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Thanks to a couple of my European support colleagues for sharing this one, which I know could also affect many of our customers world-wide if they are running servers that are not internet connected.  Great work by Jorge Puig Altozano from our Project support team in Madrid, and special thanks (and all the credit – according to Jorge) to Hector Calvarro for the SharePoint team – also in Madrid.  If Spanish is your preferred language then read on at https://blogs.technet.com/b/elfarodeprojectserver/archive/2012/02/22/project-server-2010-elevados-tiempos-de-respuesta-al-cargar-paginas-de-sitios-pwa.aspx and also Hector’s blog at https://blogs.technet.com/b/hablamoss/ .  Although we are just talking about PWA and SharePoint here – consideration also needs to be given to other 3rd Party assemblies that may be installed too – and this could affect the loading of PDPs. On to the English description – translation thanks to Jorge, with some additional input from Catalin Olteanu from one of our partners, UMT , as they also experienced the same slow downs. We had a Project Server 2010 server, with no Internet connection, that was returning high response times when we would try to load any PWA page – slow response was seen to be due specifically to the calls to SecurityCheckUserPagePermisison, and CheckUserProjectPermissions.  We observed the information n the SharePoint Developer Dashboard, and decided to take a look at the Certificates behavior. BriSmith note – I’m sure lots of analysis went into this decision by Hector – and for anyone interested in understanding more about the problem Catalin found the lookup for www.download.windowsupdate.com from a netmon trace, and the event viewer showing a 4102, and a couple of 4107 CAPI2 errors helped join the dots… We disabled the timeouts for the certificates verification in the SharePoint server On Windows Server , this component is on by default and , whenever an application is presented with a certificate that is not present in the trusted root store, it will attempt to contact Microsoft download servers to get the latest root chain. The SharePoint OOB certificates can induce this as they are stored in a particular repository (SharePoint- Under Certificate management -Local Computer), as opposed to the trusted root. The decision not to have SharePoint code creating and installing a root cert in the Trusted Root store was taken for security reasons (ex if an application could install a certificate into the TRC store might compromise the security of the system). Can this behavior be avoided? ( ie. bypass this check for subsequent validations). Supported workarounds:     Disable automatic update of root certificates on SharePoint Servers          • Launch gpedit.msc as admin on the box          • Go to Computer Configuration –> Windows Settings -> Security settings -> Public Key Policies -> Certificate Path validation settings          • In Network retrieval tab -> Define the policy and uncheck “Automatically update certs from Microsoft root cert program”          • Run gpupdate /force for policy to take effect immediately. Additionally , the cert management plan needs to be implemented as per below article: Manage Certificate Path Validation: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc731638(WS.10).aspx • It is not unusual for enterprises to disable auto-root update. If they opt to do it, they will have to manage distribution of third-party roots that they need in their enterprise via group policy. • The customer  will want to monitor new releases (KB931125) quarterly and update their trust as required. Implications of disabling : There should be no specific implications to SharePoint since we are using self-signed certs and manage them ourselves . The SharePoint certs do have an expiry and we do have a health rule that watches for that IIRC and will warn the admin to update/re-roll them.  The main aspect to think through is for “other” certs used on the box (like SSL certs, certs to trust download packages or for SAFER policy etc etc) which are issues from certs chained to those in the TRC store. But note there is nothing “new” about these issues with this setting; since the boxes in question cannot access the Internet … they actually “require”  more hands on. We also got rid of the verifications for Code Access Security and some other certificates (Certificates Revocation List and Authenticode signatures) doing the following: We have to edit this file: C:WindowsMicrosoft.NETFramework64v2.0.50727CONFIGmachine.config And add/change the value:             The explanation for this key: This element was introduced in the .NET Framework version 3.5 and applies only to that version. It has no effect in later versions of the .NET Framework. The common language runtime (CLR) tries to verify the Authenticode signature at load time to create Publisher evidence for the assembly. However, by default, most applications do not need Publisher evidence. Standard CAS policy does not rely on the PublisherMembershipCondition. You should avoid the unnecessary startup cost associated with verifying the publisher signature unless your application executes on a computer with custom CAS policy, or is intending to satisfy demands for PublisherIdentityPermission in a partial-trust environment. (Demands for identity permissions always succeed in a full-trust environment.) https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb629393(v=vs.90).aspx If we don’t use code signed by Authenticode, and work with CLR validations, we can work with the mentioned option. This is a more detailed explanation about this: A little background – CAS is feature in .NET that allows you to have more granular control over what code can execute in your process.  Basically there are 3 parts: 1.Evidence – Information that a module/code presents to the runtime.  This can be where the module was loaded from, the hash of the binary, strong name, and importantly for this case the Authenticode signature that identifies a modules publisher. 2.Permissions Set – Group of Permissions to give code (Access to File System, Access to AD, Access to Registry) 3.Code Group – The evidence is used to provide membership in a code group.  Permission Sets are granted to a code group. So when a module loads it presents a bunch of evidence to the CLR and the CLR validates it.  One type of evidence is the “publisher” of the module.  This evidence is validated by looking at the Authenticode signature which involves a Certificate.  When validating the Certificate the OS walks the chain of Certificates and tries to download the Certificate Revocation List from a server on the internet.  This is where the slowdown occurs. A lot of servers do not have access to make calls out to internet.  It is either explicitly blocked, the server might be on a secure network, or a proxy server might require credentials to gain access to the internet.  If the DNS/network returns quickly with a failure the OS check will move on but if the DNS/network is slow or does not respond at all to the request we have to timeout.  This can occur for multiple modules because we create this evidence for each module that is loaded.  However if we have looked for a CRL and failed we will not recheck.  However different certificates have different CRLs.  For instance a VeriSign Certificate may have one CRL URL but a Microsoft Certificate will have a different one. Since this probe can slow things down it is best to just avoid the probe if you do not need it.  For .NET the only reason you would need it is if you are setting Code Access Security based on the module Publisher.  Because this can cause potential slow downs and you do not need to occur this penalty you can just disable the generation of the Publisher Evidence when your module is loaded.  To disable this use the Application configuration.  Just set the enabled property to false and you will avoid all of this. Now for ASP.NET applications it was not immediately obvious how to do this but it turns out that
you cannot add this to an applications Web.Config but you can add it to the ASPNET.CONFIG file in the Framework directory.  For other applications just add the attribute to the APP.CONFIG file. More information here: Site slowness due to SharePoint STS Certificate CRL checking https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2625048/

