The latest updates for this month can be found at the following links. Great work guys! If there are any other topics you think we are light on then please let me know, so either I can blog on them or we can get other content prepared.
Demo Videos
Watch this: Use lag and lead time
This demo shows how to use lag and lead time to create gaps and overlaps between tasks in a project.
Watch this: Create a project
This demo shows how to create a project, set project properties, and set file properties.
Watch this: Set up a recurring task
This demo shows how to create a task that repeats on a set schedule throughout a project.
Watch this: Split a task
This demo shows how to interrupt a task, creating a gap between two portions of the task. It also shows how to move the entire split task, adjust the length of the gap created by the split, and rejoin the split portions of the task to remove the gap.
Watch this: Insert a task
This demo shows how to insert a new task between two existing tasks in a project.
Watch this: Group tasks or resources
This demo shows how to group tasks, remove the grouping, and create a new resource group using multiple criteria.
Watch this: Create a cross-project link
This demo shows how to create task dependencies across separate Project 2007 files.
Watch this: Link tasks in your project
This demo shows how to create task dependencies within a single project, and how to adjust the link type for the dependency.
TechNet Content
Best practices for managing the Microsoft Office Project Server Queue Service
This article describes best practices for managing and troubleshooting the Queue system in Office Project Server 2007.
View the ULS logs for queue job entries
This article describes how to view Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 queue job entries in the ULS logs. It can be used in conjunction with the Manage Queue page in Project Web Access Server settings to help troubleshoot queue job issues.
Configure maximum job processor threads for the Project Server Queue service
This article provides guidance about how to configure the maximum job processor threads for each queue type for the Project Server queue service.
WhitePaper: A phased approach to deploying Enterprise Project Management
This whitepaper by Chris Vandersluis provides business decision makers, network administrators, and Project Server administrators guidance about various challenges you can face when planning to deploy the Enterprise Project Management solution in your environment. It is the feature article of the From the Trenches – Deploying EPM in the Real World column available on the Project Server 2007 TechCenter.
Back up and restore the Shared Services Provider
This article gives you an overview of the task of backing up and restoring the Shared Services Provider for Project Server 2007, and includes task requirements and best practices.
Back up the Shared Services Provider
This article provides procedural steps for backing up the Shared Services Provider for Project Server 2007, and includes task requirements.
Restore the Shared Services Provider
This article provides procedural steps for restoring the Shared Services Provider for Project Server 2007, and includes task requirements.
During one of the sessions at TechEd Developer 2008 I raised this point, and as many in the audience were unaware of this behavior when updates are applied I (and the audience) though this worthy of some blog space. The KB below relates to Project Server 2003 sp2a and later service packs – and as far as I am aware (but I am double checking…) this behavior is still the standard for Project Server 2007 too. So if you have modified any files in your deployment you should return the original (that you saved before customizing – right?) to its rightful place before applying the update. Once the update is applied then you will obviously need to re-apply whatever changes you needed to the new file (after making another secure copy of course). Regardless of if we overwrite your customization or don’t update modified file the above is good practice so that you know you have the latest files in place and you have consciously reviewed and re-applied updates. Who knows – we might even have fixed something so that you no longer need your mod!
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/906357
I’m guessing this problem may be more of an issue for us Project Server 2007 support guys at Microsoft than for most customers – but I can certainly see scenario’s where this one would bite you too, so worth an explanation. I’ll throw in all the text from the logs etc. at the end as it makes better reading for the search indexers than for normal people and just concentrate first on what breaks and how to work around the issue.
When you are restoring a farm backup you get the option to update the accounts used for most things – then some of the other accounts you can set once you have things up and running. However, if you have added any accounts into the “Process Account with Access to this SSP” section of the Edit Properties part of the SSP the accounts just get carried through to the new configuration database. Unfortunately this can break some stuff – and even more unfortunate is that the first thing it breaks is the page where you would go to remove them! Basically the page tries to validate the data it has and gives the following error:-
An unhandled exception occurred in the user interface.Exception Information: The specified account name is invalid. Parameter name: account
The same problem occurs if an account added in Process Accounts is removed from AD – and this may well be the most common customer scenario if restoring across domains is not involved. Verbose logging for Office Server General will also show the actual DOMAIN\User that is causing the problem.
