Microsoft Project Server 2010 Setup, Configuration and Upgrade

NEWS: New Microsoft Partner Network Community

Here’s a news item for our Microsoft partners.  Microsoft is introducing a new Microsoft Partner Network Community, designed to facilitate real-time networking opportunities between people selling or building Microsoft solutions, Microsoft partners and Microsoft.

The community offers a number of ways for you to engage with your peers and Microsoft, either globally or directly within your region.

You can:

1. See what’s happening in your local community and region, attend partner events and engage in social media with people in your community.
2. Get involved in Microsoft communities focused on student talent for hire, public policy affecting the technology industry, technology training and education and much more.
3. Join the conversation with Microsoft and other partners through online social media like Twitter, Facebook and Microsoft and partner blogs.
4. Keep up to date with the latest partner relevant news, webcasts and videos, and find product specific information and training within the broader Microsoft partner network.

I’d like to direct you to a few partner network community resources that may be of interest to you and help you start the conversation with other partners and Microsoft.

• · Join the community twitter feed and the partner network facebook page
• · Watch short video series on SMB, Windows 7, and Azure.
• · Take a sneak peek at what is being planned for the 2010 Worldwide Partner Conference

How to Restart/Change Workflows

This is the final installment of a four part series on common workflow administration tasks associated with Project Server 2010. 

Installation and setup of Project Server 2010 is covered in the overall setup guide, and these articles will make the assumption that the user has already read and completed the setup of Project Server 2010.

These articles also will not cover the topic of creating Project Server 2010 workflows. Please refer to our SDK articles to find out more information on how to create our workflows.

How to Restart/Change Workflows

Restarting a workflow may become necessary for any number of reasons. By restarting a workflow, you will cause the workflow engine to execute the workflow from the very beginning. No project related data will be lost or reset. This action simply tells the workflow to “Go to Stage 1” and execute everything again. Similarly, changing a project to another Enterprise Project Type that has a workflow, will cause the project to execute the new workflow from the very beginning.

How to restart/skip to stage within a workflow

1. Within Project Web Access go to Server Settings
   • 
2. Under “Workflow and Project Detail Pages” Click on “Change or Restart Workflows”
3. Select the Enterprise Project Type that the project in question belongs to.
   • Note: A project with a damaged workflow instance might be under the “None” category.
4. 4) Under Choose Projects, select the projects you wish to restart/Skip to stage and press the “>” button.
   • 
5. Under: “Choose new Enterprise Project Type or restart current workflow:”
   • To restart the workflow select “Restart current workflow for the selected projects”
   • To change the Enterprise Project Type the selected projects are currently associated with, select “Associate projects with a new Enterprise Project Type:”
6. Under: “Choose Workflow Stage to Skip to” if you are restarting a workflow or moving to an Enterprise Project Type which has a workflow associated with it, the below options will be enabled
   • “Skip until the current workflow stage” will cause the workflow to execute from the beginning and attempt to continue to execute until it reaches the last stage that it was at before it was restarted
   • “Skip to a particular workflow stage:” will allow you to select a stage you would like the workflow to attempt to execute to.
     • The workflow will begin executing from the very beginning and if it finds the stage which you selected it will stop.
     • The drop down does not filter the stages to just the stages within the target Enterprise Project Type. As such, if you select a stage which does not exist within the workflow, the workflow will simply continue to execute until it reaches a natural stop point.

Skip to Stage Support

The skip to stage functionality is something that will only work if the workflow is correctly designed to allow for stage skipping. All project server workflows will always stop whenever natural stop points are reached. These include

1. Stages where required fields are not filled out
2. Approval points
3. “Wait” activities (such as “Wait for Submit” or “Wait for Commit” activities)
4. And others.

As such, to get the skip to stage functionality working fully, you will need to incorporate “if” branches that will bypass “stop points” like approval points and portfolio selection points when developing the workflows.