The Microsoft Project Conference 2012 has the largest Sponsor and Exhibitor momentum in the history of all Microsoft Project Conferences! We’d like express our gratitude to all sponsors & exhibitors who have committed to make this event a great success! All sponsors (listed below) and exhibitors will be available in their booths to demonstrate how they contribute to the momentum of Project 2010! In addition to standard expo hall hours all sponsors and exhibitors will be ready to greet you at the Welcome Reception Monday Evening – make sure to visit the Expo Hall to enjoy the food, drinks and networking! If you have not registered for the Project Conference yet – check the reasons to attend and register ! The full list of Project conference Sponsors and Exhibitors . See you in Phoenix! Jan Kalis https://blogs.msdn.com/jkalis/

Take a look over at  https://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/2012/02/29/microsoft-project-server-and-sharepoint-server-2007-and-2010-february-2012-cu-announcement.aspx for the full details of the release, and thanks to Rob for pulling the details together and of course to the engineering team for all their hard work on getting things fixed!  There will be a slight delay with the SharePoint Server and the roll-up packages, due w/c March 5th 2012. As mentioned in the Admin blog please also sign up for the Webcast, and don’t forget to join early if you haven’t attended before and need to download the Live Meeting client software. TechNet Webcast: Information about Microsoft Project and Project Server February 2012 Software Update (Level 200) https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032493966&Culture=en-US Also looking forward to the Project Conference 2012 in Phoenix, March 19-22 – reminder, it isn’t too late – see Christophe’s recent post on all the great content you can expect – https://blogs.msdn.com/b/chrisfie/archive/2012/02/22/it-professionals-and-developers-content-at-project-conference-2012-mspc12.aspx !

Exciting day, a few links to get started: Microsoft Announces Availability of Windows 8 Consumer Preview (press announcement) Welcome to Windows 8 – The Consumer Preview (building Windows 8 blog) https://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/consumer-preview (product page) PS: less than three weeks until Microsoft Project Conference 2012 , don’t miss it and see you soon!