You can also see the same error if you try to run stsadm –o enumssp. And other SSP related jobs may post a very similar error in the Application Event Log as they fail to work. Our workaround until now has been the usual; create a new SSP and change associations, and only today did I get to the bottom of this particular failure. The only supportable workaround is to take a fresh backup after removing any accounts from the Process Accounts section. The stsadm –o editssp also does not seem to give a way to remove an account that is not valid – giving an error:
A failure occurred during the processing of this command. Check diagnostic logs for more information.
and logs the same kind of thing in the ULS logs as detailed below.
So here is the less interesting stuff that Live and any other search engines I have forgotten can lap up…
ULS Log
=======
Verbose
Office Server
Office Server General
792o
NTAccount 'DOMAIN\User could not be translated to a SID. Exception: System.Security.Principal.IdentityNotMappedException: Some or all identity references could not be translated. at System.Security.Principal.NTAccount.Translate(IdentityReferenceCollection sourceAccounts, Type targetType, Boolean forceSuccess) at System.Security.Principal.NTAccount.Translate(Type targetType) at Microsoft.Office.Server.Utilities.WindowsSecurity.ValidateAccount(NTAccount account, Boolean throwIfInvalid)
Exception
837w
Unhandled page level exception. Path: /_admin/sspdetails.aspx, Error: The specified account name is invalid. Parameter name: account, Details: System.ArgumentException: The specified account name is invalid. Parameter name: account ---> System.Security.Principal.IdentityNotMappedException: Some or all identity references could not be translated. at System.Security.Principal.NTAccount.Translate(IdentityReferenceCollection sourceAccounts, Type targetType, Boolean forceSuccess) at System.Security.Principal.NTAccount.Translate(Type targetType) at Microsoft.Office.Server.Utilities.WindowsSecurity.ValidateAccount(NTAccount account, Boolean throwIfInvalid) --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at Microsoft.Office.Server.Utilities.WindowsSecurity.ValidateAccount(NTAccoun... Continues...
Application Event Log
==================
No specific error relating to the failed Edit Properties page - but due to the same root cause there would likely be errors like the one below, possibly every minute.
Event Type: Warning
Event Source: Office SharePoint Server
Event Category: Office Server Shared Services
Event ID: 5783
Date: 6/12/2008
Time: 10:01:52 AM
User: N/A
Computer: W2K3
Description: Synchronization for Shared Services Provider 'SSP1' has failed. The operation will be retried.
Reason: The specified account name is invalid.
Parameter name: account
Technical Support Details:
System.ArgumentException: The specified account name is invalid.
Parameter name: account ---> System.Security.Principal.IdentityNotMappedException: Some or all identity references could not be translated. at System.Security.Principal.NTAccount.Translate(IdentityReferenceCollection sourceAccounts, Type targetType, Boolean forceSuccess) at System.Security.Principal.NTAccount.Translate(Type targetType) at Microsoft.Office.Server.Utilities.WindowsSecurity.ValidateAccount(NTAccount account, Boolean throwIfInvalid)
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at Microsoft.Office.Server.Utilities.WindowsSecurity.ValidateAccount(NTAccount account, Boolean throwIfInvalid) at Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.SharedAccessRule.Validate() at Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.SharedComponentSecurity.SetAccessRule(SharedAccessRule accessRule) at Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.SharedComponentSecurityFormatter.DeserializeFromXml(XmlReader xmlReader, SharedComponentSecurity& security) at Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.SharedComponentSecurityFormatter.FromXmlString(String xml) at Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.SharedResourceProvider.InternalGetAccessControl() at Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.SharedResourceProvider.GetApplicationSecurity() at Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.SharedResourceProvider.Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.ISharedComponent.Synchronize() at Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.SharedResourceProviderJob.Execute(Guid targetInstanceId)
One of the cool things Christophe and I got to do at TechEd Developer 2008 was an interview in the Fish Bowl with Richard Campbell about our “Line of Business Integration” session. You can view the interview here, and see other great content from TechEd on the Developer Landing page and the Library page. Enjoy!
If you go to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/projectserver/default.aspx you will see a new EPM column – “From the Trenches”. This features articles by Chris Vandersluis - president and founder of Montreal, Canada–based HMS Software, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. Thanks Chris for this great content – and If there are other partners out there who want to share experience with the wider community then please send me e-mail by clicking the EMAIL link at the top of the page.