The Microsoft ProClarity Team Blog

Cannot Expand the Setup Panel

Joey B. Pruett — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 18:23:00 GMT

We have seen rare cases where the ProClarity Professional Setup Panel cannot be adjusted or expanded. Instead, the area for the hierarchies is small and a large portion is taken up by blank, grey space. The cause is unknown. However, it may be caused by certain combinations of hardware and non-Aero visual display themes in Windows Vista and 7. The Windows Basic themes may be used on certain hardware or invoked during online meeting sessions such as Live Meeting, Easy Assist, Lync, and others. Workarounds may include switching back to an Aero theme, changing hardware, updating video drivers, or not using online meeting sessions. Another workaround that may help - if you are using Desktop Professional, (not Web Professional) - is the following.

Maximize ProClarity Professional
Hide the setup panel (click View > Setup Panel)
Close, then re-open
ProClarity Professional (should be maximized)
Open the setup panel (click View > Setup Panel)

Another thing that can lead to this issue occuring is using one of the Basic Windows 7 themes. If the setup panel isn't rendering correcly try using one of the Windows Aero themes.

Query Failed!

Joey B. Pruett — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 23:37:13 GMT

There are many reasons you could receive a query failed message in ProClarity Professional. One recent customer found that when he combined members of a dimension in the background axis, he received, "Query failed: The current query is not valid and cannot be displayed. Create a new query by making different selections on the Setup Panel or revising your MDX statement. If your query contains a calculated measure, the syntax may be incorrect and should be revised. To restore a previous view, click the Back button". "Warning Query Failed! (800F000A)".

The customer could work around this by setting the solve order to > 0 or changing AGGREGATE to SUM. This isn't optimal since users would have to do this manually and these settings would be lost when the next query is run.

The issue is that the “dynamic” named set cannot be resolved because more than one member(s) is selected on a hierarchy that is referenced in the set definition using .CurrentMember.

The way my brain views this is that the combining (selection) of multiple members on the background blows up because, 1) SSAS finds all the named sets in the cube script which use that dimension, 2) those named sets are then resolved (dynamic!), 3) this named set uses .CurrentMember, and finally , 4) it makes no sense to combine multiple members and .CurrentMember. I'm not sure I understand it either, so please feel free to set me straight or see this post - http://sqlblog.com/blogs/mosha/archive/2005/11/18/writing-multiselect-friendly-mdx-calculations.aspx.

Thanks to Steve Pontello for his invaluable assistance.

-Joey

ProClarity and Kerberos Delegation

Joey B. Pruett — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 18:49:00 GMT

Here's another small update to the ProClarity and Kerberos Delegation document.

Kerberos delegation will work with a disjointed domain namespace where the NETBIOS short name does not match the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN). For example, if your FQDN is northamerica.contoso.com and your NETBIOS name is NA.
When using a service account for the application pool in Server 2008 and later, you will need to set useAppPoolCredentials to True on the PAS virtual directory. If useKernelMode is set to True and useAppPoolCredentials is set to False, then Kerberos service ticket decryption fails and you will be prompted for credentials and unable to authenticate. Alternatively, you can disable kernel mode authentication, but this is not recommended.
Use Network Monitor to capture a client’s failed attempt to authenticate to PAS and see data. Filter the traffic by, “HTTP or KerberosV5” and you should see HTTP:Request, HTTP:Response for GET /pas. Find the KerberosV5:TGS Request and Response and you should see the Sname being requested. This is the exact SPN that needs registered on the PAS IIS application pool service account. For example, Sname: HTTP/ProClarityServer.northamerica.contoso.com.

-Joey

Unable to run ProClarity Professional and Cube Could Not Be Found

Joey B. Pruett — Mon, 16 May 2011 16:40:11 GMT

You may see the error, "The selected page could not be opened because the cube could not be found," in ProClarity Web Standard if you have not used the 9.0 OLEDB for OLAP provider when creating the views in Professional. Recreate the views in Professional using the 9.0 provider and republish them to PAS.

Also, make sure you set the Web Professional to be a required component in the Administration Tool if your end users see this error - "Unable to run Proclarity Professional. Either the required components are not installed or you don't have permission to download them."

