do you remember as a child the summers seemed to go on forever so it has been in Washington State this year although it started late we still have blue sky and sunshine can it really be August 50th Already? Sorry for the delay on the August 2012 Cumulative update for Project and Project Server 2010 and 2007 but it is finally all released and the links can all be found on the posting over on the Project Administration blog at http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/201...(tru...(truncated)...
PSVR2010: QueueCreateProject using an Enterprise Project Type
(Indexed 2012-07-27):
An interesting question came in this week from a couple of different directions though may have started with the same customer but I learned something new so thought it worthwhile to share. The problem was that when the PSI Project Web Service method QueueCreateProject is used with an Enterprise Project Type (EPT) and that EPT is set to use a project plan template, then the create was failing with an EnterpriseProjectTypeInvalidData error. To be honest I didnt even realize you could use an EPT...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Duplicated Outlook tasks after Exchange SyncJune CU
(Indexed 2012-07-20):
Thought it worth explaining some of the intricacies of the June 2012 Cumulative Update packages, especially for those of you waiting for the fix for the Exchange Sync issue where you see duplicated tasks in Outlook, or are having problems with editing categories in PWA if you have renamed projects in your archive. Maicco e-mailed asking about the Exchange fix and thanks for bringing this to my attention. These two fixes were delivered in the June Cumulative Update cycle, but were not in the def...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: From August 2012 Cumulative Update onwardsyou will also need to load SP1
(Indexed 2012-07-18):
If you havent already of course Some early warning here to allow you to plan for any August 2012 or post August 2012 Cumulative Updates. For SharePoint Server 2010, and Project Server 2010 and the rest of the Office 2010 family you will need to have loaded Service Pack 1 (SP1) before you can install the Cumulative Update. This means really loading SP1 not just relying on the fact that almost all of SP1 has been included in patches since June 2011. If you remember we went through a similar stag...(truncated)...
A New SQL Serverand some different cube building errors
(Indexed 2012-07-03):
At SP1 Project Server 2010 and SharePoint introduced support for SQL Server 2012. I had a question posted on some issues a customer had hit so I thought Id set my server up for building an OLAP cube against SQL Server 2012 just to see if I could. I already knew Id need to set up a few things but as I wanted to see errors I just went for it and started with a PWA instance that built successfully against my SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services machine. My Project Server databases were also in ...(truncated)...
Project and Project Server June 2012 Cumulative Update
(Indexed 2012-07-02):
The June CU is out for Project and Project Server and we have the full details posted at http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/201...(truncated)... Thanks Rob for the information. A couple of quick points worth mentioning: We have a delay on the roll-up package for 2010 so if you usually use the roll-up and need to test Project Server fixes you can do this with the individual package until we get the rebuild hopefully later this week. On the 2007 side the June CU fo...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Reporting (Project Publish) queue job fails to complete
(Indexed 2012-05-23):
This is an issue that several of my readers raised in response to the posting about the orphan baseline posting a few weeks ago, and we know that this is something that more and more customers are now hitting. The problem was introduced with the February 2012 Cumulative Update for Project Server 2007, and was also present in the April CU too so if you have installed either of these and have started seeing Reporting (Project Publish) queue job fails to complete then read on. The symptoms are th...(truncated)...
Project 2010: Problems since the February CU if you have a semi-colon (;) as your list separator
(Indexed 2012-05-16):
In the February Cumulative Update for Project 2010 we fixed an issue described as: You create an .mpp file that was saved from a Project server by using the Save for Sharing command. When you try to resave the .mpp file back to the Project server in Project 2010, the save process fails, and you receive the following error message: Project Server was unable to find the specified resource. If the problem continues, contact your server administrator. This issue occur...(truncated)...
If you didnt get to Phoenix
(Indexed 2012-05-16):
Brian Ru just published a blog post over on the main Project blog announcing the release of all the recorded content from the Project Conference 2012 on the Project Channel of Microsoft Showcase. So if you didnt get to Project Conference 2012 this is a great chance to catch up with all the great content. For good support topics see PC319 and PC349 as recently leaked on this very blog Enjoy![Image]
Troubleshooting sessions from the Project Conference 2012
(Indexed 2012-05-03):
Just noticed that the Microsoft Project channel on Microsoft Showcase is hosting the sessions that Adrian and I did at this year’s Project Conference. We covered a few different scenarios and tools that we use in our day to day jobs.We presented in two parts – part one was called PC319 and can be found at http://aka.ms/uhuix1 and part two was PC349 and can be found at http://aka.ms/frd1nl. Other sessions are available too.I might also try and embed these – so they may appear ...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Orphan baselines breaking the reporting publish
(Indexed 2012-05-01):
This problem has been around for a while and I know some customers were running into it very soon after the release, but we had been struggling to get a repro and understand exactly what was causing it. We now understand the root cause and have a fix coming hopefully in the June 2012 Cumulative Update for Project Professional 2010 (no promises but that is the current target) and there are some ways of working that can limit your chances of running into this so decided we should share this to a...(truncated)...
Microsoft Project Server and SharePoint Server 2007 and 2010 April 2012 CU Announcement
(Indexed 2012-04-30):
In case you missed it over on the Admin blog site the April CU announcement went out last week. This covers the April 2012 Cumulative Update (CU) for Microsoft Project 2010, Microsoft Project Server 2010, Microsoft Office Project 2007 and Microsoft Project Server 2007. More details see http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/201...(truncated)... The Project Server 2010 April 2012 CU also includes the fix for the duplicate Custom Field problem (unknown error in Project Center ...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: An unknown error in Project Center, usually related to filters and duplicate custom field values
(Indexed 2012-04-16):
The fix for this frequently hit bug was released KB 2598251, and now the KB article at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2598251 has been updated to include the SQL scripts that will clean up the duplicate values that lead to the error. These scripts will correct the data, and the fix will stop the condition returning. The fix itself has a version number of 14.0.6117.5002 and if you load the February CU rollup package with this same version number then you will also get the fix. The single Projec...(truncated)...
Project 2010: Problems with installing, setup or activation?
(Indexed 2012-03-28):
The initial installation, setup and activation of Microsoft Project can raise issues and we see quite a few calls on this topic, so wanted to put together some links that might help and save you having to call Microsoft. Often the issue relates to a clash of versions or skus, and sometimes it may be due to a version of Office that came pre-loaded the Office 2010 Starter. Hopefully these links will help along with links to resolve common issues such as a message about invalid product keys, or ...(truncated)...
Microsoft Project Conference 2012
(Indexed 2012-03-23):
Just back in the office after a great conference. It was a pleasure to meet up with so many people who read the blog some I have known many years and others I have only known through e-mail or the forums and yet others I was meeting for the first time. Thanks also to Christophe and his team for putting together what one of our partners described to me on the plane home as the best Project Conference ever! It was wonderful to see such an active partner expo area with some cool add-ons, solution...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Slow load times of PWA and SharePoint pages
(Indexed 2012-03-06):
Thanks to a couple of my European support colleagues for sharing this one, which I know could also affect many of our customers world-wide if they are running servers that are not internet connected. Great work by Jorge Puig Altozano from our Project support team in Madrid, and special thanks (and all the credit - according to Jorge) to Hector Calvarro for the SharePoint team also in Madrid. If Spanish is your preferred language then read on at http://blogs.technet.com/b/elfarodeprojectserver/a...(truncated)...
February 2012 Cumulative Update Announced for Project and Project Server 2010 and 2007
(Indexed 2012-02-29):
Take a look over at http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/201...(truncated)... for the full details of the release, and thanks to Rob for pulling the details together and of course to the engineering team for all their hard work on getting things fixed! There will be a slight delay with the SharePoint Server and the roll-up packages, due w/c March 5th 2012. As mentioned in the Admin blog please also sign up for the Webcast, and dont forget to join early if you havent attended...(truncated)...
Microsoft Project Conference 2012: What do you want to hear?
(Indexed 2012-01-30):
Myself and Adrian Jenkins are attending and presenting at the Project Conference 2012, March 19th to the 22nd in Phoenix Arizona and will be delivering a couple of the sessions. The sessions are planned to be one about the February 2012 Cumulative Update for Project and Project Server, and the other one will be a guide to troubleshooting Project Server looking at some of the tools we use in support to help identify issues. But if there are some specific scenarios or tools that you are especiall...(truncated)...
December 2011 CU Webcast: Questions and Answers
(Indexed 2012-01-30):
Sorry for the delay in getting this posting out. Vacation and an unusual amount of snow are a couple of the excuses, and if you missed the webcast then you can view here - https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/mseventsbmo/view?id=103249396...(truncated)... if you are thinking of watching this or future TechNet webcasts then I’ll remind you that you will need the Live Meeting client install which can be obtained from here http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/CD010254990.aspx. – but ...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Operation still processingdont shoot the messenger
(Indexed 2011-12-29):
Decided to make this post as we have been getting quite a few questions about this dialog Operation still processing. [Image] It can occur in various places within Project Web App and in my case I have made it appear in Project Center by creating a new project based on an Enterprise Project Type (called Large) that is using a project template which has around 2500 tasks. In this case the full text says The Create operation has been queued, but is taking longer than expected to process. T...(truncated)...
Project 2010: Events now raised by changes in Project Information dialog
(Indexed 2011-12-20):
This will be the first of a couple of postings about some changes in behavior that you might see once you install the December Cumulative updates. This one is specifically about the client, and the Project Information dialog. In the past if you changed a field value within the Project Information dialog then this would not raise the ProjectBeforeTaskChange or ProjectDeforeTaskChange2 events. The values in Project Information relate to the project summary task (Task 0) and in Project 2007 thes...(truncated)...
December Cumulative Update Announced for Project and Project Server 2010 and 2007
(Indexed 2011-12-14):
Take a look over at http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/201...(truncated)... for the full details. Also dont forget the webcast in January giving you the inside scoop on what we are delivering in these Cumulative Updates. TechNet Webcast: Information about Microsoft Project and Project Server December 2011 Software Update (Level 200) https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=...(truncated)... A couple of my favorite fixes the correction of an earl...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Problems with ActiveX Controls after loading the October 2011 CU
(Indexed 2011-11-16):
Hi All, it appears we have some issues around the download of ActiveX controls for the Project Center and other pages in Project Web Access for Project Server 2007 after loading the October 2011 Cumulative Update. Thanks to Alex for his work on this one and especially to Marc for for quickly coming up with a temporary fix. We are already working on an update to resolve this issue but for now Marcs fix will help you overcome the problem. The symptom will be that you are given a message to downl...(truncated)...
Q and A following the recent October Cumulative Update Webcast
(Indexed 2011-11-14):
(Managed to hit a key combination in Windows Live Writer that posted this half way through – sorry if this is a duplicate…)Thanks to everyone who attended the webcast covering details of the Project and Project Server 2007 and 2010 cumulative updates for October 2011 – as well as some brief comments on Project and Project Server 2007 SP3. The recorded webcast can be viewed here - https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=...(truncated)... Mark your calendar...(truncated)...
Microsoft Project Server and SharePoint 2007 and 2010 October CU 2011 over on the Admin blog
(Indexed 2011-11-02):
The Cumulative updates for October 2011 for both the 2007 and 2010 versions have now been released. Full details over on the admin blog at http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/201...(truncated)... Ive also included the usual details on the 2007 CU which was released last week (The packages containing SharePoint Foundation were withdrawn and re-released earlier this week). Enjoy![Image]
Project 2003: Service Pack 3 (SP3) and the October 2011 Cumulative Update (CU)
(Indexed 2011-10-28):
Ive posted over on the admin blog - http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/201...(truncated)... so go there for more details. *** Update just heard there are a couple of issues being investigated with the 2007 Office packages this affects the MOSS Server package 2596540 (which is the roll up that also includes the Project Server 2007 fix below), and a Project 2007 fix that was specifically aimed at implementations of Project 2007 and Office 2010 where Visual Reports would no...(truncated)...
Project 2007: Service Pack 3 (SP3) and the October 2011 Cumulative Update (CU)
(Indexed 2011-10-28):
*** Update - thanks to all who corrected me on the title - don't know how many times I must have read that and not noticed - yes, this is for 2007 and not 2003... ***I’ve posted over on the admin blog - http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/201...(truncated)... so go there for more details.*** Update – just heard there are a couple of issues being investigated with the 2007 Office packages – this affects the MOSS Server package 2596540 (which is the roll up t...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: August Cumulative Update package hotfix re-released
(Indexed 2011-10-18):
Pink Floyd are not the only ones re-releasing their back catalog this month we have re-released the SharePoint Foundation 2010 August Cumulative Update. As this is also contained in the roll-up packages then these too have been re-released. Unfortunately the title of the Project Server package has also been updated to reflect this new release date and it could make it look like the October Cumulative update released early so take care! The re-released Project Server package at http://support....(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Dont Trash the Cache!
(Indexed 2011-10-11):
I was going to use the title asking why are people still deleting the cache? until my colleague Corrie came up with this much better one! Rather than asking why you are still doing it I am telling you not to! I know there is a lot of history behind this one, and for those of you that used Project Server 2007 in its early days there were some challenges such as the check-in pending saga that got people in to the habit of deleting the project cache. We fixed the problem, then we fixed it again (...(truncated)...
Project Server: Post SP1 Cumulative Update Webcast Series
(Indexed 2011-09-27):
In a little over an hour, at 8:00 AM PST, the first of the post SP1 webcasts will start presented by Adrian Jenkins and me. The SP1 webcast delivered in July also included coverage of the June Cumulative Update. We will be talking about both Project Professional and Project Server, and the 2007 and 2010 releases. Here is the link for the August 2011 Cumulative Update TechNet webcast titled Information about Microsoft Project and Project Server August 2011 Software Update - https://msevents.mic...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Installing Project Server to an existing SharePoint Server farm
(Indexed 2011-09-13):
I know that unless you load all the bits before running the Configuration Wizard then you will always add Project Server to an existing SharePoint Server farm but in this blog I am specifically talking about adding Project Server to a farm that has been up and running for a while and potentially has Service Packs and Cumulative updates loaded. The best way to do this is to create a slipstream installation and there are plenty of resources out there that explain this process but basically yo...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Are your prints from PWA blank? Try turning off IE compatibility.
(Indexed 2011-09-08):
Quick posting today we had a customer seeing issues when printing from the Project Web App schedule web part where if they went over a certain number of rows (around 42 spooky!) the printed page was blank (although the pop-up with just the grid displayed for printing looked just fine). This was after seeing this warning which is expected when you are printing a grid of more than 30 rows: Print Warning - There are more than 30 records in the current grid. Preparing the print page for this man...(truncated)...
Project Server: August CU Released for 2007 and 2010
(Indexed 2011-09-01):
Full story over on Microsoft Project Server and SharePoint 2007 and 2010 August CU 2011 Announcement and a slight delay on the server rollup packages for 2010 (a week or so), but the Project and Project Server 2010 package is there if you are waiting on a fix and want to get started on your testing. Dont forget SP1 too! More details of SP1 can be found at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/project/archive/2011/06/28/announcin...(truncated)... and the downloads listed at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2510...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Timesheets - Where do Personal Tasks come from?
(Indexed 2011-08-31):
If you have the setting to allow personal tasks to be added to the timesheet then they of course could come from the user. But what about the ones that havent been entered by the user and appear to have the same name as tasks that were in projects that they had already started work on? We have had a few questions on this behavior so thought it worth a blog posting. So here is my timesheet and I have 5 tasks in the Project BriSmith TS Blog project, and Ive spent an hour on each so Ive entered ...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: SharePoint Permissions in upgraded PWA instances
(Indexed 2011-08-23):
I was reviewing a case yesterday and just checking the behavior of SharePoint permissions in Project Web App after an upgrade from 2007 to 2010 either in place or a 5 database thought this might be useful information to blog about. In 2007 in the Project Web Access site the users would be added directly to the site with SharePoint permissions based on their roles. These permission levels were identifiable by their names which would be like Project Managers (Microsoft Office Project Server). ...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Can I delay running the SharePoint Configuration Wizard?
(Indexed 2011-08-23):
In SharePoint 2010 when you upgrade to a new Cumulative Update or Service Pack this involves two main steps first is loading the binaries, and the second is running the SharePoint Server 2010 configuration wizard (psconfig or psconfigui). SharePoint supports delaying the running of the configuration wizard or even detaching content databases while running the wizard, so that these perhaps slow parts of the process can be managed in a more timely fashion. If you look at a SharePoint farm that is...(truncated)...
Microsoft Project 2010: Cumulative Update Version Blog Updated
(Indexed 2011-08-22):
Just for reference I have added the April and June CU information, and some notes around SP1 versions, to the on-going blog post at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/brismith/archive/2010/09/23/how-to-t...(truncated)... [Image]
Microsoft Project Server and SharePoint 2007 and 2010 June CU 2011 announcement over on the Project Administration Blog
(Indexed 2011-08-22):
Better late than never. We realized (with a nudge from Treb) that we hadnt posted the normal announcement so now we have over at Microsoft Project Server and SharePoint 2007 and 2010 June CU 2011 announcement.[Image]
Project Server 2010: Portfolio AnalysesHow are equal priority projects chosen for resourcing?
(Indexed 2011-08-19):
A bit of fun for Friday afternoon. A question came via the forums on the subject of Portfolio Analysis in Project Server 2010 and how a decision would be made on the allocation of resources if the projects had exactly the same priority. Firstly there is no real optimization logic in the resourcing part of the analysis most of the heavy lifting happens in the cost analysis where other metrics can also be taken into account. In terms of the resourcing this just happens in order of priority so t...(truncated)...
The Mystery Behind SharePoint 2010 Patching
(Indexed 2011-08-12):
I came across this great posting from Jie Li while looking around Stefan Goners blog at http://blogs.technet.com/b/stefan_gossner/ and thought it would make interesting reading for the Project audience too. One word of caution first Jie Li mentions the well known SharePoint practice of detaching content databases while applying patches so that you can upgrade them at your leisure later once you have re-attached them. Project Server databases (Archive, Draft, Published and Reporting) ARE NOT co...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: How to best manage large numbers of resources
(Indexed 2011-08-10):
This posting follows on from the one yesterday concerning how Project Server makes use of SharePoint permissions and features but concentrates on some potential issues you can run into if you have a very large user base and also have projects that have very large teams. We are also authoring a TechNet article explaining this in more depth I will add a link once it is published. This isnt going in to the usage of the RBS or the other internal feature but concentrates more on the technical issu...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Where did my SharePoint list notifications go?
(Indexed 2011-08-09):
In Project Server 2010, and in 2007 too for that matter, Project Server manages the setting of permissions on the various SharePoint sites used for Project Server. So for example when you add a user to Project Web App (PWA) they will also be added with the right permissions to the PWA site itself. If you then add them to a project then depending on your settings they would also get added to the SharePoint site for that specific project plan enabling them to use the Issues, Risks and document fe...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Benign OWSTimer unhandled exception popup System.Security.Cryptographic.CryptographicException
(Indexed 2011-07-18):
Thanks to Paul Andrew for his permission to re-post this issue for the Project Server audience. Probably not everyone has Visual Studio on their Project Server 2010 system but I know I do, and get this error regularly (every 24 hours as Paul mentions and have heard of this issue from others too. It will also pop up when you run the configuration wizard too, so with SP1 and the June CU out I thought it worth bringing this to your attention. Here is the reason and some potential workarounds. Tha...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Problems when bulk editing too many resources
(Indexed 2011-07-15):
I came upon this bug while working on my earlier posting regarding Reporting Database Refresh http://blogs.msdn.com/b/brismith/archive/2011/07/14/project-...(truncated)... and specifically trying to bulk edit lots of resources at once in the Resource Center. It appears we throw a very complex and large query over to SQL and it has some issues parsing it. The failure is pretty silent for the user who just gets the Resource Center page back and might assume everything worked ok. However there wi...(truncated)...
