FAQ: Migrating to Microsoft Office Project Server 2007

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Topic Last Modified: 2016-11-14

This article answers frequently asked questions about upgrading previous versions of Microsoft Project Server to Microsoft Office Project Server 2007.

Compatibility questions

Will I be able to open a Beta 2 .mpp file using the released version of Office Project Server 2007?

Yes, this is possible.

Is there a way to rename projects in Office Project Server 2007?

You can rename projects in Office Project Professional 2007 by opening the File menu, selecting Open, clicking Enterprise Projects, and then right-clicking the file to be renamed to open the Rename option.

You can also rename a published project in the Project Center by using the Edit custom fields command.

Consolidation questions

Can I consolidate data from multiple instances of Project Server 2003 into one instance of Office Project Server 2007? For example, can I consolidate http://2003PWA/Dept1 and http://2003PWA/Dept2 into a single http://2007PWA/Single?

No, when migrating to Office Project Server 2007 you cannot consolidate data from multiple instances of Project Server 2003 into one instance of Office Project Server 2007. If you have two instances of Project Server 2003 (http://2003PWA/Dept1 and http://2003PWA/Dept2), you need to migrate them to two separate instances of Office Project Server 2007 (http://2007PWA/Dept1 and http://2007PWA/Dept2).

Pricing and licensing questions

Where can I get more information on licensing?

Go to https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/default.mspx and https://www.microsoft.com/office/eula/en.mspx.

Data consistency questions

Can linked projects and master projects be migrated?

Yes, both linked projects and master projects can be migrated to Office Project Server 2007, but there is a small caveat to be aware of. In Project 2003, a project could have two masters (for example Sub Proj1 could be included into Master Proj1 and Master Proj2). Both master projects could be published. There were some side-effects to this arrangement, but it was allowed. But in the publishing process in Office Project Server 2007, a project cannot be part of more than one master project. The migration implication is this: In Project Server 2003, if you had the same project as part of two master projects, when you attempt to migrate and publish both master projects, the second master project will fail to publish in Office Project Server 2007.

Versions are not migrated from Project Server 2003 to Office Project Server 2007. What is the equivalent functionality in Office Project Server 2007?

Versions do not have an exact equivalent in Office Project Server 2007. Here are some ideas on how to do similar things in Office Project Server 2007:

1. "What-if" analysis— Create a new project: Attach a resource plan to the project, add no resources to the resource plan, and choose to generate summary resource assignments (SRA) from the resource plan instead of the project. In other words, you can assign resources to projects, but SRAs will not be generated. This would be a "what-if" project. You can publish this project and it can be added to the reporting database and eventually to the cubes. Once you have created several of these "what-if" projects, you can compare them side-by-side in any custom report.

   Note

   With this workaround you still need to publish the project before you can even generate a resource plan for it. This means that availability will be affected until the work is completed.

2. "What if" analysis— Multi-level Undo: The multiple-level Undo feature lets you do some what-if planning — if you do not like what you have done, simply back out of it by using the Undo command.

   Note

      Once you save your data, the multi-level Undo cache is emptied and you cannot undo your previous actions.

3. Archiving: Office Project Server 2007 has a separate archive store into which you can archive projects, even at regular intervals.

Do protected actuals get migrated from Project Server 2003 to Office Project Server 2007?

Yes, if the protected actuals feature is turned on in Project Server 2003, then protected actuals will be migrated. If the feature is turned off in Project Server 2003, the normal actuals will be migrated. Any protected actuals, even if available, will be lost.

How will Project Server 2003 users who have assignments, but are not enterprise resources, be migrated?

Project Server 2003 users who have assignments, but are not enterprise resources, will be converted to enterprise resources after migrating from Project Server 2003 to Office Project Server 2007. These enterprise resources will have their RES_CAN_LEVEL field in the MSP_Resources table of the Project Server Published database set to FALSE (all other migrated enterprise resources will have RES_CAN_LEVEL=TRUE). The reason for this is that in Project Server 2003, users who were not part of the enterprise resource pool could not be leveled across projects. In order to keep this same behavior in Office Project Server 2007, leveling has been turned off by default for these resources after migration.