-Joey

ProClarity Web Professional on 64-bit Internet Explorer

Joey B. Pruett — Mon, 09 May 2011 20:45:49 GMT

Recently there has been some confusion regarding ProClarity Web Professional and 64-bit Internet Explorer. ProClarity Web Professional and the prerequisite Download Manager are both 32-bit ActiveX controls which will never run in 64-bit IE. More information here, and here. The workaround is to use the 32-bit version of IE which is included with 64-bit Windows.

So, look at the requirements.pdf document for OS support and to the forums and blog for solutions to known issues. Remember that ProClarity Web Professional will always need 32-bit IE.

-Joey

Common ProClarity Questions

Joey B. Pruett — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 16:37:00 GMT

I pulled together some resources to answer some common ProClarity questions.

ProClarity 6.3 is compatible and supported on Windows 7 x86 and x64 with updates. The compatibility web site will be updated soon to show x64 compatibility.

Resources:

Official Microsoft ProClarity support policy.

ProClarity 6.3.2217 (SP2) is the oldest supported version but it does not have official Windows 7 support. Requirements.

ProClarity 6.3.2222 (SP3) introduced official Windows 7 support. Requirements.

ProClarity 6.3.2233 (cumulative hotfix) is the latest build as of 4/18/2001 and has all updates since 6.3 RTM for both Professional and the Server products. Requirements.

All builds after 6.3.2222 (SP3) require the x86 version of the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Service Pack 1 Redistributable Package ATL Security Update.

-Joey

The Download Manager could not be installed on this computer

Joey B. Pruett — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 20:43:58 GMT

When attempting to download ProClarity Web Professional, you must first download an .exe file which installs a single .dll file. This .dll file, the download manager, helps determine which ProClarity products are installed on your client vs. which are available on the server. If you try to go through this process using the 64-bit version of Internet Explorer, you may receive an error, "The Download Manager could not be installed on this computer." You must use the 32-bit version of IE to complete this process.

-Joey

useAppPoolCredentials = True with Kerberos Delegation on 2008

Joey B. Pruett — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 20:29:07 GMT

This has tripped me up a couple of times now when troubleshooting Kerberos delegation. It's time I wrote a post to keep it in memory and for posterity. When configuring Kerberos delegation while the web server is on Windows Server 2008 or later, and I'm using domain credentials for the application pool service account, I have to change useAppPoolCredentials from False to True.

1. Install the IIS7 Admin Pack: http://www.iis.net/extensions/AdministrationPack. (Note: The IIS7 admin pack is installed by default in Windows Server 2008 R2).

2. Open IIS Manager.

3. Expand the server and then ‘Sites’, then select a website or application.

4. Under Management, select ‘Configuration Editor’.

5. In the ‘From:’ section above the properties, select ‘ApplicationHost.config <location path=…’

6. For the ‘Section:’ location, select system.webServer > security > authentication > windowsAuthentication.

7. In the properties page, set useAppPoolCredentials to True, then click Apply.

I like to restart my service, (IIS in this case), any time I make changes that affect service accounts in regards to Kerberos delegation.

Thank you to Sean Flanagan for repeatedly reminding me about this setting and providing the step-by-step instructions.

Enjoy!

-Joey

Latest ProClarity Requirements - Hotfix 6.3.2227

Joey B. Pruett — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 21:39:33 GMT

Please see the attatched document for requirements for the latest ProClarity hotfix package.

Thank You,

-Joey

Latest ProClarity Hotfix Package - 6.3.2229

Joey B. Pruett — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 18:30:32 GMT

A hotfix package (build 6.3.2229) is available for ProClarity Analytics Server 6.3 and for ProClarity Desktop Professional 6.3. This is a cumulative package that contains all fixes since 6.3 RTM. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2450921.

-Joey

Migrating ProClarity Analytics Server Content

Joey B. Pruett — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 20:12:27 GMT

PAS supports three primary mechanisms for migrating content from the development server to the production server they are as follows:

Re-Publishing the book from Development to Production
Backup the PAS database on the development server and restore the database to production
Use SQL Server replication to synchronize the content between the development and production servers.

