Virtual Machine - Duplicate SID issue #VM #Clonning #SID #SP2013 #PS2013

While preparing virtual environment, including Domain controller and other VMs joining DC VM. I chose a quicker way by using same base VM to be used to create other VMs.

Everything went OK with domain controller VM, until i received first shock during SQL installation process. When i entered dedicated SQL domain account i have created to configure SQL services, following is the error i received:

No mapping between account name and security SIDs was done

and then i tried few more times entering credentials again, until i started googling about the error, but it didn't work.

As per Technet and other reliable sources, i figured out that problem is with security identifies SID between VMs. And for those wondering about what the hell is SID, because i was doing the same when i first came across this issue :), following is what i found about SID:

“Every Domain has a unique Domain SID that’s the machine SID of the system that became the Domain’s first DC, and all machine SIDs for the Domain’s DCs match the Domain SID. So in some sense, that’s a case where machine SIDs do get referenced by other computers. That means that Domain member computers cannot have the same machine SID as that of the DCs and therefore Domain.”

Now the challenge was to verify this information, i.e. to check if both VMs have got same SID, and how to rectify this issue. 

In order to check the SID of your VM, download this handy tool PsGetSID available on technet. From command prompt, run this tool and you will get the SID of your VM. Run the tool on both machines, and verify if both machines have got the same SID.

For me, SID was same in both VMs, and in this case the good news is that there is solution to fix it other than creating VM form scratch - feeling better :) You need to run the SysPrep tool to get things fix, following are the steps;

1. go to c:\windows32\system32\sysprep folder, and run the tool sysprep

2. Once the dialog box will pop up,  select the following configuration and click OK.

3. It will take a while to process and create a new SID, and it will restart your system.

Once finished, you can then run the same previous tool PsGetSid to verify if your VM has got a new SID now, and try using domain account again and hopefully this time it will work for you without any issue.

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#Project and #ProjectServer 2010 SP2 released #PS2010 #SP2010 #Project2010

Good news, Service Pack 2 for SharePoint Server 2010/Project Server 2010 and Project 2010 is available now.

The Service Packs contain all cumulative fixes since SP1, starting with the June 2011 Cumulative Update (CU) and the July 2011 Public Update (PU) all the way through to the April 2013 CU and May 2013 PU.  The Service Packs also contain previously unreleased fixes.  In addition to general product fixes, these fixes include improvements in stability, performance, and security.The complete list of fixes is available here.

All the download are available through Microsoft download center, and the link to each download is as below:

Project 2010 Service Pack 2 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2687457 – with full technical details of the client products athttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/2687523/en-us 

Downloads – x86 – x64

Project Server 2010 Service Pack 2 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2687452

Download - Download the Microsoft Project Server 2010 Service Pack 2 package now

SharePoint Server 2010 Service Pack 2 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2687453 – with full technical details for the server products at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2687524

Download - Download the Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Service Pack 2 package now 

For other Office and Sharepoint SP2 packages please visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2687521/

More details related to update are here.

And as usual, don't rush to install any update directly to production, try it first on your test environments.

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#ProjectServer 2013 Issue: The Server was unable to save the form at this time. Please try again. #PS2013 #SP2013 #SPS2013

A quick post to share the issue and its resolution i came across after applying April 2013 CU to my Project Server 2013 farm.

After successfully completing the configuration wizard, i was browsing project site to relate document to particular task in project to verify if the absence of icon issue is resolved. So first to confirm that its not resolved by Apr CU, i.e. document indicator still not appearing along with the task in project views, however document indicator will appear in project center views along with the project name.

But this is not the issue i am blogging it about :)

While verifying this issue, i came across another issue i.e. when trying creating  risk/issue i found this message at the bottom of the page:

The Server was unable to save the form at this time. Please try again.

After some goggling i found that this can be resolved by restarting  SharePoint Search Host Controller services. You can open services dialog box by using Administrator user, and restart the service.

Hope this help some of you out there, good luck.

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#ProjectServer 2013 White Paper

This is to share that Project Server 2013 white paper is released and can be found here.

