Technical Problem: Backend Server Permissions

[M Colodzin]

I'm struggling with a puzzling, apparently technical problem. For the past
six or eight months, I've been the adminstrator for a Project Server 2003
installation and have had few problems. I have managed several enterprise
projects, regularly opening, updating and collaborating out the plan with no
issues.

Wednesday morning I was able to open my current project in MS Proj Pro and
begin making updates to the file. At some point during the day I tried to
publish my changes and received an error message saying that I didn't have
suffienct persmiisions and the file. I then tried just to save the file
(File -> Save) and received the same permissions error.

When I closed it and tried to re-open it from the server, the File -> Open
dialog box was completely empty. I also tried to open it from the Project
Center in PWA and got exactly the same result.

I have verified that the project is still on the server and available in
PWA. I can view it, enter time, view resource information etc.

I have tried the following to deterine the cause of this problem:

1. Imported a new project into the enterprise and attempted to Publish.
Upon publishing I got error #: 0x80004005. The project was successfully
imported and it now appears in the list of projects in the ADMIN -> Clean up
Server DB window which allows projects to be deleted. It does not show up
in the Project Center or in user timesheets. This leads me to believe that
file corruption is probably not the cause.

2. I validated all the permissions in PWA for the Administrator (me) and
they appear to be correct. There are no DENYs for Open or Save Project
anywhere.

3. I reviewed the Security log on the Windows Server and found nothing out
of the ordinary that would indicate a change in priviledges on the machine.

4. I validated that I am connected to the server when I attempt to open the
file in MS Project Pro.

5. I syched Admin accounts on the Manage Sharepoint Sites page.

From what I can tell at this point, it seems that permissions on the backend
server must somehow have been changed. I don't know how to do this, so I
don't think it was anything I did. I also don't know which files/folders are
required for permissions to open/save a project.

I don't have technical support on the server side avaialble help me
troubleshoot this. I do have someone who will make any requird changes once
I can tell him exactly what needs to be viewed/changed.

This is a critical problem as I'm in a production environment. Any help
will be very gratefully appreciated.

Michelle Colodzin

I am at a total loss about how to deal with this.

 

[Scott m Wagner - EPM Consulting Services]

Michelle,

It is possible that when you were working on the project for some reason the
system saw the project as checked out but the version you had on your desktop
it did not see as that checked out version. This seems to be where the issue
originated.

When you go to open projects is it in the list? If so open it and do a
publish all. This should push it out to the views table where you will be
able to see it in the PWA views.

For future reference, when I get an error publishing I always check in PWA
Admin under “checked out enterprise projects†to see if my project is in the
list after I close it.

Hope that helps.

 

[M Colodzin]

Scott,

Thank you so much for your response. I really appreciate the help.

As with most problems it turns out that someone (either myself or my backup
administrator) inadvertantly made some permissions changes that I didn't spot
in my review of the variuos groups/users/categories permissions.

Once I correct this everything returned to normal.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Michelle --

Sounds like my original advice was moving you in the right direction!

 

[M Colodzin]

How true. If only I wasn't so pig-headed
--
Michelle Colodzin, PMP

Michelle --

Sounds like my original advice was moving you in the right direction!

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Michelle --

Definitely not "pig headed." I would say "focused" is a better term:
"focused" on the wrong thing!

How true. If only I wasn't so pig-headed

 

[wildo]

What was your incorrect permission? I created a new PM group with some
custom settings so I don't pollute the original PM, but I have this same
error. I thought I had all the settings the same as the original PM (except
those changed), but I must be missing something. The only other difference
is that I'm testing with a temporary Project Server user, instead of Windows
Auth - don't know if there's a setting that allows publishing only if Windows
Auth.

Thanks for your help.