How to troubleshoot issues with Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) cubes when you work with Microsoft Project Server

This article contains general troubleshooting steps to help resolve the following issues:

• Building Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) cubes
• Creating and Accessing views
• Connecting to Analysis Services

To troubleshoot OLAP issues, you must gather information. You must understand the network topology and the server configuration.

• What versions of the following products are in the environment, and on what computers are they installed? For example, are they installed in separate domains or on separate servers? Are the products installed on member servers or on domain controllers?
  • Microsoft Project Server 2002 or Microsoft Office Project Server 2003
  • Microsoft SQL Server
  • Analysis Services
  • Microsoft Decision Support Objects (DSO)
  • Microsoft Office
  • Any service packs and hotfixes that have been applied
• Are any Microsoft Exchange or Directory Services (DS) services installed and active on these servers?
• Are these services offloaded to Helper servers?
• Is there a proxy or firewall in the environment?

Next, review the following items. These items can cause issues during connection to or the creation of the OLAP cube.

• Make sure that Microsoft SQL Server Service Pack 3 (SP-3) or later is installed.
• What Microsoft Windows user account was used during setup or to run the Microsoft Project Server COM+ Settings tool (Pscomplus.exe)?
  • Is the Windows user account a member of the OLAP Administrators group? The user account must be a member of the OLAP Administrators group to build the OLAP cube.
• Does the Windows user account have permissions to the C:\program files\Microsoft Analysis Services\Bin folder on the Analysis Server? Was the Analysis Service migrated from another computer? The \bin folder must be shared so that the service can process the .xml file.

Troubleshoot issues in the Portfolio Analyzer View

To troubleshoot issues in the Portfolio Analyzer View, follow these steps:

1. If the Windows user account or group does not have permissions to the cube, you must add the user to give the account access to the cube. To do so, follow these steps:
   1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft SQL Server, point to Analysis Services, and then click Analysis Management.
   2. In the left pane, locate your Analysis Services server, and then expand the server.
   3. Right-click the cube, and then click Manage Roles.
      
      You can find the name of the cube on the Updates to Resource Tables and OLAP Cube page in Microsoft Project Web Access.
   4. Click New, and then type a name in the Role name box.
      
      Change the Enforce on option from Client to Server.
   5. On the Membership tab, click Add.
   6. Click to select user accounts and groups, click Add, and then click OK.
   7. On the Cubes tab, click to select Check All, and then click OK.
   8. Click Close, and then on the Console menu, click Exit.
2. To access the Portfolio Analyzer View, you must have Microsoft Office Web components or a Microsoft Office XP Licensed Application (for example Microsoft Excel) installed.

Troubleshoot Connection Issues

To troubleshoot connection issues, use a domain user account to test the following:

• Run Pscomplus with the domain user. Click to enable the 1st option, and then click to clear 2 and 3.
• Make sure that the domain user is in the OLAP Administrators group on the Analysis Machine.
• Use the Analysis Manager to add the domain user to permit Membership to the Cube role.
• Make sure that the domain user is a member of the OLAP Administrators group with Full Control permissions to the C:\program files\Microsoft Analysis Services\Bin folder, or confirm that the Analysis Services Repository has been migrated.

Troubleshoot Issues with Cube Creation

To troubleshoot issues with cube creation, verify that the cube is built correctly. To do so, follow these steps:

1. An XML file will appear in the \ViewDrop folder on the Project Server-based computer, or on the server that is running the Views Notification Service if it has been offloaded.
2. Open the Windows Task Manager and confirm that the VWNotify.exe process is using CPU Time and that Mem Usage is increasing.
3. Log on to PWA.
4. Click Admin, click Manage Enterprise Features, and then click Update Resource Tables and OLAP Cube to verify the cube status.
5. After the XML file is processed the CPU usage will decrease.
   
   Open the SQL Analysis Manager again to confirm that the cube is listed. You may experience a small delay before the cube appears.
6. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Event Viewer.
   
   Click to select the Application log and search for any stop events that pertain to Project Server or SQL Server.
7. Have you successfully created OLAP cubes in the past or have you not been able to create a cube? If this is a new issue, when did you last create a cube successfully? Possible causes for cube failure are:
   • A fix was recently applied that may be causing the cube failure.
   • You applied the fix for duplication. This causes the cube to build with errors.
   • Special outline code characters were created. To review these characters, log on to PWA, click Admin, click Manage Enterprise Features, and then click Update Resource Tables and OLAP Cube.
8. Verify the user account has permissions to the OLAP cube. To build the cube, make sure that one of the following is true:
   • The user account is a member of the OLAP Administrators group with Full Control permissions to the C:\program files\Microsoft Analysis Services\Bin folder on the Analysis Services computer.
   • The Analysis Services Repository has been migrated.
     
     Note For information about migrating the repository, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
     http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a6f79cb1-a420-445f-8a4b-bd77a7da194b&DisplayLang=en (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a6f79cb1-a420-445f-8a4b-bd77a7da194b&DisplayLang=en)
9. Verify that you can manually generate a cube from the Analysis Manager.
   • Use the ‘BuildCubeUtil.exe’ from P10 tools - OLAP Cube Tools - OLAPDataTest.exe <\\lb-svr002\p10tools> §. This will verify that the service is running and that the issue might be the Analysis Server.

Troubleshoot Issues with Views

To troubleshoot issues accessing the Views, follow these steps:

1. Create a new Portfolio Analyzer View to confirm that the Office Web Components (OWC) are working.
2. The user account must access the Views from a computer that has Microsoft Office XP installed. The Office XP version of the Office Web Components is required for correct operation.
3. Make sure that you are not connecting to a previous Portfolio Analyzer View that was connected to an older cube, but that cube no longer exists. Use Commands and Options for the view to redirect.
4. Make sure that the user account has Membership permissions to the cube.
5. Make sure that the user account does not try to access the View over the Internet. For more information about Microsoft Project Server and the Internet, review the Microsoft Project Server and the Internet white paper.

For more information, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: