This update addresses some issues customers commonly have with the View Effective Rights tool in the Office Project Server 2007 Project Resource Kit (PRK) and includes work-around methods for operating it properly.
This article describes options associated with the Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS) in Office Project Server 2007. It has been updated to correct errors in the descriptions of the available RBS options.
This article has been updated to include an important note about a known issue: installing the 2007 Office Servers Service Pack 2 (SP2) causes a trial version to be activated. The note explains how to resolve the issue.
This white paper describes an actual performance tuning lab for Microsoft Office Project Server 2007, including how the lab was done and what results were achieved.
This white paper outlines the recommended setup and configuration approach that will focus on best practices for an EPM-focused Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Intranet farm with a set of validated and tested best practices for Office SharePoint Server 2007 and EPM coexistence. A logical architecture diagram of an EPM-focused Office SharePoint Server 2007 Intranet farm is also provided for reference. The diagram is in Microsoft Visio file format.
This article outlines the process of moving Office Project Server 2007 Project Web Access data from one Project Server farm to a new Office Project Server 2007 farm.
The entire library for Office Project Server 2007 is now available as a downloadable .chm file. This download includes all content in the library as of May 7, 2009.
This helpful topic just came across from Toney Sisk in the Project Professional IW writing team:
Back To Basics: Find the task quickly
If you roam around in the Gantt Chart, sooner or later you may get lost. It can be a jungle in there, especially as projects get more complicated, and the bar side of the chart begins to show a large number of lines that seem to go nowhere after a while. Or worse, as the Gantt View may not show any bars, and you’re left wondering: Where did my project data go? What you want is something like a Here You Are button.
In Project, this button is called the Scroll to Task button, and even advanced project managers somehow don’t know the button is there to be clicked when all else fails.
Here’s an example. The bars have disappeared from the right side of the chart of a complicated project with a zillion task dependencies:
But when I click the Scroll To Task Button on the Standard toolbar 
(or Ctrl + Shift + F5), the bars come into view:
You may find this the most used command in Project, because, like I say, it can be a link-line jungle in there.
The new Office IT Pro Bookstore lists a number of books and book excerpts about Office suite and desktop programs, including Project Server and Project Professional. The audience is primarily the IT administrator, but also included are titles for project managers, programmers, and power users. Links to Amazon.com makes this a convenient experience to easily find and purchase the books you want. Additional titles and excerpts will be regularly added.
The following note has been added to the TechNet article Deploy Service Pack 2 for Project Server 2007:
Important:
Known issue: During the installation of 2007 Microsoft Office Servers SP2 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=148351), a product trial expiration date is inadvertently activated that would cause the product to expire 180 days after installation. This issue is resolved by following the detailed steps in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article here (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=153131).
Published the week of May 4, 2009
Deploy Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Office Project Server 2007 describes how to deploy SP2 for Microsoft Office Project Server 2007, which is included in 2007 Microsoft Office Servers Service Pack 2 (SP2). The article explains how to update a basic installation and a farm deployment, as well as language packs. Guidance and recommendations are given for successfully completing the process. Included are links to the SP2 download sites as well as informative Knowledge Base (KB) articles.
***ERRATA***
The TechNet article published 4/29/09 shows the version number for Project Server 2007 SP2 as 12.0.6425.1000. The correct number is 12.0.6422.1000. This is being updated and will appear in the article when published next week.
Tony Sisk from the Project IW team just forwarded this on as it may be of interest:
The Solution Accelerators team has just released a new Hyper-V Security guide that may prove helpful in designing secure Project Server deployments in Hyper-V.
The guide is available for download here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2220624b-a562-4e79-aa69-a7b3dffdd090&displaylang=en
Secure your virtualized server environment with the Hyper-V Security Guide
For organizations that seek cost-effective operations, the benefits of virtualization are more evident than ever. Microsoft Hyper-V technology allows consolidation of workloads that are currently spread across multiple underutilized servers onto a smaller number of servers. This capability provides you with a way to reduce costs through lower hardware, energy, and management overhead while creating a
more dynamic IT infrastructure.
