Sync Between Databases

[Frank J.]

If I understand the infrastructure of Project 2007 Server correctly, there
are 4 databases:

Project Server - Published
Project Server - Working
Project Server - Archive
Project Server – Reporting

I understand the build-in Queuing service keeps these in-sync.

Here’s my question.

A team member updated one of his tasks via PWA. Project Owner approves
hours. If I now look at the project plan via ProjectPro, hours are reported
correctly. However, looking at the project via PWA hours look like they were
never reported. I realize that a "sync" must take place between the
databases… but after 12 hours of low activity, the reporting database is not
up to date.

I can force the issue by republishing the plan, but I’m managing over 60
projects and do not want to open up each one and republish.

What is causing this issue, and how do I correct?

Thanks

 

[Nico Oosthuysen]

Hi Frank,

It sounds to me like you might have some queueing issues, perhaps a job
getting stuck in the queue and thus incorrect data being displayed.

You can check your queue status by going to Server Settings --> Manage Queue
in PWA

 

[Jonathan Sofer]

Frank,

Are the PMs publishing the project plans after they accept the updates. If
they are just saving, then the data will only be updated in the Draft DB.
Publishing is what syncs the Draft with the Published db and subsequently
the Published with Reporting db.

If you are publishing and still not seeing the data in the Reporting db then
the queue jobs are either hung or failing. You should see one queue job for
the save, one for the publish and one for the reporting db sync.

Jonathan

 

[Frank J.]

Jonathan,

I apologize if this is a dumb question, but I did not believe projects had
to be republished.... are you sure??? I realize if I open a project with
Project Pro, and make a change, I indeed need to do a Save & Publish. But I
did not think it was necessary when accepting hours submitted by resources.

I have notification tuned on, and each time I publish a project all with
task on that project gets a notification. I’m also supporting close to 100
projects that are updated daily…. I would need to re-publish every one!!!

I’m hoping your wrong… but if not, I guess just a lot more work for me…

frank

--------------------------------------------

 

[Jonathan Sofer]

Frank,

In order for data to get from the Draft db to the Published db and then to
the Reporting db, it has to be published. The idea here is that a PM can
accept updates each week and save the changes to Draft, then they can
re-status the project as necessary until they are happy with the new state
of the plan and are ready to show it to the world. All this is done by
saving the plan which commits the changes to the draft database only. Then
at some point in the week as specified by the organization, the PM makes the
new data visible to the world by publishing it. This then propagates the
data to the Published and Reporting dbs.

I have not played around with the notifications in 2007 but I would have
hoped it would only send notifications for new and changed assignments. If
that is not the case then I can see how this would be a major issue for you
and your users.

To be honest, I have never had notifications turned on for very long in any
place I have worked. The organizations tend to want it at first but shut it
off soon after due to how annoying and limited this feature is.

By default, when you have notifications turned on, all personal
notifications for resources are set to on. A colleague of mine is toying
with some small SQL scripts that turn off the individual notifications for
users. If that is successful, then users will have the option to turn on
notifications rather than having to turn them off. Then it becomes more of
a self serve type of notification. If you are interested in this approach,
let me know but there are no guarantees.

Jonathan Sofer