We recently ran into an issue with Business Intelligence reporting where we received an error "Unable to Process the Request" when trying to view the sample reports in the BI center. If we opened directly in Microsoft Excel the reports would work and the data would come through from the reporting DB so we knew that all of the services were working properly and everything was configured on the server(s) from a connectivity standpoint.
Much of the guidance was around following these steps:
- Navigate: Site Actions –> Site Settings
- Click the Site Collections Features link located under the Site Collection Administration section of the page
- Locate and active the Open Documents in Client Applications by Default
This solution simply prompted us to open the file in Excel instead of the EWA web part. The local AD Administrator (Adam K) investigated the issue further by following the "open issues" being displayed in SharePoint CA and discovered the Timer services on the WFE was using an incorrect password and therefore the service was not starting. In conclusion check the CA for outstanding/open issues and verify required services are running using the correct credentials. Good job Adam!
