MSProject Reporter Blog

For those of you who have some experience creating multiple instances of Project Server 2003 in the same environment (one default instance for production, one for training, one for development, or one for each department in the company), you know that it's not exactly as easy as a walk in the park. If you have a detailed step-by-step procedure (as I do), as well as all of the required software (Project Server 2003 EditSite tool, installation media for creating new databases, and database service packs), then it's not very painful… but still a bit tedious.

Why would we want to do this?

Perhaps you have a single installation of Project Server within your organization which holds production project and resource data, but would like to conduct training or test configuration changes without disrupting the integrity of that data.

Perhaps there are multiple departments or groups within your organization which would like to use Project Server, but their business processes don't allow them to work with a common system configuration. Separate Project Server instances allow these groups to use different sets of enterprise custom metadata fields, reporting views, or resource pools.

Perhaps there is a group within your organization which is working on a large, very hush-hush program, and they want to keep tight control over the security of the project data.

Whatever the case may be, a single installation of Project Server hosts multiple instances of Project Web Access, each with its own SQL Server databases. Typically, in a hosted scenario such as this, multiple Project Server sites share SharePoint configuration and content databases.

When you install Project Server 2007, only one site is available (such as ProjectServer or PWA), accessible via the URL http://servername/projectserver or http://servername/pwa. You then use this URL to access PWA through a web browser or to access Project Server through Project Professional. When you add a new Project Server instance, a new URL (http://servername/newsitename) is available for accessing it via your web browser or Project Pro.

I recently discovered how incredibly easy it is to create multiple instances of Project Server 2007 in the same environment… and I thought that I would share my findings. Basically, all you need is access to SharePoint Central Administration (namely, the Shared Services Provider area), and about 5 or 10 minutes.

Here we go…

1. Log on to the Project Server using an account with administrative privileges, then select Start > Administrative Tools > SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration; once on the Central Administration Home page, select the link in the left Quick Launch menu to visit your Shared Service Provider (in this example, SharedServices1):

    

   

2. On the Home page for your Shared Services Provider (in this example, SharedServices1), click the Project Web Access Sites link, located below the Project Server heading:

    

   

3. On the Manage Project Web Access Sites page, click the Create Project Web Access Site toolbar button:

    

   

4. On the Create Project Web Access Site page, enter the following information, then click the OK button:

    

   SharePoint Web Application to host Project Web Access: SharePoint – 80

   Project Web Access path: newpath (in this example, training)

   Primary database server: databaseservername (in this example, VPC02)

   Published database name: ProjectServerNewName_Published (in this example, ProjectServerTraining_Published)

   Draft database name: ProjectServerNewName_Draft (in this example, ProjectServerTraining_Draft)

   Archive database name: ProjectServerNewName_Archive (in this example, ProjectServerTraining_Archive)

   Reporting database name: ProjectServerNewName_Reporting (in this example, ProjectServerTraining_Reporting)

   

   

5. After entering the new data, the Manage Project Web Access Sites page should be displayed, and a new PWA URL should be displayed in the list (in this example, http://vpc02/training), with a Status of Waiting for Resources:

    

   

6. After a couple of minutes, refreshing the page should show the Status change to Creating Databases, then finally Provisioned:

    

   

7. Notice that if we connect to the database server engine with SQL Server Management Studio (Start > All Programs > SQL Server 2005 > SQL Server Management Studio), we can see the 4 new databases that have been created for us (in this example, ProjectServerTraining_Archive, ProjectServerTraining_Draft, ProjectServerTraining_Published, and ProjectServerTraining_Reporting):

    

   

8. Visiting our new PWA URL (http://vpc02/training, in this example) should display the PWA Home page for our new Project Server 2007 instance:

    

   

You should now have a freshly-provisioned instance of Project Server 2007 running in the same environment, which can have a separate configuration from the original instance, as well as a separate set of project and resource data. You can now visit the Server Settings area to begin configuring your new instance, such as enterprise custom field creation, OLAP Cube configuration, or reporting view customization.

Please note that I performed this procedure using a Project Server 2007 Virtual PC (VPC) image which I built using the procedure documented here (screenshots and all):

http://www.pptspaces.com/msprojectreporterblog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=31

Good Luck, and happy provisioning!