Please see the attached document for further details.

-Joey

Installing ProClarity 6.3 SP2 on Microsoft Windows Server 2008

Joey B. Pruett — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 19:20:00 GMT

I've updated this post to include the document on, “Installing ProClarity 6.3 SP2 on Microsoft Windows Server 2008.” I recently solved a common error - XML must have top level element in the Admin Tool by switching the PAS application pool back to NETWORK SERVICE and then following the instructions in this document. You can substitute any service account for NETWORK SERVICE if desired.

Cheers,

-Joey

A hotfix rollup package (build 6.3.2226) is available for ProClarity Analytics Server and Professional 6.3

Joey B. Pruett — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 21:57:36 GMT

This is a cumulative update that includes all previous fixes. More documentation will be posted in the next couple of weeks. Until then, please let me know if you have any questions. I hope to soon post a in-depth update on this fix and other happenings in the ProClarity world. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2257758

-Joey

Microsoft ProClarity Support Policies

Joey B. Pruett — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 21:31:30 GMT

This is just a reminder of where you can go to check for Microsoft ProClarity Support Lifecycle dates. I would start here for ProClarity specific dates - http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=12309. You can also visit this site to view any ProClarity or other products - http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/#tab0. Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy.

-Joey

Manually Changing ProClarity Analytics Server Properties

Joey B. Pruett — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 18:22:00 GMT

It is sometimes necessary to manually edit the ProClarity Analytics Server (PAS) properties manually. This may be due to configuration needs, IIS or server corruption, or a known issue where PAS prevents the editing of properties in the Admin Tool server properties dialog. You can edit PAS properties in three ways – the Admin Tool server properties dialog box, the IIS 6 metabase, and the IIS 7 applicationHost.config file. Restarting IIS is highly recommended after making changes.

Please see the attached white paper for details.

Thanks!

-Joey

ProClarity Language Packs

Joey B. Pruett — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:28:00 GMT

Customers often want to display ProClarity Analytics Server Web Standard (PAS) in a localized (translated) language. End users can then select the language with which they want to view the Web Standard. In order to do this, you must install the appropriate language pack.

First, you must install English version of PAS. Next, you must install the language-specific pack for your desired display language. This is an install option on the splash screen when you run setup for a fully language-localized PAS version. For example, you would download the full, localized French PAS bits from MSDN and run setup - then choose the language pack install option. After installing one or more language packs you would then install the latest service pack for PAS for each of the languages you have added. Get out there and Bing "ProClarity Service Pack," and you'll find the PAS SP3 or later page. On the page is a Change language: option that allows you to select the language(s) that match your packs and download and install them. The localized language packs always know that the English OS is required and already installed. So, the packs have the code to update the English PAS bits as well as their language-specific bits.

You can also set the default language for users in the PAS Admin Tool.

Cheers,

-Joey

Increasing Professional Performance by Disabling Query Check

Joey B. Pruett — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:18:00 GMT

The ProClarity Professional clients have a query check feature which is enabled by default. As long as this feature remains enabled, a query generated in the background is used to determine the size of the query result set before actually running the query for a user defined view. Should the result set size be over a set threshold (1000 cells by default), the user will be warned about the size of the query, and given the option of cancelling the query before it's sent, or confirming that they do in fact want the query run.

The queries generated by this feature can impact the performance of the client and in some cases the feature can more than double the amount of time it takes the client to render a view. If a user is experiencing slow query times in ProClarity Professional, it may be due to the query size check. The check can be disabled by going to File|Options, choosing the "Browsing Experience" tab, and unchecking the "Check query result size before executing" option.

To automate the disabling of the query check you can add a logon script to group policy. Attached is a sample Visual Basic script that has been tested against Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003, and 7. You'll need to rename the attachment from .txt to .vbs. Kudos to Benjamin Wright-Jones(MCS) who authored the script.

