June 29
<dry – watching Wimbledon>
Just a quick reminder that if you’re struggling with getting Analysis Services to build successfully one of the errors you might see is ….
Failed to build the OLAP cubes. Error: Analysis Services session failed with the following error: Failed to connect to the Analysis Services server BenHowardSQL08. Error: Cannot connect to the repository. Analysis server: BenHowardSQL08 Error: Provider cannot be found. It may not be properly installed.
This is basically letting you know that you don’t have the correct SQL Native Client installed.
This occurred for me on a Windows 2008 box, using SQL2008 on another server. All software was 64 bit.
I used the following technet article as reference for the installation to get the cube bits loaded… (I had arrived onsite and the customer hadn’t done any cube configuration) http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd285466.aspx and as per the article I downloaded and installed the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Native Client from the Feature Pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 - December 2008 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=142288). This has a timestamp of Nov 2008 (and is called sqlncli_x64.msi)
Knowing that everything wasn’t right, I hunted around again and installed the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Native Client from the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Feature Pack, October 2008 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=228de03f-3b5a-428a-923f-58a033d316e1&DisplayLang=en. This has a timestamp of July 2008 (and is called sqlcli.msi)
This resolved the problem and everything works sweetly.
Thanks to Brian Smith’s blog (and of course Brian for writing it) which pointed me in the right direction. http://blogs.msdn.com/brismith
Cheers, Ben.
April 07
The following blog details the settings and email formats behind the task alerts and reminders page. I originally wrote this in word using lots of tables and it hasn’t transferred very well to the web, apologies for that!
Each resource is able to configure the frequency of email alerts and reminders for upcoming and overdue tasks; additionally, Project Managers can also configure their resources’ email reminders. If a Project Manager configures email alerts and reminders for their resources, the Project Manager’s settings override those set by the resource.
Task Alerts are sent immediately. Task reminders are sent daily, at a time set by the administrator (Server Settings | Alerts and Reminders)
To configure email alerts, click on Personal Settings | Manage My Alerts and Reminders. Note that this guide deals with Task alerts and Reminders only and not Status Reports.
Figure 12 - My Task Alerts
The options on the screen are split into two sections, Task Alerts and Task Reminders. The following table shows the email format for each option.
| Setting | Email format |
| 
|
| | Subject: Assignments have been updated on Project <Project Name> Project: <Project Name> Below are the latest schedule changes. Contact your project manager if there are any problems with the changes. You have been assigned to the following assignments. Task Name: <task name> Start: <start date> Finish: <finish date> Work: <work> Remaining Work: <remaining work> % Completion: <% complete> |
| 
|
| | Subject: Assignments have been updated on Project <Project Name> Project: <project name> Below are the latest schedule changes. Contact your project manager if there are any problems with the changes. Your work assignments below have changed. Task Name: <task name> Start: <start date> Finish: <finish date> Work: <work> Remaining Work: <remaining work> % Completion: <% complete> |
| 
|
| | The following tasks are scheduled to start soon. Project: <project name> Task Name: <task name> Start: <start date> Finish: <finish date> Work: <work> Remaining Work: <remaining work> % Completion: <% complete> |
| 
|
| | The following tasks are scheduled to finish soon. Project: <project name> Task Name: <task name> Start: <start date> Finish: <finish date> Work: <work> Remaining Work: <remaining work> % Completion: <% complete> |
| 
|
| | The following tasks are scheduled to finish soon. Project: <project name> Task Name: <task name> Start: <start date> Finish: <finish date> Work: <work> Remaining Work: <remaining work> % Completion: <% complete> |
| 
|
| | The following tasks are incomplete. Project: <project name> Task Name: <task name> Start: <start date> Finish: <finish date> Work: <work> Remaining Work: <remaining work> % Completion: <% complete> |
| 
|
| | The following tasks are currently overdue. Project: <project name> Task Name: <task name> Start: <start date> Finish: <finish date> Work: <work> Remaining Work: <remaining work> % Completion: <% complete> |
| 
|
| | The following tasks could be overdue and incomplete. Project: <project name> Task Name: <task name> Start: <start date> Finish: <finish date> Work: <work> Remaining Work: <remaining work> % Completion: <% complete> |
It is possible for a Project Manager to configure email reminders for their Team Members. These settings override any Task Alert settings that a resource makes. Note that for task alerts, the Team Member refers to anyone assigned to tasks within a project that you own.
