Project Server 2007 - Post Install

[rrakochy]

Hey everyone;
So we're doing a project 2007 server trial as its something out account
managers have been trying to get for our company for a long time. Problem is
that I don't have any practical experience with the server software. We're
going to be using Office Project 2007 professional for our account managers
and synchonization with the server.

I've gotten the software installed in a stand alone environment for testing,
but the problem is that i'm kind of lost as to what to do now. I would like
to add user accounts from our domain to the server but it can't seem to find
any domain users, although it did at the domain administrator as the default
admin account so i imagine it is indeed capable of domain integration. Also,
as the "first steps" so users can go in and setting up projects, do i need to
create some default web applications?

I am trying to read through the deployment guide, but if someone can give me
a bit of advice it would be appreciated.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

rrakochy --

In the future, please post your Project Server questions in the
microsoft.public.project.server newsgroup, as this newsgroup is devoted to
the Microsoft Project desktop application only. To answer your question
completely requires more time than most users in this newsgroup are willing
to give you for free. Your problem is exactly why companies hire Project
Partners to assist with the implementation of Project Server 2007 and to do
user training, because none of this is intuitive at all. OK, enough
lecture. Here's a few things you should absolutely do, assuming you
installed the software correctly:

1. Launch the Internet Explorer and navigate to the URL for your Project
Server system. This action should result in IE showing you the Home page
for Project Web Access.

If you can get there, then copy the http://servername/projectserver portion
of the URL to the clipboard.

2. Launch Project Professional 2007 and then click Tools - Enterprise
Options - Microsoft Office Project Server Accounts.
3. In the Project Server accounts dialog, click the Add button.
4. Enter a friendly name for the login account, paste the URL into the
Project Server URL field, select the "Set as Default Account" option, and
click the OK button.
5. Select the "Manually control connection state" option and click OK.
6. Exit Microsoft Project Professional 2007 and then relaunch the software.
7. In the Login dialog, make sure your Project Server login account is
selected and then click the OK button.

The above steps are absolutely mandatory steps to confirm that you can
connect to your Project Server system. If you successfully connect in both
IE and Project Professional 2007, then return to the IE window. Click the
Server Settings link in the Quick Launch menu on the left side of the page.
See all those links on the Server Settings page? That's pretty much all the
stuff you need to do to configure Project Server.

Based on your original question, I would click the "Active Directory
Resource Pool Synchronization" link in the Operational Policies section and
set up AD synchronization to populate your Enterprise Resource Pool
automatically. Assuming that works, next click the Manage Groups link in
the Security section. On the Manage Groups page, individually click EVERY
Group name and set up the AD information at the top of the page for each
Group. This action places your resources in the correct security Groups
automatically.

Beyond this, you need to create custom enterprise fields and Lookup Tables,
enterprise Calendars, specify a Default Assignment Owner and Timesheet
Manager value for every resource using the Resource Center page, among many
other things. See what I mean? This isn't the half of what you need to do
to set up the system, let alone to manage the on-going operations of Project
Server. Hope this helps.

 

[rrakochy]

Hey Dave;
I appreciate the info you've given me. And in an ideal world, i would of
course love to have a "project partner" for this. And perhaps in a
deployment environment i will have that luxury. But this is for testing
purposes and not something we're garaunteed to implement, which makes for a
difficult case when presenting a budget.
I will keep my discussions to the project server thread after this and i
apologize for not noticing it sooner. Perhaps I can get a little more advice
however. I understand that project server uses windows sharepoint to run.
And i can connect and populate the users/groups with domain accounts now. I
can also connect to the server on http://servername/, (with my domain user
login credentials) but this takes me to the windows sharepoint administration
and isn't displayed as project server web access. When I attempt to connect
to this in project professional 2007 the login fails. Was something setup
incorrectly during installation? Or do i need to create a new web
application for it?

 

[rrakochy]

Nevermind... i believe i answered my own question in regards to this.
However, does the project web access have its own user accounts and such or
does it share that with windows sharepoint services?

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

rrakochy --

WSS shares the resources with Project Server. You need to create your
resources in the Enterprise Resource Pool first. You don't need to create
them in WSS. Regarding your login problems, it's time to post that as a new
message in the microsoft.public.project.server newsgroup. If you can't log
into PWA in the Internet Explorer, or connect to Project Server in Project
Professional 2007, then this implies you did not install Project Server 2007
correctly. It's a complicated install, and your are in good company with
others who can't get it to work the first time. Hope this helps.