Take a look over at https://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/2011/12/14/microsoft-project-server-and-sharepoint-server-2007-and-2010-december-2011-cu-announcement.aspx for the full details.  Also don’t forget the webcast in January giving you the inside scoop on what we are delivering in these Cumulative Updates. TechNet Webcast: Information about Microsoft Project and Project Server December 2011 Software Update (Level 200) https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032493964&culture=en-us A couple of my favorite fixes – the correction of an earlier problem that saw many non-English sites having English headers on the Project Center, My Tasks and Resource Center pages, and a change to single entry mode behavior so that you do not see unexpected changes to your timesheet entered data.  More about these and all the other fixes on January 10th Webcast with Adrian Jenkins and me.

Thanks to everyone who attended the webcast covering details of the Project and Project Server 2007 and 2010 cumulative updates for October 2011 – as well as some brief comments on Project and Project Server 2007 SP3.  The recorded webcast can be viewed here – https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032493963&Culture=en-US .  Mark your calendars for the next one about the December 2011 CU on 1/10/2012 – https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032493964&culture=en-us . I’m posting the questions that were asked both during and at the end of the webcast – in some cases I’ve found out more complete answers since the webcast and have included the detail here too. Q.   Adrian mentioned an anti-virus package had slowed down Project Professional – which one? A.   We not going to name names here – and really the same could apply to any of the packages that scan what winproj is doing.  It is really up to the customers to decide if they feel they can exclude the project executable from the virus scanner – balancing the virus risk against the performance gain. Q.   Ref fix 30990 (Modifying time-phased work in Project Professional moves actual work; additionally, the “Out of Sync” message does not occur), will this fix work if you are on a server with August 2011CU+SP1, and client with SP1 + October 2011CU? (i.e. out of sync client server CUs) A.   Yes, this is a client side fix and not dependent on the server CU or SP level. Q.   Project Server 2010…Graphical indicators – we have had lots of issues with graphical indicators not displaying correctly. The issue is random (as far as we can tell) and it doesn’t matter whether the custom field references a formula or lookup table. Both can be affected. Sometimes (not always) opening, modifying, saving and publishing the project in PWA resolves the issue, but on next publishing from ProjectPro the indicators disappear again. This problem is well over 18 months old and was supposed to be fixed in the Dec 2010 update, but wasn’t. When will this be fixed ??? Customers (as well as ourselves) are finding this incredibly frustrating. A.   Had some dialog on this after the webcast with a couple of the attendees (Thanks Kelvin and Marc!).  Looks like we have specific issues where the first publish does not show the indicator – just the text.  We have a fix coming in December that should address the publish from

The Cumulative updates for October 2011 for both the 2007 and 2010 versions have now been released.  Full details over on the admin blog at https://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/2011/11/02/microsoft-project-server-and-sharepoint-2007-and-2010-october-cu-2011-announcement.aspx I’ve also included the usual details on the 2007 CU which was released last week (The packages containing SharePoint Foundation were withdrawn and re-released earlier this week). Enjoy!

I’ve posted over on the admin blog – https://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/2011/10/28/project-server-2007-service-pack-3-and-the-october-2011-cu-announced.aspx so go there for more details. There is a slight delay on the release of the 2010 October 2011 Cumulative Updates – more details when I have them. Don’t miss the next Cumulative Update webcast where we (or more correctly, Adrian) will also talk about SP3 (briefly – as there isn’t much to say) Here’s the URL for the 11/8/2011 8:00:00 AM – Information about Microsoft Project and Project Server October 2011 Software Update https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032493962&Culture=en-US

Pink Floyd are not the only ones re-releasing their back catalog this month – we have re-released the SharePoint Foundation 2010 August Cumulative Update.  As this is also contained in the roll-up packages then these too have been re-released.  Unfortunately the title of the Project Server package has also been updated to reflect this new release date and it could make it look like the October Cumulative update released early – so take care! The re-released Project Server package at https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2553049 is still the August Cumulative Update, although it is labeled Description of the Project Server 2010 cumulative update package (Project server-package): October 13, 2011.  This is NOT the October CU coming early!  The version has been incremented to 14.0.6109.5005 to reflect the new build, but it is just the SharePoint Foundation component that has been updated.  The Project Server only package at https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2553047 is still showing the original date and version, as it was not rebuilt as it does not contain the SharePoint Foundation component. (sts-x-none.msp). I think the change in the SharePoint package is support for updates to Russia, Fiji and Samoa daylight saving time (DST) settings in SharePoint Foundation 2010 – I’ll see if I can get confirmation.

