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Create a PWA site in backward compatibility mode (Project Server 2010)

 

Applies to: Project Server 2010

Topic Last Modified: 2011-08-05

Backward Compatibility Mode (BCM) is a feature in Microsoft Project Server 2010 that assists in the upgrade of your Enterprise Project Management environment. While BCM is turned on, Project Server 2010 accepts connections from Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007 with Service Pack 2 (SP2) and Microsoft Project Professional 2010.

BCM is enabled automatically after you upgrade to Project Server 2010 from a previous version, but you can also create a new Microsoft Project Web App (PWA) site with BCM turned on by using a set of empty Office Project Server 2007 databases. This allows you to continue to use Office Project Professional 2007 in your organization.

Note

Some new features in Project Server 2010, such as manually scheduled tasks, are not available while BCM is turned on. Other features, such as departmental and workflow-controlled custom fields, have limited functionality.

Creating a new PWA site with BCM turned on consists of the following steps:

  1. Download the empty Office Project Server 2007 databases

  2. Restore the empty Office Project Server 2007 databases to an instance of Microsoft SQL Server

  3. Create a PWA site that uses the restored databases

Download the databases

A set of empty Office Project Server 2007 databases is available from the Microsoft Download Center. This includes the four Project Server databases — Draft, Published, Archive, and Reporting. These are supported for production use.

These databases are English databases but they can be used to create PWA sites in other languages as long as both languages (English and the language of the PWA site) are installed on Project Server. For more information about installing language packs on Project Server, see Deploy language packs (Project Server 2010).

You can download the databases from the Microsoft Download Center (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=207026).

The database backup files are provided in a compressed folder. Unzip the database backup files to a file share that you can access from the instance of SQL Server where you want to restore the backups.

Restore the databases

Each of the four databases must be restored to an instance of SQL Server. The Draft, Published, and Archive databases must all reside on the same instance of SQL Server. The Reporting database can be restored to a different instance of SQL Server if you want.

Use the following procedure to restore each database backup.

To restore a database

  1. Open SQL Server Management Studio and connect to the database engine.

  2. Right-click Databases and click Restore Database.

  3. Select the From device option and click the browse button.

  4. Click Add, select the backup that you want to restore, and then click OK.

  5. Click OK.

  6. In the Restore column of the Select the backup sets to restore list, select the check box for the backup that you want to restore.

  7. In the To database text box, type a name for the restored database.

  8. Click OK.

Create a PWA site that uses the restored databases

Creating a PWA site that uses the restored databases involves creating a new PWA site in the Project Service Application and specifying the names of the restored databases.

To create a PWA site that uses the existing databases

  1. In the SharePoint Central Administration Web site under Application Management, click Manage service applications.

  2. Click the Project Server service application.

  3. Click Create Project Web App Site.

  4. Complete the Create Project Web App Site page as designated in the following table:

    Option Description

    SharePoint Web Application to Host Project Web App

    The Web application for the PWA site.

    Project Web App path

    The path from the root site for this PWA site.

    Select a language

    The user interface language for this PWA site.

    Use Project Web App path as host header

    Use this option if you want to host PWA on a root URL (for example, https://www.contoso.com).

    Administrator Account

    The user account that will be added to the Project Server Administrators security group in this instance of PWA. You must use this account the first time that you access PWA.

    Primary database server

    The instance of SQL Server where you restored the Office Project Server 2007 empty databases.

    Published database name

    The name of the Office Project Server 2007 Published database that you restored.

    Draft database name

    The name of the Office Project Server 2007 Draft database that you restored.

    Archive database name

    The name of the Office Project Server 2007 Archive database that you restored.

    Reporting database server

    The instance of SQL Server where you restored the Office Project Server 2007 Reporting database.

    Use primary database server

    Select the check box if you restored the Reporting database to the primary database server specified earlier. Clear the check box if you restored the Reporting database to a different database server, and specify the instance of SQL Server that you want to use in the Reporting database server box.

    Reporting database name

    The name of the Project Server Reporting database for this instance of PWA.

    Quota for SharePoint content in this site

    The maximum site storage, in megabytes, for the PWA site.

    Quota Warning for SharePoint content in this site

    The site storage level, in megabytes, at which a warning e-mail message will be sent to the site administrator.

  5. Click OK.

Turning off BCM

You can use the PWA site with BCM for as long as required. When you no longer need to be able to access the PWA site from Office Project Professional 2007, you can turn off BCM, and the new features available in Project Server 2010 will become available.

Before you disable BCM, verify that all projects are checked in. If any projects are checked out when BCM is disabled, mismatched projects may exist (for example, the checked out projects will remain in Backward Compatibility Mode). Projects in this condition can lead to problems with edits and data loss, and can cause Project Professional 2010 to stop responding.

Important

Turning off BCM upgrades the database schemas of the Project Server databases to the standard Project Server 2010 schema. Once BCM has been turned off, it cannot be turned on again.

For more information about turning off BCM, see Project Server 2010 backward compatibility mode (BCM).