Figure 13 - My Resources Alerts
The options on the screen are split into two sections, Task Alerts and Task Reminders. The following table shows the email format for each option.
| Setting | Email format |
| 
|
| | Subject: SUBMITTED: New task request on Project <Project Name> by <Resource Name> <Resource Name> has submitted the following tasks. Project Name: <Project Name> Manager Name: <Resource Manager> Task Name: <task name> Start: <start date> Finish: <finish date> Work: <work> Remaining Work: <remaining work> % Completion: <% complete> |
| 
|
| | Subject: SUBMITTED: <Resource Name> has requested to reassign work on Project <Project Name> <Resource Name> has reassigned the following task. Project:<Project Name> Manager Name: <Project Manager> Task Name: <task name> Start: <start date> Finish: <finish date> Work: <work> Remaining Work: <remaining work> % Completion: <% complete> The task has been reassigned to the following resources. <New Resource Name> |
| 
|
| | Subject: Resources have submitted assignment updates The following assignments have been updated by resources. Reported to: <Project Manager> Project Name:<Project Name> Task Name: <Task Name> Assigned to: <Resource Name> Start: <start date> Finish: <finish date> Work: <work> Remaining Work: <remaining work> % Completion: <% complete> Comment: |
| Note. Managers can set up Task Reminders for resources that can be sent to either the manager, resource or both. These are set up by checking the relevant radio button (Send e-mail to me only, send e-mail to team members only, or send e-mail to me and to team members). Reminders sent to the Project Manager are known as Manager Subscribed Reminders, and those sent to the resource are known as Manager Derived Subscribed Reminders. Each type of reminder contains the same specific task information, but has a slightly different header. The Manager Subscribed Reminders (those sent to the Project Manager) have the words Assigned to: associated with each task, and the Manager Derived Subscribed Reminders have the words Manager Name: associated with each task. |
| Setting | Email format – for Manager Derived Subscribed Reminders (send e-mail to my team members) |
| 
|
| | Subject: Task reminders - Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 notification service. Manager reminder: The following tasks are scheduled to finish soon. Project: <project name> Manager name: <manager name> Task Name: <task name> Start: <start date> Finish: <finish date> Work: <work> Remaining Work: <remaining work> % Completion: <% complete> |
| 
|
| | Subject: Task reminders - Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 notification service. Manager reminder: The following tasks are currently overdue. Project: <project name> Manager name: <manager name> Task Name: <task name> Start: <start date> Finish: <finish date> Work: <work> Remaining Work: <remaining work> % Completion: <% complete> |
| 
|
| | Subject: Task reminders - Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 notification service. Manager reminder: The following tasks could be overdue and incomplete. Project: <project name> Manager name: <manager name> Task Name: <task name> Start: <start date> Finish: <finish date> Work: <work> Remaining Work: <remaining work> % Completion: <% complete> |
| 
|
| | Subject: Task reminders - Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 notification service. Manager reminder: The following tasks require updates. Project: <project name> Manager name: <manager name> Task Name: <task name> Start: <start date> Finish: <finish date> Work: <work> Remaining Work: <remaining work> % Completion: <% complete> |
| Setting | Email format – for Manager Subscribed Reminders (send e-mail to me only) |
| ![clip_image019[1]](https://dbgolg.blu.livefilestore.com/y1m_7z8Bq7hOMUynGjnE0Z9vngCIWiXJesswPWk_HUuRfbuooccgw7vr0_NrV3TX66cLeZXqo6BIsdc5AvW_wv9dm4J2sHMwiNHJOzf7QvjyhQM6p3SwWnPLfPKCnm-pC5VHGG3-4YdhijwurMuh7TvDA/clip_image019[1]_thumb.jpg "clip_image019[1]")
|
