• June 2010 Cumulative Update (CU) for Project Server 2007, Office SharePoint Server 2007, WSS and Project 2007 now available!

    Posted over 4 years ago
    by Brian Smith - MSFT}

    Great News!  The latest Cumulative Update (CU) for Office and Office Servers 2007 has been released (news of the 2010 releases coming shortly!).  This include a number of fixes, so Microsoft strongly recommends that you test this in a test environment based on your production environment before putting this fix live in production.

    *** Update *** Also do not forget the upcoming Webcast where Adrian Jenkins will provide an overview of this release and also address related questions:

    Information About Microsoft Project and Project Server Cumulative June Update - Tuesday, July 13, 2010 8:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)

    For full details of this series please see http://blogs.msdn.com/b/chrisfie/archive/2010/06/16/microsoft-project-and-project-server-2007-and-2010-cumulative-update-webcast-series.aspx

    *** /Update ***

    The article below provides information on how to deploy the Project Server Cumulative Update.

    We strongly recommend that you install WSS and Office Servers 2007 Service Pack 2.  The KB articles below provide information on how to download and install SP2 if you have not already done so.

    The server patches require that WSS and Office Servers 2007 SP1 be installed.  For clarity, SP1 is required and SP2 is strongly recommended.  Here are the links to the SP1 Server Patches for your convenience:

    The Server CU is released in two different versions.  The first version is in Individual Packages specific to a particular product like WSS and Project Server.  These are smaller downloads but they do not include language packs or patches for other products so patches for those products would have to be downloaded and installed separately. 

    The second version is the Server Rollup Packages.  This is a set of two rollup packages which contains all the fixes for WSS, Project Server and MOSS.  These packages should be used when MOSS is part of the deployment and/or you have language packs installed.  The Server Rollup Packages are much larger (~200MB each) but they will greatly simplify MOSS patch deployment.

    You can read about the fixes included in the June CU from the following articles:

    Note:  There may be a few day delay before all of the articles are published. 

    Server Rollup Packages:

    Individual Product Packages:

    Client Installation:

    In order to install this hotfix, you will need to have Microsoft Project 2007 SP1 installed on the client. The article at the URL below contains information on how install download and install SP1 should you not have it installed already.

    Note:  We strongly recommend that you install Project 2007 SP2 from the information earlier in the article.

    Once we know that SP1 is installed, you will install the hotfix by performing the following steps:

      NOTE: Microsoft strongly recommends testing within a NON-Production environment prior to rollout.

    1. Download the hotfix from the KB Article above (KB 2028571).
    2. Extract the patch package by running the .exe file that you downloaded.
    3. Run the extracted .exe file to apply the patch to your Project Professional/Standard SP1 (or preferably SP2) client.

     

  • ANNOUNCING: Project 2010 TechCenters on TechNet refreshed

    Posted over 4 years ago
    by Jan Kalis}

    It’s our pleasure to present you refreshed versions of our one-stop technical resources related to

    ·        Upgrade and Migration to Project 2010 - http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9676814

    ·        Business Intelligence for Project 2010 - http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9726143

     

    These centers are part of the Project Server 2010 TechNet TechCenter http://technet.microsoft.com/projectserver/ee263909.aspx and their concept is to collect relevant information in one place and to give end-to-end information from getting started quickly to deep dive.

     

    Q&A

    Q: How about Demand Management and Portfolio Strategy?

    A: We are working on Demand Management Center that will became one stop for information about Demand Management, Portfolio Strategy, including technicalities, like building custom Demand Management Infrastructure – including workflow. This center will live on the Project Server 2010 Center on TechNet - http://technet.microsoft.com/projectserver/ee263909.aspx and will be available in few weeks.

     

    Q: I’m a developer, what’s in there for me?

    A: Many of included links include pure developer resources. We have decided not to fragment the resources between TechNet and MSDN – that’s why you might find also developer-related link to MSDN content in the above TechCenters.

     

    Other Publicly Available Project 2010 Resources

    ·        Product information and trial download

    o   Main product site www.microsoft.com/project

    o   Project Team Blog blogs.msdn.com/project 

    ·        End-User Product Help

    o   Project 2010 Help http://office2010.microsoft.com/project-help

    o   Project Server 2010 Help http://office2010.microsoft.com/project-server-help

    ·        Interactive content – Videos/Sessions/Webcasts

    o   Quick Start Training - http://www.microsoft.com/project/en/us/quick-start-training.aspx

    o   Project Video Channel - www.microsoft.com/showcase/en/US/channels/microsoftproject

    o   Project Webcasts - www.microsoft.com/events/series/epm.aspx

    ·        IT Professional related – TechNet

    o   TechCenter http://technet.microsoft.com/ProjectServer 

    o   Admin Blog http://blogs.technet.com/projectadministration

    ·        Developer related - MSDN

    o   Developer center http://msdn.microsoft.com/Project

    o   Programmability blog http://blogs.msdn.com/project_programmability

    ·        Project & Project Server 2010 Demo Image

    o   Download http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9713956 

    o   Hosted Virtual Lab http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9713654

    ·        Got questions? Search or ask in the official Microsoft Forums

    o   http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/projectserver2010,projectprofessional2010

