Project Server Robustness

B

Billg_sd

Are there plans in the works to make the next version of Project Server more
stable? Our organization spends more time babysitting the various app
components than actually using them.

For Example: Last night the build cube process began, but never finished.
Why? Who knows. One would think if ProjectServer came accross erroneous data
in a project...skip it and go on to the next one. Instead it just stopped.
The event viewer displayed 7 C++ errors. All of which led to no resolution.

I understand and appreciate the multiple components involved lends itself to
high-complexity:

SQL Server 2000, Sharepoint, PWA, C++

If it was based entirely in DotNet, maybe descriptive, helpful
warnings/messages could be generated to help diagnose problems.

In the meantime, I may have to drop the cube, assign everyone
read/write/create permissions,.......
 
S

Scott m Wagner - EPM Consulting Services

I can understand your frustration. I too believe there is a lack of
descriptive messages from the current version of Project Server and the EPM
Solution in general and I am looking forward to improvements on the next
version.

As for the comment about Project Server being stable however I believe
(IMHO) it is a stable server and platform. When there is a issue it helps to
have a partner though. I believe many of us who work within this space have
had issues with the OLAP and cube building process but I also know that many
of us have worked thru these issues. I guess what I am saying is that I would
be displeased if people were to get the wrong impression about Project Server
or the EPM Solution in general by reading your thread.

Do you have a Microsoft Partner for your solution? Have you reviewed the
Knowledgebase articles?

Here is a link to the Project Support Site.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;en-us;OffPr2003&x=10&y=15

Again, I realize information may be difficult to find there and again I
recommend contacting a partner. I hope you work it out!

Thanks,

Scott
 
B

Billg_sd

Scott.

Thanks for the feedback. I completely agree that MS Project Server 2003 is
a powerful application and is a mission critical asset to project planning,
forecasting, and resource management.

My frustration is twofold. First, the server app is comprised of various
inter-dependent, diverse technologies. The result is simple: There are
multiple points of failure. Each tier (when reporting an error) will reflect
an error condition in its own way.

Yes - We do have a Service contract with MS. They are both courteous and
responsive.

We're not about to jump ship over the issues we've encountered thus far. We
just hope the next release is more robust; ie. If you made a typo in Outlook,
would you expect to crash your Exchange Server?

-Bill G.
 
G

Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]

Bill:

Everyone deserves a chance to vent a little, but why not post your errors
while you're at it so that we can help you overcome the problem? The most
likely culprit is bad data introduced by users. Typically: non-alphanumeric
characters in resource names, project names and Outline code values. One of
the shortcomings of the program is that it doesn't prevent users from
introducing these where they can cause problems with the downstream
technologies.

Every version of the product has been more robust and more stable at its
core a they've been released. I have no doubts that 2007 will follow suit.
But, it's a mighty big change from the current version and jam-packed full
of new features, so we should all expect to work through some new sources of
"pain" in our adoption process, particularly if we like to be at the front
of the line
..
 
B

Billg_sd

Again, Thanks for the feedback. I'll take you up on your offer.
Two things to note first: 1: I cannot duplicate the error on our QA box
because projects are being added in Prod that are not in QA. I have
identified these, but found nothing strange in them.

In rebuilding the cube, the following errors appear in the event viewer:

Warning #1
Component: PjViewMgr
File: C:\Office\dev\project\WebClient\source\server\pjviewmgr\ViewCreator.cpp
Line: 1680
Description: <Description><![CDATA[CHECKPTR(NULL)]]></Description>

Error #1
Component: PjViewMgr
File: C:\Office\dev\project\WebClient\source\server\pjviewmgr\ViewCreator.cpp
Line: 1680
Error Number: 0x8007000e
Description: <Description><![CDATA[Assert Detected. The error code was also
included.]]></Description>

Error #2
Component: PCSViews
File: ViewsDrop.cls
Line: -1
Description: <Description><![CDATA[Error Information:
Additional Information: An error occured calling
CallViewGenerator(ProjectServer, -1, <ProjectData>
<EntProjectName><![CDATA[resglobal] ]></EntProjectName>
<EntResourceIDList>*</EntResourceIDList>
<EntResourceStartDate>2003-01-01T00:00:00</EntResourceStartDate>
<EntResourceFinishDate>2010-10-12T00:00:00</EntResourceFinishDate>
<BuildCubeRequest><CubeUpdate><CubeStart>20030101</CubeStart><CubeFinish>20101012</CubeFinish><DBType>0</DBType><DSOConnection>Provider=SQLOLEDB.1;Persist
Security Info=False;Initial Catalog=ProjectServer;Data
Source=psdmsp01</DSOConnection><Server>psdmsp01</Server><CubeDB>prodmsp_cube</CubeDB><CubeDesc>Production</CubeDesc><BasePath>ProjectServer</BasePath><CubeGUID>65DCB663-052B-40D0-9CB6-3C462A06A402</CubeGUID></CubeUpdate></BuildCubeRequest>
</ProjectData>)]]></Description>

Thanks,

Billg_SD
 
Top