| | Subject: Task reminders - Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 notification service. The following tasks for your resources are scheduled to finish soon. Project: <project name> Assigned to: <resource name> Task Name: <task name> Start: <start date> Finish: <finish date> Work: <work> Remaining Work: <remaining work> % Completion: <% complete> |
| ![clip_image020[1]](https://dbgolg.blu.livefilestore.com/y1mJe9jTB7q3PP-gvR-yfnAw9aV6lx0wNyS6G9kEm_dLYS1MkCMfmsXE5qDzqKZnDhkz3n7HiXIqfooAT2EzocOvrtjEZWk8iTBygiqiqwARH-AZpt1OIHgpNDG7tDX9YhioW2sO49TRolKggZrx-JV9w/clip_image020[1]_thumb.jpg "clip_image020[1]")
|
| | Subject: Task reminders - Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 notification service. The following tasks for your resources are currently overdue. Project: <project name> Assigned to: <resource name> Task Name: <task name> Start: <start date> Finish: <finish date> Work: <work> Remaining Work: <remaining work> % Completion: <% complete> |
| ![clip_image021[1]](https://dbgolg.blu.livefilestore.com/y1mKc5g9AwRs5U4gB6x9B3hBQaHuZrB4VhEoZb5dHc7MCC2JHDVud0LmySERHAb1jSpunBDbNiQxv2VhgFC0zknqx5lN8-dv74iGDILHfxVn-rwZ8PNs_PvXdXKEv-Qzv9vCxwc44PV2ZYKnXXjMuujXw/clip_image021[1]_thumb.jpg "clip_image021[1]")
|
| | Subject: Task reminders - Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 notification service.Task reminders - Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 notification service. The following tasks for your resources could be overdue and incomplete. Project: <project name> Assigned to: <resource name> Task Name: <task name> Start: <start date> Finish: <finish date> Work: <work> Remaining Work: <remaining work> % Completion: <% complete> |
| ![clip_image022[1]](https://dbgolg.blu.livefilestore.com/y1mz761QkX3_Lcx4ytJxi0PsVHFFCjyjKUbNQIVYMGhp1fcaDBrUMl4fmBfrpVdTvFLbMgAhrc4B3bbvlGW687TdG9LyHcjpr3f4VUe3th6E0HaI3qE2WmLxpVYZFWWF6pzyZyCzIM9gjEG42pZH3_orw/clip_image022[1]_thumb.jpg "clip_image022[1]")
|
| | Subject: Task reminders - Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 notification service. The following tasks for your resources require updates. Assigned to: <resource name> Manager name: <manager name> Task Name: <task name> Start: <start date> Finish: <finish date> Work: <work> Remaining Work: <remaining work> % Completion: <% complete> |
Enjoy, Ben.
Just to let you know there are two MPUG events happening in the UK. The first is in London, and the second Manchester. Details are below…
Tuesday 28th April MPUG London Presents: Networking and Best Practice Presentation
Members and non members are welcome at this event!!
3:00PM: Welcome and Networking
3:30PM: “Best Practices”
5:30PM: Close and Prize Drawing
We will have experts from Microsoft and the industry available to answer your questions and share best practices. This will be a great opportunity for attendees to learn tips in using project and project server and meet other project managers in London. We will have raffle prizes and appetizers for attendees.
- from 3.00pm to 6.00pm at Microsoft London (Cardinal Place).
For more information and to register please visit MPUG at:
http://www.mpug.com/Lists/Event%20Calendar/DispForm.aspx?ID=146
We look forward to seeing you at the event!
The MPUG London team
| 30, April 2009 MPUG Manchester Presents: Reporting Using Microsoft Project and Project Server
Members and non members are welcome at this event!!
Presented by:
Bob Walker, Technical Solutions Professional EPM, Microsoft Corporation. Schedule:
6:30 Registration, Appetizers and Networking
7:00 Speaker and Q&A
8:00 Wrap up and drawing
Presentation Overview: Reporting in Project 2007 and Project Server 2007, how to leverage the investment you have made: - What you can do out the box?
- What you can do with a bit of SharePoint?
- What you can do with a bit of BI (Business Intelligence)?
Bob is one of the best project experts, so come to get some great information and bring your burning questions about Project. We'll have free T shirts for anyone that can stump Bob with a good question.
For more information and to register please visit MPUG at: http://www.mpug.com/Lists/Event%20Calendar/DispForm.aspx?ID=151 We look forward to seeing you at the event!