I have 300 projects that I want to migrate from Project Server 2003 to Office Project Server 2007. Of the 300 projects, I want to migrate, save, and publish 298 of them. The remaining two I just want to save. What is the best way to edit the migration configuration file to do this?

In the migration configuration file, you have the option to migrate all projects with the MigrateAll=Yes setting. However, if you enter any projects in the [Projects to Save] or [Projects to Save and Publish] sections, the MigrateAll setting is ignored. Therefore if you configure the MigrateAll setting to Yes (to migrate, save, and publish the 298 projects), and then add the two projects to the [Projects to Save] section (for the two projects that you want to only migrate and save), when you run the migration the only thing that will occur is the operation that saves the two projects.

To avoid relying on the MigrateAll setting, you can run this simple query in Microsoft SQL Server to get the project names from the Project Server 2003 database: SELECT MSP_NAME FROM MSP_PROJECTS

This allows you to copy and paste project names into the [Projects to Save] or [Projects to Save and Publish] section of the migration configuration file.

Multi-language questions

Is cross-language migration supported? For example, can I migrate from the English-language version of Project Server 2003 to the French-language version of Office Project Server 2007?

Cross-language migration is not supported. Office Project Server 2007 only supports migrating across the same language.

Outlook add-in questions

Can I do an in-place upgrade of my Project Professional 2003 Outlook client add-in or should I uninstall and then reinstall the version available for Office Project Server 2007?

To upgrade to the Outlook client add-in available for Office Project Professional 2007, you should uninstall the old version and then reinstall the newer version.

Could the Project Professional 2003 Outlook add-in and the Office Project Server 2007 Outlook add-in work side-by-side?

Yes, the Project Professional 2003 Outlook add-in and the Office Project Professional 2007 Outlook add-in can work side-by-side. This allows team members to work on both Project Professional 2003 and Office Project Professional 2007 projects at the same time.

What would happen in the case where users have imported assignments into Outlook for a project and that project is migrated to Office Project Server 2007?

Install the new Outlook add-in side-by-side with the old one, and point it to the new Office Project Server 2007 server. If the tasks still appear on the Project Server 2003 server, they will continue to be imported to Outlook, though, so you will see double entries (though by default Project Server 2003 will import to tasks rather than to the calendar).

How will a team member know that a project has been migrated to Office Project Server 2007?

The migration tool used to migrate data to Office Project Server 2007 does not change any data in Project Server 2003, so it will be hard for users to know that a project has been migrated if they have not been notified. One possible remedy to this situation is for you to append a "migrated" prefix to the names of the migrated projects and make certain to set them as them read-only in Project Server 2003.

What happens if a team member tries to update a Project 2003 assignment through Outlook for a project that has been migrated to Office Project Server 2007?

There is no way to lock down a project update in this case. If the task is available in the Web tables, a team member can update it, even if the project is read-only. Therefore, team members can update the tasks, but the updates will never be applied to the project.

Resource management questions

After migrating a subset of projects to Office Project Server 2007, how do I manage resource availability if there are users who are assigned to Project Server 2003 and Office Project Server 2007 projects?

During the period that you have both versions in operation, you will not get an updated resource availability view in either Project Server 2003 or Office Project Server 2007. Therefore, we recommend that you do not have Project Server in a side-by-side state for an extended period of time. Alternatively you could build a custom solution that retrieves resource availability from the two systems and presents a unified view.

After migrating to Office Project Server 2007, I notice that the MSP_RESOURCES table in the Working and Published databases has a column named RES_WORKGROUP_MESSAGING that doesn't appear to be used. Why is it there?

This column was migrated from Project Server 2003, but it is not needed in Office Project Server 2007. It was used in Project Server 2003 to support workgroup mode, but this is no longer supported in Office Project Server 2007. This column can be removed from the table.

When I run the migration tool, I receive an error in the log saying "PWA Migration: Synchronize migrated resources with WSS -- Failed".

