OLAP cube build stuck (Project 2003 Server)

[Jack Kohn]

I've hit a snag trying to build our OLAP cube.

We have Project 2003 Server on one box, and SQL 2000 (SP3) with
Analysis Services on another machine. I have installed SQL AS,
including Decision Support Objects, and SQL AS SP3 on the Project
Server. Both servers are in a Win2000 AD domain.

Initially, when initiating the cube build, I'd almost immediately get
a message saying that the build failed. The Project Server's
Application Event Log indicated insufficient permissions trying to
build the OLAP cube. To get around that, I had to make my user ID a
local admin on *both* the Project Server and the SQL/AS server. I
really didn't want to do that, but anything less didn't work.

That's my first problem.

My second problem is that now that I have sufficient permissions, I
initiated the OLAP cube build, and the build process seems to have
hung without doing anything. PWA tells me "The cube is currently being
built" - and it's been saying that for over 24 hours now. I don't see
any new Project cubes in Analysis Manager.

(One note: I discovered after initiating the cube build that we had
not yet set up any Outline codes for our projects. Would this confuse
OLAP?)


So my questions are:
- How can I stop this hung OLAP build process short of rebooting the
SQL server? (And/or Project Server?)
- Why would the OLAP build hang?
- Do I *really* need to be an admin on both MSP and SQL boxes in order
to build a cube?

Thanks very much in advance for any advice.

-jmk
Jack Kohn

 

[Matt S.]

We really need to check if your OLAP cube is in fact hung. Generally when
you start building a few services kick off to start the process and transfer all
the information. The three services that are active during this process (and
can be viewed in task manager) are VWNOTIFY and DLLHOST (these services
on the Project Server machine), and if SQL is install seperately the
SQLSRV.EXE (or something like that). We need to see if these services are
even taking up CPU usage. Generally VWNOTIFY is the first service to
consum the CPU.

Another thing to check, is when you start an OLAP cube, Project Server
creates an XML file within it's ViewDrop folder. We need to know if that file
is getting created, if not then you might need to double check the NTFS
permissions on that file are correct.

You second question, the OLAP Admin account does not have to be the local
administrator to the box. It should function normally if you just add that
account to the OLAP Administrator group. I think that group is located on
the SQL server.

You can't really stop an OLAP process when it has been started. If
everything is working correctly then you should be able to turn off the View
Notification Service within Services of the operating system. But this isn't
recommended, because this will kill the process instantly, which could result
in corruptive data.

Matt S.
Project Server Specialist
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Jack Kohn]

Matt - I still have the problem, but I learned some good stuff from
your (quick!) response. Thanks!

VWNOTIFY and DLLHOST are both at 0% CPU. On the SQL box, the
SQLSERVR.exe process is bumping up to only 2% occasionally, so it's
not working hard.

The VIEWDROP folder is empty. Checking permissions: Local
Administrators, Authenticated Users, IUSR_Servername, and SYSTEM all
have Full Control to the folder. (These were the default perms set by
the software install.) Shouldn't that be enough?

It looks like the OLAP build just died. I'm thinking a Project Server
reboot might be in order??


Concerning the admin permissions needed to build the cube: When I had
my ID set up as an OLAP Administrator (not a full admin), I was still
getting errors in the Application Log like:

Component: MSP Resource Availablity Refresh and OLAP Cube Creation Component (ProjOLAP)
File: PROJOLAPProcess
Line: 1
Description: <Description><![CDATA[DSO.Server.Connect failed with error message
'Your permissions on the server computer do not allow you to administer this Analysis server.

Error: ' Error Number : '-2147221466]]></Description>

and the cube build process would abort. But - I thought Project uses
the ID I put into PSComPlus (which I also set up as an OLAP Admin) to
talk to AS. Why would making the person who's logging into PWA (to
fire off the cube build) an admin affect the permissions errors?
IOW - That's what happened, but now that I think about it it doesn't
make sense.

Thanks again for any insights you can provide.

-jmk
Jack Kohn

 

[Jack Kohn]

Success!