This paper is written by Microsoft senior consultant, and it includes guidance and best practices for those who plan to implement Project Server 2013 in their organization. 

It provides an analytic comparison of both the Project Online solution versus implementing a Project Server 2013 on-premises solution, and describes scenarios in which you would select one solution over the other. 

The target audiences for this white paper are partners, consultants, decision makers, and technical personnel who need to understand what is required to successfully implement Project Server 2013 in their environment, whether it be an on-premises solution or an online solution with Office 365.

Good Luck.

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#ProjectServer 2013 Administrator Manual #PS2013 #Project #SP2013

A quick post to share that Project Server 2013 Administration Guide is now available to download. 

The Microsoft Project Server 2013 Administrator’s Guide helps you understand the tasks involved with administering and managing Microsoft Project Server 2013.

The guide also includes the SharePoint Central Administration PWA settings.

The guide can be downloaded from here.

Happy downloading.

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#ProjectServer 2013 PWA more integrated with Project Sites #PS2013 #SP2013

A quick post to express my pleasant experience of finding that Project Sites in Project Server 2013 are more integrated with PWA then ever before :)

Since long i have been vocal about the distant connection between Project sites and PWA, formerly known as Project Work spaces in PS2007. Although project sites are meant to be a second home, other then PWA, to project team for their project activities.

However this distance some how comes in a way while convincing users to use project site associated with project to manage artifacts such as documents, issues and etc. One of the common request received in this case was, how to show projects tasks or project status on project site? and since there is no OOB way of achieving this in PS2010, then you have to come up with all these brilliant ideas of developing different custom solutions to accommodate such requests.

But it comes as a pleasant surprise in PS2013 that Project Sites are now more seamlessly connected with PWA. Though still the distant feeling exist, but was overcome to some extent to give user a more connected feel of Project site with their projects.

Your first experience: Project site link do not exist on ribbon anymore, its from with the Project now.

 click on Project Name, and you will see the Project Site link along with PDPs.

 click on Project Site link, and it will NOT open in separate window as new site like old times: (unless you prefer, and use any of the trick to open in new window :)  )

(some whistles.. please :) )

my first impression was WOW, the home page by-default shows the status including Project Timeline and Alert alert that you are behind schedule.


Deliverable/Issues and Risks lists are the same, in fact Paul Mather few days back wrote about the change of functionality of linking tasks along with issues/risks and documents here and took the opportunity away from me since i was also planning to write the same :)


(ok, ready for more good things .... :), here you go )

Tasks link until PS2010 was of no good in most cases, in fact i used to rename it as "Team Tasks OR Personal Tasks" for customers to avoid the confusion of mixing these tasks as project schedule tasks.

But now these alternates are not required any more. Lets click on Tasks link: 

Your project tasks are displayed here to be shared with team, and of course you can change the view of tasks page to show you only Yours Tasks or etc. However you cannot edit the values of tasks here, such as %complete, it will take you back to project schedule for the editing which i believe is pretty logical.

Before we wind up, a quick hint to show that you can also add a famous Timeline web-part  to your project site home page to show timeline alone. And also you can modify the existing Project Summary web-part to reflect information minus timeline.

Here you go:

And now last but not the least, in order to go back to PWA, no need to look for navigation link on project site. Simply click on Project Details link to access project details:

Fig-1

This is it for now, we have seen enough good things - now lets get back to the real work issues :)

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Switch to #ProjectServer #Permission mode from #SharePoint permission mode

Challenging part while using new version of any product is to find new location of features/options within new version, if they are no longer available on the same spot as of their former version.

This post will help you to find key feature of Project Server 2013, Security Settings in Project Server 2013, that used to be under server settings of Project Server 2010.

With the introduction to new security mode in Project Server 2013, i.e. :SharePoint Permission mode, your new PWA by default will provision with SharePoint permission mode and hence you will find Security section missing from PWA server settings page.