This may be because your permissions related to Windows SharePoint Services in Project Server 2003 were locked down. After the security settings are migrated, this lockdown is applied to the Office Project Server 2007 instance as well, causing the resource synchronization not to function correctly. Verify that you have the correct permissions in Office Project Server 2007:

1. Open Project Web Access and click Server Settings.

2. In the Security section, click Project Web Access Permissions.

3. Find the Manage Windows Sharepoint Services permission and verify that it is selected.

If similar problems persist even after enabling the Manage Windows Sharepoint services permission, you may want to enable all the Project Web Access permissions and then lock them down again after migration is completed successfully.

When I run the migration tool, I receive an error stating "Resource Global migration fails due to error 80004005". I also receive an error in the migration log saying "An unhandled exception occurred in WinProj.UpdateResources".

There may be several reasons for the error message. The way to troubleshoot this problem is to test whether you can create an enterprise resource successfully in Office Project Server 2007:

1. After verifying that the migration tool is not running, start Project Professional 2007 connected to the server,

2. On the Tools menu, click Enterprise Options, and then click Open Enterprise Resource Pool.

3. In the Resource Center, click New, and on the drop-down list click Resource.

4. on the New Resource page, enter the required resource information.

5. Click Save.

Typically, this operation will also fail. However, you can use the information provided in the log entry for this action to help troubleshoot the issue. Open the relevant ULS log file (default location: <Drive>:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\LOGS) and check it to see why the resource was not saved. The following is an example of a ULS log entry after failing to create a new enterprise resource.

Example ULS log entry:

12/21/2006 01:53:55.38 w3wp.exe (0x01B8) 0x07B4 Project Server Project Server - General 0 Medium PWA:http://machine/pwa, SSP:SSPName, User:UserName, PSI: WinProj.UpdateResources Undefined Attributes: PSError: GeneralUnhandledException Undefined attributes list: System.ApplicationException: This operation returned because the timeout period expired. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800705B4) at System.Threading.ReaderWriterLock.AcquireReaderLockInternal(Int32 millisecondsTimeout) at Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Events.ServerEventManager.AcquireReaderLockOnServerEventManager() at

Example fix: For the example ULS log entry, the error appears to be a timeout error involving the Microsoft Office Project Server Events service. Restarting the Microsoft Office Project Server Events service may fix the problem. To do so, perform the following steps on the computer on which Office Project Server 2007 is running:

1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Services.

2. In the Services window, find Microsoft Office Project Server Events Service.

3. Right-click the entry and click Restart to restart the service.

SQL Server questions

I am trying to migrate with my Project Server 2003 database and my Office Project Server 2007 on different computers. When I try to configure the linked server option in Microsoft SQL Server 2000, it doesn't work.

Go to SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Manager, right-click the linked server you created, and select the Properties option. Click the Security tab and try a different option to see if it works. For example, if you have the be made using the login's current security context button selected, try the be made using this security context option. Also, make sure to give a valid user name and password that works on the computer running SQL Server that is hosting the Office Project Server 2007 database.

I am migrating and have the Project Server 2003 database and the Office Project Server 2007 databases on the same computer running SQL Server. When I try to run the migration tool, it repeatedly gives the error "Cannot create Project Web Access views in the command line and in the migration log files."

This may be a situation where the migration is inexplicably deleting the CURRENT SQL SERVER from the SYSSERVERS in SQL Server. Do the following to re-add it:

1. Go to SQL Server 2000 Query Analyzer and select the "master" database. Run the query Select * from sysservers.

2. Verify that you see an entry with the srvname column set to the name of your SQL server. If you do not see this, that may be the cause of the problem.

3. Make sure the "master" database is the active database. Run the query sp_addlinkedserver <sql server name>.

4. Try migrating again.

Windows SharePoint Services migration questions

Is gradual migration supported from Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0?

Yes, gradual migration is supported. Look for detailed steps in IT deployment options for migration to Project Server 2007 and in Upgrading project workspaces from Project Server 2003.

Can Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 be installed side-by-side on the same computer?

Yes, side-by-side installation of Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is supported.

Download this book

This topic is included in the following downloadable book for easier reading and printing:

• Migration for Office Project Server 2007

See the full list of available books at Downloadable content for Project Server 2007.