Persistent Windows Account on Inactive Resources

[Conrad Santiago]

I'm having trouble when running the "Republish Assignments" on projects with
Inactive resources. The error I'm getting from Project Server Spooler is:

The manager cannot create the resource account (0x8C40017)

I suspect the problem is Project Server is sending updates via a Windows
Account that no longer exists.

When we inactivate a resource, we remove the User Account info and email
address, then change the authentication method from Windows Authentication
to Project Server Authentication. Then we change the Account Status to
Inactive, then save.

By this time, our IS Manager has already inactivated their Windows Account
and email address since they are no longer with us.

What I'm finding is that the User Account Info and email address remain in
the Resource Information within the projects, on which I am getting the
error. When I delete the account info from that resource within the
project, even though it is read-only, it does Republish Assignments
successfully. Unfortunately, that doesn't save, so I get the error every
time I publish the project.

So, now the weird part comes in. Through PWA Admin, I reactivated the
resource, still set to Project Server Authentication and saved. When I open
the erroring project and open up the Resource Information for that resource,
the User Account Info and email address are gone. Hooray, right! No!
When I go back to PWA Admin and Inactivate the resource, then go back to the
erroring project and open up the Resource Information for that resource, the
User Account Info and email address are back! What the...?

Please tell me what, if anything, I'm doing wrong here. At this point, I
don't see a way to correct the resource on all projects he was on. Help!

 

[Dee]

Hi Conrad,

We have the same issue and I've posted this problem here before. The
responses I recd were that we should not be switching to Project Server
Authentication. Should jsut leave it to windows authentication and make
the resource inactive.

What seems to have worked for me is

When a user leaves the company,

I switch the user to active Project Server authentication.
Open each project with that resource and delete the windows user
account.
Publish and close the project
Deactivate the account.

It seems to work in cases however sometimes the account information
comes back.

Another option is to just delete the resource.

Hope this helps a little.

Regards,
Dee

 

[Conrad Santiago]

Thanks for responding, Dee.
Your suggestions are helpful. Our resources are assigned to well over a
hundred projects, so I won't have the time to do as you suggest unless it
can be scripted into a macro. I'm also concerned that you state:

It seems to work in cases however sometimes the account information
comes back.

So, it seems all that work could be for naught.

Also, we can't delete the resource because it is tied to a project
management database.

Do you know if MS plans to fix this anytime soon? We'll waste a ton of
man-hours to sustain corrections on something that is capably programmable.

--Conrad Santiago