Tuesday, January 06, 2009

New year, new challange Project Server and SQL 2008

It has been a very turbulent 2008 with many changes to the company I am working for, but now it is 2009 and I know this will be a most interesting year in every way. I started the year with a holiday with my wife and kids AND Project Server 2007 :)

Adrian, a friend and college of mine and I spent a day installing Project Server and MOSS onto a Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 image. We did get the cube working ( after a couple of hair pulling events) and we did install the new Report Builder 2.0. The Report Builder 2.0 not only has a ribbon look and feel, finally Microsoft decided to allow the word output format out of the box which is excellent. All in all the installation was strait forward. Here are a couple of tips to consider when installing Project Server and MOSS on a windows and sql 2008 environment.

WINDOWS 2008 BE AWARE things:
- When installing Project Server 2007 and / or MOSS 2007 on a Windows 2008 environment ensure that you have the PS / MOSS media INCLUDING SP1,otherwise the install will be a very short experience :) Windows 2008 doesn't like non SP1 media

SQL 2008 BE AWARE things:
- When setting up the cube within the SQL 2008 environment refer to this link:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd285466.aspx
BUT there is one issue with this link. It askes you to download the backward compatibility components based on Feature Pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 - February 2007 this is actually not working. You will need to use the backward compatibility components of the
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Feature Pack, August 2008 ( which makes kind of sense :) )

- Furthermore, if you want to use the Report builder. By default when installing SQL 2008 Reporting Service, it will install Report builder 1.0, which es the same then 2005. If you want to have the REAL NEW Report builder, you will need to download Report Builder 2.0 which can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9f783224-9871-4eea-b1d5-f3140a253db6&displaylang=en

This Report Builder has great new features, a ribbon look and feel AND the ability to generate Word document "Out of the Box" YIEPPEEE.

So all report fanatics without technical skills, check out the report builder :)
Have a great start to 2009

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

to check out Reporting Services 2008 benefits for instance, check this http://blogs.msdn.com/chrisfie/archive/2008/12/09/microsoft-sql-server-reporting-services-2008-sample-project-server-reports.aspx

to upgrade your existing PS 2007 VPC I've also posted this: http://blogs.msdn.com/chrisfie/archive/2008/12/17/how-to-upgrade-your-existing-microsoft-project-vpc-running-on-sql-2005-to-sql-server-2008.aspx

Alexander Yaremchuk said...

OK, may you suggest what I need to install Report Builder 1.0 ?
I'm going to get crazy with that. Where is it hidden...

Unknown said...

Microsoft released Report Builder 2.0 Click once (instead of stand alone) in SQL 2008 PCU1. To replace the default click once app in report manager (site settings) or sharepoint central admin (Application Management tab) you will need to alter the app location to be /ReportBuilder/ReportBuilder_2_0_0_0.application for Reporting Services or /_vti_bin/ReportBuilder/ReportBuilder_2_0_0_0.application for sharepoint. Sanya - I hope this has answered your question....Report builder 1 is the current default click once and is accessable from report manager if you have the appropriate permissions for your role