Project Server 2010 BI Reporting Error-"Unable to Process the Request"

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:

1.     Navigate: Site Actions –> Site Settings
2.     Click the Site Collections Features link located under the Site Collection Administration section of the page
3.     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!

Project Server 2010-Backup and Restore (Playbook)

In case you have been searching for the Backup and Restore Tool from the Project Server Resource Kit (PRK):
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=22810

Project and Project Server Feb 2012 Updates

The February 2012 Cumulative Updates are now available, please see the links below:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2658222

http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/2012/02/29/microsoft-project-server-and-sharepoint-server-2007-and-2010-february-2012-cu-announcement.aspx

Project Server 2010 Server Roll up package February 2012 CU (Recommended):
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2597152

Project Server 2010 February 2012 CU (Included in the Server Roll up package):
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2597138

Project 2010 February 2012 CU:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2597942

Always run in test before deploying to Production.

Project Server SP1 -

List of changes/improvements made with the Project Server 2010 SP1 release:

-Bulk update of project sites does not succeed when the project site URL does not include a trailing slash mark ("/").

-The date ranges in the timephased grid for statusing are shifted by a day when a daylight savings time change occurs.

-A project administrator wants to create a team site that is not related to a specific project in a Project Web App site collection. But webparts cannot be added to that site, which makes it unusable.

-When you switch to a view for which a subtask is filtered out after you delete the summary task, the view does not load.

-When an update is applied to upgrade Project Server, but the database is not upgraded, an unhelpful "Unknown error" message is displayed.

-With SP1, Project Server now supports SQL Server Code Name "Denali" (SQL 11).

-Before SP1, you could not have a rule auto-publish when the rule was auto-approved. Starting with SP1, you can set rules to automatically publish updates to project plans after they are run on the Create/Edit Rules page.

-The "Mark Complete" button on the "My Tasks" page is disabled when it shouldn't be.

-AutoFilter performance in Resource Center is slow when large numbers of resources are in the view.

-Calculated measures are not upgraded correctly when you upgrade from Project 2007.

-A project that belongs to an Enterprise Project Type whose property was changed from Workflow to Non-Workflow (or vice versa) does not appear or does not appear correctly on the Change or Restart Workflows settings page.

-Creation of a Project Workspace does not succeed, but a record that the creation was successful is written to the publish database in Project Server. After the fix, the mistaken record is no longer written to the publish database.

-Actual work time that is submitted through MyTasks in Project Web Access is moved to a different day when the project is opened in Project.

-The server scheduling engine does not support effort-driven or fixed work tasks in the Schedule WebPart.

-When updates are accepted, task start and finish dates change unexpectedly.

-A policy was added in SP1 to automatically redirect extensions to use the latest version of the Project Server Library DLL.

-Approval fails for self-assigning team tasks.

-"Work value used is invalid" error occurs when you save a resource plan that has very small time-phased work values in Project Web Access.

-When you update an Enterprise task Custom Field by using the Project Server Interface (PSI), the task duration is changed to 100-percent complete for the updated task.

-When a user submits changes through My Tasks and the updates are accepted by the project manager, the start date of the task is changed unexpectedly.

-Users who have appropriate permissions receive an error message when they try to access a subproject in a master project in Project Center view.

-In certain language versions, you cannot load views in Project Server 2010 after you upgrade from Project Server 2007.

-Resource-synced tasks are not editable in the schedule web part when in edit mode.

-Beginning with SP1, team member support is included for the Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari browsers. For example, team members can now use these browsers to submit time and status information on their tasks.

-When you click "Assign To Me" for tasks that are assigned to a pool resource, an error occurs.

-The Set-SPProjectWebInstance cmdlet does not work to update the host header site.

-When you modify status through Project Web Access or through the Project APIs, changes to "Actual Work" on manually scheduled tasks that have a 0-hour duration do not persist.

-Summary tasks create virtual links to their subtasks. This causes scheduling to be determined by subtask instead of by rollup summary.

-When you have a view filter that excludes one or more inserted subprojects, the view does not load when you try to expand all inserted subprojects.

-When the Projectproxy.QueueUpdateProject PSI method is used to change the start date of a task on a server that has protected actuals enabled, the actuals will incorrectly move along with the start date of the project.

-When a Project Web Access subscription is deleted, the path cannot be reused.

 

Project Server 2010 Browser Support

I found this interesting post regarding Browser support for Project Server 2010. This is very useful during your planning phase: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263526.aspx

Configuring Exchange Server 2007 or 2010 with MPS 2010

There are a few important URL's to be aware of when synchronizing Exchange Server 2007/2010 with Project Server 2010;

1. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff793352.aspx (Exchange Server 2010 Impersonation)

2. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee782548.aspx (Exchange 2007)

3. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff468700.aspx (Project Server 2010 and Exchange Server 2010)

Project Server 2007 64-bit on Windows 2008 Server

Couple issues you might run into:

Issue 1: When running the setup for Project Server 2007 with all necessary You get the message that you need MOSS installed.
Solution: You must slipstream Office Server and WSS SP2 or have the SP2 installation files during installation.

Issue 2: You get prompted that IIS is not running during the configuration wizard, but you know you have it installed and running.
Solution: You must have the "IIS 6 Management Compatibility" feature enabled.

Configuring Project Server 2007 Data-Analysis for Windows 7

When configuring Windows 7 client(s) for Project Server 2007/PWA, you must have all of the required components installed as described in the following kb article:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc197552(office.12).aspx

Also, you must configure the following areas:

Control Panel > Credential Manager > Add a Windows credential

Fill in the required information for your organization.

Click Ok.

Disabling Compression in IIS with Windows 2008 R2

If you are having issues with the Project and Resource Centers after installing Project Server on Windows 2008 R2, you need to disable compression in IIS.

Step by step to follow.