Some blog updates to my site to make the most of IE 9
(Indexed 2011-07-15):
Some of you may have noticed that my blog now prompts if you want to pin it to your Task Bar and then it will also give you some Jump List items to go to the recent posts directly, or over to the Project Administration blog. I hope you find this useful. If you havent seen these features or the prompt then perhaps you are not running IE 9? Or have IE 9 running in compatibility mode? Now is the time to take a look! You can either use the prompt in the floating bar or just drag the tab down to you...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Reporting Database Refresh failing with large resource pools
(Indexed 2011-07-14):
If you have a large(ish) resource pool, with over about 1500 resources then you may run in to an issue with the Reporting Database Refresh not completing correctly with the initial symptom that many of the Reporting (Resource Sync) and all of the Reporting (Project Sync) jobs may just say Cancelled and if you click through to the errors from the queue you will see: Reporting message processor failed: ReportingResourceChangeMessageFailed (24008) - A RDS message that was spawned durin...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: SP1 and June CU Questions and Answers
(Indexed 2011-07-11):
Firstly I should announce that the ‘refreshed’ version of the June 2011 Cumulative Updates are now live on the support site. If you downloaded an earlier version then please get the latest – same URLs, but you will see a revised date (for example on the Project Server 2010 server package that also includes SharePoint Foundation and SharePoint Server http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2536600 you will now see “Article ID: 2536600 - Last Review: July 11, 2011 - Revision: 4.0&...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: SP1 and June 2011 CUFormatException when trying to provision a PWA site
(Indexed 2011-07-06):
Thanks to everyone who joined Adrian and I for this mornings webcast we sure covered a lot of stuff (well mostly Adrian with the June CU update). For those who couldnt attend you can listen to the recording https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?culture=...(truncated)... One thing I mentioned towards the end was a bug that both Adrian and I had seen since loading SP1 and the June Cumulative Update around provisioning PWA sites if you had more than one web application to choose fr...(truncated)...
April 2011 Project Cumulative Updates
(Indexed 2011-04-29):
Ive just posted the links to the April CU (April 2011 Cumulative Updates for Project and SharePoint Servers) - http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/201...(truncated)... At this very moment there is still one KB, the one for 2010 rollup package that isnt published, but it should be live soon. It is always good to wait for the KB so that you know exactly what we are delivering but if you just cant wait the shortcut to getting to the download is to put the KB number into this s...(truncated)...
Microsoft Project at TechEd 11
(Indexed 2011-04-16):
Reading Christophes post http://blogs.msdn.com/b/chrisfie/archive/2011/04/14/who-is-n...(truncated)... has reminded me that I have not yet told you all that I too will be at TechEd 11, in Atlanta May 16th to 19th so I am telling you now. My session will be an interactive one, but I will be relying on some of you guys for the interaction. The title is Best Practices Troubleshooting Microsoft Project Server 2010 Deployments and I intend to talk about the tools, tips and tricks that can help you g...(truncated)...
Updated Cumulative Update reference for Project Server 2010 now available
(Indexed 2011-03-31):
Ive just updated the running blog post that give the version numbers to identify the specific release of Project Server 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 you have loaded - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/brismith/archive/2010/09/23/how-to-t...(truncated)... This now includes the February 2011 Cumulative Update for Project Server including the link to the published KB on the roll-up which can be found at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2475879. One quick reminder there are other packages which can be ...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: & another unknown error
(Indexed 2011-03-21):
I posted a while back about Unknown Errors http://blogs.msdn.com/b/brismith/archive/2010/07/02/project-...(truncated)... in various places in project & here is another one. Thanks to Peter Drahos at Harvard University (via Treb) for sharing this problem and resolution, and sorry this one slipped through our testing and caused you so much wasted time searching for the problem. If you try and add a task to a timesheet (Insert Row), and use a Line Classification that has an ampersand (&) [Image] ...(truncated)...
Project Server: Support Status for Internet Explorer 9 - IE9
(Indexed 2011-03-15):
Christophe has posted over on the Project Administration blog at http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/201...(truncated)... regarding the support status for Project Server 2007 and Project Server 2010, as well as Project Portfolio Server 2007. In brief yes it is supported on the latest service packs of each product. If you are running Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) and run into problems then please review Christophes posting to see if you have hit a known issue (currently some ce...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Creating Projects from a template in PWA or via PSI
(Indexed 2011-03-04):
One question that came up recently was around the different behavior when starting from the same template but creating a new plan in Project Professional 2010 or in PWA through the Project Center or via the Project Web Service Method CreateProjectFromTemplate. PWA created projects will be the same as the PSI created projects and the behavior is very well described in the Remarks section of the SDK article on the Project.CreateProjectFromTemplate method at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Check your Timesheet filters before turning Single Entry Mode Off
(Indexed 2011-03-01):
Changing Single Entry Mode (SEM) isnt going to be an every day occurrence for most customers so hopefully not too many people will run in to this one but it can take a while to work out what has happened to your tasks if you do happen to get caught out by this one. If you have Single Entry Mode enabled in Project Server 2010 you have the option to filter the tasks that you see in your timesheet so you can choose to see All Incomplete Tasks, Overdue Tasks, Newly Assigned Tasks or Completed Task...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Language Pack Update
(Indexed 2011-02-11):
A quick revisit to the Language Pack topic and a clarification on which languages work with Project Server 2010 and what do I mean by work In 2007 there were some SharePoint language packs that were not supported with Project Server and these could cause issues. In 2010 there is still a distinction, but now we do support all the languages that SharePoint support, but the level of functionality varies. We now have the languages that will allow you to see Project menus in the localised language,...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Common Project Web App (PWA) Provisioning Problems
(Indexed 2011-02-07):
This post rounds up a few of the more common issues that customers run into either when provisioning a new Project Server 2010 Project Web App (PWA) site or more commonly when provisioning a site against a set of existing databases (either 2007 or 2010 databases). As you should know by now Project Server 2010 supports provisioning against a full set of 5 existing databases the usual 4 project ones (Archive, Draft, Published and Reporting) and also the Content DB that contains a the PWA site y...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Take care changing custom fields to allow multiple values
(Indexed 2011-02-04):
One of the options when setting up a custom field is to allow it to have multiple values selected from the lookup table. There are however some downsides to this, and a recently discovered bug makes one of these downsides a higher risk than it should be. This relates to OLAP cubes and the fact that custom fields with the ability to select multi values cannot be added to cubes. First a reminder of where this value is set: [Image] Problems begin when you wish to change this later to a multipl...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Localization and the SDK Samples
(Indexed 2011-01-21):
We had a support case this week relating to the use of the samples from the SDK on a Spanish version of Project Server 2010. It was possible to work around the initial issues by installing the English version, and applying the Spanish language pack but this isnt an ideal combination if Spanish is the desired main language as certain things will always display in the the core language and in this case English. The biggest issue for the customer was that even with the Spanish language pack the l...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Permission problem when accepting New Task requests
(Indexed 2011-01-21):
This probably isnt a very common scenario but you may run in to it. In My Tasks a resource has the ability to request a new task on any of the projects they are working on (Insert Row, Create a New Task). This request goes to the project owner (as there isnt the concept of a status manager for a task that doesnt yet exists. However, if before it gets accepted the project owner changes we get into a strange condition. If the new project owner goes to one of these new task requests in their Appro...(truncated)...
Project Professional 2007: COM Exception when using TimeScaleValue method
(Indexed 2010-12-16):
The Project Professional 2007 TimeScaleValue object can result in a COM exception, or other crash, if used several times in quick succession. Reference to this method can be found at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa195549(office.11).aspx.The error may be: AutomationException: 0x800a03ec - An unexpected error occurred with the method – but depending where you are using the methodand which language you are using you will get different wording and HEX code.Calling the TimeScaleData...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010 The Fab 40 Strike Again!
(Indexed 2010-12-06):
Regular readers may remember the bad things that happened in Project Server 2007 if you loaded the SharePoint (WSS) templates known as the Fab 40 - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/brismith/archive/2007/12/03/project-...(truncated)... and more specifically the ProjectTrackingWorkspace solution. Well it is still possible to load some of the Fab 40 with SharePoint Server 2010 and again things arent so Fabulous for Project Server, so please please avoid the ProjectTrackingWorkspace.wsp. Not sure how this ...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: October Cumulative Update now re-released!
(Indexed 2010-11-18):
Ive updated the earlier postings, but wanted to do a quick post to make sure this news gets out to my RSS subscribers. Both the Project Server 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 October Cumulative Updates that were withdrawn have been revised and re-released. The KB numbers stayed the same, 2394320 and 2394322, but the document version is now 2.0 and the patch version is 14.0.5128.5003. See the revised article at http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/201...(truncated)...
Project 2010: To save or not to save saving and undo
(Indexed 2010-11-15):
In Microsoft Project, both 2007 and 2010, we have multi level undo. One way this is used by many customers is for what-if work change things around and see what affect this has on the schedule then use multi-level undo to get back to the starting scenario. If you use it in this way then there is another feature of Project you should know about and avoid: Auto-Save. The behavior of undo, auto-save and save is different in Project than other Microsoft applications. Project clears the undo buffe...(truncated)...
Project Server: October CU for Project and SharePoint 2007 and 2010 released!
(Indexed 2010-10-28):
The October Cumulative Update for both the 2007 and 2010 versions of Project, Project Server and SharePoint Server is now available. See the posting over at http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/201...(truncated)... for the full details, and dont forget the Webcast on November 9th with Adrian Jenkins and me. Tuesday, November 09, 2010 8:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada), TechNet Webcast: Information About Microsoft Project and Project Server Cumulative October Update Don...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Why was the August CU smaller than the June CU?
(Indexed 2010-10-21):
Thanks to Guillaume from TPG for pointing this out, and for Rob for digging out the answer. Our cumulative update for August was considerably smaller than the one for June. How come? Its cumulative isn’t it? Doesn’t it just get bigger? Well the change that happened with the August release – and all future Project Server 2007 and MOSS 2007 cumulative updates is that they require SP2. Another way this requirement may show up is if you try to load the CU and then you get a m...(truncated)...
Project Server: Updating and Deleting Custom Fields using the PSI
(Indexed 2010-10-05):
Following on from my posting on adding custom fields http://blogs.msdn.com/b/brismith/archive/2010/08/25/project-...(truncated)... I had a few questions on changing fields or deleting them. So here are a couple of short samples that follow the same code from the previous sample and show how to update a task level custom field and also to delete a custom field. In my sample I have hard-coded the GUID for my project and for my custom field. And my project just has one task, so in the real world y...(truncated)...
Microsoft Project Momentum 2010 Ill be there!
(Indexed 2010-10-05):
Yes, they are letting me out! I get to go to Momentum and will be presenting in the Technical Track. See Christophes post for full details - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/chrisfie/archive/2010/10/05/microsof...(truncated)... Hope to meet some of you there. [Image][Image]
How to tell which Cumulative Update, Hotfix or Service Pack version of Project Server 2010 and Project 2010 you are running
(Indexed 2010-09-23):
Ill get this information into a KB article too, and Ill also try and keep this posting up to date as we release each cumulative update or service pack for Project Server 2010 and Project 2010. If you are not reading this at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/brismith then you may be reading out of date information! The version can be different depending where you look, so I will tabulate the version you will see in Control Panel, Programs and Features (binary version) or on the individual binaries which ...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Applied August CU and having problems with JSGrid?
(Indexed 2010-09-17):
Thanks to Donald for his forum posting and Marius for his swift response highlighting the resolution to this one. If you have loaded the August CU for Project Server 2010 KB 2276341, but have not loaded either the SharePoint Foundation 2010 August CU (KB 2266423), or any of the rollup packages (KB 2352346, KB 2352342 or KB 2352345) then you will get an error loading the schedule web part and drilling down into a project - or other pages that us the JSGrid. The error will be this one: The view f...(truncated)...
How to determine if you have Project Standard or Project Professional
(Indexed 2010-09-16):
This is a question that often comes up internally, and is certainly easy to answer if you are looking at the software, particularly with the differences between Standard and Professional in 2010 (see the Version Comparison), but the question usually relates to software audits when companies are trying to find out what is deployed. The project executable is always going to be winproj.exe so no clue there, but the registry will give the answer. There is a KB article that documents the entries you ...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Business Intelligence CenterCommon Errors
(Indexed 2010-09-16):
This follows on from the posting on the structure of the Business Intelligence Center in Project Server 2010 - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/brismith/archive/2010/08/24/project-...(truncated)... and covers a few of the possible errors you might run in to. For Project Server 2007 one of my most read, or at least most viewed and commented pages was Common Error Messages when Building Cubes with Project Server 2007. I think with the architecture of 2010 we resolve many of those cube building difficultie...(truncated)...
Project Server: Keeping up with TechNet and MSDN RSS is the answer!
(Indexed 2010-09-15):
There is plenty of excellent content on TechNet and MSDN about Project and Project Server, and it is updated regularly. To keep up with the updates what better than the RSS feed!Newly published content for Project Server 2010 - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc197692.aspx and [Image] This list is also available in an RSS feed (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=186461) Newly published content for Project Server 2007 - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc197692(office.1...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: SDK Update Available
(Indexed 2010-09-15):
Great work by Jim on the September update of the Project 2010 SDK - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/project_programmability/archive/2010...(truncated)... You can either get the download or the online version. Its nice to have the download as it gives you the sample code and a bunch of other reference material, but check the online too, as it may have some new stuff since you downloaded - and community content. My favorite new and updated topics plenty of good things on custom fields and lookup tables...(truncated)...
Project Server: Why dont my OLAP reports show my baselines correctly?
(Indexed 2010-09-10):
A quick posting to finish the week and one that has some history In the dim and distant past (perhaps as long ago as Project Server 2002) when I first joined the support team I remember this being one of my first cases. The answer hasnt changed through to Project Server 2007 and Project Server 2010, and we do not appear to have done a good job in documenting this. So here goes. There will be circumstances when your OLAP reports from the Business Intelligence center do not match what Project Pro...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Scheduling on the Web, the PSI and Project Professional
(Indexed 2010-09-10):
There is an excellent article on the Web-based capabilities of Project 2010 at http://www.microsoft.com/project/en/us/project-server-2010-e...(truncated)... which does a schedule management comparison of Project Web App (PWA) 2010 compared to Project Professional 2010. The comparison chart is available as a download, and has six pages of bullet points detailing what works in both PWA and Project Professional, what has some limitations in PWA and what can only be done in Project Professional. [I...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: August Cumulative Updates
(Indexed 2010-09-03):
The August Cumulative Update (August CU) was released for Project Server 2010 earlier this week and I just wanted to highlight some changes in the packaging of the 2010 server rollups compared to the 2007 server rollups. The full set of server rollup packages is: Server Rollup Packages: Description of the SharePoint Foundation 2010 Cumulative Update Server Hotfix Package (SharePoint Foundation server-package): August 31, 2010 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2352346 Descript...(truncated)...
Project Server: August 2010 Cumulative Updates for 2007 and 2010 now live!
(Indexed 2010-09-01):
I posted over on the Project Administration blog - http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/201...(truncated)... but the basic info for Microsoft Office Project Server 2007, Microsoft Office Project 2007, Microsoft Project Server 2010 and Microsoft Project 2010 is listed below. See the Project Administration blog for full details of the new Server Rollup these have changed between 2007 and 2010! and also the installation and deployment guidelines and links. 2007 Individu...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: OLAPwhere are my Custom Field Dimensions and Measures?
(Indexed 2010-09-01):
This question comes up reasonably frequently I have added dimensions and measures to my cube but do not see them. Where are they? The answer has a few slight variations, and depends which cubes you are expecting to see them in and how those cubes are constructed. Most of this also applies to 2007 (apart from the department issue) but this is written with 2010 in mind. The first thing to note is the text on the configuration page for the cubes: Cube Dimensions Specify the custom fields y...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Copying custom Project site templates across instances
(Indexed 2010-08-30):
Interesting question came in today via the blog on my previous customization topic at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/brismith/archive/2010/03/15/customiz...(truncated)... and thought it worth a broader response, as it wasnt something I had really thought about If you follow the directions at that blog then you can use the custom template in that PWA instance but what about in other instances or web apps or indeed other farms? I played around a little and it is somewhat similar to the process in 2007 ...(truncated)...
Project Server: Resource Plans and the PSI
(Indexed 2010-08-27):
I was doing some investigations this week on the Resource Plans Web Service and want to share this as it probably gives more information than we have in the SDK currently or at least pulls it together. The example I will be working towards is adding a resource to a resource plan, along with an assignment within that resource plan. My work was specifically with 2007, but as far as the dataset manipulation is concerned this applies equally to Project Server 2010. But first a quick look round the...(truncated)...
Project Server: A few AD Sync Gotchas
(Indexed 2010-08-26):
Thanks to Jon and Mark on our team for this article on ADSync. Sometimes there are lingering questions around Project Server and Active Directory Sync or specific scenarios to watch for that aren't documented. One of the biggest of these is something we've come to call AD GUID mismatches. This is when a user being synchronized has the exact same email address, SAM account and display name as a user already in the Project Server database, however, the AD GUIDs don't match. We've seen this from t...(truncated)...
Project Server: Adding Custom Fields to Projects and Tasks using the PSI
(Indexed 2010-08-25):
This is a long time coming, prompted by a question on the forums http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/project2010...(truncated)... and a promise I made in my blog from 2007 http://blogs.msdn.com/b/brismith/archive/2007/12/06/setting-...(truncated)... This was created targeting Project Server 2007, but there should be no issues using the exact same approach with Project Server 2010. I have built this around the SDK LoginDemo sample, and just added to the btnCreateProject_Click met...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Business Intelligence Center Behind the Scenes
(Indexed 2010-08-24):
In this posting I wanted to take a look at the structure behind the Business Intelligence Center in Project Server 2010 so that hopefully if you run in to any issues you can work out what might be wrong. This adds to the TechNet article on configuring reporting at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee662106.aspx which includes some great videos, and also Trebs blog posting on troubleshooting reporting problems http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/200...(truncated)... ...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Reporting using Excel Compared to Office Web Components
(Indexed 2010-08-20):
One of out early adopter customers noticed this different behavior between Office Web Components (OWC) and Excel, when connected to the same Analysis Services cube, so thought I would share to hopefully save others some head scratching and offer a (lame) workaround. As OWC is no longer used in Project Server 2010 we expect many users will now have Excel as a main part of their reporting story so worth understanding what is going on here. The issue comes from the fact that OWC and Excel pull the...(truncated)...
Project Server: Flag fields why cant I make them required?
(Indexed 2010-08-12):
We have had a couple of questions recently relating to this, so thought Id post some explanation. In Project Server 2007 we hid the option to make flag custom fields required as soon as you selected a custom field type of Flag. In 2010 we just greyed out the option, which might be what has raised awareness of this one. A Flag field has just two values. Yes or no. (no that wasnt a question but the answer). By default the value is set to No. If the user wants to they can change to Yes. But it wil...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: 5 DB Restore and Provision cannot be used within the same farm to clone a PWA site
(Indexed 2010-08-11):
I know of a few customers who have tried this, and it seems as though it should work, but for the way SharePoint references objects. Even if you try to clone your PWA into a new web application you will have problems. The first issue is when you try to attach a content database to one web application that has been backed up and restored with a new database name. The error you get will look like this: [Image] Now the first part of the text in the error gives a potential workaround: The atta...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Integration with Team Foundation Server 2010
(Indexed 2010-08-06):
I know many of you have been waiting for this, and I missed the original posting just as I went on holiday. TFS 2010 supported integration with Project Standard 2010 and Project Professional 2010, but now there is a CTP release demonstrating the integration between Team Foundation Server 2010 and Project Server 2010. Much more detail available on bharrys blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bharry/archive/2010/07/06/tfs-2010-s...(truncated)... but briefly there is a download of the CTPand a forum to ...(truncated)...
SharePoint Server 2010: Accidentally stopped your Central Administration service? Start it again with PowerShell!