How to Troubleshoot Your Workflows

This is the third of a four part series on common workflow administration tasks associated with Project Server 2010. 

Installation and setup of Project Server 2010 is covered in the overall setup guide, and these articles will make the assumption that the user has already read and completed the setup of Project Server 2010.

These articles also will not cover the topic of creating Project Server 2010 workflows. Please refer to our SDK articles to find out more information on how to create our workflows.

How to Troubleshoot Your Workflows

Check the workflow status page

1. There are two different ways to do this based on your need
   1. Check from within the project
      • Open a project with a failing workflow
      • Go to the Stage Status Page (This is the very first page from within a workflow stage)
      • From within the workflow Status page expand the “All Workflow Stages” section
        • 
      • Click on the “Additional Workflow Data” link, which is round at the bottom right.
        • 
   2. If your project cannot be opened, you can also get to this page by:
      • Site Actions, View All Site Content
        • 
      • Click on “Site Workflows”
        • 
      • Click on “Show All Workflows” link
      • Find the workflow which you are concerned about.
      • Once you have opened the workflow status page you can investigate the workflow history to see what the workflow was doing before it began to error.
        • 

View the ULS logs

1. ULS logs can be found in: “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\LOGS” 
   • Suggestion:  Create a desktop shortcut on the server to this location.
2. Logs will be broken up into pieces. Find the log with a time stamp as close to the time you are most concerned about, and open it.
3. Some key words to look for when going through the logs are:
   • Sharepoint foundation
   • Startworkflow
   • Winwf
   • entering...activity
   • leaving... activity

How to Setup the Workflow Proxy Account

This is the second of a four part series on common workflow administration tasks associated with Project Server 2010. 

Installation and setup of Project Server 2010 is covered in the overall setup guide, and these articles will make the assumption that the user has already read and completed the setup of Project Server 2010.

These articles also will not cover the topic of creating Project Server 2010 workflows. Please refer to our SDK articles to find out more information on how to create our workflows.

How to Setup the Workflow Proxy Account

Project Server Workflows need to run under the context of a user.  However, they do not run under context of the user that started the project, instead, the workflows are run under the “Workflow Proxy Account”. This means that the user account which you specify as the workflow proxy account must have the proper rights to execute all of the commands a project server workflow will need to do.

It is recommended that you setup a service user to serve as this function.  The steps below show how to define and setup a workflow proxy account.

1. Within Project Web Access, go to Server Settings
   • 
2. Under “Workflow and Project Detail Pages” Click on “Project Workflow Settings”
3. Workflow Proxy User: type in the user name of the account you wish to have all workflows run under.
   • 
4. The minimum rights needed for the Workflow Proxy User account Project Server security are:
   • Global permissions:
     • Log On
     • Manage Users And Groups
     • Manage Workflow
   • Category permissions:
     • Open Project
     • Save Project
     • View Enterprise Resource Data
     • Edit Project Properties
     • View Enterprise Resource Data

How to Associate a Workflow with an Enterprise Project Type

This is the first of a four part series on common workflow administration tasks associated with Project Server 2010. 

Installation and setup of Project Server 2010 is covered in the overall setup guide, and these articles will make the assumption that the user has already read and completed the setup of Project Server 2010.

These articles also will not cover the topic of creating Project Server 2010 workflows. Please refer to our SDK articles to find out more information on how to create our workflows.

How to associate a workflow with an Enterprise Project Type(EPT)

Once a workflow has been created within Visual Studio and activated on the server farm (covered in SDK articles) the administrator will need to correctly associate the workflow with an EPT.