Best, The MPUG Manchester team |
Full MPUG details can be found at http://www.mpug.com
I’ll see you at the Manchester event.
Regards, Ben.
February 23
<Wolf Blass & Baileys!>
Every now and then something nice happens in EPM, something that makes life simpler! This happened to me before Christmas (where did the last 8 weeks go to?) so figured I'd blog this now..., however, to get this to work I have to break one of my golden rules of not assigning resources to milestones - maybe it wasn't so golden after all.
For this scenario to work you need to set the collaboration options for the project to % of work complete.
Then assign resources to milestones (arghhh!) and publish the project (M1 and M2 below)
and open the tasks in My Tasks. You'll find that for statusing for the milestone tasks you now have a choice of Not Done or Done (instead of % complete). Kinda neat and a very simple way to track milestones.
Beware though, there are still issues (IMHO) regarding assigning resources to milestones (I'll blog some later), but for now, this is a great way to tracking milestone items.
Good luck with project serve, sometimes it's surprising!
November 11
<coffee>
Generally I don’t blog technical issues as there are lots of good technical blogs out there, but as no-one else seemed to have blogged this I thought I would.
One on my customers has been up and running with Project Server on Analysis Services on SQL2005 SP2 for a few months now, and everything was progressing smoothly until earlier this week until the cube failed to build with the above error. In truth we had seen this before on the test instance ages ago but had got around it by renaming the OLAP cube that we build – not really a sustainable option in the live environment.
The issue relates to the Analysis Services Repository loosing track of which instance built which cube. This might happen if two cube builds are running at the same time from two instances (eg a Live and a Test instance). The site-id in the top level row for the cube can get blanked out and then it thinks the cube is it trying to build was created by a different instance.
The fix is easy – you just need to blank out the row in the repository (easy if the repository is SQL – harder for mdbs). I re-built the repository from the script in the TechNet article, and then made sure that both my live and test instances of PWA were building cubes at different times.
Just for completeness I’ve copied in the build text from the cube build process and the queue error.
===== Initiating cube build process =====
[07/11/2008 10:52] Cube build request message has been added to the Project Server queue
===== Verifying and running pre-build server event handler =====
[07/11/2008 10:52] Verifying and running pre-build server event handler
===== Determining database and cube structure =====
[07/11/2008 10:52] Cube build initialization started
[07/11/2008 10:52] OLAP database and cube structure was determined successfully
===== Building database and cubes =====
[07/11/2008 10:52] Cube build session started
[07/11/2008 10:52] Analysis Services session started
[07/11/2008 10:52] Analysis Services session failed with the following error: Cannot overwrite an Olap database created outside of Project Server or by another Project Server Site.
===== Process Completed =====
[07/11/2008 10:52] Failed to build the OLAP cubes. Error: Analysis Services session failed with the following error: Cannot overwrite an Olap database created outside of Project Server or by another Project Server Site.
Error summary/areas:
CBS message processor failed
CBSAttemptToOverwrite
Queue
GeneralQueueJobFailed
Error details:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<errinfo>
<general>
<class name="CBS message processor failed">
<error id="17013" name="CBSAttemptToOverwrite" uid="575a7c3f-4fa8-4f51-83d2-42ff6694954b" CBSRequest="Setting UID=00007829-4392-48b3-b533-5a5a4797e3c9 ASServerName=projserv ASDBName=live ASExtraNetAddress=projserv RangeChoice=0 PastNum=1 PastUnit=0 NextNum=1 NextUnit=0 FromDate=11/06/2008 14:06:05 ToDate=11/06/2008 14:06:05 HighPriority=True" />
</class>
<class name="Queue">
<error id="26000" name="GeneralQueueJobFailed" uid="09f63d97-9a07-48b7-a453-9873fcff415c" JobUID="c6e277d9-b898-40a5-83ea-07cbe5ca0bed" ComputerName="projserv" GroupType="CBSRequest" MessageType="CBSQueueMessage" MessageId="2" Stage="" />
</class>
</general>
</errinfo>
Many thanks to Brian Smith who was instrumental in resolving the issue.
Enjoy…. Ben.
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