(Indexed 2010-08-04):
OK, I had one of those days yesterday. I was working on my various servers and Hyper-V images to get them all patched and also wanted to update my SQL Server, but rather than shut down my Project Server 2010 application server I thought Id just stop all the service in Central Administration. Including Central Administration itself If you havent tried that one then you will go from this: [Image] to this, when you click Stop. [Image] Excellent! A chance to learn some more PowerShell, as I was ...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: I passed exam 70-177, Microsoft Project Server 2010, Configuring
(Indexed 2010-08-02):
Joined Christophe, and many of my support colleagues who have already passed the configuring exam for Project Server 2010 70-177. As Christophe mentioned, the TechNet resources and the early books from Gary, Dale and Tony at msProjectExperts and from Rolly Perreaux, will certainly help you get through with top marks. Nothing beats playing with the product though, to get you past those tricky questions were the answer is obvious or is it? For full details of the exam, and how to take it visit ...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010Server CU released, and other topical news
(Indexed 2010-07-27):
Been quiet on the blogging front as I have been on vacation, enjoying the delights of Greece and France! Now back and nearly caught up on e-mail and see they saved the release of the SharePoint Server Server CU for my return. Christophe posted the link on the Admin blog at http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/201...(truncated)... so I wont repeat everything. Other good posts while I was away: Jans excellent coverage of the Project Portfolio Server 2007 to Project Server ...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: An unknown error has occurred in Project Center, Resource Center or Tasks
(Indexed 2010-07-02):
Thanks to my friends at one of our great TAP partners for this resolution. I love it when customers solve their own problems, and love it even more when they tell me about it so I can tell you. Happy to give them credit for the resolution too but only when I hear back from them that they are ok with the glory The error is in red text where the grid should be and isnt a normal pop-up that youd expect from SharePoint, but just text. This appears on the Project Center, Resource Center and also T...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Blog Round-Up New TechCenter, some PowerShell stuff and very cool Solution Starters and more!
(Indexed 2010-07-01):
Just in case some of you have missed these great postings, I thought Id put out a round up of recent posts that caught my attention: The refurbished Project 2010 TechCenter on TechNet from Jan - http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/201...(truncated)... The CU Webcast Series (sorry to be missing the first one [Image] - http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/201...(truncated)... Some very cool PowerShell stuff from Christophe on Secure Store configuration -...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: View Failure in Project Center when certain ISO Currency Codes used in published projects
(Indexed 2010-06-30):
This one came to my attention via the TechNet Project Server forums http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/pr...(truncated)... (thanks Milen!) and was specifically raised concerning the Bulgarian currency code BGN. If this was used in a project (File, Options, Display, Currency) then published to the server then an error would occur when navigating to Project Center: [Image] Pressing OK would just repeat the error pressing Cancel would enable you to choose another view and...(truncated)...
June 2010 Cumulative Update (CU) for Project Server 2007, Office SharePoint Server 2007, WSS and Project 2007 now available!
(Indexed 2010-06-30):
I just posted over at the admin blog http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/201...(truncated)... so wont repeat everything here, This is the release of the Office and Office Servers 2007 June 2010 CU, including Project 2007 and Project Server 2007 the release of the June 2010 Cumulative update for the Office 2010 and Office Server 2010 (including Project 2010 and Project Server 2010) will be announced shortly. *** Update *** Also do not forget the upcoming Webcast where Adri...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Cannot create or edit projects in Project Center
(Indexed 2010-06-22):
I am revisiting the topic of my earlier postings on this topic here, and here as Ive since seen a couple of customers running into this, and my earlier posts were really focused on the tools (PowerShell) to fix the problem rather than the problem itself. So to recap, the symptoms are that you cannot create or edit projects in PWA, and you cannot open Project Details Pages in Server Settings. The error message received will be headed 'Project Fields" for the example of adding a new basic project ...(truncated)...
June Security Hotfix for WSS V3 and Office and Project Server 2007
(Indexed 2010-06-22):
We released a security hot fix in June, that could have an impact on Project Server 2007, though if you have installed February 2010 Cumulative Update or later for SharePoint/Project Server you will have already received this patch so do not need to read on. Microsoft Security Bulletin MS10-039 - Vulnerabilities in Microsoft SharePoint Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (2028554) See also KB979445 -> MS10-039: Description of the security update for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Server Language Pack walkthrough
(Indexed 2010-06-16):
I had a comment from Benno asking about language pack behavior in 2010 compared to 2007 so I though it was time to do a quick run through with some screen shots to show whats changed. As a reminder, the TechNet article is now live at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff700192.aspx and the download site can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=046...(truncated)... Dont forget to change the language in the dropdown on the download page unless you really ju...(truncated)...
Microsoft Project and Project Server Cumulative Update Webcasts
(Indexed 2010-06-16):
Christophe has just blogged about a new webcast series we are starting in July where we will follow up the releases of cumulative updates with background details and time for questions and answers. full details at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/chrisfie/archive/2010/06/16/microsof...(truncated)... but a brief overview and timelines: Webcast Overview Join us for this webcast to get a brief overview of the recently released Microsoft Project and Project Server Cumulative Update (CU). After giving you a...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Virtual Migration EnvironmentEarly tips and tricks
(Indexed 2010-06-16):
Even if you are not migrating from Project server 2003 the Virtual Migration Environment (VME) has something for you! One key point for migration (migration usually refers to 2003 to 2010) or upgrade (2007 to 2010) is that Script 9 should always be run and acted upon. This script identifies some known conditions in your 2007 system and this is just as applicable if you have come through the VME, or are just starting from 2007 and looking to upgrade to 2010. These are the conditions it identifies...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Analysis Services issues when using Reporting Services Add-in for SharePoint
(Indexed 2010-06-15):
My friend Carl posted this as a comment to one of the longer threads on Analysis Services and Project Server with the ActiveX Component Can't Create Object. error but thought it worthy of top billing and a fresh post, as I know others have struggled with this one. Your mileage may vary and I know there are plenty of permutations of versions that might still catch you out but over to Carl; So we resolved our particular issue of installing EPM & configuring CBS into an existing MOSS 2007 / S...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Restoring or Migrating PWA Instances
(Indexed 2010-06-10):
Just a quick posting on this topic pointing out a few of the changes between 2007 and 2010. We have some documents already up on TechNet under the Operations section at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc197578.aspx, but thought this would be a useful posting to make clear what you can and cannot do. In 2007 you could restore your 4 Project Server databases, then point your provision job at these 4 and youd have a new PWA instance using those DBs. If you wanted your workspaces too th...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010 and Exchange Integration a couple of early issues resolved
(Indexed 2010-06-02):
My colleague Mohit has completed some great work on an Exchange integration problem with one of our early 2010 customers. See the results of his work at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mohits/archive/2010/05/29/integratio...(truncated)... . This was a solution in two parts, with one of the issues being the setting of impersonation in Exchange Server 2010, and the requirement to set the scope of the impersonation role with New-ManagementScope and the second was the issue was that if you have multiple ser...(truncated)...
Migration Complete! What do you think of the new blog site?
(Indexed 2010-05-28):
From the stats it looks like normal service has been resumed and the downturn in readership during the migration and re-indexing has turned back up again. So what do you think? I havent decided on the final look and may bring back my brown, cyan and pink colours at some point, but I do like the clean look and feel of the new platform. Ive kept the translate feature and the map and you can also find the links (which I have done some housekeeping on) and the archive and tag cloud. Search will c...(truncated)...
Project Server: A good reason not to run services with accounts with which you log on to your servers
(Indexed 2010-05-24):
Thanks to my colleague Jon Cantrell for this posting. Theres a new trend in Project Server issues were seeing as more users start deploying on Windows Server 2008. There is a change in how Windows handles user profiles that was introduced with Windows Vista and first made it into the server branch of code with Windows Server 2008. The change is that when a user account logs off, their profile is forcibly unloaded. In the past, services or applications that had registry handles or other items st...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: My PWA site thinks it is a Workspace (Site) Revisited
(Indexed 2010-05-18):
I posted a couple of weeks back about this scenario http://blogs.msdn.com/brismith/archive/2010/05/07/project-se...(truncated)... , which can be resolved with PowerShell in 2010, or through the UI in 2007 but it appears there may also be a scenario where the UI does not show the PWA site associated with a project, yet still the rogue properties are set. So without PowerShell you can instead use code to look at, and if necessary remove the values from these properties. A couple of snippets of ...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Language Packs
(Indexed 2010-05-17):
The first set of language packs for Project Server 2010, and SharePoint 2010 and the other family members, have now been posted up to the Download Center at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=046...(truncated)... As for Project Server 2007 there are some that work for SharePoint Server 2010 and Project Server 2010, and a few that are not supported by Project Server 2010. Unsupported just means that you will not get the language you might be expecting but in the short term ...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Migration Help over on the Project Administration Blog (2003 to 2010)
(Indexed 2010-05-14):
Some great work from Treb to get the Virtual Migration Environment (VME) available to assist those customers who will be going from Project Server 2003 to Project Server 2010. In simple terms it is a black box that you put your Project Server 2003 database into one end, and can take Project Server 2007 databases out of the other end ready to upgrade. OK, maybe not quite that easy but saves you having to build up a 2007 system yourselves. See http://blogs.technet.com/projectadministration/archi...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: RTM SDK ReleasedAlso SharePoint 2010 SDK
(Indexed 2010-05-13):
Great work Jim, and the rest of the contributors to the Project Server 2010 Software Development Kit (SDK). One of my favorite additions uses the new slicer feature of Excel 2010 to help you understand what is in the Reporting Database (RDB). This was thanks to Treb, and as an example, if you just want to see what date fields are in the MSP_EpmProject table: [Image] How easy can it get? To summarize all the other good stuff: The Microsoft Project 2010 SDK helps solution providers, value-added...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: TechNet Project Server TechCenter Updated
(Indexed 2010-05-13):
Im really pleased with the amount of content we already have available, and have had available during the Beta. yesterday saw the update of the Project Server 2010 TechCenter at http://technet.com/projectserver. An excellent job by our UA team well done Efren, Mike and Rob! Subscribe to the blog at http://blogs.technet.com/epmcontent/ to keep up to date on the new content as it comes along. Here are some words from Rob on the current content: Current available content for RTM (with much more t...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Today is the day! Virtual Launch
(Indexed 2010-05-12):
Join us at www.the2010event.com to see how Project 2010, built on SharePoint 2010, offers flexibility and choice by providing tailored work management solutions for individuals, teams, and the enterprise. See on-demand sessions led by customers, partners and Microsoft product teams, and participate in live Q&As and blogs. *** Update *** The links were originally reversed. The server link is the 332 one and on first! [Image] Pr...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Demo Virtual Machines
(Indexed 2010-05-10):
A couple of useful references from the other Project blogs: http://blogs.msdn.com/chrisfie/archive/2010/05/08/microsoft-...(truncated)... details the SharePoint Server 2010 and the upcoming (soon if you are reading this on the day of posting) Project Server 2010 installation pack. Go get the SharePoint main image today and then Project can just be added as a small download. Get you HyperV hosting machine ready today. To help you understand the installation process of this Virtual Image pleas...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: My First Fix with PowerShell a PWA site that thought it was also a Workspace
(Indexed 2010-05-07):
I always suspected that the support for PowerShell in SharePoint Server 2010 and also Project Server 2010 would be very significant both for our customers, and for me and my colleagues in the support organization. Yesterday I used PowerShell in earnest and a very simple couple of lines resolved a specific issue. First some terminology changes for 2010 Project Workspaces are now referred to as Project Sites. Behind the scenes little has changed, and these are still site that have specific featu...(truncated)...
Newsgroups are so Yesterday, Forums are the future!
(Indexed 2010-05-05):
Over the course of the second half of 2010 Microsoft are migrating from newsgroup technology over to forums. The full story can be found here - http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/default.mspx. How does this effect Project? Well for 2010 public beta we started some new forums, and as we hit the virtual launch next week these will become the version agnostic place for all your Project questions and comments. The idea is to centralize so that you know where to go to find information, a...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: We are virtually finished!
(Indexed 2010-05-05):
Next week (May 12th 2010) sees the Virtual Launch of the 2010 suite of Office products, including Project Server 2010, Project Standard and Professional 2010 as well as SharePoint Server 2010 and many more parts of this set of products. Mark your diaries and tell all your friends to be at www.the2010event.com at 11ma EDT on the 12th, when they will be able to: Join Live Keynote and Questions and Answers session View the Project 2010 sessions Join Project 2010 Live Questions and Answe...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Available now via MSDN Subscriber downloads
(Indexed 2010-05-03):
As of today (May 5th 2010) you can download Project Server 2010 from the Subscriber Downloads section of MSDN at https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/securedownloa...(truncated)... or your locale specific subscriber downloads page. Many different languages are already available (use the drop-down to select) and still more to come. You will also need SharePoint Server 2010, with an Enterprise key, and in the same language as Project. The Project Professional and Standard client in both ...(truncated)...
Project 2010: everything you wanted to know about assignment units, but were afraid to ask
(Indexed 2010-04-29):
A great posting over on the project blog about the changes to how assignment units are used and displayed in Project 2010. This was a feature change that makes total sense once you understand the reasoning behind it but on first glance is a major difference from the world of Project we all know and love. This was the right change for the right reasons and we get a red man too! Read on at http://blogs.msdn.com/project/archive/2010/04/29/assignment-...(truncated)... Technorati Tags: Project2010...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Things to note, and avoid, as you start the 2010 journey
(Indexed 2010-04-28):
Unless you have been living in a cave you will have heard that next month sees the virtual launch of Office 2010. Details of the virtual launch and other availability stuff at http://blogs.msdn.com/chrisfie/archive/2010/04/28/microsoft-...(truncated)... but I thought Id take a few minutes to prepare the scene. I know you will all read the wealth of documentation we have up on the TechNet Project Server 2010 TechCenter http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/projectserver/default.aspx but sometimes ou...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: April CU is now available!
(Indexed 2010-04-28):
Full details of the April CU for Office Servers to be found over on the Project Admin blog at http://blogs.technet.com/projectadministration/archive/2010/...(truncated)... Cumulative Updates for Project Server 2007, SharePoint Server 2007 as well as WSS 3.0 and all the Project clients and Project Portfolio Server 2007. Technorati Tags: psvr2007[Image]
Project Server 2007 Doesnt like IIS Dynamic Content Compression!
(Indexed 2010-04-21):
Ive lived for so long in the new world of Project Server 2010 that some of the known issues with Project Server 2007 have just passed me by. Most of my work these days is on HyperV images, and the majority of these are Windows Server 2008 R2. I am working on an issue with 2007 to 2010 upgrade currently and had some problems in my clean 2007 environment. Obviously I first suspected the customers data, then saw the same problem with my fresh installs and thought my server was bad. Vague recollecti...(truncated)...
Feedback please on your reporting experiences with Microsoft Project
(Indexed 2010-04-21):
Heather is looking for feedback! See the blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/project/archive/2010/04/07/how-do-you-...(truncated)... for more details, but wed really like to hear what works for you, what doesnt and what tools you are using. As mentioned in Heathers blog, please send feedback to projrep@microsoft.com (and not to me). Are you using Visual Reports? SQL Server Reporting Services? SQL Server Analysis Services? Other tools? Examples welcome too feel free to blur your private details we j...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Ship happens!
(Indexed 2010-04-16):
Excellent news today as we release Project 2010 to manufacturing, along with the rest of Office and SharePoint. Details of launch events and availability for our volume licensing customers can be found on Christophes blog - http://blogs.msdn.com/chrisfie/archive/2010/04/16/microsoft-...(truncated)... and Id also like to point out another recent Christophe blog that details the current content availability (including over 150h of video!) at http://blogs.msdn.com/chrisfie/archive/2010/04/14/micro...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Exchange Sync Permissions (Demo, Test issue)
(Indexed 2010-04-05):
Gary and Steve from msProjectExperts found an interesting issue that could bite you if you have Project Server users who are also domain admins which I do hope doesnt happen in the real world, but just on our test and demo machines. See their blog post at http://www.projectserverhelp.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=13...(truncated)... Basically Windows tries to save you from yourself, and in the process strips away the impersonation permissions you have given to get your demo/test environment work...(truncated)...
Project Server, PowerShell and the 2010 Scripting Games
(Indexed 2010-03-30):
Within the blogging community at Microsoft we get plenty of opportunities (aka requests) for cross product announcements. Occasionally they catch my eye and today was one of those days. You may have noticed a new badge in my left NAV area (unless you are reading the RSS feed so click the link) announcing the 2010 Scripting Games. PowerShell is going to be so useful for SharePoint and Project Server 2010 for deployment, management as well as monitoring and troubleshooting, so if you want to impr...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: New Business Intelligence (BI) Center on TechNet
(Indexed 2010-03-26):
Great way to end the week more excellent resources to help you understand what we have in Project Server 2010 for Business Intelligence - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/projectserver/ff513702.aspx Find out all about how we are using Excel Services, what is new with our SQL Server Analysis services OLAP databases in 2010 and configuration and troubleshooting information. Technorati Tags: psvr2010[Image]
Project Server 2010: What to Expect when you get the Unexpected
(Indexed 2010-03-24):
One of the most common error messages you will see in SharePoint 2010, and therefore Project Server2010 is An unexpected error has occurred, which will look something like this: [Image] The important thing to note here is the GUID, which in this case indicates it is the correlation ID. This number isnt an indication of the error, in the way an Event ID may be considered in the event logs, but indicates where in the ULS logs you can find more details of the error. The time on the error will al...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Goodbye SSP, Hello Service Application
(Indexed 2010-03-22):
The new architecture in Project Server 2010 (from SharePoint 2010 of course) see the end of shared service providers and the introduction of Service Applications. For an excellent coverage of this change see http://blogs.msdn.com/russmax/archive/2010/01/20/sharepoint-...(truncated)... but here Ill talk about how this affects Project Server. The SSP is gone, but as far as SharePoint is concerned shared services are still around. For Project, there is not too much change from 2007 we are a very s...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010 Even more reasons to keep your server clocks in sync
(Indexed 2010-03-17):
As we in the US (or most of us) have just changed our clocks for daylight savings this is a great time to talk synchronization of server clocks. The first section talks about things running slow, and was also applicable to 2007. If this doesnt persuade you then the second section deals with things stopping which ought to be a good enough reason! My Farm is Running Slow! One possible reason for the farm, or more precisely the queue jobs, running slowly (apart from underpowered configuration) i...(truncated)...
Customizing the Project Site in Project Server 2010
(Indexed 2010-03-15):
The steps to customize and use different Project Site templates (the entities formerly known as Project Workspace templates) have changed for 2010, and the ways you can use them with the new Enterprise Project Templates has introduced more change. I thought Id explain how these can be created, what customizations will work and which will break things, what limitations you will see with the reporting data for modified sites and how they can be consumed. I'll show screen shots as I go along too. ...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010 SDK Pre-release refresh now available on MSDN
(Indexed 2010-03-12):
As we approach release (see Christophes blog for the recent announcement) I am really impressed by the quantity and quality of documentation we have already put out for this release. The latest posting is a refresh to the Project 2010 SDK with some great updates to the developing Project Server workflows section (great work Jim!). It can be found at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms512767(office.14).aspx This pre-release version is only available online the usual downloadable version w...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010 Delegation Different Default Behavior for Native versus 2007 Upgrade
(Indexed 2010-03-10):
Delegation is a great new feature in Project Server 2010 that allows one user to allow others to act on their behalf. Very useful when a Project Manager is going to be out of town and doesnt want to have to re-set the status manager for all her owned tasks just so someone else can action updates instead she just sets a delegate and they can work as if they were the Project Manager. Works across all features so can be used for timesheets, or even administrative functions. Im sure there will be ...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010 Webcasts Performance, Whats New and Demand Management this month (March 2010)
(Indexed 2010-03-09):
The next webcast in the Project Server 2010 series is tomorrow (March 10th) and is titled Performance Part 1: Setup, Test Execution and Results. If tomorrow is already in the past, then catch the recording at http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/epm.aspx?tab=webcasts. The full upcoming series is: TechNet Webcast: Project Server 2010 Performance Part 1: Setup, Test Execution, and Results (Level 300) Wednesday, March 10, 2010 8:30 A.M.9:30 A.M. Pacific Time TechNet Webcast: Project...(truncated)...
