SQL Server over a private link--how to make Project 2003 still con

[woytek]

We have a (broken) Project Server 2003 installation at the facility where I
work. I'm the sysadmin, and we're trying to transition control of this
system from the consultant who set it up to us. After that is done, we plan
on fixing it. In the meantime, here's a question that I couldn't seem to
answer (though I honestly haven't finished perusing all of the online
documentation yet):

We have Project Server and SharePoint Services running on one machine, and
SQL Server 2000 running on another machine. I would like to use a private
network for connectivity between these two machines for database data.
Changing the appropriate pointer in the ProjectServer/SharePoint Services
configurations seems to work, but then users connecting via MS Project
Professional 2003 are unable to connect to the database server.

Is there a way to tell ProjectServer/SharePoint Services to use one link for
the database, but have it respond to clients with a different address for the
same database server? It seems to me that this should be possible, but I
can't seem to find an "easy" place to configure that. Any hints, please toss
them my way. Thanks.

jonathan

 

[Juhani]

Considering only the Windows SharePoint Services part of this equation,
clients accessing data that is in WSS go only via the WSS address and they
thus aren't aware of any database at all.

Meanwhile you can access the WSS database for other purposes (question mark
on what) using a different authentication method than that used by WSS
provided you've made that available in the copy of SQL Server.

(This may not be an answer to your question but I don't see the point of a
private network for what you can achieve with user rights)

Juhani

 

[Earl Lewis]

woytek,

Your configuration should work just fine. Users shouldn't be aware (or configure anything) to point directly to the SQL server. That's a back channel conversation between project server (IIS really) and SQL server, so a "private network" as you describe it should be fine.

If you're trying to fix a broken installation, after you make sure all the project server db settings are correct you should review the procedures documented by M$ to run the PSComPlus utility that ships with project server. That's what keeps all the back channel communications running as required. Hope this helps.

Earl
We have a (broken) Project Server 2003 installation at the facility where I
work. I'm the sysadmin, and we're trying to transition control of this
system from the consultant who set it up to us. After that is done, we plan
on fixing it. In the meantime, here's a question that I couldn't seem to
answer (though I honestly haven't finished perusing all of the online
documentation yet):

We have Project Server and SharePoint Services running on one machine, and
SQL Server 2000 running on another machine. I would like to use a private
network for connectivity between these two machines for database data.
Changing the appropriate pointer in the ProjectServer/SharePoint Services
configurations seems to work, but then users connecting via MS Project
Professional 2003 are unable to connect to the database server.

Is there a way to tell ProjectServer/SharePoint Services to use one link for
the database, but have it respond to clients with a different address for the
same database server? It seems to me that this should be possible, but I
can't seem to find an "easy" place to configure that. Any hints, please toss
them my way. Thanks.

jonathan

 

[Gary L. Chefetz \(MVP\)]

I'm not certain what you mean by "private network." I do know that users of
Project connect directly to the database after the PDS authenticates them.
So, your application of privacy, can't deny the end users access.

--

Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
"We wrote the books on Project Server"
http://www.msprojectexperts.com

For Project Server FAQs visit
http://www.projectserverexperts.com

For Project FAQs visit
http://www.mvps.org/project

-

 

[woytek]

Considering only the Windows SharePoint Services part of this equation,
clients accessing data that is in WSS go only via the WSS address and they
thus aren't aware of any database at all.

Meanwhile you can access the WSS database for other purposes (question mark
on what) using a different authentication method than that used by WSS
provided you've made that available in the copy of SQL Server.

In this case, I'm not so concerned with what WSS is doing. I would like it
to connect to its database over its private link partly for security and
partly for speed. The problem seems to be with Project 2003 users connecting
to Project Server and getting the wrong address for their database connection.

(This may not be an answer to your question but I don't see the point of a
private network for what you can achieve with user rights)

As I mentioned above, security is not my biggest concern here, but it
certainly is a concern. What I want to do is segregate network traffic.

jonathan

 

[woytek]

woytek,

Your configuration should work just fine. Users shouldn't be aware (or configure anything) to point directly to the SQL server. That's a back channel conversation between project server (IIS really) and SQL server, so a "private network" as you describe it should be fine.

Thanks. This is what I hoped, but there still seems to be an issue with
Project 2003 users trying to connect and getting the wrong database address.
Project 2003 needs direct access to the database, it seems.

If you're trying to fix a broken installation, after you make sure all the project server db settings are correct you should review the procedures documented by M$ to run the PSComPlus utility that ships with project server. That's what keeps all the back channel communications running as required. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the tip. I've been perusing that documentation to see what I can
find.

jonathan

 

[woytek]

This is exactly what we are trying to fix. If you read "private" as
"segmented", then you probably have the right idea.

jonathan

 

[Gary L. Chefetz \(MVP\)]

Still not enough information to provide you any help.

--

Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
"We wrote the books on Project Server"
http://www.msprojectexperts.com

For Project Server FAQs visit
http://www.projectserverexperts.com

For Project FAQs visit
http://www.mvps.org/project

-