Virtualization technologies are causing enterprise organizations to shift their thinking about IT. The Hyper-V Security Guide can help you elevate the security of virtualized Windows Server® environments to address your business-critical needs. This accelerator provides IT professionals like you with recommendations to address your key security concerns around server virtualization. The guide provides authoritative guidance that relates to the following strategies for securing virtualized environments:
Hardening the Hyper-V role. The guide provides prescriptive guidance for hardening the Hyper-V role, including several best practices for installing and configuring Hyper-V with a focus on security. Among these best practices are measures for reducing the attack surface of Hyper-V as well as recommendations for properly configuring secure virtual networks and storage devices.
Delegating virtual machine management. The ability to safely and securely delegate administrative access to virtual machine resources within an organization is essential. The guide highlights several available methods to administer different aspects of a virtual machine infrastructure and ways to control administrative access to
different servers and at different levels.
Protecting virtual machines. The guide also provides prescriptive guidance for securing virtual machine resources, including best practices and detailed steps for protecting virtual machines by using
a combination of file system permissions, encryption, and auditing. |
Here are some Silverlight "learning snacks" from Microsoft Learning that provide some basic information around Microsoft's Virtualization solution. These are great for anyone that may need to present a Virtualization case to business decision makers in their organization.
The Microsoft Virtualization solution consists of four virtualization technologies: server, application, presentation, and desktop. Together, these technologies provide you with a complete desktop-to-datacenter virtualization solution that can help you create a dynamic IT infrastructure. This free Learning Snack highlights various features and benefits of the four virtualization technologies. It also takes a closer look at server virtualization and how it is implemented and managed in the Windows Server 2008 operating system.
This Snack explains the new virtualization features in Windows Server 2008 and lists the system requirements. It also demonstrates the steps necessary to install Windows Server virtualization.
Organizations are becoming increasingly aware of the environmental and business benefits of adopting a Green IT environment. This Learning Snack highlights how virtualization facilitates a Green IT environment. It describes the Hyper-V server role and the System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) tool, which help create and support a virtualized infrastructure in Windows Server 2008.
After a short publishing hiatus, here is some content that we've been working on:
Deploy Project Server 2007 updates This article provides an overview of available Project Server 2007 updates.
Checklist for deploying Project Server 2007 updates This checklist describes the general sequence in updating a Project Server 2007 farm deployment to the most current update. It also gives references to other articles that provide detailed guidance and procedures for installing various type of Project Server 2007 updates.
Office Project Server 2007 performance counters This technical reference article provides a list of performance indications you can monitor in Project Server 2007.
Inventory of SQL Server databases for a typical Project Server 2007 deployment This technical reference article provides a list of databases that are created in a Project Server 2007 and Portfolio Server 2007 deployment.
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.
Walkthrough: Deploy Project Server 2007 to a server farm environment This article contains a white paper and a four-part video series which provide a walkthrough of a typical Office Project Server 2007 deployment. The white paper contains step-by-step instructions for each step necessary to successfully deploy Office Project Server 2007. While the scenario described in the white paper may differ from the deployment scenario that you plan to use for your organization, you can gain significant hands-on experience by following the steps described herein in a test environment.
Virtualizing Project Server 2007 This section includes six topics that explain hyper-v architecture and best practices for planning, installing, and configuring a Project Server 2007 deployment on Hyper-V.
Project Server 2007 webcasts This set of articles describes and links to archived Project Server TechNet Webcasts. Topics include server administration, network communication, workload scenarios and reference architecture, and data flow.
Deploy cumulative updates (Project Server 2007) This article has been updated to provide information regarding client update requirements for cumulative updates that include the Project Server 2007 infrastructure update. It also provides information about cumulative update server packages for Project Server 2007 integrated with Office SharePoint Server 2007.
Deploy the infrastructure update for Office Project Server 2007 This article has been updated to reflect Project 2007 client requirements for the Project Server 2007 infrastructure update.