1. If you have already created a Workflow Association skip to step 11
2. Once the workflow has been activated on the server, the administrator will need to go to Site Actions, Site Settings
3. 
4. Select Site Administration, Workflow Settings
5. 
6. Click on Add a workflow
7. Fill in the correct information for your workflow
• Workflow: Select the workflow you installed on the farm
• Name: Type in a name for the workflow association
• Task List: Select the “Project Server Workflow Tasks” item from the drop down
• This list is where all of the approvals (if you have any) will go, so long as you coded your workflow to follow the same logic as the Out of the box Project Server Workflow approval process.
• History List: Select “Project Server Workflow History” item from the drop down
• This is the history list for the workflows
• Start Options: Leave it the “Allow this workflow to be manually started by an authenticated user with Edit Item permissions” option checked
8. Assuming you have no workflow association page, press the OK button.
9. You should now see your new workflow association
10. 
11. Within Project Web Access go to Server Settings
12. 
13. Under “Workflow and Project Detail Pages” Click on “Enterprise Project Types”
14. Either select on an existing Enterprise Project Type or press the “New Enterprise Project Type” button
15. Fill in the required information, and under Site Workflow Association select the new workflow association you created
16. 
17. Click Save and you’re done!
• All new instances of this Project Type will use this workflow association.
• If you modified an existing Enterprise Project Type which already had a different Workflow Association, any existing instances of this Project Type will continue to use the old workflow association. Only new workflows will use the new association that you just indicated.
• If you require all workflows to use this new workflow association, you will need to restart the existing workflows (covered below)

Upcoming Webcasts for The Week of Dec 14, 2009

All will be recorded and available afterward as podcasts in case you miss them.

Did you know? Minimum Project Server 2003 Version for Upgrade

We will be supporting migration from Microsoft Project Server 2003 SP3 to Microsoft Project Server 2010 via a Virtual Migration Environment (more details to come.).  If you have not already updated your 2003 server to SP3, now might be a good time to plan the application of that service pack.

Troubleshooting – Business Intelligence Features

The Project Server 2010 Business Intelligence feature utilizes the support of Excel Services, Secure Store Service, PerformancePoint Services and SQL Server.  A thorough understanding of how these features fit together is necessary to get the most from the feature.  This post will provide that overview and provide troubleshooting questions for common issues.

Architecture

Our Business Intelligence features leverage Excel Services as the base functionality since most people use Excel to visualize data and it’s a tool that many people already know how to use. 

There are four core components to this solution.

Excel client. The Excel Client is used to author and publish new reports.  This solution will work with Excel 2007 SP2 or later.

Office Data Connections.  Office Data Connections(ODC) are used to store the connection information, the SQL Query and the Secure Store Target Application ID.  External ODCs are used to allow you to manage data connection and query information externally to the reports that consume the data.  These two components together are the deliverables from the report author.

When you provision a new Project Web Application site or when you create a new OLAP database, ODCs and attached templates will be automatically generated in the Business Intelligence Center.

Excel Services.  Excel Services provides rendering and interactivity support on the web.  This service enables the user to share reports easily with others.  It also enables a user to filter the data in a report dynamically to meet a particular need.

Secure Store.  Secure Store is a SharePoint service used to store credentials in a Target Application Profile.  These profiles help avoid double hop authentication situations and provide control around who has access to what data for a given Target Application Profile.  In SharePoint Server 2007, this service was known as Single Sign-On service or SSO.

The diagram above illustrates the interactions between the four components.  The arrows denote what information is passed between the components and in what direction.

Lastly, PerformancePoint is called out above as it is used to create the Business Intelligence Center as it is their service that provides this infrastructure.  It isn’t used for the core reporting features.  However, you can easily develop PerformancePoint reports over Project Server data. 

Setup

The setup steps for the Business Intelligence features can be found here.  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee662106(office.14).aspx

Please note, if you are using Active Directory(AD), you can set up a AD Group for Report Authors such that you only have to create one SQL Login for the group.  The membership of the group is then maintained outside of SQL Server.

Also, you must set up a SQL Login with db_datareader rights for the credentials used in the Secure Store Target Application ID.  If you have created the AD group for the authors above and it matches the security needed to service reports, you can simply add the Target Application ID credentials to the Report Author’s AD group instead of creating a new SQL Login.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why isn’t my workbook rendering on the web?

