Major Issue with April CU - Timesheet Deployment

[milrock]

Hi Everyone,

Just so you are aware...if you are using Project Server 2007 Timesheet
functionality on your own system or at a client's site, do not deploy
SP2 or the April CU.

There is a known issue with the timesheet functionality where certain
PS stored procedures will fail with no errors except in the SQL trace
logs (you may get an intermittent error in the app server application
event log saying that the Statusing Interval Submitted is Invalid).

This issue comes up periodically when users save their timesheets but
do not submit them. The next time a user accessed the saved timesheet
they will a) receive an Unknown Error Has Occurred and the dreaded Web
Part Maintenance page will appear, b) the user is given an Access
Denied error when clicking on any of the timesheets on their My
Timesheets page, even creating a new one, or c) the user is able to
submit their timesheet but their timesheet manager will get an Access
Denied error when trying to approve the timesheet. This will render
the timesheet manager unable to approve any of his resources'
timesheets.

This is a very nasty problem (even nastier than the Project Server
Timesheet functionality itself) that the April CU/SP2 has caused.
Microsoft has a hotfix, that isn't regression tested, that will
prevent future occurrences of the problem but are struggling to come
up with a fix for users that have already experienced the issue.
Their is a potential private release for this fix at the beginning of
October but will probably not be in a production deployable state
until the December Cumulative Update.

Another in a long, long line...

S

 

[Mike Mahoney]

Hi Everyone,

Just so you are aware...if you are using Project Server 2007 Timesheet
functionality on your own system or at a client's site, do not deploy
SP2 or the April CU.

There is a known issue with the timesheet functionality where certain
PS stored procedures will fail with no errors except in the SQL trace
logs (you may get an intermittent error in the app server application
event log saying that the Statusing Interval Submitted is Invalid).

This issue comes up periodically when users save their timesheets but
do not submit them.  The next time a user accessed the saved timesheet
they will a) receive an Unknown Error Has Occurred and the dreaded Web
Part Maintenance page will appear, b) the user is given an Access
Denied error when clicking on any of the timesheets on their My
Timesheets page, even creating a new one, or c) the user is able to
submit their timesheet but their timesheet manager will get an Access
Denied error when trying to approve the timesheet.  This will render
the timesheet manager unable to approve any of his resources'
timesheets.

This is a very nasty problem (even nastier than the Project Server
Timesheet functionality itself) that the April CU/SP2 has caused.
Microsoft has a hotfix, that isn't regression tested, that will
prevent future occurrences of the problem but are struggling to come
up with a fix for users that have already experienced the issue.
Their is a potential private release for this fix at the beginning of
October but will probably not be in a production deployable state
until the December Cumulative Update.

Another in a long, long line...

S

Is safe to assume the AUG CU does not resolve the problem?

regards

Mike

 

[milrock]

Hi Mike,

Its an open issue right now and has not been addressed. There is a
potential private hot-fix (released only through an MS support case)
for the beginning of October but a public release in a cumulative
update will probably not be available until at least the December 2009
Cumulative Update.

A downer...

Scot

 

[milrock]

An Update and more info on this issue from Microsoft.

The issue only appears to have only affect a low number of clients
according to Microsoft so I believe this is the reason that there
wasn't a recall on SP2. This issue is caused by two records in the
MSP_ASSIGNMENTS_SAVED table that have the same ASSN_UID, but two
different TASK_UID's. Microsoft is still unsure as to what causes this
condition. This condition should not exist in the system, but does,
and the stored procedure MSP_WEB_SP_QRY_ReadCustomFieldByProjUID that
is returning information to the timesheet view does not take the
condition into account, or have an exception that would handle this
issue causing the timesheet web part to break. The condition does
appear to be related to task level custom fields and, we are
recommending to our clients an upgrade to SP2 should be avoided at the
moment on deployments that use the timesheet functionality. Negative
effects of this issue have also been observed in the My Tasks web part
when a user with the Timesheet functionality problem attempted to
filter their task likst in My Tasks and received an Access Denied
error.

There is a private hotfix that is currently in testing which will
handle the condition going forward. A script tool is being developed
at the moment to fix users that are currently affected by the issue.
There is hope that this tool will be available next week so the
situation is looking up.

Regards,

S

 

[Gary Chefetz]

Scot:

How are your clients doing resource assignments? How do they do resource
reassignments? I've got a gut feeling about this. Please ask the PMs who
have encountered this in their projects. Thanks.

 

[milrock]

Hi Gary,

Exactly what info are you looking for? The PMs use Build Team From
Enterprise to replace Generic resources that exist originally in the
Project Template. Resourcing also takes place using Team Assignments
where by the individual team resources will pick up their assignment
using Self-Assign Team tasks. Team Leads can also reassign Team Tasks
to individual resources. Team Members are also permitted to reassign
tasks that they are unable to perform to other team members.

If you require additional information, please let me know and I'll be
glad to oblige.

Regards,

S

 

[milrock]

Hi Gary,

I forgot to mention that users are also able to assign themselves to
existing tasks.

Regards,

S

 

[Gary Chefetz]

Do PMs use the resource drop-down list in the resource column in a
task-level view such as the Gantt Chart?

 

[milrock]

Hi Gary,

I don't believe that the majority of PMs use the Resource Names drop-
down column to add resources to the project schedule. Some may but I
believe most use the split screen to add resources or the Assign
Resources dialog box. I am testing later today to see if the problem
is due to adding resources via the split screen. Will update everyone
as to my progress.

There is still no tool to clean up the issue with users that are
already experiencing the issue. We had hoped for it to be released
early last week but we are still not in receipt of it.

S

 

[magictiny]

I have the same issue with team re-assignments, last week it was reported
that when a team member goes into the self assign task page it now errors to
the Web Part Maintenance Page.
We do not use timesheets and have not upgraded to SP2

Any help would be useful.