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Test operational policy settings in Project Server 2010

 

Applies to: Project Server 2010

Topic Last Modified: 2011-11-21

Summary:  The eighth article in a series of nine articles about how to test a Microsoft Project Server 2010 deployment as an enterprise project management system administrator or solution tester. Use the series as a guide to test the functionality of a newly deployed Project Server 2010 instance. The articles in this series discuss the functionalities that are on the Server Settings page, and some initial tests that you can run to connect and check server communications by using the Project Professional 2010 client application.

Contents

  • Alerts and Reminders

  • Additional server settings

  • Server-side event handler configuration

  • Active Directory Resource Pool synchronization (Part 1)

  • Active Directory Resource Pool synchronization (Part 2)

  • Project sites

  • Project site provisioning settings

  • Bulk update project sites

  • Next steps

Alerts and Reminders

Alerts and Reminders enable you to define notification-email settings and to schedule the email reminder service.

Test Step Expected / Desired Results Actual Results (if deviation)

1. Open Microsoft Project Web App.

The Project Web App loads.

2. Click Server Settings.

The Server Settings page appears.

3. Click Alerts and Reminders.

    (Located in the Operational Policies section.)

The Alerts and Reminders page appears.

4. Specify the name of the SMTP Server.

5. Specify the From Address.

6. Specify the company domain name.

7. Specify the email footer.

    Example:

  • Please contact the PMO for questions regarding the Project Server Settings.

8. Schedule e-mail reminder service.

    Specify 11am.

The e-mail reminder service scans the Project Server database at the scheduled time each day, and sends e-mail messages to remind users about their upcoming or overdue tasks and status reports.

9. Publish a project.

    Add yourself as one of the team members.

10. Open Microsoft Outlook and check for new mail.

Project Server has sent you a notification regarding the new assignment.

Additional server settings

This page enables the administrator to set additional global settings for the server instance. For example, the administrator could allow master projects to be published.

Test Step Expected / Desired Results Actual Results (if deviation)

1. Open Project Web App.

The Project Web App loads.

2. Click Server Settings.

The Server Settings page appears.

3. Click Additional Server Settings.

    (Located in the Operational Policies section.)

The Additional Server Settings page appears.

Server-side event handler configuration

Use this page to manage custom server-side events. The following are examples:

  • Once a developer has written a server-side event, the EPM administrator can view summary details of the event handler on the server.

    There are several standard events that occur on the server already.

  • Project: Create – the event is triggered each time that a project is created on the server.

Test Step Expected / Desired Results Actual Results (if deviation)

1. Open Project Web App.

The Project Web App loads.

2. Click Server Settings.

The Server Settings page appears.

3. Click Server-Side event handler configuration.

    (Located in the Operational Policies section.)

The Server-Side event handler configuration page appears.

4. Click the event sender.

    (Located in the Time and Task Management section.)

Event handlers refresh at the bottom of the page, based on the event sender that you select.

5. Click new event handler.

    (Located in the Time and Task Management section.)

You can use the page that is displayed to specify the event handler.

6. Specify the Display and System information about the event and then click Save.

    (Located in the Time and Task Management section.)

Event details are saved to the server.

Important

This is only used when a developer has created custom event handlers that should be registered with Project Server.

Active Directory Resource Pool synchronization (Part 1)

The Active Directory resource pool synchronization enables you to add or remove resources in the Enterprise Resource Pool (ERP) based on who is added or removed from a single Active Directory Group. For example:

  1. A new employee joins Contoso.

  2. A process is in place to add new users to the Microsoft Project 2010 Active Directory group.

  3. The system synchronizes on a nightly basis with the Active Directory group.

  4. If new users have been added to the group, they are added to the Project 2010 ERP.

  5. If users have been removed from the group they are flagged as inactive.

Test Step Expected / Desired Results Actual Results (if deviation)

1. Open Project Web App.

The Project Web App loads.

2. Click Server Settings.

The Server Settings page appears.

3. Click Active Directory Resource Pool Synchronization.

    (Located in the Operational Policies section.)

The Active Directory Resource Pool Synchronization page appears.

4. Click the Find Group button.

A dialog box appears that enables you to select a group from Active Directory.

5. Select a Valid Active Directory Group.

6. Set the scheduling option.

    Set it to update every night at 10 PM.

7. Set the resource options.

    Set the group to automatically reactivate inactive users.

8. Click Save and synchronize now.

Project Server group should synchronise with the Active Directory group.

9. Do the following:

  • Add new people to the Active Directory group who are not in the EPM resource pool.

  • Run the sync.

  • Check whether they are resources in the enterprise resource pool.

