Investigating #ProjectServer and #SharePoint errors #PS2007 #SP2007 #MOSS #PS2010 #SP2010

This is quick a quick post to summarise the main key areas that can be used when investigating any Project Server issues, I have included SharePoint as most would also apply to SharePoint.

Firstly I will just list the key tools / logs that can be used then go on talk about each one in more detail if needed.

• Project Server Queue
• SharePoint ULS logs / Monitoring
• IIS logs
• Windows Event logs
• Web.Config (custom errors off)
• SQL Server logs
• SQL Server Profiler

Project Server Queue

It is good practice to monitor the Project Server queue daily to make sure that jobs are processing and to catch any errors as soon as possible, as you can see below there are no jobs failed or processing currently in my test environment

If you find that a user complains about a issue that occurred the previous day, change the Job history back a day and refresh the status to see if anything failed in the queue.

If you come across any failed jobs click the message in the Error field “Click to view the error details”

A new window will pop up giving you more details on the error:

In this case I entered the incorrect SMTP server so that I could generate an error for the purpose of this post! If you scroll down the error message but don’t find anything helpful, at the end you will see a JobUID to search the SharePoint ULS logs for more details.

Copy the JobUID then take a look at the SharePoint ULS logs, which leads us on the the next area.

SharePoint Unified Logging Service (ULS) / Monitoring

I wont go into details as there is a very good MSDN article found here for 2010: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg193966.aspx. The ULS log viewer is recommended, for more details:http://blogs.msdn.com/b/opal/archive/2009/12/22/uls-viewer-for-sharepoint-2010-troubleshooting.aspx

Project Server 2007 / SharePoint 2007 also uses the SharePoint ULS logs, the default locations is of the log files on the SharePoint server(s) is C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\LOGS.

Following on from the Project Server queue error, you would open up the log file that is likely to contain more details (check the Project Server manage queue page for the time that the job failed) then search for the JobUID given in the error. In this example the JobUID is 8fe02d26-8892-4144-9d27-b07f21cb3f54

Examine the logs and hopefully you should be able to workout why this failed or once you have what looks to be a meaningful error copy and paste this into your favourite Internet search engine and you might find a fix!

Also worth noting is the System Centre Operations Manager (SCOM) management pack for monitoring SharePoint / Project Server 2010: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=4419 and for Project Server 2007: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=24107

Knowledge articles for SCOM and Project Server 2010: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff678247.aspx

IIS logs

IIS might be usefully when diagnosing page load issues. The logs can be found in the following locations by default:

IIS 6.0 – %windir%\System32\LogFiles

IIS 7.0 / 7.5 – %SystemDrive%\inetpub\logs\LogFiles

Web.config

Updating the web.config file(s) is useful to see actual pages errors rather than seeing the custom friendly error if an error occurs. There are plenty of articles on the Internet about turning of SharePoint custom errors in the web.config files.

SQL Server logs

The SQL server logs can be useful when investigating issues depending on what the issue is, looking at the SQL logs you would quickly be able to identify any failed database login attempts, database locks, if a database file is full etc.

SQL Server Profiler

The SQL server profiler is a very useful tool for investigating Project Server issues, for example is you have a Project that continuously errors on save or publish you can run a SQL trace while you submit another save or publish job then look though the output and hopefully see where the issue occurs. It would help you get to the bottom of the issue, whether it is a resource issue, task or assignment issue etc. Worth noting here is, please do not make any direct database updates, make changes via Project Professional / PWA / custom code via the PSI.

For more details on the SQL Server Profiler see the following MSDN article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187929.aspx

If you find yourself with an issue that you can’t get to the bottom of I would recommend starting a new post on the Project Server forum found here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/projectserver2010

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