Monday 19 December 2011

Microsoft Project Server 2010 Project Manager's Guide for Project Web App

The Microsoft Project Server 2010 Project Manager's Guide to Project Web App provides detailed information about how to use Microsoft Project Web App (PWA) to work with Microsoft Project Server 2010 data and to perform project management-related tasks. This guide helps project managers in your organization to better understand elements of project management in PWA, such as projects, resources, tasks, approvals, updates, and notifications. It includes many step-by-step procedures and accompanying user-interface screen shots of Project Web App.

To download look here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh703264.aspx

Thursday 24 November 2011

Project Server 2007 : Service Pack 3 Installing (Failed to Start Queuing service)

So Microsoft has sneaked in SP3 a while ago for Office Servers 2007 and the MS Office Suite 2007. I could only start testing these update now due to work constraints, i have however been monitoring the Web on Forums and Groups to see if anything "Disastrous" is happening with Service Pack 3.

The descriptions and downloads are available from here : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2591018. After downloading i attempted to start installing the Project Server 2007 SP, at which point the Installer recommends the installation of the WSS 3.0 SP first. If not done first the install cannot continue.

So i then installed the WSS 3.0 SP for my Virtual Test environment and i did NOT run the Config Wizard after the installation finished, i then proceeded to install the Project Server 2007 SP, on both occasions the install went well, but the only "Drawback" is the amount of time it took to Install the Project Server SP, in my virtual environment it took about 45 Minutes!

After that i ran the Config Wizard and that went well, In totality that is. I did have issues with the Project Queuing Service and Project Server Event Service that did not want to start. Initially i thought it had to do with the Service Pack that i installed, but it turned out it was actually the Virtual Server, the actual Upgrade went well with the exception of the Services that could not be start from the Config Wizard, as seen below.


Failed to Start Queuing Service


So my first thing to try and start the Services Manually, and it is here that i figured out what was wrong, as the error said "Failed to start in a timely fashion" as seen below:


So this made me wonder if the issue is related to Project Server or to my Host OS / Virtual environment. I searched a bit and found a very nice posting by Rob Bowers explaining what happens and it turns out it IS the Virtual Environment and not Project Server. the steps i followed to resolve the issues is listed in the blog posting, but i will post them here for simplicity sake.

1. Identify the drive on which ProjectServer was installed.

2. Open a command prompt on the front-end servers (where the error is occurring) and navigate to the following path:

C: \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\bin
Once you have arrived at the bin directory, type the following command:
Psconfig –cmd upgrade –inplace b2b –wait -force

Note: Since C: is the default path for the Project Server installation, C: has been used in this example. If a different drive letter has been used, use that drive letter instead.

This process will finalize any updates prior to implementing the fix. (In my case this was not necessary as the config Wizard Completed successfully)
3. Once this process has completed, open the registry editor
Start=>Run=>Regedit
Once the registry editor has been opened navigate to
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control
Here it will be necessary to create a new DWORD key with the following value:
ServicesPipeTimeout DWORD 60000 (decimal)

Note: 60000 = 60 Seconds.
4. Next, look for the WaitToKillServiceTimeout key – take note of its current value – and then change the value to 120000

Note: 120000=120 Seconds.

5. Reboot the Server.Test by going to Start=>Run=>services.msc and examining the Microsoft Office ProjectServer Queue Service and Event Service. These services should now show as started, and assuming nothing else is wrong with the environment, the Queue Service should now be able to process jobs. The error messages in the event viewer should also have stopped.

After the re-boot the services started up by themselves (as it set to "Auto Start") and everything is working as expected.

Tuesday 22 November 2011

Project Server 2010 : Quick way to view Farm Patch Status

I continually hear of people trying to figure out what Update(s) are currently installed on a farm. Normally what i would do is go through the Installed Updates in Control Panel > Add remove Programs, and the try to figure out (Between a large amount of updates, which is which.) 