Updated ProClarity 6.3 SP3 Requirements

Joey B. Pruett — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:59:00 GMT

Here is an updated PDF with ProClarity 6.3 SP3 Requirements. One core change is the addition of the ProClarity SharePoint Viewer. The PSV has the same requirements as MOSS 2007. At the moment, those requirements are the ones listed for MOSS SP1 via the links in the document. We hope to eventually get a permanent spot for ProClarity requirements on the TechNet web site. Until then, they will be available via support and on this blog.

Enjoy!

-Joey

The Wizard was interrupted before ProClarity Desktop Professional 6.3 could be completely installed

Joey B. Pruett — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:21:00 GMT

Here are some updated and more precise instructions for fixing these errors.

When attempting to install ProClarity Desktop Professional 6.3, you may receive the following errors:

"InstallShield Wizard Completed. The Wizard was interrupted before ProClarity Desktop Professional 6.3 could be completely installed. Your system has not been modified. To complete installation at another time, please run setup again. Click Finish to exit the wizard."

Please see the article, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2003976, for more information.

Symptoms

The installation of ProClarity Desktop Professional 6.3 fails with the following error:

"The wizard was interrupted before ProClarity Desktop Professional 6.3 could be completely installed"

or:

"Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library - Runtime error! - Program: c:\windows\system32\msiexec.exe R6034 an application has made at attempt to load the C runtime library incorrectly. Please contact the application's support team for more information."

Cause

The Microsoft Visual C++ 8.0 runtime DLLs are present in the %windir% directory causing the Windows Installer (msiexec.exe) to fail

Resolution

Temporarily remove or rename the files, install ProClarity Desktop Professional 6.3, then restore the files to their original name and location:

32bit: '%winddir%\msvcm80.dll' and '%winddir%\msvcp80.dll'

64bit: '%winddir%\msvcm80.dll' and '%winddir%\syswow64\msvcp80.dll'

Thanks to Sean Flanagan for the information.

-Joey

How do I get my hands on ProClarity 6.3?

Joey B. Pruett — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:39:00 GMT

You can get 6.3 through the MSDN, MVLS, the fulfillment desk 1-800-248-0655, or via an evaluation copy at the public http://download.microsoft.com site. 6.2 hot fixes are no longer available since the product version is no longer supported. You must upgrade to 6.3 to receive support and updates.

-Joey

HTTP 500 Errors in Dashboard and ASP.NET 32-bit Mode

Joey B. Pruett — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 22:02:00 GMT

Over the past few years, I’ve seen a few instances where ProClarity Dashboard and Kerberos just don’t seem to get along – no matter how much configuration or troubleshooting is performed. One of the symptoms I see is an HTTP 500 error when users try to browse the Dashboard. Our esteemed Sean Flanagan recently solved a similar case and the answer was to verify that IIS ASP.NET was configured to run in 32-bit mode instead of 64-bit mode. IIS was already configured for 32-bit mode since ProClarity is a 32-bit only application. This solution may have been the cause for some of the past failures I witnessed. Here are the instructions for making the switch.

894435 How to switch between the 32-bit versions of ASP.NET 1.1 and the 64-bit version of ASP.NET 2.0 on a 64-bit version of Windows

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;894435

Cheers,

-Joey

ProClarity Install Prerequisites - PTS for SQL Server 2005

Joey B. Pruett — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 20:23:00 GMT

With the release of Windows 7, and client workstations trending to a 64-bit operating system, inquiries about ProClarity installation prerequisites have steadily increased. ProClarity Professional includes 'SQLServer2005_ASOLEDB9.msi' which is the 32-bit version of the Analysis Services 9.0 OLE DB Provider. The installer attempts to install this as a prerequisite before installing ProClarity Professional, and on a 64-bit operating system you might see this error message:

The solution to this is to manually install the x64 version of the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services 9.0 OLE DB Provider. To manually install the provider what you'll want to do is go to the latest Feature Pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (currently December 2008) download site and download the install file, install the provider, and then install ProClarity.

ProClarity 6.3 Service Pack 3 Available

Joey B. Pruett — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:30:00 GMT

ProClarity 6.3 SP3 reached RTM on Friday, October 9, and is now available on the Microsoft Download Center:

· ProClarity Analytics Server 6.3 SP3 (ENU). This package includes the components for updating ProClarity Analytics Server 6.3 and for distributing an updated version of ProClarity Professional 6.3.