Office Servers February CU and the Project Server Database Versions table
(Indexed 2010-03-09):
One thing worth pointing out regarding the February CU for Project Server, is that we made no changes to the database schema as part of this cumulative update, and this means no update in the Versions table either. One usual way to see which update you have loaded is to look at the Versions table in each database but for the 4 Project Server databases you will still see the version from the December CU (even if you didn't load the December CU remember these are cumulative the clue is in the ...(truncated)...
Willkommen beim Blog des deutschsprachigen technischen Support fr unternehmensweites Projektmanagement (kurz EPM)
(Indexed 2010-03-02):
http://blogs.technet.com/germanpsvrblog/default.aspx Hier werden regelmig Blog-Beitrge von verschiedenen Mitgliedern des Teams und speziell auch von des Mitglieder Escalation-Services-Team verffentlicht. Vorrangig knnen Sie zwei Arten von Informationen hier erwarten: - Informationen und Methoden zur Problemlsung: Diese basieren i.d.R. auf Problemen und Erfahrungen von Kunden, die im technischen Support bearbeitet und basierend auf Erfahrung gelst worden sind. Wir wollen diese Informationen z...(truncated)...
Addressing ISO 8601 Week numbering in Project Server 2007 (and 2010)
(Indexed 2010-02-26):
Thanks to Marc Biarnes for his excellent work on this topic. Ive given a previous work around for this type of issue by updating the TimeByDay table, but this wasnt supportable, and also any updates may have reverted to the bad behavior. Marcs solution has the blessing of the Product Group and is far more elegant than mine but hey, what would you expect from a Frenchman, if not elegance! This is all based on Project Server 2007 but should be equally applicable to Project Server 2010. According...(truncated)...
Bienvenue sur le Blog de lquipe francophone de Support Technique EPM
(Indexed 2010-02-01):
http://blogs.technet.com/frenchpjblog/ Le Support Technique EPM rejoint aujourdhui la communaut des blogueurs EPM. Vous trouverez rgulirement sur ce blog les contributions des diffrents membres de lquipe et plus prcisment des membres appartement lquipe Escalation Services. Sur ce blog, nous allons nous focaliser essentiellement sur 2 types dinformations : - Des informations et des mthodes de Troubleshooting que nous voulons partager avec la communaut et qui parfois ne sont pas assez docu...(truncated)...
EL FARO DE PROJECT SERVER OS DA LA BIENVENIDA
(Indexed 2010-02-01):
http://blogs.technet.com/elfarodeprojectserver/ Hola, buen da a tod@s. Desde el equipo de soporte de Project Server en castellano, queremos saludar a todo aquel que est leyendo estas lneas. Llevbamos tiempo consultando otros blogs de Project Server, y nos pareca que ya era hora de poder disponer de un espacio donde se trataran estos temas, precisamente en la lengua de Cervantes. En este blog pretendemos dar salida a aspectos y cuestiones que nos parecen interesantes y de utilidad para la comu...(truncated)...
Happy (Belated) New Year! Whats new in Projectland
(Indexed 2010-02-01):
Ive been a bit quiet on the blog since the holidays (thanks Ben for giving me the push I needed ;)) so apologies if I havent answered your questions. I did have a bit of a catch up today, so there may be some new answers. Ive also seen a few direct e-mails from the blog and have answered some but will re-set expectations here I dont always have a chance to respond to these. I will be making a couple of posts in the next day or two with details of two new local language blogs for Spanish and ...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: December 2009 CU Released!
(Indexed 2009-12-16):
Thanks to Rob and the Office Sustained Engineering team, and of course the product group, we now have the December 2009 CU for the Office clients and servers, including Project Server 2007. The biggest area of fixes in this release relate to changes in the handling of administrative time, actual work and calendar exceptions and this is embodied in fixes on both the server and client. Best to patch both to this release to get the full benefit of these fixes, but this isnt a requirement and wil...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010 and 2007 Webcasts this week! (or recorded if you miss them)
(Indexed 2009-12-15):
A few webcasts coming up this week enjoy! Title Date/Time Description Presenter Overview of Microsoft Project Server 2010 for IT Professionals Tuesday, December 15, 2009 8:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada) In this webcast, we provide an overview of Microsoft Project Server 2010 features, requirements, and deployment consideratio...(truncated)...
Project 2010 and Project Server 2010: The Beta is out some early issues people are seeing
(Indexed 2009-11-19):
If this is the first you have heard of the Beta (Where have you been? Can I come next time?) then take a look at http://blogs.msdn.com/project/archive/2009/11/18/now-availab...(truncated)... for the links to Project and http://blogs.msdn.com/project_programmability/archive/2009/1...(truncated)... for great links to the new developer stuff (Great work Jim!). A couple of early issues or regular questions are: Can I use Project Professional 2010 against a 2007 server? No, 2010 can only talk ...(truncated)...
Project 2007 and 2010: A New Blog on the Block but familiar authors
(Indexed 2009-11-19):
If you havent seen the other announcements of the brand new Project Administration Blog then take a look over at http://blogs.technet.com/projectadministration/ and add a link to your browser favorites or RSS reader. Treb Gatte will be the primary blogger, but some of the kind of postings that have come from me and Christophe will in the future be posted via the Project Admin site. Ill be keeping my usual blog going, as will Christophe and Treb. But the aim is that all things admin will come out...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: Two great new feature posts on the Project blog
(Indexed 2009-11-13):
Ive been busy supporting our early adopter customers for Project 2010 and havent managed a post recently, or kept up with responding to blog comments (trying to catch up now) But plenty of good stuff to read over on the Project product group blog at Project 2010- Introducing Demand Management and Project 2010- Introducing Portfolio Analysis. Demand Management and Portfolio Analyses are two of my favorite features in 2010. From the support side I think Demand Management might be a bit scary I am...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010: New TechNet and MSDN Resources and 2010 Forums!
(Indexed 2009-10-29):
I dont usually steal all of Christophes blog postings but this one is worth it. Mostly planning content at the moment but expect a ton more as we go through November and the Beta release. Certainly worth bookmarking for future reference. And if I get time I will be hanging out on the forums, along with my European colleague Alex. See you there! We are pleased to announce the availability of the following Microsoft Project 2010 technical resources, save these bookmarks! TechNet Project 2010 Te...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: October 2009 Cumulative Updates (CU) are Available
(Indexed 2009-10-29):
Thanks to the Product Group, our partners in Office Sustained Engineering partners and of course Rob who keeps this all running smoothly from the support side - we now have a new set of Cumulative Updates! One fix that I know Mary is waiting for (we met at the Project Conference) is the loading grid issue when updating milestone tasks Fixed! Details of the CU follow, and also included are more general links regarding application of Service Packs. The Server CU is released in two different ver...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007 and 2010: Roundup of the week
(Indexed 2009-10-23):
If you are interested in 2010 then the Product Group blog has a brand new article from Bonny on user controlled scheduling. This covers the ability to turn of the scheduling engine for selected tasks (task type changed from automatically scheduled to manually scheduled) and also introduces the new Task Inspector which is Task Drivers++. Other recent 2010 posts include a feature I love from Roberto on Sync to SharePoint a very cool new feature that allows collaboration via SharePoint 2010 dir...(truncated)...
A Very Special Day for Microsoft!
(Indexed 2009-10-22):
In case you hadnt noticed this is a very special day for Microsoft. Yes, Project 2010 is featured on the Office 2010 blog at http://blogs.technet.com/office2010/archive/2009/10/22/intro...(truncated)... Oh, and we launched Windows 7 too[Image]
SharePoint 2010: What does it do for Project? Some good ULS log enhancements.
(Indexed 2009-10-20):
With the 2010 release Project Server now requires SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise (what we might previously thought of as MOSS) rather than just SharePoint Foundation (previously WSS). This gives us access to all the features such as Excel Services for reporting, but also such things as PerformancePoint Services for Business Intelligence. But as well as these things at the feature level we also benefit from the under the covers changes such as the great improvements in ULS logging (unexpected...(truncated)...
SharePoint 2010 Read all about it!
(Indexed 2009-10-19):
If like me you didnt get along to the SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas, then you can find out plenty about the new version on the SharePoint blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/10/19/sharepoi...(truncated)... Also announced today at the conference was the availability of the Beta of Office and SharePoint 2010 (and of course Project 2010 and Project Server 2010) next month. See http://www.microsoft.com/project/2010/en/us/default.aspx for more details. Technorati Tags: psvr201...(truncated)...
Bing Search now working on my Microsoft Project Support blog site!
(Indexed 2009-10-08):
The TechNet and MSDN blogs had an overhaul recently and the search box that has long frustrated me when looking on even my blog has finally been fixed. It now uses the Bing engine and really does find stuff on my blog. (which Bing and other major search engines had been finding anyway. One thing that others have had feedback on since this change was that for some searches you will see some Sponsored Sites returned along with your results. I will be keeping an eye on these, and we are also revie...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Another OLAP Cube Building Gotcha Is your alias 32 or 64 bit?
(Indexed 2009-10-08):
I posted a while back about an issue where the Application Server had an alias for the SQL Server, but when the Analysis Services cube build was requested the alias was passed to the Analysis Services server and it didnt know the SQL Server by this alias (even if it was in fact the same server as SQL and the reporting database was running on! My colleague in Europe Nuno had a similar issue, but with a slight twist that makes a new post worthwhile. ProjectServerOlapCubeGenerator.exe is the exe...(truncated)...
Microsoft Project 2010: Product Group Blog on the new Ribbon
(Indexed 2009-09-24):
If you havent been over to the Product Group blog for a while, now would be a good time. There is a new look and a new posting on the ribbon in Project 2010 - http://blogs.msdn.com/project/archive/2009/09/24/project-201...(truncated)... More to come watch that space (or this one, and Ill link). I really think of all the Office application Project benefits most from the ribbon there are plenty of gems just waiting to be found deep in the menu structures of 2007 and before now they are just a...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007 and the August CU for WSS
(Indexed 2009-09-18):
You may have already heard of an issue with the August CU for WSS and potentially problems when re-attaching content databases after application of this cumulative update. It is documented on Stefan Goners blog at http://blogs.technet.com/stefan_gossner/archive/2009/09/14/i...(truncated)... One comment on Stefans blog asks about Project Server databases, so I added a comment there (which isnt live at the time I write this) and will repeat for reference here. The Project Server 2007 (or 2010) d...(truncated)...
Project Conference 2009: SA200 Project 2007 Common Questions and Answers
(Indexed 2009-09-16):
At the conference in Phoenix I had the pleasure of sharing the stage with Adrian, Rohan and Soroush to present some of the questions we regularly get in support (and of course the answers!) as well as take questions from the floor. As usual with Adrians sessions it was standing room only. One topic raised was identifying the version of Project Server 2007 and then knowing what this version means. This information is around the blogs, but we really needed to get this in one place. Thanks Dav...(truncated)...
Microsoft Project 2010 My favorite feature
(Indexed 2009-09-16):
This morning in Phoenix Chris Capossela unveiled Microsoft Project 2010. Ive been working on the support of this next release for nearly a year now, and it has been difficult no being able to talk about it but now I can! To get the details from the brand new Project site on Microsoft.com go to http://www.microsoft.com/project/2010/en/us/default.aspx.But now I can talk about it I just dont know where to start there is so much good stuff. The one feature I really like is the ability to have En...(truncated)...
Off to Phoenix!
(Indexed 2009-09-12):
Ive been a bit slow on the blog front the last few months apologies if I havent been able to answer as quickly as usual head down supporting the Technical Preview of 2010. But I have changed the settings on my blog so people posting comments using the new captcha and using a login should see their comments appear right away and anyone is welcome to post answers! I am about to head off for SeaTac and my flight to he Project Conference 2009 and looking forward to seeing many friends made over ...(truncated)...
Microsoft Project 2010: Pre Conference Training Opportunity
(Indexed 2009-08-19):
One of my very pleasant duties when down in Phoenix will be to join my colleagues Christophe Fiessinger, Chris Boyd, Michael Jordan, Jan Kalis, and Jean-Francois Lesaux in delivering the Microsoft Project 2010 Ignite training. This will be the first delivery of this course aimed at preparing EPM professionals for deployment, operations and customization of Project Server 2010. There is still a chance to register for this training and it is a free benefit if you are already attending the Micros...(truncated)...
Demo Cowboys: Two (or more) nations divided by a common language
(Indexed 2009-08-14):
Doug and Christophe collaborated on this great video BE A DEMO MASTER HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE RECOMMENDATIONS NOW AND BEYOND which will really help those of you who either demonstrate Project Server to potential customers or just need a convenient platform to configure or develop against Project Server. The cowboy in the picture may well be known to you and if you come to the Project Conference in Phoenix he may well be dressed in the same gear. [Image] So why the title to this blog? I am fro...(truncated)...
By the time I get to Phoenix
(Indexed 2009-08-14):
I, like Christophe, have my travel sorted for the Project Conference. I will be arriving around 6pm on Saturday 12th and staying at the Sheraton. Look forward to seeing many of my readers there! And for those with good memories of old British comedy who played the left behind woman in a comedy sketch with Jimmy Webbs famous song from my blog title? It may have been Sandie Shaw singing and Bing tells me this might even have aired again early this year (in the UK) Not offering any prizes but I...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Upcoming webcast on Report Pack II SSRS reports
(Indexed 2009-08-04):
Jan has posted details of this webcast on 8/19/2009 at 8am PST that will let you take your SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) reporting to the next level. For full details and the sign-up page see Jans blog http://blogs.msdn.com/project_programmability/archive/2009/0...(truncated)... for an overview, read on: The Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) 2007 Report Pack II - The top reports provides rich reports for common information needs. The EPM 2007 Report Pack II is a colle...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Timeout Settings
(Indexed 2009-07-31):
Thanks to my colleague Trevor Turner for compiling the various places in Project Server and associated technologies that timeout values can be set. This came about to resolve problems in the Resource Substitution Wizard but is helpful information for other slow scenarios too particularly when large datasets are involved. As Trevor points out you should carry out other mitigations such as good use of categories, and also ensure your SQL databases have up to date statistics and fresh indexes. M...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Getting over Office Web Components Limitations
(Indexed 2009-07-30):
This posting came about based on a comment on my posting http://blogs.msdn.com/brismith/archive/2009/05/13/project-se...(truncated)... from Dick Ruemmele. Chris Bulson had also chased me up on this as I hadnt had a chance to follow up. The issue is that OWC is somewhat limited in filtering and the desire here was to have a list showing capacity and work but only if work had a value (capacity almost always has a value). This isnt possible with OWC against the default cubes (not sure if MDX cou...(truncated)...
Project 2010 and a 10,000 ft view
(Indexed 2009-07-17):
[Image] I know, that was mean. And probably a little over 10,000 ft, as Rainier itself is 14,410ft. Keshav has posted some early information about Project 2010, but to hear more you will need to wait for the Project Conference in September and it is certainly worth waiting for! The other Office client applications are making some earlier disclosures and there is already some cool stuff on the blogs about the other Office applications and my favorite so far is the Excel 2010 Sparklines post...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Office System June 2009 Cumulative Update is now available
(Indexed 2009-07-16):
It is June the umptieth and the June Cumulative Update packages for Office Suite and Office Servers (including Project Server 2007) are now available. Some of the KB articles are still on their way through the system so some of the links below may not work just yet. The overall KB pointing to all the Office client and server KBs can be found at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/972632. So here are the links applicable to Project and Project Server: Title KB Number KB UR...(truncated)...
Is your Virtualized Environment Supported? Virtualization Support Policy Wizard Now Publicly Available
(Indexed 2009-07-02):
If you are running Project Server 2007 in a virtualized environment, how do you know if it is supported or not? As you may be aware we announced support through the Server Virtualization Validation Program, and now there is a Wizard to help you get a quick answer. Just choose your product: [Image] Select your environment (Hyper-V and the non-Microsoft ones are listed Cisco, Novell, VMWare and Citrix), Guest OS and architecture: [Image] and it gives you a support statement and some usefu...(truncated)...
Project 2007: Mixed up views after updating the Enterprise Global after SP2
(Indexed 2009-06-29):
I know quite a few customers have run into this issue, and we have a fix in the pipeline which should see the light of day in the August CU, but to help just in case others come across this we thought it worth getting this information out there (Thanks Rob). First some details, and then the suggested workaround. The problem and fix is for Project Professional 2007, but only in an Enterprise environment with connectivity to Project Server 2007 and the views I am referencing are the views within...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Office Server Service Pack 2 (SP2) Update KB 971620
(Indexed 2009-06-26):
Following this post: Project Server 2007: License type set to trial after loading Office Server Service Pack 2 (SP2), please find an important update from the SharePoint team: The public update to fix this issue is available for customers to download. If you have any questions please send them here. Post URL is here: http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/06/25/service-...(truncated)... Service Pack 2 Update. The public update for the Service Pack 2 expiration date issue ...(truncated)...
Microsoft Office Project: New Partner Solutions Directory
(Indexed 2009-06-25):
For those who havent found Doug McCutcheons blog yet here is some breaking news on new ways for our partners in the EPM community to post and market their solutions. Also of great interest to our customers I am sure on where they can go looking for solutions! News from Doug is: Office System Solutions Directory Migration to Partner Solution Profiler Increase Your Visibility to Customers with Partner Solution Profiler Drive awareness of your business solutions. Customers find partner...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Why do my removed tasks keep coming back to my Timesheet?
(Indexed 2009-06-25):
We have had a few reports back since we released SP2 of another behavior change that is catching people out. We have a KB article coming along to describe this behavior change and Ill update with the KB when it arrives. First this is what we did. In Timesheets we had heard frustration from customer that even though they had set timesheets to auto-populate with tasks from My Tasks, that this only happened when you created the timesheet. If you added new tasks or were assigned to new tasks once ...(truncated)...
Project Server 2010 and Project 2010: Final Call to Join the Technical Preview
(Indexed 2009-06-23):
For the one or two of you who may not have seen Doug or Christophes postings Im just making sure you dont miss this opportunity. Final call for access to the Microsoft Project 2010 and Microsoft Project Server 2010 Technical Preview for our Project partners. This is a great chance to see whats coming down the line with the next release of Project. We have issued an invitation asking to show and expression of interest in gaining access to the Technical Preview of Project/Project Server 2010. The...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Migration from one domain to another
(Indexed 2009-06-22):
Ive posted similar information before, but my colleague Lakshmana Rao (Laksh) has come up with a great document on the steps required when you want to move Project Server 2007 between domains. As Laksh points out at the end please make sure you test this process in a non-production environment first Hyper-V is perfect for these kind of tests. On with the document How to Move Project Server 2007 from one domain to another: Considerations in this Article: 1. In this setup, the Project Serve...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Tracking Method Updates since SP2
(Indexed 2009-06-18):
I posted a short while ago about this topic, but wanted to make clear how you can continue working with time phased tracking for normal projects if you have got used to it since the IU. Brief re-introduction to the problem for new readers we introduced a time-phased grid for time entry with the Infrastructure Update, but this opened a back door for time phased entry where the project manager was trying to enforce a different tracking method. SP2 closed this back door. So if you have been enjoyi...(truncated)...
End of week catch-up in ProjectLand Active Cache Webcast, Gartner Magic Quadrant and Solid State Disks
(Indexed 2009-06-12):
I havent posted for a little while it has been really busy here but fortunately for you the sort of busy that doesnt need blogging about! Do you really hate it when people say in their blogs Im working on some really cool stuff but I cant blog about it? So do I so Im not going to say that Just in case any of these recent postings passed you by: Jan did an excellent webcast on the internal workings of the Active Cache in Project Professional and the way it links to server with some great de...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Expiration date set with SP2 Product key is not valid?