Normally SP1 is listed quite clearly there but the CU's are not that simple to find. I looked around for a while and then i found it in the most simplest of places. In the Central Admin site > Upgrade and Migration > Check product and patch installation status. 



From that option all Services in the Farm will be listed with it's relevant Updates. Screenshot below shows only the Project Server Update Sections.


From there we can easily see the version numbers for Project Server, the Language Pack as well as the Web Front End Server. So either way some Searching may be involved but you have a lot less info to work through.

To find a list of the SharePoint and Project Server Version Numbers have a look here: (Courtesy of Microsoft )

Build
Release
Affected Objects
​KB Info
Downloads
Revisions
14.0.4763.1000RTMAll componentsDownload
14.0.4762.1000RTMFarm Build Version
    
14.0.5114.5003June 2010 CUSharePoint Foundation 2010KB2028568
14.0.5114.5003June 2010 CUMicrosoft Shared ComponentsKB2281364
14.0.5114.5003June 2010 CUMicrosoft SharePoint PortalKB983497
14.0.5114.5003June 2010 CUMicrosoft User Profiles
14.0.5114.5003June 2010 CUMicrosoft Search Server 2010 Core
14.0.5114.5003June 2010 CUMicrosoft Web Analytics Web Front End ComponentsKB2204024
       
14.0.5123.5000August 2010 CUSharePoint Foundation​ 2010KB2352346
14.0.5123.5000August 2010 CUSharePoint Server 2010KB2352342
    
14.0.5128.5000
October 2010 CUSharePoint Foundation​ 2010KB2394323
14.0.5128.5000
October 2010 CUSharePoint Server 2010​KB2394320
14.0.5130.5002​
​December 2010 CU
SharePoint Foundation 2010
KB2459125
14.0.5130.5002​
December 2010 CU​SharePoint Server 2010​KB2459257
14.0.5136.5002​February 2011 CU​
SharePoint Foundation 2010
KB2475880​
14.0.5136.5002​February 2011 CU​SharePoint Server 2010​KB2475878
14.0.5138.5000
​April 2011 CU​SharePoint Foundation 2010KB2512804​
14.0.5138.5000
​April 2011 CUSharePoint Server 2010​KB2512800
14.0.5138.5000
​April 2011 CU​Project Server 2010KB2512801
​14.0.6029.1000​Service Pack 1​SharePoint Server 2010​KB2460045Download
​14.0.6029.1000​Service Pack 1​Office Web AppsKB2460073Download
​​14.0.6029.1000​Service Pack 1​Project Server 2010KB2460047Download
​14.0.6029.1000​Service Pack 1​SharePoint Foundation 2010KB2460058Download
​14.0.6105.5000​June 2011 CU Version 1​​SharePoint Server 2010​KB2536599
​14.0.6105.5000​June 2011 CU Version 1​SharePoint Foundation 2010KB2536601
​14.0.6105.5000​​June 2011 CU Version 1​Project Server 2010KB2536590
​14.0.6106.5002​​June 2011 CU Version 2​​​SharePoint Server 2010​KB2536599DownloadRegressions
​14.0.6106.5002​​June 2011 CU Version 2​SharePoint Foundation 2010KB2536601​Download
​14.0.6106.5002​​June 2011 CU Version 2​Project Server 2010KB2536590Download
14.0.6105.5000​June 2011 CU​Office Web AppsKB2553919Download
14.0.6109.5002​August 2011 CU​SharePoint Server 2010KB2553048DownloadRegressions
14.0.6109.5000​August 2011 CU​​SharePoint Foundation 2010KB2553117Download
14.0.6109.5000
​August 2011 CU​Project Server 2010KB2553047Download
14.6112.5000​October 2011 CU​SharePoint Server 2010KB2596505Download​Bugs, Notes, and Regressions
14.6112.5000​​October 2011 CU​​​SharePoint Foundation 2010KB2596508Download
14.6112.5000​​October 2011 CU​​Project Server 2010KB2596506Download