by Martin Laukkanen | Oct 23, 2010 | Project Pro 2007, Troubleshooting
This is probably the first major impact 2010 issue I’ve experienced, not the first issue let’s be clear, but the one causing significant impact to at least two of my major customers who are now well into production.
Problem:
For no apparent reason when attempting to Save a project from Microsoft Project Professional 2007 to the Project Server 2010 the following error is displayed:
(Text for Google: The file cannot be opened. … Project files saved in a version earlier than Microsoft Project 98 can’t be opened. If your file is from an earlier version … save in MPX format …)
After selecting Ok, any subsequent attempts to save report the following error:
(Text: An unexpected error occurred during command execution.)
This problem ONLY occurs with Project 2007 client version and attempting to open and save the file in Project 2010 will work as expected. Also it’s worth noting that once the error appears on one client, all clients will be unable to save the project.
Finally it is definitely not related to legacy projects, I have seen it occur on a test dozen line project based on a blank template.
Cause:
Unknown at this stage, although it is definitely some sort of corruption, likely in the Resource Sheet which can be proved by deleting all resources and resaving which will work immediately! It seems that the 2010 client has better error handling / correcting or perhaps that the 2007 client is introducing some errors!
Resolution:
We’ve (as in we at EPM Partners) have spent many hours on this issue with Microsoft as it seriously impacted one of Microsoft’s largest Asia-Pac 2010 customers, in the end with the support of a Microsoft PFE (onsite engineer) a resolution was found in the yet-to-be-released beta October Cumulative Update for Project Pro 2007.
So there is light at the end of the tunnel, however the problem is not yet closed, so far with over a week of testing post-cu this issue hasn’t reoccurred, but this is definitely one to watch out for!
by Martin Laukkanen | Jul 7, 2010 | Project 2010, Project Pro 2007, Troubleshooting
This is a new error that has been bugging me for a few weeks now:
The error message "Project Server encountered a problem with this error code:9000" occurs when attempting to save a project in Project Professional 2007 client:
Additionally you may receive a blank "Job failed" window when trying to check-in a project:
This problem is caused by an Internet Explorer login session to Project Web Access expiring and as a result the project client is forced to re-login, however this re-login only seems to be supported in Project Professional 2010 and not 2007 client running in backwards compatibility mode.
This only applies to Project Servers / SharePoint configured to use Claims authentication, or when Project Professional 2007 is using Forms authentication to logon to PWA. (I assume Project Pro can re-authenticate easily using NTLM)
The best workaround to this is to not use the connect / disconnect and work offline options in Project Professional as this does not re-log you in.
Additionally perhaps avoid opening PWA in a separate Internet Explorer window so as to not logout inadvertently.
Performance problems also exacerbate this issue.
Hope this helps someone!
UPDATE 11/09/2010:
Since posting the above I have run into this error on some other occasions not related to Claims based authentication. Specifically I found this error would occur whenever attempting to save one particular MPP file into a server. In that particular case reviewing the schedule and specifically the resource sheet turned up the cause:
Clearly this resource is corrupted (this is an English install) in some way, what this indicates is that the error 9000 is a generic ‘error of last resort’ it would seem.
by Martin Laukkanen | Nov 25, 2009 | Project Pro 2007, Troubleshooting
If you have configured any client to restrict permission to save a protected baseline then you might be unlucky enough to see this one, basically restricting this permission causes the next save to completely delete any previously saved baseline!
Not exactly what you meant when you tried to ‘protect’ that baseline is it?
Anyway I just noticed while researching another issue, that this has now been fixed!
“On the Edit User page in Project Web Access (PWA), you select the Deny check box for Save Unprotected Baseline. When you try to save a existing project file to a new file, baseline 0 through 10 are removed.”
by Martin Laukkanen | Nov 3, 2009 | Project 2007, Project Pro 2007, Troubleshooting
I came across this problem while working with a customer and trying to use the very useful Budget Cost Resource feature, basically when using Budget Cost Resources and also restricting the ‘Save Protected Baseline’ permission (as many companies do) the Budget Cost values appear to be restricted with the baseline values! I.e. The values cannot be edited in the Task Usage view.
It definitely looks like a bug (ahem “code – defect”) to me, however it’s not one I have had a chance (or need) to log with MS.
Here are some reproduction notes I made while working on this one with a customer, needless to say we opted for the workaround as opposed to attempting to get a resolution.
These steps are tested with the October 2009 CU package for both Project Server and Project Professional (Build 12.0.6520.5000).
Issue:
Budget Cost entry not working when Save Protected Baseline permission restricted.
Scenario:
Our organisation process requires that in Project Server Baselines can only be saved by the PMO department and not by project managers as such we have removed the default permission to ‘Save Protected Baseline’ from the ‘Project Managers’ project server group. Additionally for our project status reporting we need to track Budget expenditure compared to baseline, unfortunately we have found that when the ‘save protected baseline’ permission is removed from the PM’s they are no longer able to enter any budget costs into a project unless they were the original creator of the project (ie not someone who the ‘Owner’ was changed to). As our PMO is responsible for creating all projects with set templates and then assigning the PM this issue results in PM’s never being able to update Budget Cost’s.
Environment:
MOSS & Project farm deployment:
– 1 x WFE with MOSS and Project Server 2007 (SERVICE PACK 2)
– 1 x Project Application Server (SP2)
– 1 x SQL 2008 database server (SP1)
All servers running Windows 2008 SP1, all clients running Project Professional 2007 SP2.
Reproduction Steps:
- As administrator in PWA open the ‘Project Managers’ group and remove the ‘Save Protected Baseline’ permission from all categories.
- As administrator create a new Project in project professional, create a local cost resource and from the resource properties, select “Budget” resource as the type.
- Assign the budget resource to the project summary task; first from Tools – options enable the option to show the project summary task, then assign the resource to that task in the normal way.
- From Task Usage view, add the ‘Budget Cost’ to the right hand side of the window, then enter some cost values.
- Save and Publish the project.
- From PWA – Project Centre, edit project properties and change the owner to a member of the Project Managers group (not an administrator).
- Open the project from Project Professional as the PM user then open the Task Usage view and add ‘Budget Cost’ (if required)
RESULT:
Unable to add further budget costs to any item, HOWEVER the PM is able to delete exiting costs!
EXPECTED RESULT:
PM is able to edit all items in the ‘Budget Cost’ line.
Workaround:
If the procedure is changed so that the PM creates the Project in step 2 above then the PM is always able to edit the Budget Costs, however this requires that internal business process be changed and does not account for future changes in the assigned PM needing to make updates.
(Hope this helps someone out there…)
PS. Ten points to anyone who recognizes where my issue subjective template comes from!