(Indexed 2009-06-01):
The KB article in now live at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971620 and localized versions will be following along. One thing to mention is that if you have multiple SKUs installed and you try and re-license you may get a message saying your key is not valid. This can happen if for instance you try and use a Project Server 2007 key and you have both Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Project Server 2007 installed. The key is not really invalid just not the key the server is expecting....(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: PWA Provisioning issue after February CU Cannot insert duplicate key row
(Indexed 2009-05-28):
The full error is Cannot insert duplicate key row in object 'dbo.Objects' with unique index 'IX_Objects_ClassId_ParentId_Name', and this occurs when trying to provision a new PWA site in a farm. Some background first, and then the workaround. In the February CU we added a fix for the waiting for resources problems customers had run into when trying to provision new PWA sites. This was caused by a missing timer job. The fix checked for the timer job, and if it wasnt found it was created which fo...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Changed behavior with Activity Plans and Timephased time tracking
(Indexed 2009-05-28):
Sometimes we fix bugs and then find that customers had been relying on the broken behavior. I have covered this topic in some comment postings to the Service Pack 2 article but thought it worth a full posting to help customers understand why they are seeing different behavior. In the Infrastructure Update we introduced a timephased grid for task time tracking. Most customers thought this was a great thing but it did introduce issues in that Project Managers who had specified a project tracking...(truncated)...
Project Server Webcast: Check-in Pending Secrets Revealed!
(Indexed 2009-05-27):
Well maybe not secrets, but hopefully the webcast tomorrow (5/28/2009) will give more insight to the workings and architecture of the Active Cache. And if tomorrow is in the past the webcast is/was recorded. Chris Boyd will be presenting with Jan Kalis, and certainly myself and possibly Aik Chen will be along for the Q&A. WebCast Overview This webcast will uncover processes and key messaging between Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007 and Microsoft Office Project Server 2007. From...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: License type set to trial after loading Office Server Service Pack 2 (SP2)
(Indexed 2009-05-22):
***Update*** The KB for this issue is now live at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971620 but currently it does not say that this issue also applies to Microsoft Office Project Server 2007. This will be corrected shortly, but this certainly does also apply to Project Server 2007 once the Office Servers SP2 is loaded - regardless of the presence of MOSS. This is an emerging issue where we are seeing servers that have been updated with the 2007 Microsoft Office Servers Service Pack 2 (SP2) KB953...(truncated)...
By the time you get to Phoenix Latest Project Conference news!
(Indexed 2009-05-21):
By the time you get to Phoenix there will be some excellent Project Server 2007 and 2010 content for you. New information on the site at http://www.msprojectconference.com/ including an extension to the Early Bird rate! This will be the only Microsoft Project Conference anywhere in the world this year, so dont miss the opportunity to Learn, Connect and Grow at Project Conference 2009 in Phoenix, AZ from September 14th-17th, 2009. Lets get some action going on Facebook too! Session informatio...(truncated)...
April Cumulative Updates: All Office Server Articles now Live!
(Indexed 2009-05-18):
Just checked the links and they are all now live so updated my list. One clarification on a the specific KBs and downloads for Project Server and the SharePoint/Microsoft Office SharePoint Servers. The Office Server hotfix I list is the complete package that includes Project Server 2007 April CU too. This is KB 968851 and is called SharePoint Server 2007 cumulative update package (MOSS server package): April 30, 2009. There is another hotfix that I know Christophe and Scott Wagner list in their...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: SP2 Recorded Webcast Now Available
(Indexed 2009-05-14):
For those who couldnt make the webcast last month Christophe has now posted details of the recording and other SP2 resources. Christophe and Adrian presented and answered questions covering Project 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2) as well as the Project 2007 April Cumulative Updates and future planning guidelines for Project Server 2010. Technorati Tags: psvr2007,sp2,April CU[Image]
Windows 7: Great Microsoft Learning Resources
(Indexed 2009-05-13):
I dont usually do too many of the me-too type blog postings unless the technology is Project related, like SQL and SharePoint, but Ive been so impressed with Windows 7 both at work and at home that I am more than happy to share with you this new material from Microsoft Learning! Whats New in Windows 7 for Consumers (1 Hour) Whats New in Windows 7 for IT Professionals (2 Hours) Whats New in Windows 7 for Information Workers (2 Hours) And if you are interested in more Windows 7 training and sk...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: My filters dont work in my Data Analysis views
(Indexed 2009-05-13):
This came out of a recent Project Server support case where a customer was trying to show the capacity of resources by department in a Data Analysis view, but found that the filter for the resources department (a resource level field) wasnt working as expected. If capacity wasnt shown then the department filter was good but as soon as capacity was added then all resources were shown regardless of the departmental filter. I thought the cause and resolution was worth sharing. Thanks Chris Bulson ...(truncated)...
SharePoint Server 2010 Preliminary System Requirements x64 all the way!
(Indexed 2009-05-11):
News from TechEd 2009 this morning on the requirements for the next release of SharePoint which will be called SharePoint Server 2010. As Project Server 2010 will be built on the same platform then expect similar requirements. In brief these are: SharePoint Server 2010 will be 64-bit only this was announced during the SP2 webcasts for Project Server, so isnt totally new news. SharePoint Server 2010 will require 64-bit Windows Server 2008 or 64-bit Windows Server 2008 R2 SharePoint Se...(truncated)...
Office System and Servers SP2 and Cumulative Updates for April 2009
(Indexed 2009-05-07):
The Office Sustained Engineering team have put together a great FAQ blog on the recently (partially) released SP2 and April Cumulative updates. Please see http://blogs.technet.com/office_sustained_engineering/archiv...(truncated)... for the full details. These cover the Microsoft Office System and Microsoft Office Servers, including Project Server 2007. In case you wondered this is the team that put together the updates so well worth bookmarking their blog or subscribing to their feed. T...(truncated)...
Project Server April CU Links - Clarification
(Indexed 2009-05-02):
Christophe pointed out to me that for readers of my blog via RSS all of the URLs in my recent Project Server 2007 April Cumulative Update posting appear as hyperlinks, thus defeating my aim of showing which are live and which are not. As of now (Saturday 2nd May 2009) only the Project Client KB article, and the Project Client, Project Server and WSS downloads are active. From the table in my blog this is the top KB link, and the top three download links. Sorry for any confusion. Ill update the...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Check-in Pending Laid to Rest?
(Indexed 2009-05-01):
With the recently released Project 2007 and Project Server 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2) along with the Project 2007 and Project Server 2007 April Cumulative update hopefully we have seen the last of the false check-in pending issues. It is obviously still possible that the project may really be not checked in but the false message should be a thing of the past. And I am absolutely positive that we you will tell me if I am wrong! And there could still be a scenario we havent heard about that we nee...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: April Cumulative Update
(Indexed 2009-05-01):
The April Cumulative Updates (CUs) for Project and Project Server are now available, but there has been a slight delay with the overall Office Server one which will include all the Office Server components including Project Server. So if you just have Project Server and no MOSS you can go ahead and download and install now. If you have MOSS you may prefer to wait a few days and do all your Office Server updates in one go. Also the KB articles for Project Server, Office Server and WSS are not y...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Actual work in My Tasks changes after adding non-work time in My Timesheet
(Indexed 2009-04-28):
This is an issue you may come across depending on your specific workflow for time reporting and statusing. The scenario is that you enter time for a project task through My Tasks and save, and then in My Timesheet you add some time to a non-work category of Administrative time such as Sick or any non-work item - for the same day. The issue shows up instantly if the category does not need approval and results in a change to the actual work value entered. There will be a KB article coming shortly...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Service Pack 2 (SP2) is now available!
(Indexed 2009-04-28):
Rather than repeat everything Christophe has a great posting with all the links! http://blogs.msdn.com/chrisfie/archive/2009/04/28/announcing...(truncated)... I will just remind you of the Webcasts tomorrow (29th) and Thursday (30th) - I encourage everyone to attend the Project 2007 Service Pack 2 Overview webcast scheduled for April 29 at 8 am Pacific Time, and April 30 at 5 pm Pacific Time (webcast details are posted on EPMConnect). Adrian Jenkins and Christophe Fiessinger will cover the fo...(truncated)...
MSBlogs Directory covering all different Microsoft technologies
(Indexed 2009-04-24):
As Project uses an extensive range of Microsoft technologies many of you will often need information on SQL Server, SharePoint, Windows Server and beyond. A great source of blog sites covering virtually all Microsoft technologies is http://blogs.technet.com/blogms/pages/directory-of-microsoft...(truncated)... Ive also added a link to my site so if you read this and forget the URL, then go to the links rather than searching for this posting. Another great resource on this same site is a director...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Service pack 2 (SP2) Webcasts
(Indexed 2009-04-22):
Next week, on April 28th, Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Microsoft Office System including Project and Project Server 2007 will be released, along with SP2 for all the other office applications, including Office SharePoint Server and also WSS. We have a couple of webcasts organized on the morning of the 29th and the evening of the 30th which hopefully allow us to cover most time zones. Join Adrian Jenkins and Christophe Fiessinger as they give an overview of this important release, best practices for...(truncated)...
Project Developer Center Portal redesigned!
(Indexed 2009-04-20):
Take a look at the new Project Developer Center portal - your one stop shop for all things development around Project and Project Server. Great work Jim, Verna and the crew! The Office Developer Center, SharePoint Server have already had the makeover and other office applications will be following. Technorati Tags: psvr2007[Image]
Project Server 2007: Upgrading from a Pre October CU may fail during PSConfig step 8
(Indexed 2009-04-17):
With Project Server 2007 SP2 just around the corner many of you will hopefully be upgrading over the next few weeks. As with any upgrade you should always test first in a non-production environment but preferably with a copy of your production data. We are aware of an issue that can occur when upgrading from a server that has not been patched since before the October CU to any level from October up to SP2 and even the April 2009 CU (which will be available around the time SP2 ships too). We are ...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: WSS Sync issues Error: Access Denied
(Indexed 2009-04-17):
After the notorious check-in pending, and the slow cube building issues, the next hot topic has to be problems around WSS Synchronization. This was noted in one of the recent TechNet updates (Ive also just corrected the link in my previous posting sorry) for Active Directory synchronization, but AD Sync is just one of the scenarios leading to this issue. In case you are not familiar with this one, basically there are two parts to the story: Sync of permissions for sites (including /PWA) can...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007 Great new and updated content on TechNet.
(Indexed 2009-04-14):
Loads of new and updated content on TechNet from Efren and Robert. Video demos, walthroughs and updated and new articles! Enjoy! Video demo: Using SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services with the Project Server 2007 Cube Building Service This two-part video demonstration walks through the steps necessary to configure the Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 cube building services for use with SQL Server Analysis Services 2005. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd630720.aspx Walkthrough:...(truncated)...
Migrating Project Server 2003 to Project Server 2007
(Indexed 2009-04-13):
Apologies if you have already seen this from Christophes blog, but just in case it passed you by there is a new white paper, by QuantumPM, on migration best practices for upgrading from Project Server 2003 to Project Server 2007. If you are still on Project Server 2003 now would be a great time to read up on these best practices, put together your migration plan and then go straight to Project Server 2007 SP2 which will be coming along in the next few weeks. To give you an idea what the docum...(truncated)...
Project Conference 2009 Update
(Indexed 2009-04-02):
A reminder that you can submit content suggestions and perhaps get to speak at the Project Conference 2009, and news of the keynote speakers Chris Capossela and Professor Gary Harmel. [Image] New for 2009! The Project Conference team has received a tremendous amount of interest from customers and partners to present content at Project Conference 2009. In response, we are formally offering an opportunity to contribute to and present content at Project Conference 2009. We encourage yo...(truncated)...
Project Server Learning Opportunities: TechEd 09 and EPMU
(Indexed 2009-03-27):
Re-posting with permission from Jan at http://blogs.msdn.com/project_programmability/archive/2009/0...(truncated)... and Christophe at http://blogs.msdn.com/chrisfie/archive/2009/03/25/microsoft-...(truncated)... TechEd North America 2009? TechEd North America 2009 is just around the corner on May 11-15, Los Angeles, CA; please find below the EPM content that will be delivered: Title Speaker Description OFC407 Microsoft Office Proj...(truncated)...
A New Kid on the Block but what ate his cat?
(Indexed 2009-03-27):
Well new to blogging anyway. Doug McCutcheon has joined the realm of Project bloggers with particular focus on our partner community. Welcome Doug, go visit his blog and perhaps well even find out what ate his cat??? http://blogs.technet.com/doug_mccutcheon/[Image]
Project Server 2007: Another great reason to load the February Cumulative Update!
(Indexed 2009-03-26):
Ive posted this as an update on my December Cumulative Update article, but think it worth posting afresh too. Thanks Shazeb for bringing to my attention. If you are running MOSS with Project you should NOT load the December CU for MOSS as it has been withdrawn because of a search issue that is resolved in the February CU. For full details of the issue please see http://blogs.msdn.com/joerg_sinemus/archive/2009/03/26/moss-...(truncated)... and for details of the Feb CU see http://blogs.msdn.co...(truncated)...
New Colo(u)rs and a New Map!
(Indexed 2009-03-23):
I had a change around over the weekend and moved away from my blatant copy of Keith Combs site and got my own identity. Basically still mostly copied from Keith (thanks Keith) but with some new colors. Ill get around to updating my picture too perhaps some spring flowers? Also changed today is the map, as Worldmaps has moved I am moving with them and starting afresh. For anyone interested in stats for the last 7 months - my most Westerly reader was in Kauai, Hawaii, most Northerly in Boden, S...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Cumulative Updates Update
(Indexed 2009-03-20):
Ive answered a few comments on recent blog postings on the recent CU release, but thought Id post again to clear up any misunderstandings. Since December all CUs are included the Infrastructure Update WSS CU contains its update Project Server CU contains its update MOSS Server is the name of the server rollup and contains the SharePoint and Project Server update, but NOT WSS. Ive suggested MOSS Server package may not be the best name watch this space. You only need ...(truncated)...
Non-Project blog Songsmith stuff and Future Pro Photo Competition
(Indexed 2009-03-13):
A couple of interesting things came across my radar today that may be of interest to others. If you have.know of any school/college age children interested in either music or photography read on. Firstly from Sumit Basu: Theres a music remixing contest in the UK called Mixable (http://mixable.co.uk ), where an up-and-coming band is chosen to put up creative-commons-licensed tracks that UK school kids (grades 6 -> first year of college) can remix/reinterpret as they see fit. This years band...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Deploying Cumulative Updates
(Indexed 2009-03-13):
Thanks again to Rob for putting these words together on the different versions of packages in the cumulative updates specifically describing the additional options available since the December 2008 Cumulative Updates which introduced the server rollup packages. Over to Rob: The Server CU is released in two different versions. The first version is in Individual Packages specific to a particular product like WSS, Project Server and MOSS. If you do not have MOSS installed and have already inst...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Cumulative Update for February 2009
(Indexed 2009-03-13):
The Cumulative Updates for February 2009 for both the Office server and client components are now available (well it is only Feb 41st :)) Thanks Rob for putting these details together. I will have another posting shortly which explains the deployment process you should adopt with the new server rollup packages first introduced in December. Here are the February Cumulative update details:-You can read about the fixes included in the February CU Server Rollup Packages from the following article...(truncated)...
Project Conference 2009: Lets get social and a request for speakers!
(Indexed 2009-03-05):
We now have a Facebook Event for the Project Conference in September - http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=69039984055. Join up if you plan to come or even if you dont think you will make it. This will be a great place to share stories of past conferences, project songs (you know who you are) and for us to keep you informed as we get closer to the big event. Obviously we also have the site www.msprojectconference.com for all the information you could possibly want. Another ask for the conf...(truncated)...
Project Pro: Overallocated or not?
(Indexed 2009-02-27):
Quick webcast today on overallocation, and looking at the calendar and fine level time phasing to see why Project thinks the way it does. Shortly after recording this I also discovered that if you have actual work equal to the planned work in the scenario described then it does not show in red as overallocated. I guess if you managed to work 2 hours in 1 hour then not worth re-planning :).[Image]
Project Server 2007: The continuing saga of check-in pending
(Indexed 2009-02-26):
Thank you all for your continued feedback saying we still havent nailed this and the offers of copies of caches and repro steps. Fortunately we had an internal Microsoft user who read my blog and offered his repro and cache which gave us the benefit of a local repro where we could get at both his cache and his server (Thanks Ken!). The result of this is a better understanding of where we need to look to resolve this issue and also, with all your feedback, confirmation that even deleting the ca...(truncated)...
Announcing the 2009 Microsoft Project Conference!
(Indexed 2009-02-26):
As I wake up to more snow in the Pacific North West what better news than a conference in Phoenix! A little time to wait though September 14-17, 2009. Early Bird registration is open for the first 500 so get in quick. Hopefully I will get to meet some of you there (if I get invited). The site also has links to allow you to suggest content, refer a friend and tell us what is important to you. All this can be found at http://www.msprojectconference.com and it is less than 200 days away (countdow...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: OLAP Cube Building works every other time
(Indexed 2009-02-11):
So third posting of the day, and it had to be OLAP. Thanks to Jon for this one, and also to my readers Kresimir, Tom and Pete. Pete posted these steps which worked for him in overcoming build issues: 1. Setup DSO9 directory in Program FilesMicrosoft SQL ServerMSSQL.xOLAP 2. Share the folder as MSOLAPRepository$ 3. Give your SSP account full control of this share 4. Edit Program FilesMicrosoft SQL ServerMSSQL.xOLAPConfigMSMdsrv.ini - add the following in the DSO section near the end:...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Check your clocks and keep the farm in sync!
(Indexed 2009-02-11):
Been slow on the blog the last week or two, and now two posts come along at once. And a third may arrive later today! Just like buses. Just the way it happens sometimes, with topical issues coming in via support calls and e-mail. Ill hope to catch up and podcast these soon so if you want to listen and not read you can wait, and stop reading here This problem came in as an issue creating timesheet periods with the error: "Project Server timesheet periods cannot have duplicate names, or gap...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Check-in Still Pending? Even after December CU?
(Indexed 2009-02-11):
My colleague Aik has been looking in to scenarios where the fix released in Decembers cumulative update doesnt appear to have resolved things and we have a series of steps you can try to see if this alleviates the problem for you. Based on previous postings on this topic I am sure I will soon hear what works and what does not! Keep the comments coming please! Here are Aiks steps: a) Since the fix is on the client, check to make sure that Project Professional is patched to at least 6335.5000...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Moving SharePoint Content DBs Between Farms Screencast and Podcast
(Indexed 2009-01-23):
This blog post was inspired by a question from Greg and thought this might be the best way to answer. The podcast is just the commentary so if things are not clear please view the screencast to see what I was talking about! The demo shows restoring a content database backed up from another farm on another domain then adding to a web application and getting access to the content. Double-click to go full screen, or this new SilverLight 2 Black Glass template I am using has extra controls. Ill ...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Walkthrough Videos Now Available on TechNet Installation and OLAP Configuration
(Indexed 2009-01-19):
Mike Plumley from our UA team has done a great job in producing some walkthrough screencasts of a Project Server 2007 farm installation and also configuration of OLAP. These follow TechNet articles but show you all the steps involved. They are available for download as wmv files. Installing Project Server 2007 (four parts) Using SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services with the Project Server 2007 Cube Building Service (two parts) If anyone would prefer to stream these then let me know and we...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Cant find your WSS data in the OLAP cube?
(Indexed 2009-01-16):
This was a recent support issue with great work from Kate and Shazeb in getting to the resolution. Getting either of them to take credit was a harder job so they get to share.The scenario is you create a project plan, publish and create a workspace, then go to that workspace and add some issues (my new collective term for a group of issues is a box) and we add some risks (a threat of risks?). All good so far, so we build a cube and look for the data. The SDK says it should be there (look in ...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: ULS Logs Screencast - downloads now available.