This can be due to a number of reasons.  Here is a list of items to verify.  The steps to do each of these items are listed in the setup link above.

• One Time Setup Items
  • Has the Excel Services Service Application and Proxy Connection been created?
  • Is Secure Store Service Application and Proxy Connection been created?
  • Is Excel Services Service Application configured?
  • Is the folder for the data connections in a trusted location within the Excel Service Application?
  • Is the folder for the reports in a trusted location within the Excel Service Application?
  • Is the Secure Store Service Service Application configured?
• For each Target Application Profile
  • Has the Secure Store Target Application Profile for the reports configured?
  • Is the user authorized or belongs to a group that is authorized to use the particular SSS Target Application profile?
  • Does the SSS Target Application have credentials set?
  • Does the SSS Target Application credentials have DB_DataReader rights to the Reporting Database?
• For each workbook
  • Is the SSS ID value in the Office Data Connection filled in?
  • Does the SSS ID in the Excel workbook match the ID of the Application Profile in SSS? 

Why hasn’t my data appeared yet?

• If the data is sourced from the Reporting database, it could be that the Reporting Publish job has not yet completed.  Since these jobs are queued, you need to ensure the jobs has completed before you will see the data.
• If the data is sourced from an OLAP database, you won’t see the data until the OLAP database is refreshed.
• If these two items aren’t the case, there may be an issue with the query itself.  

SQL Server Settings for Performance Recommendations

We’ve added some performance configuration suggestions for SQL in this release, based on feedback from early test customers and from the results of our own performance testing.  These settings are intended to help the overall performance of the system. 

Database Properties

The following properties should be set on your Project Server databases.

AUTO_CLOSE set to False

Auto close is typically set to False by default when Project Server 2010 creates the databases for a farm setup.  If set to True, this property tells SQL Server to automatically close the database when the last user has ended their connection and all other processes have completed.  This makes sense in single user scenarios when you are using the desktop version of SQL Server with limited resources.  However, on a multiple user system, this creates unnecessary overhead. 

This property can be set accidentally, if you prototyped an environment using a Standalone install and then moved the databases to a production farm.

AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS and AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS_ASYNCHRONOUSLY set to True

Slow queries are annoying to everyone.  One of the most common factors we’ve found that cause this slowness to occur is the database statistics being out of date.  The two settings above are recommended so that your statistics are kept up to date AND that query processing doesn’t wait for the statistics refresh to complete.  Previously, if you set AUTO_UPDATE_Statistics to True, if SQL found stale statistics, it would halt a query and make it wait until the statistics were updated.  Depending on the size of the database and the query, this can lead to a substantial wait time, leading the user to think the system is hung. 

In SQL Server 2005, the AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS_ASYNCHRONOUSLY property was added.  This enabled SQL to automatically refresh the statistics in the background while allowing queries to continue execution.  This leads to a better overall user experience since the operation may be a bit slower initially but it still completes.  Note, Project Server 2010 does not set this property by default.  Also, note, if you are migrating Project Server 2007 databases, you should update these properties post Upgrade.  For more information, go to this link:  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190397.aspx

If you upgrading databases from SQL Server 2000 to SQL Server 2005/2008, the sampling algorithm changed in the 2005 release.  It is recommended that you run sp_updatestats with the RESAMPLE option to update the statistics, using the new algorithm.

Enable the SQL Common Language Runtime (CLR)

Custom field performance will see the most benefit from this setting.  As the number of custom field values grow, the query performance will decline as the number of records to query grows. 

Note, I said custom field values, not number of custom fields.  For example, if you have a task level custom field with a large lookup table and assignment roll down enabled, this one field will create a lot of potential data to query.  The new departments feature of Project Server 2010 may also lead to more custom fields and custom field values on the server. 

Enabling the CLR on the SQL Server allows us to execute queries in a more efficient manner by reducing stress on the application server, reducing SQL roundtrips and performing queries closer to the data.  The resulting Custom Field performance gains are significant.  For more information on how to enable the CLR, go to this link.  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee662108(office.14).aspx#section3

Need More Information?