Following a recent discussion with a consultant, I wanted to re-iterate the quality, depth and number of technical session dedicated to IT Professionals and Developers at Microsoft Project Conference 2012 next month in Phoenix (March 19-22). One easy place to browse technical content is to navigate the session agenda and filter by each audience, or the filter using the Deployment, Administration & Developer track as shown on the right: Beside key topic that all Project & Project Server developers and IT Professionals should know, there is an all-star list of speakers from Project MVPs, SharePoint MVPs, SharePoint Certified Masters, Microsoft SharePoint & Project experts, partners and customers. To wet your appetite here is a sample of in depth topic of interest with brief comments delivered by Microsoft and outside experts:   Best Practices Troubleshooting Project 2010 Deployments – two part series with  Brian Smith & Adrian Jenkins with a combined 35 years of Project experience! Tracking Historical Project Activity Data using the Microsoft Business Intelligence Suite – great in depth BI session by Gabriel (a customer) for something customers asks often Integrating Data from LOB Systems (SAP, ClickSoft) for Strategic Resource Planning – another popular topic by Tim one of our MVP on how to integrate with SAP Extending and Customizing the Project Server 2010 Timesheet to Drive Adoption and Achieve Business Results – everyone wants to customize their timesheets! Planning and Executing a Multi-Instance, Multi-Version Project Server Migration – real life feedback and best practices from Brian Leveraging Project Server 2010 in SharePoint 2010 Extranet Environments – Ram is a SharePoint expert Everything You Wanted To Know About Administering Project Server 2010 But Were Afraid To Ask – another MVP lead session by Rolly, expert and professional trainer Integrating SharePoint and Project Server 2010 – Deployment Approaches, Integration Options and making the most of the SharePoint Enterprise Features . – reviewed Giles session yesterday and again this is another must attend for any architect Closing the Status Loop with Windows 8 Metro and Project Server’s Task Update Feature – say no more   Leverage the capabilities of SharePoint to light up Microsoft Project Server – Keenan is a colleague on the SharePoint team and has a great story for you! Hard to stop enumerating sessions, but you will hopefully get the point that WE HAVE TECHNICAL CONTENT FOR YOU! The beauty of all these topics is that I believe in sense they are version agnostic and hence it’s never too late to strengthen or fill knowledge gaps on the 2010 platform.  But wait there is more (!), you feel like you know it all, how about taking certifications on site? How about attending the dedicated partner pre-event which will have in depth technical sessions delivered by experts (agenda is here from Jan’s blog); how about attending PC12 post-event training ). A master at all of the above then how about learning about ALM, PLM, IPM, and Dynamics/ERP integration? In summary as a consultant, IT Pro. or Dev. you have no excuse not to attend #MSPC12 and get ignited again! See you soon!

When: Monday, April 23, 2012 at 9:00 AM – Friday, April 27, 2012 at 5:00 PM (GMT) Where: Technology House Shottery Brook Office Park Timothy’s Bridge Road CV37 9NR Stratford Upon Avon United Kingdom Hosted By: Technology Associates International Ltd Technology Associates International ( www.techassoc.com ) is an Approved Training Organisation (ATO), accredited by the APM Group – the leading accreditation, certification and examination body – to deliver PRINCE2® courses.    As a Microsoft Gold Partner, we have over 18 years experience of delivering training solutions.   Our PRINCE2® trainers are skilled experts who take pride in guiding delegates through the PRINCE2® methodology and help them understand how the material applies to their specific personal and organisational circumstances. Register for this event now at: https://taipr230412fp-rss.eventbrite.com Event Details: The course provides a balance between a learning experince about structured project management and PRINCE2®, and maximising the delegate’s chances of passing the Practitioner examination. On passing the examination, the delegate becomes a Registered PRINCE2® Practitioner. The course starts with a period of directed self-study commencing approximately 2 weeks before the classroom event.   This brings everyone up to a common standard of basic familiarity with the language and underlying principles of PRINCE2®, and ensures that the course gets off to a smooth start. Delegates should plan their time for this self-study to ensure that they gain maximum benefit from this essential element of the course.   A minimum of 10 hours should be scheduled if at all possible. The first three days in the classroom follow the lifecycle of a project, explaining the use and benefits of the PRINCE2® processes, themes and techniques, and how these can be adapted to suit a variety of project types and scenarios.   Approximately 30% of this time is spent on practical work and discussion using a “continuous” case study as a basis for exercises that help to reinforce delegate learning.    The Foundation examination takes place on day 3.  The following two days are dedicated to reinforcing what has been learnt and to preparing for the Practitioner examination that takes place on the last afternoon.   Full explanation is provided of the types of question used in the examination, together with guidance on how to answer them to best effect. Evening work is provided (approximately one-hour) to enable revision and practice of what has been learned each day. Terms & Conditions of Booking: Payment is due on booking.   Cancellations and Transfers More than 20 working days notice before course commences – £50 cancellation fee is payable From 0 to 20 working days inclusive before course commences – 100 % of the course fee is payable   VERY IMPORTANT: If you are unable to complete a course due to illness or any other reason, you will have to pay the full course fee to attend a future course. No refund will be offered for failing to attend any part of the whole course.   A full copy of our terms and conditions of sale is available on request.                 PRINCE2® is a Registered Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries.