(Indexed 2009-01-07):
As promised in my previous blog, here are a couple of different formats for download. The first is the original wmv used in the Silverlight streaming version, and the second is the same but formatted for the Zune (or any other handheld that shows wmv). I did try H.264 format, but it seemed to bloat the size and give me 110MB Mp4 for the original and 50MB for the small. Hopefully if you need these formats you can convert from what I have posted, using Expression Encoder yourselves. http://www....(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Reading SharePoint ULS logs with Excel
(Indexed 2009-01-04):
Here is my first attempt at a Silverlight Streaming Screencast. My apologies for the really bad lip sync in the short Picture-in-Picture section. Either a slip by me in editing or a breakdown in the space-time continuum between my webcam and the microphone. Probably the former. Ill look at some other encodings for making available as downloads probably an H.264 large or small, and the original high quality wmv. Any special requests? If I get a small enough one Ill make it an attachment but...(truncated)...
Microsoft Office Project Support PodCast Episode1
(Indexed 2008-12-31):
Here is my first attempt at Podcasting - and hopefully you can get to the linked MP3 file. Not too much groundbreaking stuff in this one - just a recap of SP, IU and CU stuff. Mainly just testing out the format and infrastructure to see how this works for me and you. This is in mp3, I'll probably also test out wma too. I will be trying some video soon too, probably a screen capture of looking at ULS logs with Excel. Looking at streaming this with Silverlight, but if there is demand for a dow...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Microsoft Office December 2008 Cumulative Update and KBs Released!
(Indexed 2008-12-17):
Starting with the December 2008 Cumulative Update for Office Server 2007 (KB960011), the Project Server updates can be obtained packaged together with the Office Server ones as well as being available individually. Also included in the Office Server CU are InfoPath Forms Server, and of course the core Microsoft Office SharePoint Server fixes including Excel Services. This encompasses both the global and local patches. Windows SharePoint Server Cumulative Update for December 2008 (KB960010) i...(truncated)...
Good news for SQL Server 2008 users SQL Server 2005 SP3 is out!
(Indexed 2008-12-16):
That may seem like a strange title, but for Project Server 2007 users of the Analysis Services features this is good news indeed! Along with the release of SP3 (see Christophes blog for more details) is the release of the latest Feature pack for SQL Server 2005. This includes the update to Management Object Collection which enables connectivity from a Project Server 2007 application server to a SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services machine to build cubes. We will get the TechNet article updated a...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Would you rather start your Data Analysis Week on a Monday?
(Indexed 2008-12-16):
Thanks go to more of my colleagues over in EMEA for this posting - Dragos Diamandescu from our Project support team in Romania and Orsolya Gal assisting from SQL team in Germany. The issue was with the first day of the week in Data Analysis reports. The customer was seeing Sunday as the first day, but really wanted Monday (For some language versions the default in PWA is Monday so this is a reasonable request). As an example, the following project has 8h work on Sunday 14th and 8h on Monday 15...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Has your cube build stopped working to the schedule?
(Indexed 2008-12-09):
Thanks for this resolution go to two of my colleagues in France Bruno Sgorlon and Marc Biarnes. The symptoms the customer had were that they could build the cubes just fine when using the manual Build Now option but the cube builds were not happening at their scheduled times. In one of the cases another symptom was that the CubeAdminSRPJob job was not present in the Timer Job definitions. This issue was traced to a desynchronized WSS file system cache and was resolved by clearing the WSS fi...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Why is my Archive DB so big?
(Indexed 2008-11-27):
In the August Cumulative Update for Project Server 2007 there was a fix for an issue with archiving projects (the Administrative Backup feature). Some customers had noticed that the archive database was bigger than expected in relation to the retention policy they had set, and the size of their draft database. In normal terms you might expect that with a project retention policy of 3 your archive database would be about 3 times larger than your draft database all things being equal (which of co...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Where did my Web Part go?
(Indexed 2008-11-24):
We had a recent customer incident where they could not drill in to projects from Project Center they just saw a blank section of the page where the drill down should be on the ProjectDrillDown.aspx page. The web part was gone. Not sure what had happened it could have been removed from the page by use of the Web Part Page Maintenance page, which might have been displayed after an error or it could have been removed accidentally (but not easily as you will see later). Part way through the supp...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: TechNet Document now live for using SQL Server 2008
(Indexed 2008-11-21):
The writers have done a great job on revising the 2005 document to address 2008 thanks Efren. The document is here - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd285466.aspx. This includes some of the gotchas mentioned in my recent blog as well as the error messages you might see. There is still an issue with the Management Objects needed on the application server for connecting to 2008 which will be resolved by SQL Server 2005 SP3, and the next feature pack refresh the current workaround can ...(truncated)...
Now fixed: COMException on x64 platforms when automating Office clients via the Primary Interop Assembly (PIA)
(Indexed 2008-11-18):
I had the original posting early in the year, and having got another question on it I checked and the hotfix was released back in April to resolve this issue http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950136/en-us. This hotfix is for the OS and not Project. It also resolves the problem for other Office applications such as Word which has some big object. So if you are running x64 Vista or Windows Server 2003 and want to access large objects this is for you. SYMPTOMS On a computer that is running ...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Microsoft Office October Cumulative Update and Associated KBs Now Available!
(Indexed 2008-10-29):
Great job by our writers for this October Cumulative Update (not to mention the PM, Dev and Test involvement). We not only have the updates but the documents are also posted so you can see what we have fixed and decide if you should install these updates. The full details can be found at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958847 and the links within that document will take you to the specific KBs for Project etc. Christophe also has the KB and download links for the ones I know you care about at h...(truncated)...
***NOW AVAILABLE: The October Cumulative Update for Microsoft Project and Project Server 2007***
(Indexed 2008-10-29):
Christophe has posted the links to the October Cumulative Update for Project and Project Server 2007 to his blog. Get it while it's hot! Also, in case you missed it, Christophe also posted the first sneak peeks at SP2 for Microsoft Project and Project Server 2007. There's not a lot there yet, but he posts a release timeframe between February and April of 2009. Thanks for sharing, Christophe![Image]
Project Server 2007 and SQL Server 2008 Error Messages With Data Analysis Cubes(OLAP)
(Indexed 2008-10-27):
I havent seen the official support announcement for Project Server 2007 and SQL Server 2008 or the TechNet documentation but they should not be far away but I have been trying to build cubes on my servers and seeing issues. I have had no problem at all with SQL Server 2008 as a database engine but couldnt build a cube. Also many colleagues had no issues with OLAP on 2008! It cant just be me can it? My farm was a simple two server affair one App/WFE and a separate SQL Server. The main error I w...(truncated)...
Where Am I? (Getting Lost in the PWA MY Tasks page)
(Indexed 2008-10-21):
When Project Web Access 2007 first released, we discovered that scrolling through the ActiveX controls on the My Tasks page or the Timesheet caused the column headers to disappear. With the release of the Infrastructure Update in July of this year, some improvements were made to address this issue, but as we discovered last week, it still wasn't working the way we thought it would. So, here's the issue... When you view the My Tasks page in PWA, the control appears similar to this: [Image] I...(truncated)...
Any Robotics Fans out there in ProjectLand?
(Indexed 2008-10-17):
Occasionally something will catch my eye on other Microsoft stuff going on and I wonder if readers would be interested. I seem to see a strong correlation with Project Mangement and Photography so have posted in the past of photographic things. This time it is Robotics. Robochamps gives people a chance to get in to Robotics development without the investment in moving parts it is all run with simulation. You will be programming a robotic car to navigate to a series of checkpoints in an urban e...(truncated)...
Project Gantt chart bar Borders Won't Print
(Indexed 2008-10-09):
When you create custom formats for bars, either by using Format Bar or Format Bar Styles, the border of the bar may not render in the preview, nor does it show up in the final print out. This problem will occur if you select a bar shape that is not equal to the full height available for the bar. Basically, if you select any shape other than the first one in the Shape dropdown, you'll see this behavior, but it's more obvious if you select a pattern other than the solid fill. Here's a screen sh...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Check-in still pending?
(Indexed 2008-10-07):
I replied to a comment on this topic but think it warrants a new posting so I have polished my reply and added some stuff. I am aware customers are still having some issues with check-in pending and I think it may be a timing issue around closing and opening Project. I havent been able to repro this so would love to hear some consistent repro steps based on the August Cumulative Update if anyone out there can make it happen to order. However, I have some ideas what might lead to the issue. Wh...(truncated)...
Allow Me to (re)Introduce myself!
(Indexed 2008-10-07):
Hello everyone! And thank you, Brian, for making me feel so welcome here! I'm incredibly excited to be returning to my roots at Microsoft by re-joining the MS Project support team! For long-time Project users, there's a remote possibility that you may remember me as I have a long history with Project support. I started supporting Project back in 1997 when there was no such thing as Project Server and the only collaboration tools were the workgroup mail options. Those were the days! I was a me...(truncated)...
A New Author Joins the Project Support Blog! Please welcome LaDonna Carpenter.
(Indexed 2008-10-07):
I am delighted to announce that there will be another voice to the Project Support blog! LaDonna Carpenter will be joining me in posting blogs on all things Project. LaDonna has recently returned to our team having left shortly before I joined (Hmm was that just a coincidence?) I know we are all very pleased to have her back! Rather than steal LaDonnas thunder I will let her introduce herself in her first blog coming shortly[Image]
Project Server 2007: PSI Getting 401 Errors from IIS?
(Indexed 2008-10-04):
This was a problem that had several of us racking our brains earlier this week and all the usual reasons of lack of permissions in PWA, missing setting the credential properties on the web service were found not to be the cause Colby Africa had found a KB that sounded very similar and we had an answer. See Colbys posting at his new blog site http://blogs.msdn.com/colbyafrica/. This same problem then appeared through an e-mail contact from my blog so thanks to Colby I could give a quick answer!...(truncated)...
Roundup from Project Bloggers: Visual Studio Team Systems 2010, PWA Team Member Quick Reference and Project Portfolio Server 2007 new documentation
(Indexed 2008-10-02):
Hopefully most readers will have seen these from the other Project bloggers but in case you missed it: From Christophes blog (and also Chris Boyds) Ameya Bhatawdekar has posted the following video on Visual Studio Team System 2010 and Business Alignment his blog today: Achieving Business Alignment with Visual Studio Team System 2010 Agile Planning Templates in Visual Studio Team System 2010 Enterprise Project Management with Visual Studio Team System 2010 (you can find the associate...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: AJAX Web Part as demonstrated at TechEd 2008
(Indexed 2008-10-02):
We have now published the code that Boris Scholl demonstrated at TechEd 2008 showing an AJAX web part feeding from a PSI Extension and showing the location of each project on your server where the city of execution is held in a custom field. The end result looks like this: [Image] Hovering over the pushpins shows details for the specific project also returned by the PSI Extension. The code is on the MSDN Code Gallery at http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/PSVR2007AJAXWebPart so go along and tr...(truncated)...
Stsadm export and import correction for moving Project workspaces.
(Indexed 2008-10-01):
I have updated the previous posting but for you RSS readers worth putting this in a new blog. After import I wasnt seeing the active issues alert on my home page showing the issues in the imported sites. Inclusion of the includeusersecurity flag on both the export and import ensures the user settings are maintained and then the active issues are correctly identified for users. Therefore the full command line looks like: stsadm -o export -url "http://brismithv0832:8080/CAL/Project1 with Works...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: August Cumulative Update KB Articles are now posted!
(Indexed 2008-09-26):
Christophe has a great blog with full details of the KBs for WSS (KB956057) MOSS (KB956056) and Project Server (KB956061) which are now available. Everything you need to know about the August Cumulative Update is there links to articles, links...(read more)[Image]
Announcing the Microsoft Project Server 2007 IT Professionals TechNet webcast series
(Indexed 2008-09-24):
Time for me to steal back from Christophe see his blog posting at http://blogs.msdn.com/chrisfie/archive/2008/09/24/announcing...(truncated)... . Brief introduction here full story, details...(read more)[Image]
New Content from the Project Server UA Team
(Indexed 2008-09-22):
Fresh from the pens (or keyboards) of our UA team are the following articles. Thanks to Efren, Robert, Mike, Sonia, Jim and David. And the mention of Britney Spears isnt some cheap trick to get more hits on my site the podcast actually...(read more)[Image]
Getting Social with Project Server 2007 - Bookmarking
(Indexed 2008-09-12):
Recently V1 of the social bookmarking application for MSDN , TechNet , and Expression was released, which is designed to make it easy for Microsoft's enormous technical community to help each other discover the best resources on any topic from across...(read more)[Image]
Project Server 2007: Running event handlers on multiple servers in the farm
(Indexed 2008-09-05):
We had a question recently regarding having multiple servers each with some custom server-side event handler code registered and running the Project Application service. Should this work? My immediate answer was yes, and I was fairly sure I had done this...(read more)[Image]
New Project Server Content for August - Hyper-V and ADSync
(Indexed 2008-08-29):
As promised, the first of the Hyper-V documents is out - see http://blogs.technet.com/epmcontent/ for the links. Great Job, Efren and Robert! Technorati Tags: Project Server 2007 , Hyper-V...(read more)[Image]
Microsoft Project Infrastructure Update Webcast Slides
(Indexed 2008-08-14):
Just in case you hadn't picked this up on Christophe's blog. There was a webcast recently covering the Project Server 2007 Infrastructure Update. The slide deck with an overview of the Project and Project Server 2007 Infrastructure Update...(read more)[Image]
New Office UA Content for this Month - Project Server
(Indexed 2008-08-11):
The UA team have some new stuff for you. Enjoy! And thanks guys. Watch this: Use lag and lead time This demo shows how to use lag and lead time to create gaps and overlaps between tasks in a project. Watch this: Show the critical path This demo...(read more)[Image]
New Blog Dedicated to EPM Content - for all your Project Server needs
(Indexed 2008-07-31):
For news on all the new content as it becomes available you really should subscribe to the new blog at http://blogs.technet.com/epmcontent . Our content team have created this to have links to new content each month including the articles for the...(read more)[Image]
Our Project Server writers have been hard at work latest demo videos and TechNet content links
(Indexed 2008-06-13):
The latest updates for this month can be found at the following links. Great work guys! If there are any other topics you think we are light on then please let me know, so either I can blog on them or we can get other content prepared....(read more)[Image]
My SSP stopped working when I restored to another domain! Unable to Edit a Project Server or SharePoint Shared Services Provider.
(Indexed 2008-06-12):
Im guessing this problem may be more of an issue for us Project Server 2007 support guys at Microsoft than for most customers but I can certainly see scenarios where this one would bite you too, so worth an explanation. Ill throw in all the...(read more)[Image]
New real-world Project Server 2007 deployment column on TechNet
(Indexed 2008-06-09):
If you go to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/projectserver/default.aspx you will see a new EPM column From the Trenches. This features articles by Chris Vandersluis - president and founder of Montreal, Canadabased HMS Software, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. Thanks Chris for this great content and If there are other partners out there who want to share experience with the wider community then please contact Efren Edwards. Technorati Tags: Project Server 2007[Image]
TechEd 2008 switches tracks from the Developer to the IT Professional
(Indexed 2008-06-09):
I really enjoyed TechEd last week and thanks to all who attended the sessions and came and said Hi. Im back in the office this week doing proper work but Christophe is back down in the sunshine of Florida. This week Christophe will be joined by Simon Floyd, Michael Jordan and Emmanuel Fadullon at TechEd IT Professionals in Orlando and they will be delivering the following EPM sessions: OFC255 Best Practices: Enabling Innovation Process Management Using Microsoft Office Enterprise Projec...(truncated)...
TechEd 2008 Preview Part 4 COM Add-in from Project Professional making PSI calls
(Indexed 2008-06-05):
This is the last TechEd sample and is a very simple example of a PSI call from Project Pro (or Standard for that matter). It shows how a user of the client not connected to the server can still make PSI calls. Obviously they need an account in the PWA they are communicating with. The sample shows a PSI call to check that the local project name (or any text you want to enter manually) is in use on the Project Server. The response is shown on the form for the add-in and also put into the text1...(truncated)...
TechEd Preview Part 3 Project Server 2007 Provisioning Project Specific Workspaces automatically
(Indexed 2008-06-03):
First day of TechEd today and despite the 3hrr time difference from Seattle I still woke up early. This posting will be part of the subject of the chalk talk I am delivering with Boris Scholl tomorrow (6/4) morning. If any of you remember the Solution Accelerator for Six Sigma this is part inspired by some custom code that was in that solution and is designed to allow a Project Manager to select a workspace type from a list in a custom project field and then when she publishes that type of sit...(truncated)...
Project at TechEd 2008 Developer 3rd to the 6th June 2008
(Indexed 2008-05-30):
Boris Scholl, Christophe Fiessinger and I will be attending TechEd Developers 2008 in Orlando next week. Well be delivering the following sessions: Customizing the Microsoft Office Project Web Access User Interface Line-of-Business Integration Using Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 Code Samples TechEd 2008 Preview Part 1 Project Server 2007 Line of Business Integration with the Business Data Catalog TechEd 2008 Preview Par...(truncated)...
TechEd 2008 Preview Part 2 Project Server 2007 Line of Business Integration using CLR Triggers
(Indexed 2008-05-30):
In yesterdays posting the BDC was used to present data from both Project Server and the AdventureWorks database with the join being the Vendor ID from the Purchasing.Vendors table. To allow this to happen we need a custom field and lookup table in Project Server that has the values for the vendors so that we can make the association. One way to do this (and there are many) is to use a CLR trigger and that is another part of Christophe and my presentation next Thursday at TechEd.SQL Server 200...(truncated)...
TechEd 2008 Preview Part 1 Project Server 2007 Line of Business Integration with the Business Data Catalog
(Indexed 2008-05-29):
This is the first of my pre-TechEd 2008 postings and you may already have seen one that Christophe posted a few days ago. This one is part of the same session I am doing with Christophe next Thursday afternoon (not Tuesday as I said earlier) in Orlando and the scenario here is accessing both AdventureWorks data (from the sample database) and Project Server 2007 data using the Business Data Catalog (BDC). To connect the two sets of data I am using a Project level custom field to hold the Vendo...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007: Have you ever got stuck in the timesheet import page?
(Indexed 2008-05-16):
I was working on a case today where a bug in one place makes something break elsewhere. And the added challenge here is the original problem probably goes un-noticed so isnt obviously a problem. If you have ever tried to import a timesheet on the My Tasks page, and the screen flashed but nothing happened and the only way out was to press Cancel then you may have this problem. The timesheet does not restrict the tasks that you can add in the same way they show in My Tasks. Either through Add Li...(truncated)...
Project 2003 file formats that are blocked after you install Service Pack 3 and MS08-18
(Indexed 2008-05-12):
Quite a few customers have run into an issue since loading MS08-18 and the restriction on legacy file formats introduced in both this fix and SP3 for Project 2003 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941466. If you are not familiar with the issue then the following file formats are blocked, but can be unblocked by going to Options on the Tools menu in Project 2003, click the Security tab, and check the required option under Legacy Formats. By default, the following file formats are blocked in Proje...(truncated)...
How to ensure your accepted updates get published in Project Server 2007
(Indexed 2008-05-06):
In Project Server 2003 updates needed to be made with Project Professional , and then when Project was closed an auto publish would happen if you wanted it to or not. Some people wanted it, some didnt. In 2007 as we dont need to use Project Professional and this can happen purely on the server then we leave the choice of when to publish up to you. One way you can simulate the 2003 behavior is to use a server-side event handler to act on the Statusing.OnApplied method, and carry out a publish ...(truncated)...
New Project Server content posted over the last couple of months
(Indexed 2008-05-02):
Thanks to our great UA team we have had a lot of new content posted over the last couple of months, including some great videos how-tos, and some articles describing the Project Resource Kits tools. Grouped into the different content types they are: Office Online content: The PWA Role Guides These role guides present broad overviews of Office Project Web Access functionality from the perspective of the different roles your organization might have. Available fields This article lists all ...(truncated)...
Project Server 2003 and Multilingual User Interface Packs
(Indexed 2008-05-02):
A rare Project Server 2003 posting from me to clarify some issue we see with customers applying the MUIs to Project Server 2003. Firstly if you are interested in using MUIs then 2007 language packs address some of the issues that 2003 suffers from. 2007 is unicode and you can mix and match languages without the restrictions in 2003. But if you must still use 2003 Unlike the language packs for Project Server 2007 the MUI itself does not contain a Project Workspace template for the MUI language....(truncated)...