I recommend starting with the SharePoint Guidance for SQL Server Database Administrators.  The document is targeted to SharePoint Server 2007 but the concepts are valid for SharePoint Server 2010 as well.  This document can be found here:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee721075.aspx

Another article on Project Server 2007 Performance and Capacity Planning best practices white paper would also be another great read.  This document can be found at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd823304.aspx

The initial documentation for planning a SharePoint Server 2010 Server farm may also be of interest to you.  The documentation can be found here:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc789337(office.14).aspx

Lastly, there are three videos from the Project Conference which may be of interest to you.  Each cover aspects of SQL Server and Performance best practices.

Chalk Talk: Project Server 2007 Performance Tuning (Also covers SQL Best Practices)

http://www.microsoft.com/video/en/us/details/73213feb-9a93-43b6-94c2-65f64127bbe7

Server 2007 Performance Testing and Capacity Planning

http://www.microsoft.com/video/en/us/details/15142262-d421-47f1-8ce7-ea85476cde15

SharePoint (or Project) Admins: The Reluctant DBAs

http://www.microsoft.com/video/en/us/details/65b75005-8a93-459d-bd4a-65c1246501e7

Did you know?

The Microsoft Project Server 2010 Public Beta will expire on October 31, 2010.  Some people have asked and I wanted to make this date clear to all.

2010 Public Beta to 2010 Final Release Is Not Supported

Please note:  Project Server 2010 Public Beta is not supported for Production use. 

Also note: upgrade from Microsoft Project Server 2010 Public Beta to Microsoft Project Server 2010 Released Version is explicitly blocked and not supported.  This restriction applies to both In-Place or DB Attach upgrade methods.   

Windows Server 2008 R2 is Now Supported

In the previous post, it was stated that Windows Server 2008 R2 support was coming.  I’m happy to announce it is here, if you apply the following hotfix.  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976462  Once you apply it, you don’t have to reboot the server.  However, we would suggest doing an IISReset to ensure everything is reloaded with the patched bits.

Microsoft Project Server 2010 Requirements

My name is Treb Gatte and I’m the Program Manager responsible for Setup and Upgrade for Microsoft Project Server 2010. 

In this post, we will review the major requirement changes for Project Server 2010 and give you the locations of the documentation.  In subsequent posts, we will review the “shopping list” of required patches and software levels and then delve into the setup process itself.

What’s different from Project Server 2007?

While much of Project Server 2010 will look familiar to Project Server 2007 users, there are some key items that have changed in the infrastructure. 

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. 

Project Server 2010 now requires Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 as a setup prerequisite.  SharePoint Server 2010 is the latest version of what was Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007.  This is a higher SKU than in the previous release where only Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 was required.  The key takeaway is that this change may impact your infrastructure and licensing needs.

Project Server 2010 leverages SharePoint Server 2010 to provide workflow capabilities to our new Portfolio features, charting support for Resource and Portfolio charting and Excel Services and the Business Intelligence Center to greatly enhance our Business Intelligence capabilities. 

64 Bit Only Hardware

Project Server 2010 will only be offered in 64 bit versions this release.  The 64 bit requirement is the same for all tiers (web front end, application server and SQL Server).  This change was done to take advantage of better performing hardware.  The key takeaway is that this change may impact your infrastructure needs.

Most customers we’ve talked to seem to already use 64 bit SQL Servers.  The impact appears to be to the Web Front End /Application Server tiers. 

Internet Explorer 7 or Higher

Project Server 2010 requires Internet Explorer 7 or higher only.  This means if you attempt to use Firefox and Safari to browse to PWA, it will not load as these browsers are explicitly blocked.  The key takeaway is that this may have an impact on how you implement the solution. 