· ProClarity Desktop Professional 6.3 SP3 (ENU). This package includes the components for updating ProClarity Professional directly on a local computer.

· ProClarity 6.3 SP3 documentation, see: ProClarity SP3 Readme and ProClarity SP3 Hardware and Software Requirements

ProClarity 6.3 SP3 is being released in 17 languages (including English). The localized products will be released by tier, beginning in mid-November. All languages are being released to the following channels:

· Microsoft Download Center. Localized products will be available beginning in mid-November.

· Volume licensing (VL). The English version will be available in early December; localized products will be available in early January.

· MSDN. All languages are expected to be available by mid-December.

Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 SP3 will be released to manufacturing this Thursday, October 15.

Many thanks to everyone who helped with this release!

Understanding ProClarity's Metadata Store

Joey B. Pruett — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 20:39:00 GMT

What is ProClarity’s metadata store? Metadata store is a fancy name for they way ProClarity products store data about your data. In this case, your data is your Briefing Book pages and your My Views pages. The data about your pages includes information such as the SSAS servers, databases, cubes, attributes, hierarchies, and members queried when the page is executed. This metadata is stored in local Briefing Books – in both .BBK format and the more accessible .XML format. Also, it is stored in the ProClarity Analytics Server respository database in the XMLData fields in the MDStores and BookElements tables. See the Analytics Server Administration Tool Help file for more information.

The easiest way to investigate the metadata is to save a local Briefing Book and select the .XML format when doing so. You’ll get at least three files when you do this. One file describing the entire book - <bookName>.xml, on file for each page in the book, <bookName>_BookPage.xml, and <bookName>_MDStore.xml. Subsequent pages will be appended with incrementing whole numbers – BookPage1, BookPage2, etc.

When ProClarity Professional opens the page, it will try to organize the information to execute the query and will do so based on the contents of _BookPage.xml. For example, Pro might try to attempt to retrieve [Account].[Accounts].DEFAULTMEMBER and its associated dimension and hierarchy objects based on IDs (MDID).

- <<Axes>

- < <Background>

< <SortTuple Tuple="Yes" />

- < <Dimensions>

- < <Dimension Name="[Account]" MDID="0">

< <Hierarchy Name="[Account].[Accounts]" MDID="1" />

- < <MemberSet>

- < <Member>

< <Member Name="[Account].[Accounts].DEFAULTMEMBER" MDID="2" />

</Member>

ProClarity then works with both the BookPage and MDStore files to validate objects such as this member against the current cube/session. The OnMetaDataCannotFind event will be fired and the Missing Data Wizard will appear for each item that cannot be validated. The metadata store works to minimize the disruption of missing objects by trying to limit the number of times the user has to work with the wizard.

Thank you to Steve Caminiti for your help!

-Joey

"Warning The security database on the server does not have a computer account for this workstation trust relationship."

Joey B. Pruett — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:02:00 GMT

Last November I wrote a post about an error when trying to connect ProClarity Professional to SSAS servers. "Warning The security database on the server does not have a computer account for this workstation trust relationship."

Well, on my Windows 7 RC and RTM machines, I was getting the same error when trying to connect to some pretty clean installations of SSAS 2005 and 2008.

I checked to make sure that SSAS allowed remote settings, that both the client and the server were on the same domain, and that my account had security access to the cube. I also checked to make sure that this wasn’t the known AES aware issue.

Finally, I checked the SPNs on the SSAS boxes – there were no entries for MSOLAPSvc.3. However, I was doubtful it would help to add them – I hadn’t needed to do so in the past. I added the SPNs to both machines, JP-Data and JP-Data2 as follows:

MSOLAPSvc.3/jp-data.northamerica.corp.microsoft.com

MSOLAPSvc.3/jp-data

And,

MSOLAPSvc.3/jp-data2.northamerica.corp.microsoft.com

MSOLAPSvc.3/jp-data2

After restarting my SSAS services and rebooting my client box, everything works!

-Joey