Which master pages can you edit in Project Server 2007?
(Indexed 2008-05-01):
A recent support incident showed that some of our documentation didnt make it clear just what you can and cant do with master pages. There are two different types of sites in Project PWA (the Project Web Access sites) and PWS (the project workspace sites). For the PWA sites you are limited to making use of the default.master we already supply to give any extra pages the same look and feel, but you are not able to edit these default.master pages. We also block SharePoint Designer from opening th...(truncated)...
100 Posts Today!
(Indexed 2008-04-30):
According to my blog dashboard this is my 100th post! So to celebrate I thought I would be totally self-indulgent (so nothing new there) and ignore Project and talk about something else. It has been fun keeping the blog going and also great to have communication with so many of you either through the blog (600+ comments, and rising) or on support cases or at the Project conference. Keep the comments coming and the answers too, as I will sometimes post questions I dont have the answers for. If...(truncated)...
Impersonation Within a Project Server 2007 Server-Side Event Handler
(Indexed 2008-04-22):
One topic that our customers and partners seem to be having a hard time with is impersonation. One reason is that the term we are using impersonation may already mean something to developers, and so the specific steps required to get impersonation working for Project Server 2007 and the PSI arent taken into consideration. The SDK covers this in a couple of topics, but to show a couple more examples Ive prepared a couple of event handlers that show what happens when you use and dont use imper...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007 server-side event handling
(Indexed 2008-04-17):
Christophe has just posted on the Codeplex solution that allows easy handling of event handlers http://blogs.msdn.com/chrisfie/archive/2008/04/15/deploying-...(truncated)... and I had my first chance to play with this yesterday. It made life so much easier! Please do take a look if you are working with server -side event handlers. On a similar topic I have been working on event handlers that use impersonation to ensure that the event can get at the Project Server data in the right context - ...(truncated)...
Project Server Developer Webcast Samples
(Indexed 2008-04-03):
Thanks to all of you who joined the Webcast today. I have attached a zip with the PowerPoint and some samples that were presented. For those who couldn't make it a brief summary so the samples make sense.First I re-hashed an old sample showing creation of a list item and linking to a task (LoginDemoWithIssues). I also covered the challenges you might run into in a multi language environment. So here is an automatically created "Issue" linked to Task 1 in my Project.[Image] As I have created t...(truncated)...
More Role Guides for Project Server 2007 Now Available!
(Indexed 2008-04-03):
You may have already picked this up from some or all of the other Project blogs - but worth repeating as I know you have all been waiting for these! They are now available (similar to EPM 2003) here: Learn about available roles for Project Web Access Depending on your role in your organization and what security permissions are assigned to you, you will have access to different features of Microsoft Office Project Web Access. The following role guides present broad overviews of Office Project Web...(truncated)...
What were you doing in 1984? Hopefully not updating tasks in your current projects!
(Indexed 2008-04-03):
If this blog had a sub-title it would be "Task updates never get to Project Professional - even when they (eventually) say 100% Success". And the error message you might find in the ULS logs would be: Microsoft.Office.Project.Scheduling.SchedulingException: The engine's event horizon was extended beyond the maximum length of 36500 days. This may be caused by invalid task or assignment data. You can also change the value of the InitialProjectDays scheduling parameter. This error led us to revie...(truncated)...
Developer Webcast this week!
(Indexed 2008-03-29):
If you remember my blog about the Developer Community from a few weeks ago - and joined up, then you should have seen an invite to a Webcast this week. I have been invited to talk about extending development from Project Server to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. The topics I am going to cover are: The programmatic creation of list items in the WSS lists project uses, and the use of the Object Link Provider to expose these item in PWA Finding your way around the parts of a SharePoint f...(truncated)...
We might be building cube now... But not if you scheduled it for half-past!
(Indexed 2008-03-26):
In support we frequently have those moments that make us smile. Often they aren't things I would choose to blog about - but I will share this one. I certainly don't mean to trivialize bugs - and I do appreciate that they can cause a great deal of inconvenience to our customers (One particular customer I am thinking of in this case) but they can have their amusing moments! For those that just want the short story - always schedule your cube builds on the hour. If you choose 12:30, 1:30 etc it ...(truncated)...
Slow OLAP Cube Builds and Large TempDB - Revisited
(Indexed 2008-03-24):
After quite a bit of work on this one it appears that SP1 (and a slightly earlier hotfix) were almost coincidental in this problem rather than being the cause - and it can occur even without SP1 if you add enough dimensions to your cubes. The best resolution is a combination of the first 2 or all 3 of the following items: 1. Keep you statistics up to date! In minor cases updating the statistics on your reporting database can help - but in all cases it is required to get the full benefit. Yo...(truncated)...
Lies and out-dated statistics
(Indexed 2008-03-11):
The saying goes that you can prove anything with statistics - and I am sure the same figures are being used by the McCain, Obama and Clinton camps to tell vastly different stories. But enough about politics - what has this to do with Project Server 2007? SQL Server uses statistics too - and if they are not up to date it might make the wrong decisions! As an example if you were trying to find me in a database and there were indexes on my department, surname and date of birth, and you knew may n...(truncated)...
OLAP and Data Analysis - timeouts, plan guides and tempdb
(Indexed 2008-02-28):
Some of this has been in previous postings or comments on postings - but thought it was time for a round-up. As a quick intro this blog will look at more information on tempdb growth some of you may have experienced since Project Server 2007 SP1, as well as timeouts that you might have hit due to the same problem. I'll also talk more about SQL Server 2005 plan guides used to overcome this problem - and finally errors you may see after your reporting database gets rebuilt - or refreshed as we c...(truncated)...
COMException on x64 platforms when automating the Project client via the Primary Interop Assembly (PIA)
(Indexed 2008-02-15):
You may see this error when using the CodePlex Test Data Population sample for creating project data using the WinProj tab, or just using your own code to automate winproj.exe (the Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007 client application). It is only a problem with the object model interaction and not an issue with PSI calls. It is the Tasks.Add() method which is the trigger for the problem, and it will work just fine on x86, but fails on x64. Currently the x64 platforms do not support mor...(truncated)...
Loading projects from server or mpp files can be slow with some security products
(Indexed 2008-02-15):
One thing we have seen recently in support is several cases where security products can slow down the loading of projects into Project Professional 2007 both from mpp files or from Project Server 2007 connections. An example of this is McAfee Host Intrusion Prevention, and we have seen this make projects load up to ten times slower. We are working with McAfee to see if there is a workaround for this and I would certainly not suggest disabling any security products on your servers. It might howev...(truncated)...
Timesheet Classifications - what they don't do
(Indexed 2008-02-15):
With the change in relationship between time tracking in timesheets, and the updating of status in tasks, that we introduced in Project Server 2007 there has been some confusion. One area that after working on a case yesterday needs a little more explanation is timesheet classifications. Where you create these in PWA it give the following description: Edit, Enter Line Classification You can duplicate timesheet lines for business purposes or accounting reasons. To do this, define timeshee...(truncated)...
Is your Project Server 2007 queue running a few minutes slow?
(Indexed 2008-02-08):
Not sure if you remember the problem we had with Daylight Savings Time last year - but basically when adding jobs to the queue they have a time when they should be processed - and most times this time is "now" or the current time. Well with the DST problem "now" was actually set in one hour's time - so some jobs just sat there for a while. We have seen a couple of recent cases where time differences between servers can give this same problem. A server puts a job on the queue and the timestamp ...(truncated)...
Join the Project Server Developer Community
(Indexed 2008-02-07):
Apologies if you have already read this on the Programmability blog - but an excellent chance to share your development experiences with others - and hopefully learn some stuff too! Leveraging the development aspects of Project Server 2007 spans a wide range of skills. PWA customizations (ASP.NET), workflow development, line of business applications integration using the PSI, extending Project Server functionality using server side events, specialized reporting from the Project Server databases...(truncated)...
Project Resource Kit for Project Server 2007 Released!
(Indexed 2008-01-24):
This is now available for download at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=A33...(truncated)... Just had an e-mail from Phil Smail with these details: The Project Resource Kit for Project 2007 has released. Its available for x86 and x64 and the tools are English only The PRK consists of the following tools: Portfolio Analyzer Views Migration: Allows an administrator to bulk edit the location of an analysis server for multiple data analysis views. Project Server Settings B...(truncated)...
Failure Audit message in SQL Server - Event ID: 18456 every minute?
(Indexed 2008-01-24):
This is a event log error I have seen in Project Server 2007 on various farms going right back to the Beta and I finally found some time to track it down. It didn't seem to be breaking anything on my server, but made it difficult to read the logs and see other "important" stuff. This is the error: Event Type: Failure AuditEvent Source: MSSQLSERVEREvent Category: (4)Event ID: 18456Date: 1/17/2008Time: 1:29:00 PMUser: DOMAINUserComputer: SERVERNAMEDescription...(truncated)...
What is special about the "Administrator Account" when provisioning a new PWA site?
(Indexed 2008-01-18):
Nothing much really. But we do often get the question "How do I change the administrator account?" If you go to the Manage PWA Page then you will see that it is greyed out. You can't change it here - but then you don't really need to. This account is just put in the database so that you have an admin in the system and you can log in. I guess this can be a problem if the person is the only admin - and is not available to log in, but the admin's first job should be to create the second admi...(truncated)...
Project Server Queue - When is an error not an error?
(Indexed 2008-01-17):
When it is a status message? One of the challenges when interacting with an asynchronous queue is error handling. In a connected application it is easy to interact with the user and tell them what went wrong - but if they have submitted a timesheet and something about it isn't quite right then it is harder to return this information. In the Manage Queue screen the problem will show as a failed job, and an error will display, but in many cases it isn't really that anything broke - just that som...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007 Queue - How many threads is enough?
(Indexed 2008-01-08):
Working on a case recently I could see from the application logs that a server was having a hard time. Timeouts, out of memory exceptions, lots of red - so something was up. The customer's comment was that this was period end processing so lots of timesheets and updates going through. The queue was meant to avoid this problem, so I looked at the queue settings and both project and timesheet queues were set to use 10 threads, rather than the default 4. This could well have been leading to their p...(truncated)...
Is your cube build slower, and your tempdb larger since loading SP1?
(Indexed 2007-12-21):
There is an issue with some of the SP1 and hotfix 939594 fixes which resolve earlier problems of data missing in the cubes. The query has become more complex and SLQ Server 2005 is not coming up with the right execution plan for this new more complex query. The upshot of this is much use of tempdb - which can grow very large, and the cube build takes much longer than it did. You may have already seen the blog which gives a workaround for this issue - but as many of you may see this anew after ...(truncated)...
The Project Management Quick Reference Guide.
(Indexed 2007-12-17):
Thanks to Toney Sisk, one of our writers on Help products for Project we have a new publication for you. In Toney's words:- It can sometimes be a challenge for new users to find their way through Project 2007 on their way to becoming project managers. The Project team has just produced another tool that will help you understand Project 2007 The Project Management Quick Reference Guide. You can download and print this template for ease of use. Now you have another tool to help your organization...(truncated)...
Project Center Views - Filtering Client v Server
(Indexed 2007-12-14):
I have been waiting for SP1 before blogging this as it might have frustrated a few people as pre SP1 there were some broken pieces here. The filter that you use when creating a view for everyone through Server Settings, Manage Views behaves slightly differently from that found on the client side when a user creates their own filters. So why is this? To explain I will use the example of filtering for particular project types. I will base this on the out-of-the-box Project Center, Summary view...(truncated)...
So how did we ship SP1 so "Early"?
(Indexed 2007-12-13):
Blogging in Microsoft does allow a great deal of freedom to the blogger, but the final test before hitting "publish" is always to think "What would this story look like on the front page of the New York Times, or Wall Street Journal". I think the worst case interpretation of this blog might give a headline like "Steve Ballmer got it wrong" says Brian Smith. But hopefully it wouldn't come to that (he didn't get it wrong anyway) - and it probably wouldn't be the front page, and probably wouldn't...(truncated)...
Latest Project Server 2007 SDK Update Now Available! Updated posting for December 07 Release
(Indexed 2007-12-12):
The December 2007 update to the SDK is now available Project Developer Portal: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/office/aa905469.aspx SDK Online: Project 2007 SDK in MSDN online library: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms512767.aspx SDK Download: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=267...(truncated)... New and updated topics since July:Articles: ERP Connector Solution Starter (20 topics) How to: Customize E-Mail for Project Server Notifications ...(truncated)...
Project 2007 SP1 - The gift that keeps on giving
(Indexed 2007-12-11):
So with the Holiday season in full swing - what to give that difficult person who has everything. How about Project 2007 SP1? Yes, the links should soon be live, and until then you can prepare by reading the TechNet article at http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/c3b86049-...(truncated)... Please read all of the article - and also note that there is just one Microsoft Office Server 2007 SP1 which fits the whole family. So don't go looking for a file that just says "projectserve...(truncated)...
Setting custom field values using the PSI
(Indexed 2007-12-06):
We don't seem to have done a good job in educating our customers on this topic, so thought I'd put this out there at least as a starting point and I'm sure we can also try and get better samples in the SDK. One of the tricky things with setting custom fields for any entity (Project, Resource or Task - but also assignment or timesheet) is that you cannot always just call up the dataset, navigate to the custom field row and set the value. In many cases the row may not yet exist, so you need to ...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007 Users: Beware the Fabulous 40!
(Indexed 2007-12-03):
No, this isn't some new group of super heroes or villains - but a set of templates you can load on SharePoint 3.0. See http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/templates.mspx for full details. But you should not load one of these templates if you already have Project Server 2007, as the Project Tracking Workspace solution included in the Fabulous 40 will overwrite the good Project Workspace template from Project Server. When this happens the special features that don't exist in the WSS version, lik...(truncated)...
EPM 2007 Test Data Population Tool
(Indexed 2007-11-27):
The EPM 2007 Test Data Population Tool solution starter was published on CodePlex today: http://www.codeplex.com/EPMDatapop So if you need to get some sample data loaded up for testing purposes - this is the tool for you! Documentation and source code is also posted so this will also be a good tool for learning how the PSI is used for getting data into the server. Q & A is posted in the discussion area - but I'll repeat this one here... Q: Is the tool supported?A: There is no support in terms...(truncated)...
How to check a project in through the database
(Indexed 2007-11-15):
OK, so that was a mean trick. Using a title like that to get you and your search engine to read about why you shouldn't check a project in through the database. In the words of Douglas Adams "It doesn't necessarily get you where you wanted to go, but it turns out to be where you needed to be." With each successive version of Project Server we try to discourage direct database access more and more - and with 2007 we don't even document the ones we want you to stay away from. There may be times...(truncated)...
Friends don't let friends delete their cache or cancel queue jobs
(Indexed 2007-11-02):
Inspired by Brian Kennemer's e-mail tag line of "Friends don't let friends assign resources to summary tasks" I thought I would get back on my soapbox about the cache and queue. I do appreciate that there are some early bugs around custom field display that require the occasional local cache deletion - and there are a couple of rare scenarios that will leave the queue in a bad way and things need canceling. But generally many of the situations our customers run into can be resolved without rec...(truncated)...
Project Conference Day 1
(Indexed 2007-10-29):
I had a chance to meet plenty of old friends today - and also put faces to names I have known for a while. It was good to meet all of you. Several people asked about the PowerPoint presentation so I have attached it to this posting. If I get time I may record several of the demos and post them up to MSN Soapbox. For now the pptx on it's own at least has many of the links you should find useful. For those who were not able to be here the session was titled Administration of an EPM Solution a...(truncated)...
Custom Fields and Lookup Tables
(Indexed 2007-10-25):
In Project Server 2007 the structure of the custom fields has changed and this is causing some confusion both for developers and for users. This isn't helped by our UI for creating and maintaining lookup tables. In this posting I intend to give some background information about the structure - along with some of the potentially unexpected things that can happen if you don't understand this structure. Custom fields can either be free form (of various datatypes) or based on pre-configured look...(truncated)...
Backup and Restore - what are the options?
(Indexed 2007-10-24):
A while back I posted about the backup and restore process and recommended using the SharePoint utility in Central Administration. That is still my preference and I recently used this to rebuild my server farm including 3 servers, 2 shared service providers and a dozen PWA instances covering about 10 different languages. I must admit it did take several attempts and my one big take-away is - try, try, try again until it all works in one go. The process isn't very forgiving if one piece fails,...(truncated)...
Interesting Article on Project Programmability Blog - Issue and Risks web part timeout workaround
(Indexed 2007-10-16):
I missed this posting at the tail end of last month - so just calling it out in case some of you missed it too. Scalable Issues and Risks Report! If you have lots of workspaces then a behavior you may have seen is the timeout of your PWA homepage, caused by the query bringing back (or at least attempting to bring back) the list of active issues and risks for a user. Patrick Conlan has posted a potential workaround for this which is very cool. It uses the reporting database and the SQL Reporting...(truncated)...
A Couple of "Visual How Tos" added to the Online SDK
(Indexed 2007-10-03):
These short video clips are just over 10 minutes each and support the SDK articles Walkthrough: Creating a Custom Project Server Web Part and How to: Write and Debug a Project Server Event Handler. Both of these videos show Visual Basic being used - and the articles show C# for both and also VB for the event handler example. They can be found at the following links:- Creating Custom Web Parts for Project Server 2007 Writing and Debugging Event Handlers for Project Server 2007.[Image]
PSI: Filter constraints and escaping the recursive event handler
(Indexed 2007-09-19):
A couple of topics that have come up through support incidents and comments posted here. The first on the use of the filter or xmlFilter parameters available in a few of the web services, and the second talking about event handlers and what happens if you fire an event based on Check-In that then issues a check-in - how do you break the loop?FiltersThe SDK details how the xmlFilter parameter can be used to filter the returned dataset and the sample code covers the CustomFields dataset. However...(truncated)...
So where did all these GUIDs come from?
(Indexed 2007-09-12):
Project Server 2007 makes much more use of GUIDs to identify different entities than the previous version so I thought I'd do a quick post to explain what they are, why we use them and how you should use them. GUIDs were originally a priestly class in ancient Celtic societies. No sorry, that was Druids. GUIDs are Globally Unique Identifiers and are 128 bit numbers usually represented in the database and ULS logs as a sequence of hexadecimal digits. They are not guaranteed to be unique - but ...(truncated)...
In case you missed it - Improving cube build performance
(Indexed 2007-09-11):
I know a lot of you already read Chris's Project Programmability blog - but in case you haven't seen this posting from last week it has a great tip for using the SQL Server 2005 capability of guiding a query to be executed in a specific way without touching the query itself. This uses sp_create_plan_guide. See http://blogs.msdn.com/project_programmability/archive/2007/0...(truncated)... for full details. For this particular customer scenario this made the difference between the query taking 1...(truncated)...
What do the Language Packs give you? Part 2: Office Clients
(Indexed 2007-09-10):
So we have seen in my previous post what server language packs do for Project Web Access, so now what happens on the client? The language packs and language settings work for all of Office, but I will be concentrating on Project. To change the settings once a language pack has been added you go to Microsoft Office Language Settings 2007, which is under the Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office Tools start menu. If you have not added any client language packs then you will see just two tabs - the...(truncated)...
LDAP Forms Authentication revisited
(Indexed 2007-09-10):
I've had a few comments on the configuration of Forms Authentication using LDAP and thought it worth raising some of these points in a new posting. 1. LDAP forms authentication is only supported by Office Servers and not WSSThe architecture for forms authentication is based on WSS 3.0 but the specific implementation described in mine (and others) posting for use of Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) and LDAP authentication is based on the Microsoft.Office.Server.Security.LDAPMembershipPro...(truncated)...
What do the Language Packs give you? Part 1: Project Server 2007
(Indexed 2007-08-30):
With this posting I am trying out some of the features of Windows Live Writer that I haven't used yet - so we have pictures! You can install language packs on Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 which will allow users to view the PWA pages, and also create Project Workspaces in selected languages. This is similar to the Multi-Lingual User Interface in Project Server 2003 but because we are now using Unicode there are not the limitations with different code pages that we faced in the previous v...(truncated)...