I was going to use the title asking ‘why are people still deleting the cache?’ until my colleague Corrie came up with this much better one!  Rather than asking why you are still doing it – I am telling you not to! I know there is a lot of history behind this one, and for those of you that used Project Server 2007 in its early days there were some challenges such as the ‘check-in pending’ saga that got people in to the habit of deleting the project cache.  We fixed the problem, then we fixed it again (and again) and you should not generally be seeing any issues with leaving your cache alone to do its job.  However, many customers I talk to are routinely deleting the project from the local cache before they open it and then again after they close it! Why!?!  Its job is an important one – it saves you having to pull that data from the server again – which will reduce network traffic, the hit on both the web services and the database, which means they can be getting on and doing useful stuff. I’ll also address a miss-conception here that I have heard from a number of customers – the choice of where to load the project from – cache or server?  You don’t have a choice – Project will load it from the cache if it is there, and then load any incremental pieces it needs from the server, to get you the current version of that plan.  In the screen shot below: the line actually reads ‘Retrieve the list of all projects from Project Server’.  It does not also read – ‘…and open any I might choose after clicking this link from the server and ignore the local cache’.  You don’t get the choice and you don’t need to choose. I’m sure many of you will not have read this far before clicking the comments option to tell me of all the problems you are having.(and I’m sure some of you are still having problems).  First check that you have the latest cumulative updates and service packs.  If you are still really having issues unless you delete the local cached copy then we certainly need to hear about it so we can fix the problem rather than have you waste your time and system resources doing things that you should not need to do. I will admit that there can be times when as support engineers we will ask you to remove your local cache to troubleshoot specific scenarios.  The cache itself also has intelligence that allows it to decide that it may have some bad stuff – and it will get a new clean copy of data from the server (symptom of this will be several files in the cache directory with 1,2,3 etc. at the end).  There have also been a few bugs we have worked on recently which ONLY surface when the user has cleared their cache! So please, if you have been deleting your cache as a matter of routine, then either stop – or speak to your PMO or IT people and ask why they have you do this – and if we need to fix something else then we can take a look.

In a little over an hour, at 8:00 AM PST, the first of the post SP1 webcasts will start – presented by Adrian Jenkins and me.  The SP1 webcast delivered in July also included coverage of the June Cumulative Update.  We will be talking about both Project Professional and Project Server, and the 2007 and 2010 releases. Here is the link for the August 2011 Cumulative Update TechNet webcast titled Information about Microsoft Project and Project Server August 2011 Software Update  – https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032493921&Culture=en-US And the rest of the series can be found at the following links. Here’s the URL for the  11/8/2011 8:00:00 AM – Information about Microsoft Project and Project Server October 2011 Software Update https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032493962&Culture=en-US Here’s the URL for the  1/10/2012 8:00:00 AM – Information about Microsoft Project and Project Server December 2011 Software Update https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032493964&Culture=en-US Here’s the URL for the  3/13/2012 8:00:00 AM – Information about Microsoft Project and Project Server February 2012 Software Update https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032493966&Culture=en-US Here’s the URL for the  5/8/2012 8:00:00 AM – Information about Microsoft Project and Project Server April 2012 Software Update https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032493968&Culture=en-US Join us if you can – or listen to the recording if you can’t make it – available later on the same URL.

I know that unless you load all the bits before running the Configuration Wizard then you will always add Project Server to an existing SharePoint Server farm – but in this blog I am specifically talking about adding Project Server to a farm that has been up and running for a while – and potentially has Service Packs and Cumulative updates loaded. The best way to do this is to create a slipstream installation – and there are plenty of resources out there that explain this process – but basically you extract your various updates and put them in the Updates folder under your install source and these will get applied as the installation proceeds.  However, in researching this topic I learned that this isn’t the only way so thought it was worth sharing.  You can load the original release version of Project Server (RTM – release to manufacture) even if your farm is at the SP1 level plus cumulative updates.  In reality I only tested to August CU, and I am sure there will come a point where this will not be practical (SP2 would block an RTM install) – but for now it certainly works and would be supported.  That said – it would be good practice to bring the farm up to a level where all the components were at the same release level.  For information on the release level of each component you can go to Central Administration, Upgrade and Migration and Check Product and Patch Installation Status.  I have a ton of language packs loaded so I won’t give you a full screen shot(s) but the foot of mine looks like this: So you can see the version installed for each component (usually matching the RTM or last Service Pack, as in this case) as well as the Cumulative Updates (June superseded by August) along with useful links to the KB articles.  In my case I do have Project already loaded and updated to August CU. At the top of the page there is also a link to the latest updates – Click here for the latest information on available updates for SharePoint 2010 Products   Going to that page also has the link for Project updates – which is Updates for Project Server 2010 .  You will also see on this screenshot that the Galician/Galego language pack is still at the original release version of 14.0.4763.1028.  This language pack (and Basque) does not yet have the language pack service pack released – but it is still possible to update to SP1 for the farm without having to update all the language packs. That was just an aside on versions and where to find them – but the main point is that you can load RTM Project Server to a farm and use Project Server.  It will get loaded at the original release version even if you had already loaded the rollup Service Pack (SP) and/or Cumulative Updates (CU) that included Project Server – the Project files will not have been applied.  Once you are ready to load the SP/CU you will need to re-load it and run the configuration wizard.  You will not get any warnings or errors even though you feel are re-installing something you already applied – it correctly recognizes that there is new stuff to update.  The only slight exception are the language pack service packs – which you do not need to reload – and Project Server will benefit from any language packs (and language pack service packs) loaded before it was installed – so no need to re-install those either. Another good thing to check is the database status – once you have run the config wizard all should be good – but if you forget then you will see messages Database is too old and upgrade is required as mentioned in my previous blog posting – Project Server 2010- Can I delay running the SharePoint Configuration Wizard- .

