Reinstalling Sharepoint on Project Server 2003?

[dfarquhar]

Hi,

I'm having two issues on Project Server 2003 that I think might be
related. Every so often, PWA dies and I have to run PSComPlus.exe to
fix it. Then it will run for 24-36 hours and need to be run again.

Inside PWA itself, when a user tries to view risks, PWA complains that
Sharepoint isn't installed.

I've considered reinstalling Sharepoint, but do I risk losing data by
doing this? Would just doing a repair installation on Sharepoint
services fix this, or, perhaps more importantly, can I try that
without risking loss of data?

Thanks,
Dave Farquhar

 

[Ben Howard]

Hi Dave,
Firstly, have you checked the sharepoint setup within the PWA | Admin pages.
This should give you some indication if wss has been set up correctly. Most
issues come down to usernames and passwords, are you sure the username that
is running the WSS com components (as per pscomplus) isn't having it's
password reset by group policy or similiar, and is it the same user name that
you used in the 1st instance during installation.

When PScomplus has been run, can the user view the issues/risks then?
Normally the error message is not that WSS has not be installed, but that it
cannot be accessed. Can you clarify the error message.

Did this ever work, if so, it's unlikely WSS is broken, its more likely an
account issue.

If it's never worked, then I'd start by running wsswiz.exe and then makeing
sure WSS is set up correctly in PWA | Admin.

Info on wsswiz and setting up WSS after a PS install are in the admin guide.

Are you going to lose data, potentially if you reinstall or run wsswiz.
stsadm allows you to back up the data etc so I would consider this.

 

[dfarquhar]

Thanks Ben. Yes, at one time it did all work. I'm guessing it was a
period of about three months.

The PWA problem was discovered first. I've been running PSComPlus.exe
as a crude workaround. The other thing that fixed that was rebooting,
but running PSComPlus is faster and less disruptive.

Then the risks problem was discovered. Since that feature is rarely
used I don't know if that problem appeared first, later, or at the
same time. After running PSComPlus, PWA generally works, but risks/
issues doesn't.

Here's the specific error message I get whenever anyone tries to use
risks/issues:

A Windows SharePoint Services site needs to be created for your
project before you can share project documents or track project risks
and issues. Site creation takes a few minutes, so if the project was
just published, wait a few minutes and then visit the page again.
Otherwise, contact your server administrator.

Just out of curiosity I ran EditSite.exe to see if it could tell me
anything. When I hit the Test button, I got an error message: The
Project Server user is not a member of the MSProjectServer role. But
when I looked in SQL Enterprise Manager, the Project Server user was a
member of that role.

It sounds like running stsadmin and backing up everything in sight
would be prudent regardless.

 

[Ben Howard]

So this is more than a PSComplus issue, WSS sites are not being created for
each Project. Check the WSS site provisioning settings in PWA | Admin to
check if they *should* be created. You can also check whether existing
sites ever existed for each project, again in the admin section, and there is
a create option here also that is useful.

Re the editsite error, this needs to be sorted before going any further.
Spend some time checking the SQL setup for this, and the specific roles for
the MSProjectServer user on the database.

Next, you'll need to sort WSS and the provisioning and then finally PSComPlus.

Good luck.