Advantages, and what is enabled and what is not, while staying with SharePoint security mode are detailed here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fp161361.aspx

Out of the above article, and with R&D i have done so far, the major features you were not be able to use in SharePoint security mode are as follows:

• Unable to edit default permission of groups
• RBS
• categories
• Delegation

As you are aware that permissions in PS 2010 and PS 2007 was the combination of security groups, categories and RBS. SharePoint security mode helps get rid of this complexity and provide single forum for system admins, i.e. SharePoint groups, to configure permission for PWA as well. 

SharePoint Permission Mode creates SharePoint groups that directly correspond to the default security groups found in Project Permission Mode. These default security groups include the following:

• Administrator
• Portfolio Managers
• Portfolio Viewers
• Project Managers
• Resource Managers
• Team Leads
• Team Members

I have modified the quick launch in above screen shot to show you all the relevant groups, however you can click on Groups link on the top to access to full list of groups. 

Using of SharePoint security could be beneficial for naive organizations or to those who are willing to run project management business without creating data access layers based on user role defined through RBS. There could be several more reasons of using PWA in SharePoint security mode as well.

The recommended way of adding user to group is still the Active Directory synchronization, available through server settings.

In order to switch the permission mode back to Project mode, use the following windows powershell cmdlet:

Set-SPProjectPermissionMode [-Url] <Uri> [-Mode] <SharePoint | ProjectServer | UninitializedSharePoint | UninitializedProjectServer> [[-AdministratorAccount] <String>] [-AssignmentCollection <SPAssignmentCollection>]

For detail of above cmdlet, see this technet article:: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219486.aspx

Once the prompt will be back after execution, refresh the PWA server settings page to see the Security group available to be used.

Note that Switching security modes deletes all permissions configuration information for the specified Project Web App instance and reverts to the default settings for the specified mode. You need to be carefully planning this well in advance that which security mode you have to configure.

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Sign-in as different user on #SharePoint Server 2013 or #ProjectServer 2013

While browsing/using your new SharePoint Server 2013 web site, one of the evident feature missing you will come across, apart from the other UI changes, is when you trying to log-in as a different user by clicking on top rite corner of the page and found NOTHING :)

I have seen on few blog posts that it could be the case with preview version, and in RTM we mite get it back. but i am using RTM now and its the same as of preview version. Your other clue at this stage could be that it might needs to be enabled from some setting options, but for your information that is not true either :)

After a little googling i have found that this feature has been removed on purpose by Microsoft from SharePoint server 2013. Although this is pretty much a frequent option to be used by developer/consultants while testing solution, however following are the few reasons explained by Microsoft due to which it has been removed:

• Caching Problems

• Documents opened in external applications are saved with an unexpected user account

• Page content shows information from the previous user due to cached information

• Session variables contain information from previous user as the cookies are not cleared

Stefan Gobner has also explained the reason on his technet blog here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/stefan_gossner/archive/2012/01/19/be-careful-when-using-the-quot-sign-in-as-different-user-quot-feature-in-sharepoint.aspx

As an end user perspective, i agree that its a good move to avoid issues by removing this option since end user do not often requires to switch between log-in user. But as an IT pro, i don't think i can live without it :) and you can follow the below steps to bring the option back for you:

• Locate and then open the following file in a text editor:  C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\15\TEMPLATE\CONTROLTEMPLATES\welcome.ascx

• Open the file in Notepad and add the following lines to the file: also see the screen shot for this modification.

<SharePoint:MenuItemTemplate runat="server" ID="ID_LoginAsDifferentUser" 

Text="<%$Resources:wss,personalactions_loginasdifferentuser%>" 

Description="<%$Resources:wss,personalactions_loginasdifferentuserdescription%>" 

MenuGroupId="100" 

Sequence="100"  UseShortId="true" /> 

• As a final step, refresh the page and the option will apparently start appearing for you to be used.

One of the other alternative is to start Internet Explorer as Run as Different User and login to SharePoint site: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2752600

Note: I came across this while evaluating Project Server 2013 PWA site, however it applies to any SharePoint site and not limited to PWA only because its all SharePoint :)  Also as i have mentioned that this option is removed intentionally, so try this on your testing environments prior to apply on production.