    ·        SharePoint 2010

    o   http://sharepoint.microsoft.com  

     

  • Microsoft Project and Project Server 2007 and 2010 Cumulative Update Webcast Series

    Posted over 4 years ago
    by Christophe Fiessinger}

    Cross post from chrisfie’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/chrisfie/archive/2010/06/16/microsoft-project-and-project-server-2007-and-2010-cumulative-update-webcast-series.aspx

    I am happy to announce the following TechNet Cumulative Update (CU) webcast series targeted at IT Professionals/Administrators. The goal of this series is to provide an overview of the updates released for Microsoft Project Server 2010 and Project Server 2007 server products as well as Microsoft Project 2010 and Project 2007 desktop products, and to address related questions you might have about these products updates. These webcasts are scheduled every two months (two weeks after each Cumulative Update release) for the next six CU. Presenters are experts from Microsoft Customer Support and Services. Book your calendars!

    What are cumulative updates?

    Cumulative updates are a new method of providing hotfix releases on a scheduled delivery basis for Office Server products, including Project Server and Project desktop 2007 and 2010. Through this model, Office hotfixes are released every two months in the form of a downloadable package of current and previous hotfixes. The primary goal is to deliver high-quality fixes on a predictable schedule. The updated releases are accompanied by a Knowledge Base article describing the contents of the update. The first Project Server cumulative update was released in August, 2008.

    The hotfixes found in a cumulative update include:

    • Fixes for issues that meet Office hotfix acceptance criteria. These criteria include workaround availability, customer impact, reproducibility, the complexity of the code that must be changed, and other criteria. These criteria have not changed.
    • Any critical on-demand hotfixes released to date.
    • Any critical security or non-security updates released publicly to date.

    Cumulative updates apply to all versions of Office that are currently in mainstream support. For general information about Microsoft product support, visit the Microsoft Support Lifecycle Web site)(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=147498).

    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 an overview of the updates for the Microsoft Project Server 2010 and Project Server 2007 server products and the Microsoft Project 2010 and Project 2007 desktop products, we address related questions you might have about these products updates. We also provide the latest content to help you deploy the Microsoft Enterprise Project Management (EPM) solution.

    image

    Webcast Presenters

    Adrian Jenkins, Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation and Brian Smith, Senior Support Escalation Engineer, Microsoft Corporation.

    Adrian Jenkins is a program manager with the Microsoft Project team and has been working with Microsoft Project since 1990 when the first version was released. Prior to joining the Project team, he worked in the Project support organization under a number of different roles. For the Microsoft Project 2010 release, he worked on areas such as security, delegates, administration, and the Project Center. Additionally, he leads the service pack teams and leads a number of customer-facing programs that get feedback from users on in-market versions of the product.

    Brian Smith is in his eighth year of employment at Microsoft. For the last six of these years, Brian has been working in the Customer Support and Services organization, supporting Microsoft Project as a senior support escalation engineer. Brian also supported the beta releases of Microsoft Project 2010 and Project 2007 and is just finishing up the Project 2010 Beta and transitioning back to the main support team. He is also author of the popular blog on Microsoft Project support at http://blogs.msdn.com/brismith.

    You need to register for the free of charge webcast by clicking the links below; then you get emailed a link to sign on and participate in the web cast on its date and time (please note only the first two webcast are available for registration at this stage). Each TechNet webcast is recorded for later viewing which should be through the same registration URL: http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/epm.aspx?tab=webcasts

    Title and Registration URL
    Date and Time

  • How to Configure SharePoint 2010 Secure Store Service using PowerShell

    Posted over 4 years ago
    by Christophe Fiessinger}

    Following the publication of the source code for the recently released Project 2010 content pack, we also published the source code of the project to automate the deployment procedure of the content pack on MSDN Code Gallery: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/Project2010DemoPack.

    One of the nugget it contains is the PowerShell script to automate the configurate of Secure Store Service (which is required for Excel Services 2010), and yes you can also follow the step by step procedure documented on TechNet: Configure reporting for Project Server 2010

    Code is also here: http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/ScriptCenter/en-us/a88f7b6e-9c9e-475f-afd1-c68c4ef3cc4a