Deploy Service Pack 1 for Office Project Server 2007 This article has been updated to reflect Project 2007 client requirements for the Project Server 2007 infrastructure update.
Migration best practices for Project Server 2007 This article has been updated to describe the best practice of applying the latest update to the Project Professional 2007 client from which you run the migration tool to ensure that it has the latest updates.
Prepare for migration to Project Server 2007 This article has been updated to describe the best practice of applying the latest update to the Project Professional 2007 client from which you run the migration tool to ensure that it has the latest updates.
Requirements for using SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services with the Project Server 2007 Cube Building Service This article has been updated to refer to the Feature Pack for SQL Server 2005 – December 2008. The Analysis Management Objects installed with the SQL Server 2005 Management Objects that were in earlier versions of the SQL Server 2005 Feature pack required a workaround in order for the Cube Building Service to function correctly.
We recently published a new whitepaper written by QuantumPM entitled: Best Practices for Migrating to Project Server 2007.
Summary
This paper provides guidance, references, and best practices to observe when migrating to Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 from Project Server 2003. The audiences for this guide are business application specialists, line-of-business specialists, IT generalists, program managers, and infrastructure specialists who want to migrate to Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 and want the required planning requirements, migration steps and helpful hints obtained from previous experience.
The Audience
The target audience for this guide is generally the following:
• Executive managers who want a high-level overview of the benefits and approach to migrating the Project Server system
• EPM business managers who help determine operating processes and the future course for the EPM strategies
• Technology leaders who will take actions to setup systems and move the Project Server 2003 data to Project Server 2007
• Information technologists who are responsible for implementing and maintaining servers and systems
Chapter Overview
• Planning Your Migration Project
• Performing Your Project Server 2007 Readiness Assessment
• Planning and Preparing Your Technical Environment
• Analyzing and Cleansing Your Project Server Data
• Planning For the Migration Process and Contingencies
• Performing the Migration and Post-Migration Activities
• Preparing for Changes to Technical and Business Operational Policies
This document contains key references to Project Server 2007 migration resources as well as best practices learned from customer upgrade projects since the product launch. This white paper complements the existing Migration guide for Office Project Server 2007 mainly targeted at IT Professionals existing on the EPM Tech Center.
Here is some information courtesy of Tony Sisk in the Project IW writing team:
Yes, there is a place in the clouds for Project information.. If you have a number of documents, spreadsheets, notes, proposals, and project files you want to share quickly, Microsoft Office Live Workspace gives you some interesting options.
Microsoft Office Live Workspace enables you to store and share Microsoft Office Project 2007 .mpp files as well as other Microsoft Office program files quickly and easily. All you need is a Windows Live ID and a computer with a connection to the Web.
With Office Live Workspace, you no longer have to worry about exceeding your team members' e-mail storage space or transporting documents using your flash drive. You also don't have to worry about complicated infrastructures to install or maintain. And all your documents are password-protected. When you're on the go toward you vacation destination, you'll always have your project documents close by.
Note You can sign up for Office Live Workspace from the Office Live Workspace sign-up page. To sign in to Office Live Workspace, you must use a Windows Live ID. This e-mail and password combination allows you to sign in to many different Web sites using just one identity.
Step 1: Upload a Project file to Office Live Workspace
1. In Office Live Workspace, on the left navigation bar under My Workspaces, click Documents.
2. On the actions bar, click Add Document.
3. In the drop-down menu, click Single Document or Multiple Documents.
Note The first time that you upload multiple documents to Office Live Workspace, a yellow notification bar appears at the top of your browser asking you to install ActiveX. Click the yellow bar, and in the drop-down menu, click Install ActiveX. In the security warning dialog box, click Install.
4. In the Choose file dialog box, select the file you want to upload, and then click Open.
Note Office Live Workspace does not provide a viewer for Project files. In order to view a Project .mpp file, you need to save the file on your computer and then open it within Project.