Quick posting today – we had a customer seeing issues when printing from the Project Web App schedule web part where if they went over a certain number of rows (around 42 – spooky!)  the printed page was blank (although the pop-up with just the grid displayed for printing looked just fine).  This was after seeing this warning – which is expected – when you are printing a grid of more than 30 rows: Print Warning – There are more than 30 records in the current grid.  Preparing the print page for this many records may cause the browser to alert that the page is running slowly. In my testing internally I saw the same, I clicked OK on the warning, the new page opened with everything looking good and I could choose my printer – but the print was blank (I did try a large plan and in this case the final 40 or so tasks printed…)  However, if I turned off the compatibility setting under Tools, Compatibility View Settings, so that these were not applied to Intranet sites then all worked as expected and I got a good print.  If you have explicitly set your PWA sites in compatibility you may see the same issue.  If you really need prints though you may find Project Professional more flexible in giving you a good printed page.

Most days I learn something new, and yesterday was no exception.  I was working with one of our Senior Consultants, Rob Bowers, on an installation problem.  The SharePoint Configuration Wizard was failing during the initial configuration of the farm on step 3.  The error that came up was: Configuration Failed.  One or more configuration settings failed.  Completed configuration settings will not be rolled back.  Resolve the problem and run this configuration wizard again.  The following contains detailed information about the failure: Failed to create the configuration database. An exception of type System.InvalidOperationException was thrown.  Additional exception information:  This implementation is not part of the Windows Platform FIPS validated cryptographic algorithms. In the PSCDiagnostics log created during the execution of the wizard the same errors could be seen – the first was: Task configdb has failed with an unknown exception , followed by Exception: System.InvalidOperationException: This implementation is not part of the Windows Platform FIPS validated cryptographic algorithms.    at System.Security.Cryptography.SHA256Managed..ctor()    at Microsoft.SharePoint.UserCode.SPSolutionValidatorCollection.ComputeHash()    at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPUserCodeService.UpdateValidatorsHash()    at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPPersistedChildCollection`1.Add(T newObj, Boolean ensure)… A quick search (Bing of course) found that FIPS was referring to the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2, Security Requirements for Cryptographic Modules .  An article on TechNet https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263215.aspx has a security note that mentions some potential issues with workflows – but not the failure in the configuration wizard.  Another great link from Mahesh Srinivasan at https://collaborationsharepoint.blogspot.com/2010/10/this-implementation-is-not-part-of.html helped move things in the right direction.  Even with FIPS not enabled through group policy settings there can still be registry keys set that are enabling some of the features.  In Rob’s case, like Mahesh, he found that the two keys were set to 1 – enabled, and a third key was set to 0 – disabled.  The keys were: HKLMSYSTEMControlSet001ControlLSAFipsAlgorithm HKLMSYSTEMControlSet002ControlLSAFipsAlgorithm HKLMSYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlLSAFipsAlgorithm Until each of these was set to 0 the error above blocked running of the configuration wizard.  Remember, any time you are changing registry keys you should take back-ups.  Obviously this change is something you should to talk to your platform security team about too – as if you are changing these values you may need to get an exception to your company’s hardening policy for your SharePoint servers. FIBS 104-2 is intended to ensure that only only validated cryptographic modules are used in software when securing data.  SharePoint uses cryptographic modules, for example MD5,  that are not validated – but it is in fact not using them to secure data but to create hash values that are used as unique identifiers.  It is this action that FIPS is blocking that causes the failure in the configuration wizard. For more information on FIPS 104-2 see https://csrc.nist.gov/publications/fips/fips140-2/fips1402.pdf , and for general FIPS information see https://csrc.nist.gov/publications/PubsFIPS.html .