When: Monday, April 23, 2012 at 9:00 AM – Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 5:00 PM (GMT) Where: Technology House Shottery Brook Office Park Timothy’s Bridge Road CV37 9NR Stratford Upon Avon United Kingdom Hosted By: Technology Associates International Ltd Technology Associates International ( www.techassoc.com ) is an Approved Training Organisation (ATO), accredited by the APM Group – the leading accreditation, certification and examination body – to deliver PRINCE2® courses.    As a Microsoft Gold Partner, we have over 18 years experience of delivering training solutions.   Our PRINCE2® trainers are skilled experts who take pride in guiding delegates through the PRINCE2® methodology and help them understand how the material applies to their specific personal and organisational circumstances. Register for this event now at: https://taipr230412foundation-rss.eventbrite.com Event Details: The course provides a balance between a learning experience about structured project management and PRINCE2®, and maximising the delegate’s chances of passing the Foundation exam. This exam is the first of two required to achieve Registered PRINCE2® Practitioner status. The course starts with a period of directed self-study commencing approximately 2 weeks before the classroom event. This brings everyone up to a common standard of basic familiarity with the language and underlying principles of PRINCE2®, and ensures that the course gets off to a smooth start. Delegates should plan their time for this self-study to ensure that they gain maximum benefit from this essential element of the course. A minimum of 10 hours should be scheduled. The course covers the full PRINCE2® Foundation syllabus, following the lifecycle of a project, explaining the use and benefits of the PRINCE2® processes, themes and techniques, and how these can be adapted to suit a variety of project types and scenarios. Approximately 30% of the course is spent on practical work and discussion using a “continuous” case study as a basis for exercises that help to reinforce delegate learning. Evening work is provided (approximately one-hour) to enable revision and practice of what has been learnt each day.   Terms & Conditions of Booking: Payment is due on booking.   Cancellations and Transfers More than 20 working days notice before course commences – £50 cancellation fee is payable From 0 to 20 working days inclusive before course commences – 100 % of the course fee is payable   VERY IMPORTANT: If you are unable to complete a course due to illness or any other reason, you will have to pay the full course fee to attend a future course. No refund will be offered for failing to attend any part of the whole course.   A full copy of our terms and conditions of sale is available on request.                 PRINCE2® is a Registered Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries.

We’re excited to accounce that we will be giving out full Microsoft Project Conference 2012 passes ($899.00 each) to three deserving individuals who would like to attend Project Conference 2012. We want you to nominate someone you know who has made a substantial contribution and gone the extra mile for your organization or the Project community. Think of someone who always puts others first, someone going above and beyond, and someone you feel deserves more recognition–from the “accidental” project manager all way to project management professionals. We want to thank your project hero! Here is how you enter: Email projconf@microsoft.com  with the subject “My Hero Nomination” by 11:59 p.m. on the 7 th of March 2012 Describe why the unsung hero deserves this prize in 100 words or less. Your Unsung hero’s Name Your Unsung hero’s Email address     We will judge the entries and pick three (3) individuals who we will offer a full conference pass to Microsoft Project Conference 2012 (MSPC12). We want dedicated and passionate individuals who love to help others.  We want to reward them with the chance to attend MSPC12 in person and see for themselves the passion of the Project community. You can nominate up to five (5) project hero! (separate email entries for each please) Here are the Official Contest Rules Thanks and have fun nominating those who you think have made your life easier or improved our community.

