Howard @ MSFT selling BI

Same handy dandy links.

How to integrate SharePoint Server 2007 or Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services by using the Reporting Services Add-in

· Tom Wisnowski’s “Configuring Kerberos for SharePoint” document (corpnet)

· Joel Oleson’s Kerberos Authentication and SharePoint Key Resources

· Information Integration: SSRS and MOSS 2007

· SSRS and MOSS 2007

· Configuring Kerberos for SharePoint 2007: Part 1 - Base Configuration for SharePoint

· Use Kerberos to Secure MOSS 2007

· Essential Tips On Kerberos for SharePoint Deployers

· Configuring Kerberos for SharePoint

· Configuring Constrained Delegation for Kerberos (IIS 6.0)

· Keith Brown’s (free) online book (The .NET Developer's Guide to Windows Security)

o Item 59: What is Kerberos?

o Item 60: What is a service principal name SPN?

o Item 61: How to use service principal names

o Item 62: What is delegation?

The BI Blog has a posting on a new tool to migrate planning models between servers.

http://blogs.msdn.com/bi/archive/2008/06/02/performancepoint-planning-data-migration-tool.aspx

Downloadable implementation plans have been posted on technet. Pretty cool freebees. I don't see any other BI vendor giving away IP.

• Project Plan Framework (.pptx)

• Dimension Mapping for Input Forms/Output Reports (.xls)

• PerformancePoint Server Configuration (template) (.xlsx)

• Monitoring and Analytics Project Plan (template) (.mpp)

• Operations and Maintenance Guide (template) (.docx)

• Planning Design Configuration (template) (.docx)

• Planning Project (template) (.mpp)

• PerformancePoint Server Specifications (template) (.docx)

• Preliminary Requirements Gathering and Scoping Questionnaire (.docx)

• Source Dimension Fact Data Mapping (.xlsx)

• Test Plan (template) (.docx)

• Training Plan (template) (.docx)

Its a bit of a hack but it works.

Go to SQL Server and look at the DBSchemaVersion tables in the PPSPlanningService DB and the PPSPlanningSystem DB.  They should have entries like this:

Change UpgradeStatus to NULL in both DB's.

For Planning follow the steps in technet. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc514369(TechNet.10).aspx

For Step 3, Run the <sp1filename>.msp from a command and use the switch SKIPREQCHECK=1. You only need to run the switch for the PPLSrv.msp and PSCSrv.msp files.

For Montoring Server, you do not need to run the configuration manager. I would however delete the Apps directory under Documents and Settings/<user>/Local Settings, which is where Dashboard Designer lives, and go back to Monitoring Central and Download Dashboard Designer again.

Dashboard Designer File Version is 3.0.3916

Planning Business Modeler File Version is 3.0.3917

Excel Add-in File Version 3.0.3917

I came across a very good idea to automate the creation of PPS KPI's. Thanks to Tim Morgan.

The Monitoring SDK is documented here:  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb187388.aspx

The “Kpi” class is here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.performancepoint.scorecards.kpi.aspx

The basics:

1. Write a .Net application that talks to the PPS Monitoring web service “PMService.asmx”.  The usual URL is: http://<serverName>:40000/webservice/pmservice.asmx

2. In your application, create a new KPI object:  Kpi newKpi = Kpi.CreateNew();

3. Fill out all the KPI properties, including a new ID:  Example: 

newKpi.Guid = Guid.NewGuid();

newKpi.Name.Text = “Test KPI #1”;

(continue filling out properties such as Description, and also the Actual and Targets)

4. Publish it to the server, which stores it in the database:  webService.CreateKpi(newKpi);

Here is a code snippet that shows how you can use the DLL “Microsoft.PerformancePoint.Scorecards.Client” to attach to the web service, as opposed to letting .Net generate code from the WSDL (which will also work):

IBpm webService = PmService.CreateInstance(“http://<serverName>:40000/webservice/pmservice.asmx”, 60000);

Then you can make your web service calls:   webService.CreateKpi(newKpi);