Take care when loading an Office Server 2007 Language packs if you use Project Server 2007
(Indexed 2007-08-18):
The download page for language packs at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=244...(truncated)... allows you to load language packs for many languages on top of your native installed language. For SharePoint this allows you to create sites in different languages. In Project these language packs do what the Multi-Language User Interface (MUI) did for 2003 and before - so two users can see the same PWA site in different languages, based on their IE language preference.The dow...(truncated)...
Don't "save-as" and use ODBC from Project Professional 2003 to a 2007 Database!
(Indexed 2007-08-10):
If you have the right database permissions it is perfectly possible to point Project Professional 2003 at a Project Server 2007 database using the save-as option and specifying an ODBC connection. Please do not do this! Reason 1 is that it will not work and will give an error message, but reason 2 is that it could come back and haunt you later. In failing it does try to make the database look like a 2003 version, and it adds some data, and even adds some columns to tables where it thinks they...(truncated)...
Waiting for Resources? - What happens when you provision a new Project Web Access site
(Indexed 2007-07-27):
One problem I have seen a few times is the Project Web Access site provisioning running into issues. If it fails completely then the error messages are pretty good - and you can generally resolve the issue and re-try and everything will be good. However, what do you do when it just sits on "Waiting for Resources" and nothing happens? The quick answer is that this relies on the SharePoint Timer Service and a couple of Shared Service Provider services that can be viewed through Timer Job Defini...(truncated)...
Latest Project Server 2007 SDK Update Now Available!
(Indexed 2007-07-17):
The latest update to the SDK is no available either in download form or online. (The online one may not be quite there yet as you read this - but will be very soon) New and updated topics since April: Task Start and Finish Dates Extending the Project Workspace Template (some corrections to the earlier article) SetAssignmentWorkData Schema Reference Changes for Custom Project Guides (additional information for deployment) Using the Project.Open Event In addition, there is more informatio...(truncated)...
Latest Project Server 2007 Downloadable SDK Update Now Available!
(Indexed 2007-07-17):
The latest update to the SDK is now available in download form. Updated online version coming soon. New and updated topics since April: Task Start and Finish Dates Extending the Project Workspace Template (some corrections to the earlier article) SetAssignmentWorkData Schema Reference Changes for Custom Project Guides (additional information for deployment) Using the Project.Open Event In addition, there is more information and examples in the QueueSystem methods and the event r...(truncated)...
Yet another OLAP error message - the longest yet!
(Indexed 2007-07-16):
Just when I thought I'd seen nearly all of the error messages possible when building a cube along comes another one. And the longest yet! I won't bore you all with the full error message but the key piece is:- Error="Analysis Services session failed with the following error: Failed to process the Analysis Services database OLAPCube on the SQLServername server. Error: OLE DB error: OLE DB or ODBC error: [DBNETLIB][ConnectionOpen (Connect()).]SQL Server does not exist or access denied.; 08001.E...(truncated)...
Project Conference - What do you want to hear about Administration?
(Indexed 2007-07-13):
I have been asked to present a session at the Project Conference titled "Administration of an EPM Solution" and wanted to check that I would be addressing the right issues. The session will cover administrative functions both in Windows SharePoint Services and Project Server. The SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration features of Diagnostic Logging, Shared Services (including provisioning new PWA sites), Timer jobs, Backup/Restore and administrative account management will be covered. In Proj...(truncated)...
When are server-side events supposed to fire?
(Indexed 2007-07-04):
We have had a few questions on events, and the fact that sometimes, or more correctly, in some circumstances, they don't fire. So if you are using the PSI to make things happen then all should work and usually the description gives you a good idea when they will fire. However, you might also expect that doing a similar thing through Project Professional or Project Web Access will fire the same event. In many cases this is true - a publish is a publish is a publish and wherever you publish a p...(truncated)...
Creating Issues and Linking to Tasks. Better than task notes?
(Indexed 2007-06-22):
There are some limitations with the task notes field and the PSI which are discussed elsewhere on the blogs with a potential workaround of using VBA to access the RTF information. Another workaround you might consider is to use SharePoint and the Project Workspaces and instead of having a task note use the issues or risks lists or document library associated with the project. In the attached sample I have modified the LoginDemo sample with an additional button that creates a new issue list item ...(truncated)...
You can't change the task work breakdown structure (WBS) value from the PSI
(Indexed 2007-06-19):
In the dataset for the Project you have read/write access to Task_WBS. Unfortunately this should be read-only and the documentation is being corrected. (See community comment already posted at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/websvcproject.proje...(truncated)... - and look out for the updated downloadable SDK next month). This can appear to work and you can see any changes written to the dataset and even persisted to the database and published to PWA views. However if the project is ...(truncated)...
Queue Etiquette: 4 items or less? Join the queue!
(Indexed 2007-06-14):
The queue is one of the new features that is taking some getting used to by our customers. It is probably time for a fresh "queue problems" posting - that will be my next post, but the following came out of a discussion with Patrick Conlan yesterday. The main job of the queue is to even out the flow of data to the database ensuring consistency of data and avoiding overload on the servers. The queue process has some great logic built in to control the flow of data and ensure reliable data consi...(truncated)...
So the percentage of what is complete?
(Indexed 2007-06-11):
I had a recent question concerning an apparent difference between the % complete showing on the Project Center view for a task/project and the % complete showing on My Tasks. If you have more than one assignment and many tasks it can be difficult to reconcile the task status to the overall project. But in this case the customer had one task, one assignment so why the difference? If the project proceeds to plan then there wouldn't be a difference, but if the work performed is different from pl...(truncated)...
Just Released: Visual Studio Team Foundation Server - Project Server 2007 Connector
(Indexed 2007-06-11):
If you haven't already seen the announcement on Christophe's blog take a look at the new connector for Visual Studio TFS to Project Server 2007! See http://www.codeplex.com/pstfsconnector/Release/ProjectReleas...(truncated)... for further details. OVERVIEW The Visual Studio Team Foundation Server - Project Server 2007 Connector is designed to integrate the project management capabilities of TFS with Project Server 2007. It's been developed by the Visual Studio Team System Rangers in response...(truncated)...
Project 2007 Conference - session details now posted!
(Indexed 2007-06-07):
The session list for the Project 2007 Conference has been posted to the http://www.msprojectconference.com site. Go to http://www.msprojectconference.com/tracks.htm to see the details.Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Project Server, Project Server 2007, Project Conference[Image]
A couple more cube build error messages you might come across.
(Indexed 2007-05-29):
A couple more cube build error messages I have seen recently. The first is related to a time out with Analysis Services 2005 and the clue is that failure will be just over an hour into the build (assuming the timeout is still the default 3600 seconds). The error is:-Failed to build the OLAP cubes. Error: Analysis Services session failed with the following error: Failed to process the Analysis Services database on the server. Error: Internal error: The operation terminated unsuccessfullyInte...(truncated)...
Uninstalling Project Server from a farm? Don't forget to run PSConfig!
(Indexed 2007-05-29):
If you have Project Server 2007 installed on a farm on top of Office SharePoint Server 2007 then if you uninstall Project Server the final screen will remind you to run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard (PSconfig - where PS stands for post setup, not Project Server). Failure to run the wizard will leave you in a state where SharePoint will not work and if you look in InetMgr you may be shocked to see all your web sites gone! Don't panic - just run the wizard and all...(truncated)...
Please Use the SharePoint Backup Options!
(Indexed 2007-05-24):
I guess many of you read all of the different blogs coming out of Microsoft from Treb, Christophe and others so I try not to repeat stuff - but there are some new postings concerning backup and restore and migration of data between servers. The links are referenced on Christophe's blog. So to add value I'll concentrate on some problems I have seen - and hopefully convince you that having a full SharePoint backup of your farm is a good idea! So two recent cases I worked on involved firstly one...(truncated)...
Support options for Microsoft Office Project
(Indexed 2007-05-22):
I really welcome the great comments and contact I have from readers of my blog and I often take the issues you are hitting as topics for future blogs - but it isn't possible for me to give you a good support service via my blog. If it is an obvious problem with a one line answer I will try and steer you in the right direction - but for deeper issues this is just not possible. http://support.microsoft.com gives details of the various support offerings from Microsoft - including no cost options...(truncated)...
To Add or Update - That is the Question. The PSI and custom fields
(Indexed 2007-05-01):
This posting was inspired by a support call concerning custom fields - but does apply to other entities in the Project dataset and others. The question was around the QueueUpdateProject and QueueAddToProject web services calls that are part of the Project web service in the PSI. If you use the wrong call then the error message is usually helpful telling you you can't add with the update call and vice versa. But the thing that does catch people out are the custom fields... By default a proje...(truncated)...
To Add or Update - That is the Question. The PSI and custom fields - Updated
(Indexed 2007-05-01):
This posting was inspired by a support call concerning custom fields - but does apply to other entities in the Project dataset and others. The question was around the QueueUpdateProject and QueueAddToProject web services calls that are part of the Project web service in the PSI. If you use the wrong call then the error message is usually helpful telling you you can't add with the update call and vice versa. But the thing that does catch people out are the custom fields... By default a proje...(truncated)...
Just checking in...
(Indexed 2007-04-23):
One problem that our customers appear to be running into is checking in projects. We do have a bug that appears to leave projects checked out when you wouldn't expect them to be. But I suspect that in many cases it may be that the architectural changes to 2007 have caused some of this confusion - and the default view of the queue may well hide the true cause of the problem. So - check out these different scenarios to see if this covers your issues:- Project Professional says my project is che...(truncated)...
Update to OLAP Issue: February release of SQL Server Management Objects works with Reporting Services add-in for SharePoint
(Indexed 2007-04-23):
If you are a regular reader you may remember that the loading of the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SP2 component "Reporting Services Add-in for Microsoft SharePoint Technologies" broke the OLAP cube builds as it removed a required component when used on an aplication server that was not the SQL Server host too. Well if you load the February update to the SQL Management Objects (rather than the November issue) available as part of the Feature Pack release then this problem is resolved! Feature Pack ...(truncated)...
Just checking in... updated
(Indexed 2007-04-23):
One problem that our customers appear to be running into is checking in projects. We do have a bug that appears to leave projects checked out when you wouldn't expect them to be. But I suspect that in many cases it may be that the architectural changes to 2007 have caused some of this confusion - and the default view of the queue may well hide the true cause of the problem. So - check out these different scenarios to see if this covers your issues:- Project Professional says my project is che...(truncated)...
Update to the Project 2007 SDK Now Available!
(Indexed 2007-04-17):
Online at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=267...(truncated)... you can now download the latest SDK with plenty of new content. The online version will also be updated in the next day or so. New topics for this April 2007 release are:- XML Schema References for Project (15 topics; includes the ChangeList Schema Reference) Changes for Custom Project Guides Custom Fields in OLAP Cubes (in the Local and Enterprise Custom Fields topic) How to: Generate ChangeXML for S...(truncated)...
SQL Deadlocks and the Project Server 2007 Queues
(Indexed 2007-04-17):
I had a question from my blog (thanks Alex!) on SQL deadlocks and error messages like the following on a busy server. System.Data.SqlClient.SqlError: Transaction (Process ID 84) was deadlocked on lock resources with another process and has been chosen as the deadlock victim. Rerun the transaction. You will also see error id 7747 in the application event log. This can be an issue with systems that are quite stressed and in all cases I have seen relates to the process that selects the queue jo...(truncated)...
Another way to troubleshoot Unknown Errors
(Indexed 2007-04-05):
I had a comment posted by Vince Rothwell of a suggestion for troubleshooting the type of errors described in my last posting and though it was worth a full posting rather than getting lost in comments. Vince gave me a link to his blog at http://blog.thekid.me.uk/archive/2007/02/15/a-solution-to-qu...(truncated)... where he describes making some changes to the web.config file for the application giving the error - so that you get a less generic error message. I tried this on one of my servers w...(truncated)...
An Unexpected Error Has Occurred, or Unknown Error in WSS 3.0
(Indexed 2007-03-23):
With Project Server 2007 being a WSS 3.0 application you may come across either of these error messages. The Unexpected error can appear on web part pages, and the Unknown error is more likely on pages without web parts. The two errors are really telling you the same thing - This page (or web part) needed some data - but the data doesn't fit what I was expecting. If you get this then you probably need to raise a support call (see http://support.microsoft.com for options available to you) - or...(truncated)...
SharePoint Configuration Step 8 of 9 is really slow all of a sudden!
(Indexed 2007-03-23):
We have been working on different SharePoint farm configurations recently and particularly those involving adding Microsoft Office SharePoint Server to a farm that already has Project Server loaded. The penultimate step - 8 of 9 - was being really slow and we had reports of users canceling, starting again to try and solve this problem. Then one of my colleagues said "That step is taking about an hour". Hmm - having read Chris Boyd's recent posting on event registration not happening immediate...(truncated)...
What makes a Good Repro when logging a support call
(Indexed 2007-03-22):
Sometime on a support call the customer will say "I have a great repro - just open this mpp file and things will crash!". Unfortunately this is a little like seeing an automobile wreck and trying to work out how the cars got where they did - and which direction they possibly came from. The mpp is already bad - but how did it get that way? The perfect repro is starting from a new project, doing a set a steps and then something bad happens. Even better is when following the same steps on our m...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007 - Common installation problems
(Indexed 2007-03-16):
These are probably repeats for many of you reading - but based on personal experience there are still some people that haven't got these messages:- If you are going to run Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 on the same farm then ALL servers need both sets of bits loaded - and preferably Office SharePoint Server loaded first. Failure to do this will probably first be seen when provisioning fails for your PWA sites. You don't have to run all the ser...(truncated)...
RESOLVED! ActiveX Component Can't Create Object: Cube build failure against SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services
(Indexed 2007-03-09):
The original posting is still repeated below to help with other's troubleshooting. I uninstalled the client tools to double check if the original instructions were OK. It turned out that I didn't have the SQL Server 2005 Management Objects installed - even though when I tried loading it again it told me I hade a "higher version". (It also didn't show in Add/Remove in control panel - my clue to home in on this component). To find out more about this "higher version" message I re-ran the msi wi...(truncated)...
My Queue is Still Stuck! - Troubleshooting Steps
(Indexed 2007-03-06):
As a follow up to my previous queue post these are the steps I follow when investigating queue issues:- Is the queue running? Check services and ULS/event log if for some reason it is not running at all - it could be a password change that means the Microsoft .Office.Project.Server.Queuing service isn't starting Look for active Active Cache category messages in the ULS logs - the category Project Server Active Cache Sav logs jobs writing data into the queue - this can help identify if a job th...(truncated)...
Extending the PSI - new post on the Project Programmability Blog
(Indexed 2007-03-05):
Another great new post from Chris on Creating a PSI Extension. Where I think this will be really useful is if you need something back from the PSI that isn't quite formatted correctly to interact with your 3rd party system - or perhaps you need to consolidate information from several PSI calls and then do some manipulation. You could write your own PSI extension that does all this server-side - and then just returns exactly what you need and exactly how you need it. Save some bandwidth and al...(truncated)...
My Queue is Stuck! - How to manage your queue service in Project Server 2007
(Indexed 2007-02-28):
The new world of Project Server 2007 and the architectural changes are catching a few of our customers out - and I thought I'd share a few tips and tricks for keeping the queue flowing - and some tips for getting things moving again if they appear to have stopped. First I will point to a great TechNet article on the Queue and as you will all have read this then my explanations will make more sense :). Under Server Settings in Project Web Access the Manage Queue option allows you to see what is...(truncated)...
Monitoring Tools for Project Server 2007
(Indexed 2007-02-23):
I'm just playing around with both the Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 Management Pack for MOM 2005 and also the Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and the 2007 Microsoft Office System. Nothing much to report just yet, but I'd love to hear comments on how you are finding these tools. The Best Practices Analyzer does have quite a few specific rules for Project Server 2007 - and the plan is that we will extend the rule sets for both of these products as we ...(truncated)...
Live.com Project Search Page
(Indexed 2007-02-23):
I can't imagine there are too many people who read my blog that don't also read Treb's postings from the Project product group - but just in case you missed it Treb has done some really cool stuff with Live.com's macros for search. Take a look and try it out at http://search.live.com/macros/tggprojectserver/projectsearch Enjoy! Technorati Tags: Project Server 2007[Image]
Project Server 2007 with LDAP Authentication
(Indexed 2007-02-16):
For customers that used Project Server 2003 and made use of the ProjectServer accounts (non-Windows authenticated) they have a few choices in Project Server 2007. The first consideration I suggest is why were you using ProjectServer accounts?. If the answer is that you dont have Windows domains but use some other authentication method, and LDAP is that other method then I have good news! LDAP is a supported authentication provider for Windows SharePoint Services v3, and therefore Microsoft Off...(truncated)...
Common Error Messages when Building Cubes with Project Server 2007
(Indexed 2007-02-14):
I am reproducing some common errors, both from the USL logs and the Application Event logs to assist with troubleshooting cube building issues. These are in a sort of order that follows my previous article - so first I will give a description of the problem and the errors you will see. Note that the same Application Event log can appear for multiple failure modes (1 to 3 listed below all have the same error in the application event log) - but the ULS logs tend to be more indicative of the real...(truncated)...
Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 and SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services - Building Cubes
(Indexed 2007-02-13):
Following on from my permissions piece with Project Server I will extend this logic to the service accounts and permissions to get a successful cube build. I'll start with an explanation of what goes on when building cubes which should help any troubleshooting you do.When you click on Build Cube then this kicks of a sequence of events starting with the save of any new or changed data in the cube settings - such as the server or cube name. Next a job will be placed on the Project Server queue r...(truncated)...
Operating System and SQL Permissions for the Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 Service Accounts
(Indexed 2007-02-08):
As part of some internal training I captured the details of which groups the various accounts that can be used for Project Server 2007 end up belonging to. I though this might be useful to share. The key thing here is that you do not normally need to do any of this manually - and even if you change some accounts then as long as you use the UI or stsadm the group memberships should be set correctly. So for my scenario I have 4 users. FarmAdmin, SSPAdmin, DefAppPool and SSPAppPool and these ar...(truncated)...
One event handler and multiple PWA sites - Where did that event come from?
(Indexed 2007-02-02):
An interesting support case came in through our EMEA team (thanks Valdemar) where a customer had a single event handler that was registered in different sites - but when the event was raised they needed to know which site fired it - so they could make the necessary updates against the right site. In this case they were updating the list of projects in different categories - both on the publishing and check-in events.So, how do you find out? The event itself has a parameter of contextInfo and o...(truncated)...
Adding Timephased Actual Work through the PSI
(Indexed 2007-02-02):
There is some great content in the SDK on statusing (search for SubmitStatus and UpdateStatus) and even more coming soon. One of the missing pieces just at the moment is around adding timephased data. So here is a very brief example. See the SDK for better examples of programmatically building the XML - but the key piece is the format of the XML passed to the statusing.UpdateStatus web service. In my example I have a 5 day task assigned to me starting next Monday - and I want to update the a...(truncated)...
You don't need to install WSS v3 before Project Server 2007
(Indexed 2007-01-31):
One common issue we see, particularly from customers familiar with Project Server 2003 is that they will install WSS v3 before Project Server 2007. This is an unnecessary step and in some cases can then make it difficult to install Project Server 2007 in precisely the way that you want. For instance if WSS is installed then it can install a SQL Express instance for its databases. Then when you install Project Server it follows the lead of WSS and also uses SQL Express - when you really wanted...(truncated)...
Project Server 2007 SQL Server Reporting Services Report Pack - Now available
(Indexed 2007-01-30):
This will be part of the SDK in the April update - for now you can find it at the Project blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/project "The Project Server 2007 Report Pack provides usable reports for some common requests and illustrates some of the new functionality in Microsoft Office Project Server 2007. The Report Pack also provides report developers with sample queries for correctly retrieving data from the Project Server Reporting database."Enjoy!Technorati Tags: Project Server 2007 [Image]