With less than a month away before the start of the Microsoft Project Conference 2012 (#MSPC12), March 19-22 in Phoenix Arizona, I wanted to take a moment and re-iterate why this is the event you cannot miss next month. As the all-up content owner for this conference I have had the pleasure to review about 170 submissions during the Call For Content phase; and lately I have started doing content reviews with speakers, and trust me there are so many great stories that I just can’t wait to see attendees excited about the quality of sessions we’ll have in Phoenix. To date we have 97 sessions (including instructor lead labs) and these alone are 97 reasons you need to come to #MSPC12! Dux did a great write-up on his Top 7 Reasons You Should Attend #MSProject Conference 2012 #mspc12 #pmot , in particular I completely agree this is a unique opportunity to Network with customers, partners, MVPs (experts) and last but not least with Microsoft employees that build, support, sale, deploy and market your favorite product everyday. I personally have made a lot of marketing projects decisions following face to face meetings with attendees, and expect to do many more for the coming year… As Dux mentioned mentioned in his #5 reason: Keeping up with the Joneses, trends and news is also a very strong reason to attend. Some of you might argue that staying in the office in front of a computer is sufficient to hear and see the pulse, I actually think events like this will give you a much better vision of trends and news with respect to PPM/PM etc… Another fact to support this point, is look at these sessions we’lll have from the two leading PPM analysts: Dan Stang & Matt Light from Gartner: The Gartner perspective: PPM Industry Trends and Adoption Best Practices and Going Beyond PPM – Effectively Manage Your Entire IT Portfolio Decisions with Project Server 2010 . I also think considering the above plus free certifications, training etc. it’s a relatively cheap event with a very strong ROI (return on investment) to one should consider for their business (if you are a partners for instance) or as a career if you are an individual. As my colleague Brian mentioned in this post: To All Aspiring Project Ninjas “ Project Conference won’t be hosted every year and there won’t be another worldwide Project Conference elsewhere ”, so register today instead of regretting tomorrow! And yes we’ll also also lots of fun at the event, stay tune for more information The first Project Conference I attended was back in January 2006, and I have attended every single one since (October 2007, September 2009) plus dozens of Microsoft lead events like (SharePoint Conference, TechEd, Summit of various sorts etc…) and I truly believe next month will be very unique Project Conference and I expect to see you all there! A bientot! PS: an adaptation of the #MSPC12 theme I did during the last Seattle snow storm, feel free to use it in your email signature/blog posts etc…

I have seen a few questions recently in the Microsoft Project Server Forum and other in other social platform about the integration of Microsoft Project Server 2010 and Dynamics CRM 2011, and since I delivered a session on this topic at an event a few months ago, I wanted to share my thoughts on the subject. Before I go any further I think it’s important to understand the Microsoft Dynamics CRM offering, hence I recommend you look at our official CRM product portal for a basic understanding of our offering: https://crm.dynamics.com/en-us/home At a high level Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers the three solutions: Sales Force Automation Customer Service Marketing The goal of the session I co-delivered with a CRM consultant was to investigate integration scenarios between the two line of business applications (CRM & PPM) and showcase integration options between the two extensible platform.  We introduced and demonstrated the following two scenario during that session: Sales to Project Delivery – once an opportunity reaches 80%, a project is created in Project Server Marketing planning to execution – marketing campaigns are imported in Project Server to leverage the Portfolio Analysis engine to choose which initiatives are align with the objectives based on cost & resources constraints Demo screenshots: Demo screenshots: Due to not only the rich extensibility of both products but also to the ease programming of both, even a marketing person like myself (!) with the help of a CRM trained consultant we were able to built these demos in a few days (including a CRM workflow creating a Project Server project using a standard PSI call). For more information on the extensibility of each please refer to the Developer centers on MSDN: https://msdn.microsoft.com/Project https:// msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/crm If you do not have programming experience on MSFT CRM or Project Server I highly recommend you engage Microsoft certified CRM & PPM partners or Microsoft Consulting Services to help your with the technical aspect of the integration.  The two scenarios/use cases presented above are by no means exhaustive and more can achieve between Microsoft CRM and PPM offerings. In summary integrating Microsoft Project Server and Dynamics CRM offers a strong line of business application and integration is possible today using custom code thanks to their respective rich extensibility. Happy integration projects and see you next month at Microsoft Project Conference 2012 in Phoenix !