using PWA to import a project?

[breezy2u]

I am still stumbling thru getting Project Server 2003 installed and
configured. It looks like I am almost there. Server is up and working,
web access is working, I have added users and I can connect using the
test connection button in Project Professional 2003.

Unfortunately, I can't connect to SQL and get the usual connection
errors that others seem to get with no real way to fix it other then
using a VPN.

I can't use a VPN, but in the meantime, I was curious if it was
possible to add a project file to project server 2003 using the web
interface. If I could do it that way, then I would worry about the sql
error later and still be able to get my team up and running.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Breezy:

Are you trying to use the application across the Internet? If not, VPN has
nothing to do with this. What errors are you getting when you try to connect
to Project Server from Project Pro. Be specific. Post the actual message.
All we can do with a statement like "I get the usual SQL errors" is to tell
you to "use the usual troubleshooting methods."

 

[breezy2u]

First I was getting this:

Microsoft SQL Server Login
Connection failed: SQLState: '01000'
SQL Server Error: 2
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][Named Pipes]ConnectionOpen
(CreateFile()).
Connection failed:
SQLState: '08001'
SQL Server Error: 6
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][Named Pipes]Specified SQL server
not found.

So I found the support page that says I need to go in and change my
connection to the database to show an IP address instead of a server
name because it wasn't resolving over the internet.

I did that, and my error message changed to:

Microsoft Project was unable to log you on at this time because the
Microsoft Project Server database cannot be accessed. Please try again
later or check with your Microsoft Project Server administrator. (5001)


I did find a couple of MSDN articles and have tried changing the
passwords for the two user accounts in the database using the Site
Editor Tool, which resulting in the website being completely broken. I
have just taken project server off, recreated the virtual directory and
extended it, reran the sharepoint configuration wizzard and reinstalled
Project Server 2003. So now I am back to the original error.

The server is named projmaster\sqlexpress and that is the name the
system seems to need to connect thru PWA and locally. But I can't
connect with Project. If I change the IP address to
68.somthing.something.something, then I get the second result.

I am at a loss of what to do next.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Breezy:

If you want to expose Project Server to the Internet, I strongly recommend
that you follow the directions in the installation guide for installing a
second front end in the DMZ running SSL. You should know that this will give
you satisfactory performance with Web Access, but will likely be a very
unpleasant experience with the Project client which is definitely not
designed for this. I suppose that if you can't use VPN, that a terminal
services server is out of the question. If you don't need to support
concurrent connections, using an XP desktop as a single-user remote desk-top
can suffice. You'd need to give the workstation a public IP address.

The error you're getting is most likely related to a port restriction. If
you choose to expose a SQL port to the Internet, it probably won't be long
before your server is trashed.

 

[breezy2u]

what if I use a different port for SQL? is SQL 2005 still vulnerabile
to that particular worm?