Step two: Create a workspace on Office Live Workspace for a Project file
Workspaces behave like folders; they allow you to organize files, lists, and notes. You can either start with a blank workspace that you customize to meet your needs, or you can choose a workspace that already contains helpful documents, notes, lists, and spreadsheets that are all geared for a specific purpose.
1. In Office Live Workspace, on the left navigation bar under My Workspaces, click New Workspace.
2. In the Create a new workspace dialog box, choose Project Workspace.
You can also select other workspaces in which to organize your files, including a blank workspace.
To learn how to make changes to your workspace and arrange documents to meet your needs, see Organize your documents and workspaces.
When you are satisfied with your workspace, you can share it with the people who will find it most valuable. To learn more about sharing workspaces, see Share workspaces and documents using Office Live Workspace.
I just wanted to quickly call out a recent post from Jan Kalis on the Project Programmability blog about our EPM training offerings at EPMU.
The post is located here: http://blogs.msdn.com/project_programmability/archive/2009/03/27/do-you-epmu.aspx
The article Manage Active Directory synchronization in Project Server 2007 will contain the following updated information when it appears in the Project Server 2007 TechCenter next week.
User Synchronization Issues
Caution:
Under certain circumstances, synchronizing Project Server users and workspaces with Active Directory can cause a “deadlock” situation in which all users are locked out of a PWA site or the respective workspaces. This causes user synchronization jobs to fail and site permissions to synchronize partially or not at all. Users may not be able to log on to PWA or their workspaces.
A deadlock can occur if the user synchronization process is taking too long to complete. This is due to the synchronization job iterating through many users and workspaces, for example, when large membership changes are being made. A synchronization job remaining in the queue a long time increases the possibility of other jobs starting inadvertently, which can also cause a deadlock.
To reduce the chance of a deadlock, you can do the following:
- Before making large group membership changes, verify that there are no jobs named “User Synchronization for Project Web Access App Root Site and Project WSS Workspaces” currently processing or waiting to be processed in the queue.
- Run the Project Server Workspace Sync tool on the CodePlex site at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=147394. The tool controls what is to be synchronized when the job starts —PWA and workspaces, workspaces only, PWA only, or no synchronization for either PWA or workspaces — and allows the administrator to perform the user synchronization during non-working or off-peak hours when server overhead is lower.
Note that the Project Server Workspace Sync tool does not speed up the synchronization process beyond normal. However, being able to synchronize users when server overhead is lower reduces the possibility of synchronization failures.
The Challenges of Selecting Enterprise Software is the latest article from Chris Vandersluis, who writes " From the Trenches: Deploying the EPM Solution in the Real World," an ongoing feature on the Project Server 2007 TechCenter on Microsoft TechNet. This article describes some flaws in the typical way that most companies select enterprise software, and it provides some insight on other methods and considerations.
For those who are new to the "From the Trenches" column, Chris writes articles pulling from his more than two decades of experience in the field working with companies trying to improve how they manage projects and implementing systems that do this. He has an excellent writing style, and has written articles for many different publications. Check out Chris's other articles in the series, including:
Here is some additional information about Chris:
Chris Vandersluis is the president and founder of Montreal, Canada–based HMS Software, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. He has an economics degree from McGill University and over 24 years experience in the automation of project control systems. He is a long-standing member of the Project Management Institute (PMI) and helped found the Montreal, Toronto, and Quebec chapters of the Microsoft Project Association (MPA) users group. Publications for which Chris has written include Fortune, Heavy Construction News, Computing Canada magazine, and PMI’s PMNetwork, and he is a regular columnist for Project Times. He teaches Advanced Project Management at McGill University and often speaks at project management association functions across North America and around the world. HMS Software is the publisher of the TimeControl project-oriented timekeeping system and has been a Microsoft Project Solution Partner since 1995. Chris Vandersluis can be contacted by e-mail at: chrisv@hmssoftware.ca
If you would like to read more EPM-related articles by Chris Vandersluis, see HMS’s EPM Guidance site.