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#ProjectServer and #SharePoint server 2010/2013/2007 April 2013 #CU released

Microsoft has announced the release of the April 2013 Cumulative Update (CU) for Project, Project Server and SharePoint for 2007, 2010 and 2013.

You can find the details of the updates here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectsupport/archive/2013/04/11/microsoft-project-server-2007-2010-and-2013-april-2013-cu-announcement.aspx

Note that March 2013 Public update of Project Server 2013 was set as baseline requirement for all the future updates of Project Server 2013, however there was an issue with running the SharePoint Configuration Wizard after applying March 2013 update on a server with Project Server 2013 installed and this is fixed by applying the April CU – so a good practice would be to load the March PU, then the April CU and then run the configuration wizard. 

Detail of March 2013 update issue can be seen here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectsupport/archive/2013/04/11/project-server-2013-march-public-update-problems-running-the-sharepoint-configuration-wizard.aspx

Also note that there is a slight delay in Project Server 2013 roll out package, the package includes SharePoint server fixes as well since Project Server 2013 is based on SharePoint platform and Microsoft recommends to apply the update package on your environment. 

Due to the issue with the March PU and running the Configuration Wizard, you could consider loading the individual Project Server patch which does not include the SharePoint updates http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2760261 if you need to get the configuration of the March PU completed.  If you haven’t yet loaded the March PU then I would suggest waiting for the roll-up package for the April CU.

And as usual, always try the patches to test servers prior to apply to productions environment.

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#ProjectServer 2013 upcoming #Exams #Certifications #MCP

This is to share with you all, specially those who are looking forward to Project 2013 and Project Server 2013 certifications, that expected availability of new Project and Project Server exams are  April 2013. 

Expected date, and details of the areas to be measured through the exams, were shared by Microsoft's Jan Kalis here.

Following will be the exams:

• 74-343 Managing Projects with Microsoft Project 2013
• 74-344 Managing Programs and Projects with Project Server 2013

The high level details of the skills going to be measured for each of the above exams are as follows:.

74-343 Managing Projects with Microsoft Project 2013

• Initialize a Project
1. Create a new project.
2. Create and maintain calendars.
3. Create custom fields.
4. Customize option settings.

• Create a Task-Based Schedule
1. Set up project information.
2. Create and modify a project task structure.
3. Build a logical schedule model .
4. Create a user-controlled schedule.
5. Manage multiple projects.

• Manage Resources and Assignments
1. Enter and edit resource information.
2. Create and edit resource assignments.
3. Manage resource allocation.
4. Manage resource allocations by using Team Planner.
5. Model project costs

• Track and Analyze a Project
1. Set and maintain baselines.
2. Update actual progress.
3. Compare progress against a baseline.
4. Resolve potential schedule problems.
5. Display Critical Path information

• Communicate Project Information
1. Apply and customize views.
2. Share data with other applications.
3. Configure and display reports and dashboards.
4. Connect and share data with SharePoint.
5. Extend Project 2013.

74-344 Managing Programs and Projects with Project Server 2013

• Create Enterprise Projects and Portfolios
1. Define strategic alignment.
2. Optimize portfolios.
3. Create a new enterprise project.
4. Create a program with master projects and sub-projects

• Plan Enterprise Projects and Resources
1. Manage resources and teams.
2. Build a resource plan.
3. Build a project team.
4. Resolve resource over allocations across projects.
5. Baseline enterprise projects

• Track and Collaborate on an Enterprise Project
1. Select a tracking method.
2. Manage task assignments.
3. Update tasks and time-sheets.
4. Approve tasks and time-sheets.
5. Update a project schedule.

• Manage Configurable Enterprise Objects
1. Customize Project Web App views and reports.
2. Manage and extend Project Online and Project Server.
3. Manage risks, issues, and deliverable.
4. Customize a project site

The expected date, and the objective domain of the exams, were shared by Jan Kalis in his blog. To find more details of domains mentioned above, download the details from this blog post: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jkalis/archive/2013/03/02/the-upcoming-project-2013-exams-objective-domains-available.aspx

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