If your company is planning to implement Windows 7 on the desktop and you have internal applications that require Internet Explorer 6, you may consider the XP mode feature of Windows 7 for IE 6 support while keeping IE 7/8 on the native desktop for other applications, such as Project Server.

Windows 2008

The final release of Project Server 2010 can be hosted on Windows Server 2008 SP2 or later or Windows Server 2008 R2.  Please note, the Public Beta can be hosted on Windows Server 2008 SP2 initially.  Windows Server 2008 R2 support will be added to the Public Beta in the near future.  We’ll post a note when that support is available.

SQL Server

Project Server 2010 will require SQL Server 2005 SP3 CU3 or SQL Server 2008 SP1 CU2 to be installed.  As a result, we will no longer support SQL Server 2000.  We are currently testing SQL Server 2008 R2 November CTP.  Therefore, it isn’t officially supported for Public Beta yet.  A note will be posted when this support is available.

What’s Improved from Project Server 2007?

Bye, Bye ActiveX.

Absolutely, positively no ActiveX controls anywhere.  This will reduce the long term impact of cumulative updates and service paces and well as make initial installation much easier.

Windows PowerShell

Windows PowerShell support has been added to Project Server 2010.  This capability makes managing and setting up SharePoint Server and Project Server much easier.  If you’ve never used Windows PowerShell, this primer would be a great place to start.  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee176949.aspx

Exchange Integration

Project Server 2010 now integrates directly with Exchange Server 2007 SP2 or later rather than use the Outlook Add-In.   If your users want to update task status via Outlook, you no longer have to contend with the Outlook Add-In ActiveX control.  All configuration is done on the Project Server and the Exchange Server.

No More DSO.

If you are using OLAP, Project Server now requires SQL Server 2008 Analysis Management Objects instead of DSO.  The setup details and link to the download can be found here:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee662106(office.14).aspx#section2

Configuring the System Changes

Post Installation Configuration

The number of post installation configuration steps are greater than in past releases and are needed in both SharePoint and Project Server.  Project Server 2010 is now dependent on the following services for Business Intelligence features.  As such, there are post configuration steps to enable the functionality for each Project Web Application instance.

• Excel Services
• Secure Store
• PerformancePoint Services

For charting in the Portfolio and Resource features, there is a dependency on the State Service.  However, this service is automatically configured by our provisioning process since it is a farm wide service.

In Project Server, you will now have to configure Time Reporting Periods as the newly redesigned My Tasks and My Timesheet interfaces depend on having those periods configured.  If you previously configured Timesheet Periods in Project Server 2007, these values will populate this table automatically on upgrade.

There are also some recommended SQL Server settings that will improve your performance, which we will cover in a separate post.

Setup and Migration Documentation

To make it easier for you to correctly setup the product, the setup and upgrade documentation is located here.  

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc197280(office.14).aspx

Videos

Sometimes, seeing the process performed can be a great way to see beyond the documentation.  Therefore, we’ve created videos of the entire setup process for you to review.

Deploy Project Server – Single Application Server Farm

• Stream: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=169126
• Download: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=169127

Deploy Project Server – Multi Application Server Farm

• Stream: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=169128
• Download: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=169129

Create Project Web Access Site:

• Stream: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=169130
• Download:  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=169131

Configure Reporting:

• Streaming: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=169132
• Download: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=169133

Add an Application Server to a Project Server Farm:

• Streaming: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=169134
• Download: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=169135

Welcome to the Admin Blog!

This blog focuses on the needs of the Project Administrator/Implementer.  The posts will answer the questions of how do I and why would I implement various aspects of Project Server.  While there will be a lot of content for Project Server 2010, we will also have Project Server 2007 related content as well.

Why another blog?  Most of our readers use RSS feeds to get their content.  Therefore, segregating the content makes it easier for each audience to get related posts for their areas of interest.

The Project blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/project will continue to have great content targeted at readers who want to know more about new features and how to use them. 

The Project Programmability blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/project programmability will continue to focus on developer content for Project Server.