Rebooting the Project Server had no effect. One of our DBAs then
restarted the Analysys service on the SQL server, and I jiggered
around with PSCOMPlus some more.

I attempted again to rebuild a cube and ... it looks like it worked!

So, unsatisfying as it is, I'm afraid the answer to our problem may
have been, "Just restart things and fiddle with it some more."

Thanks again for your reply. I found the info helpful during my
"fiddling." Take care.

-jmk
Jack Kohn

Matt - I still have the problem, but I learned some good stuff from
your (quick!) response. Thanks!

VWNOTIFY and DLLHOST are both at 0% CPU. On the SQL box, the
SQLSERVR.exe process is bumping up to only 2% occasionally, so it's
not working hard.

The VIEWDROP folder is empty. Checking permissions: Local
Administrators, Authenticated Users, IUSR_Servername, and SYSTEM all
have Full Control to the folder. (These were the default perms set by
the software install.) Shouldn't that be enough?

It looks like the OLAP build just died. I'm thinking a Project Server
reboot might be in order??


Concerning the admin permissions needed to build the cube: When I had
my ID set up as an OLAP Administrator (not a full admin), I was still
getting errors in the Application Log like:

Component: MSP Resource Availablity Refresh and OLAP Cube Creation Component (ProjOLAP)
File: PROJOLAPProcess
Line: 1
Description: <Description><![CDATA[DSO.Server.Connect failed with error message
'Your permissions on the server computer do not allow you to administer this Analysis server.

Error: ' Error Number : '-2147221466]]></Description>

and the cube build process would abort. But - I thought Project uses
the ID I put into PSComPlus (which I also set up as an OLAP Admin) to
talk to AS. Why would making the person who's logging into PWA (to
fire off the cube build) an admin affect the permissions errors?
IOW - That's what happened, but now that I think about it it doesn't
make sense.

Thanks again for any insights you can provide.

-jmk
Jack Kohn

We really need to check if your OLAP cube is in fact hung. Generally when
you start building a few services kick off to start the process and transfer all
the information. The three services that are active during this process (and
can be viewed in task manager) are VWNOTIFY and DLLHOST (these services
on the Project Server machine), and if SQL is install seperately the
SQLSRV.EXE (or something like that). We need to see if these services are
even taking up CPU usage. Generally VWNOTIFY is the first service to
consum the CPU.

Another thing to check, is when you start an OLAP cube, Project Server
creates an XML file within it's ViewDrop folder. We need to know if that file
is getting created, if not then you might need to double check the NTFS
permissions on that file are correct.

You second question, the OLAP Admin account does not have to be the local
administrator to the box. It should function normally if you just add that
account to the OLAP Administrator group. I think that group is located on
the SQL server.

You can't really stop an OLAP process when it has been started. If
everything is working correctly then you should be able to turn off the View
Notification Service within Services of the operating system. But this isn't
recommended, because this will kill the process instantly, which could result
in corruptive data.

Matt S.
Project Server Specialist
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Lars Hammarberg]

Hi!
1. After taking care of the authentication bits (below), re-creating the
cube will probably be enough - if not, restarting the Views Notification
Service will probably help.
2. Have you migrated the OLAP metadata repository to an sqlserver database
(with the OLAP Administrators group dbo on that database) and is the COM+
identity used for communicating with the OLAP server a member of the OLAP
Administrators group on that server? Or - if you don't want to migrate the
repository - does the OLAP Administrators group have Full Control on the
"\Program Files\Microsoft Analysis Services\Bin" folder?
3. You = the COM+ service account used for accessing the Analysis Server
only has to be a member of the OLAP Administrators group on the Analysis
Server - if this happens to be on a different machine, that account have to
be a domain account.

Make sure you've installed the Decision Support Objects (from the client
installation on the Analysis Server cd) on the ProjectServer machine and
that the version you're running is the same as the one on the Analysis
Server (and SQLServer) - namely sp3/sp3a

All of the above is in the installation help file on the ProjectServer cd.

Try it out and get back to us if it doesn't work.
--

/Lars Hammarberg
www.camako.se
MSProject Premier Partner