    $targetApplicationName = "ProjectServerApplication"
$userName = "contoso\administrator"
$password = "pass@word1"
$url = "http://project.contoso.com/pwa"
$grp1 = (New-Object System.Security.Principal.NTAccount("contoso", "domain users")).Translate([System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier]).Value
$memberclaims = New-SPClaimsPrincipal -Identity $grp1 -IdentityType WindowsSecurityGroupSid
$pw = new-spsecurestoreapplicationfield -name "Password" -type WindowsPassword -masked:$false
$un = new-spsecurestoreapplicationfield -name "User Name" -type WindowsUserName -masked:$false
$fields = $un, $pw
$proxy = Get-SPServiceApplicationProxy -identity "af18e4e8-3221-432f-b6cb-9e76a64d248c"
$defaultServiceContext = Get-SPServiceContext $url
$credentialTypes = "UserName","Password"
$c1 = convertto-securestring $userName -asplaintext -force
$c2 = convertto-securestring $password -asplaintext -force
$credentialValues = $c1,$c2
$pkmacctclaims = New-SPClaimsPrincipal -Identity $userName -IdentityType WindowsSamAccountName
$app = new-spsecurestoretargetapplication -name $targetApplicationName -friendlyname $targetApplicationName -contactemail "administrator@contoso.com" -applicationtype Group -timeoutinminutes 3 -setcredentialsuri "http://ipserver2"
new-spsecurestoreapplication -ServiceContext $defaultServiceContext -TargetApplication $app -Administrator $pkmacctclaims -CredentialsOwnerGroup $memberClaims -Fields $fields
$ssoapp =  Get-SPSecureStoreApplication -ServiceContext $defaultServiceContext -Name $targetApplicationName
[System.Threading.Thread]::Sleep(10000)
Update-SPSecureStoreGroupCredentialMapping -Identity $ssoapp  -Values $credentialValues 
Update-SPSecureStoreApplicationServerKey -Passphrase pass@word1 -ServiceApplicationProxy $proxy

  • RESOURCES for Project Server 2010 UPGRADE and MIGRATION

    Posted over 4 years ago
    by Jan Kalis}

    Now when Project Server 2010 is available you might think about planning the migration/upgrade to 2010 or just want to explore Project 2010 with your data… We are summarizing the available resources around upgrading to Project Server 2010 so it’s easier to get started!

     

    Getting started

    ·        Project 2010 Quick Start Training - http://www.microsoft.com/project/en/us/quick-start-training.aspx (includes Upgrade and Migration module)

    ·        Project Server 2010 Upgrade and Migration Center - http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9676814

    ·        Best Practices Migration to Project Server 2010 - http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/epm.aspx?tab=Webcasts&seriesid=51&webcastid=12840 (on-demand webcast by top EPM consultants)

     

    Plan and Prepare

    Even that the actual “data upgrade” step could be simple and done in few minutes we DO recommend to plan and prepare for this move very carefully as the Project Managers are usually very sensitive about their data J The duration of the physical upgrade is likely to take hours – depending on the complexity of your database and even that should be only a fraction of time devoted to studying the process and testing the upgrade scenarios.

    ·        Project Server 2010 upgrade overview

    ·        Review system requirements for upgrade

    ·        Create an upgrade communications plan

     

    Upgrading from Project Server 2007

    ·        “Database attach” upgrade – simply backup your 2007 databases and attach them to your newly installed Project Server 2010

    o   Database attach core upgrade to Project Server 2010

    ·        “in-place” upgrade – upgrade you existing Project Server 2007 on the same machine to 2010

    Upgrading from Project Server 2003

    ·        Upgrade to Project Server 2010 from Project Server 2003

    ·        Best Practices for Migrating to Project Server 2007 (very popular whitepaper released last year by a Project Partner based on their learning with 2003 to 2007 migration)

     

    ·        This upgrade has to go via Project Server 2007 so you can either

    §   Migrate your Project Server 2003 data using the Virtual Migration Environment (VME) – we highly encourage this option as it includes – best practices documentation and verification scripts

    Please note we strongly encourage to follow all best practices outlined in the document enclosed in the download - run all scripts provided and follow all the best practices using both pre and post migration scripts. You can save lot of unnecessary troubleshooting and re-work.

    o   Do it on your own by installing Project Server 2007 first (you can use the Evaluation version available here) and study the VME documents, best practices and use the VME scripts – part of the VME download mentioned above

    Migration from Project Portfolio Server 2006/7

    ·        While there’s no “magic tool” that would seamlessly migrate processes and data – we have produced number of Solution Starters and Documented the approaches to make the transition easier – check the following resources for more information:

    o   Upgrade models for Project Portfolio Server 2007 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=12e25e2b-fda6-4fda-9f1b-fa39134e26ee

    o   More details for Portfolio Server migration in July 2010 timeframe on Migration Center http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9676814

     

    Upgrading the SharePoint to 2010

    ·        SharePoint 2010 Upgrade and Migration Center - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=189356

     

    Q&A

    Q: After I upgraded to Projects Server 2010 the instance is in “Compatibility Mode” – what is that?

    A: Detailed information could be found in this webcast TechNet Webcast: Project Server 2010 - Backwards Compatibility Mode (Level 300)

     

    Q: While upgrading from Project Server 2003 does the Project Server 2007 need to be in production?

    A: No. The Project Server 2007 is just pass-through environment so the databases could be immediately attached to Project Server 2010. To make this easier we are offering the “Virtual Migration Environment” – for details see above. 

     

    Q: How could I migrate my customizations?

    A: All custom code written against Project Server 2003 leveraging PDS has to be re-written to use the Project Server 2007/2010 PSI – more information in Project Server 2007 SDK here. Custom code against Project Server 2007 requires small changes and possibly accommodating new functionality and new user interface – more in the Project 2010 SDK.

     

    Q: Any additional resources for Upgrade to 2010?

    A: Yes – check the Project Aministration blog (yes - it's this one :)) or check for answers in the official Microsoft Project Server - Setup, Upgrade, Administration and Operation forum.