Configure Access Services for a BI test environment

 

Applies to: SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise

Important

This article is part of the Configuring a BI infrastructure: Hands-on labs series. To complete the steps in this article, you must first have completed:

To make an Microsoft Access 2010 Web database available in a Web browser, you must publish the database to Access Services in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. Access Services in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 is a service application that creates a SharePoint site that contains an Access 2010 Web database, plus it moves all of the database objects and data to a SharePoint Server list on that site.

You do not need the Access client to use the Web database. However, the Access client is required to make any changes to the database structure. A user account is required to use the Web database. Anonymous access is not supported.

In this lab, we deploy the Access Services service application on the Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 farm.

Deploy Access Services

Deploying Access Services consists of the following steps:

  • Creating an Active Directory account for the application pool under which the Access Services service application will run.

  • Registering that account as a managed account in SharePoint Server 2010.

  • Grant content database access to the managed account

  • Start Access Services.

  • Creating an Access Services service application.

The first step in deploying Access Services is to create an account in the Active Directory directory service to run the application pool for the Access Services service application. Use the following procedure to create the account.

To create an account for the application pool

  1. Log on to Contoso-DC by using the Contoso\administrator account.

  2. On the Contoso-DC virtual machine, click Start, click Administrative Tools, and then click Active Directory Users and Computers.

  3. Expand the contoso.local node.

  4. Right-click Users, click New, and then click User.

  5. In the Full name box and the User logon name box, type AccessAppPool.

  6. Click Next.

  7. In the Password and Confirm password boxes, type a password for the account.

  8. Clear the User must change password at next logon check box.

  9. Select the Password never expires check box.

  10. Click Next.

  11. Click Finish.

  12. Log off Contoso-DC.

Once you have created the account, it must be registered as a managed account in SharePoint Server 2010. Doing so makes the account available to service applications when you create them. Use the following procedure to register the managed account.

To register a managed account

  1. On the Central Administration home page, in the left navigation, click Security.

  2. On the Security page, under General Security, click Configure managed accounts.

  3. On the Managed Accounts page, click Register Managed Account.

  4. In the User name box, type Contoso\AccessAppPool.

  5. In the Password box, type the password for the Contoso\AccessAppPool account.

  6. Click OK.

By default, the application pool account does not have the required access to the SharePoint content database. Access to this database is required for Access Services. Use the following procedure to grant the required database access to the application pool account.

To grant content database access to the managed account

  1. On Contoso-AppSrv, click Start, click All Programs, click Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products, right-click SharePoint 2010 Management Shell, and then click Run as Administrator.

  2. At the Windows PowerShell command prompt, type the following:

    PS> $w = Get-SPWebApplication -identity http://contoso-appsrv
    PS> $w.GrantAccessToProcessIdentity("Contoso\AccessAppPool")
    

Once you have granted database access to the application pool account, you must start Access Services. This is the SharePoint Server 2010 service that performs all processing and activities associated with Access Services.

You must start this service on at least one application server. In a production environment, you would choose a server or servers on which to run the service, depending on your capacity requirements.

Use the following procedure to start Access Services.

To start Access Services

  1. On the Central Administration home page, in the System Settings section, click Manage services on server.

  2. Above the Service list, click the Server drop-down list, and then click Change Server.

    Note that the application server, Contoso-AppSrv, is listed together with Contoso-SQL. In a farm with multiple application servers, you would use this dialog box to select the server where you want to run the Secure Store Service, and then start the service as shown in the next two steps.

  3. Click CONTOSO-APPSRV.

  4. In the Service list, click Start next to Access Services.

Once Access Services has been started, you must create an Access Services service application. Use the following procedure to create the service application.

To create an Access Services service application

  1. On the Central Administration home page, in the Application Management section, click Manage service applications.

  2. On the Manage Service Applications page, click New, and then click Access Services.

  3. In the Access Services Application Name section, type Access Services in the box.

  4. Select the Create new application pool option and type AccessServicesAppPool in the Application pool name box.

  5. Select the Configurable option, and from the drop-down list, select CONTOSO\AccessAppPool.

  6. Click OK.

See Also

Concepts

Create a baseline environment for a BI test environment
Changing SQL Reporting Services from Native mode to Integrated mode in a BI test environment