As mentioned this morning in this webcast Microsoft Project Server 2010 – Operations webcast on May 19th a great tool to analyze logs is the Performance Analysis of Logs (PAL) Tool on CodePlex. To test it out, download the 64 bit version in the newly released Project 2010 demo image (Microsoft Project Server 2010 RTM Demo Virtual Machine is Ready for Download). I created a list of performance counters listed below (in my case all roles are in one virtual machine, in a production environment you will have to adapt the counters for each server role in your farm):

\ASP.NET\* \ProjectServer:QueueGeneral(*)\* \ProjectServer:Queue Jobs(*)\* \ProjectServer:User Activity\* \ProjectServer:Winproj\* \SharePoint Foundation\* \SQLServer:Databases\* \SQLServer:General Statistics\* \LogicalDisk(*)\* \Memory\* \Network Interface(*)\* \PhysicalDisk(*)\* \Process(*)\* \Processor(*)\* \System\*

I then started the trace, played around with my demo image to generate some stress (like republish all projects with a PowerShell script!) and after two hours I used PAL to analyze the logs generated and got this very useful report (attached in this post to illustrate the analytical power of the tool, again this is just a sample):

Following this announcement at the beginning of March 2010: ANNOUNCING Microsoft Project Server 2010 IT Professional TechNet Webcast Series, don’t miss out tomorrow (May 19th) this free opportunity to learn from Jean-Noel Lienhart, Senior Consultant and Christophe Fiessinger, Senior Technical Product Manager Microsoft Corporation: TechNet Webcast: Project Server 2010 - Operations (Level 300)

Live at a browser near you starting at 8:30 Pacific Time (Seattle time!): https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032443109&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Webcast Agenda

• Monitoring
• Queue
• PowerShell™
• Developer Dashboard
• Applying Updates
• Other Operations

Event Overview

This webcast is part of a seven-part series that provides Microsoft Project Server 2010 deployment guidance and best practices for IT professionals. In this webcast, we cover the process of managing and maintaining a Project Server 2010 implementation, demonstrate Project Server 2010 diagnostics and monitoring, provide troubleshooting tips, and share health check best practices.

As a reminder all upcoming and recorded webcasts and podcasts can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/epm.aspx

As announced by Bill Bauer: SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition and SharePoint Server 2010 Better Together Whitepaper. Great paper written for SharePoint 2010 but totally applicable to Project Server 2010. If you want to experience for instance the power of SQL Server 2008 R2 along side SharePoint and Project Server 2010, download the RTM demo virtual machine: Microsoft Project Server 2010 RTM Demo Virtual Machine is Ready for Download

Although you can upgrade directly from 2007 to 2010 (assuming all pre-requisites are met) this isn’t the case with 2003 – you have to go via 2007, and obviously you also need to get up to x64.  To help make this process as painless as possible we have created the Virtual Migration Environment. 

The Microsoft Project Server 2010 Virtual Migration Environment (VME) is now available on the download site.  http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9729345 

What is the VME?

The VME is a Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V based image of a fully configured and operational SharePoint 2007 /Project Server 2007 farm with Project Pro 2007 and SQL Server 2005.  This instance is intended to be used to migrate Project Server 2003 and SharePoint 2003 customers forward to 2007 as the first step of the two step migration to 2010. 

The design goals were to create a standalone environment that could be run on a typical desktop/notebook and can be reset for multiple runs.  It can also be used as a test environment for PDS to PSI conversion efforts.

Other useful resources for migration and upgrade:

• Project 2010 Migration Center - http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9676814
• Project 2010 Upgrade and Migration Ignite training http://cdn-smooth.ms-studiosmedia.com/msstudios/1005/1003463/Mod_3_Upgrade_and_Migration/Default.html

Live at a TechNet near you :) Plenty of content to ramp up on SharePoint 2010 that all Project Server 2010 IT Pro needs to watch: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ff420396.aspx

All see this: SharePoint, SharePoint, SharePoint 2010 guides