Users added to the Active Directory Group are added to the Project Server ERP.

Active Directory Resource Pool synchronization (Part 2)

The Active Directory ERP synchronization only adds the resource to the ERP and the Team Member Security Group.

This test scenario explains how you can use Active Directory groups to grant users additional permissions to project data. For example, Contoso might want to grant Project Managers create-project permissions as soon as they start or it might want to grant executives automatic authentication in Project Web App for certain management reports in Project Server by default.

Important

Active Directory ERP Sync must have the same users as the groups indicated in the custom groups in this section.

Test Step Expected / Desired Results Actual Results (if deviation)

1. Contact the Active Directory administration.

  • Request that they create a new group such as PMOProjectManagers or PMOExecutives.

  • Request that they add some users to the groups so that you can test. For example, try using the same user names that you used in the previous test scenario.

  

2. Open Project Web App.

The Project Web App opens.

3. Click Server Settings.

The Server Settings page appears.

4. Click Manage Group.

A list of groups appears.

5. Click the group to put it in edit mode.

6. Click find group.

    Locate the new Active Directory test group.

7. Click Save.

The Active Directory column has the group name in it that you selected.

Note

In steps 8 – 10, you run the sync.
You can schedule the synchronization to run at night; however, you want to test whether it is working in this test scenario.

8. Hover over the group.

    Click the Active Directory Sync Options button.

A dialog box that has several options appears.

9. Click Save and synchronize now.

The Active Directory Sync runs; wait several minutes.

10. After the Sync runs, check the Project Server groups details.

The same users that were added to the Active Directory group are now added to the Project 2010 group.

Project sites

This page enables the administrator to perform the following functions:

  • Create a SharePoint site for a Project

  • Edit the SharePoint site address

  • Synchronize the security between the sites

  • Delete a site

  • Open the project's SharePoint site

Test Step Expected / Desired Results Actual Results (if deviation)

1. Open Project Web App.

The Project Web App loads.

2. Click Server Settings.

The Server Settings page appears.

3. Click Project Sites.

    (Located in the Operational Policies section.)

The Project Site page appears.

Create a site for the project

1. Click a project.

2. Click the Create site button.

Edit the site address

If a site already exists and the URL is incorrect, the administrator can edit the URL.

1. Click a project.

2. Click the Edit Site Address button.

The Edit Site Address dialog box appears.

3. Select the Web Application and specify the desired site URL.

4. Click the TestURL button.

The site opens.

5. Click the OK button.

The changes are saved to the server.

Synchronize the security between the sites

Each site that is created has custom security permission levels that synchronize with security groups in Project Server.

For example, each site has the following security permission levels:

  • Web Administrators (Microsoft Project Server)

  • Project Managers (Microsoft Project Server)

  • Team Members (Microsoft Project Server)

  • Readers (Microsoft Project Server)

1. Click a project.

The toolbar is enabled.

2. Click the Synchronize button.

A dialog box appears.

3. Open the site as the administrator.

4. Click Site setting.

The site opens.

5. Click the advanced permissions menu.

(Located in the users and permissions section)

A list of users and groups appears.

6. Important:

    Click the settings/permission levels sub menu to view the permission levels that exist.

After the synchronization is complete, the users are added, together with their related security permissions.

7. Try Again.

    Delete all the users from the Project site.

    Click the synchronize button again.

    Refresh the list of users.

The users are displayed in the relevant Project site.

Delete a site

Important

Deleting a site is permanent; use with caution.

1. Click a project.

2. Click the Synchronize button.

A dialog box appears.

3. Click the Delete button.

The system prompts you to confirm that you want to delete the site.

4. Click the TestURL button.

The site opens.

5. Click the OK button.

The site is deleted.

Open the projects site

1. Click a project.

2. Click the Go to Project Workspace site settings button.

The site opens.

Project site provisioning settings

Administrators use this page to define the configuration settings to use for new sites. For example, they might consider the following:

  • Should the site be automatically provisioned when a project is published by project managers?

  • Which instance of Microsoft SharePoint Server will be used when doing the provisioning?

Test Step Expected / Desired Results Actual Results (if deviation)

1. Open Project Web App.

The Project Web App loads.

2. Click Server Settings.

The Server Settings page appears.

3. Click Project Site provisioning settings.

    (Located in the Operational Policies section.)

The Project Site provisioning settings page appears.

4. Select the default Web Application.

    https://ServerName/

    Specify the site URL.

    Example:

    To provision all the sites under the Project Server, specify Project Server.

    Thus, when sites are created, their URLs resemble the following:

    https://ServerName/PWA/Site1

    https://ServerName/PWA/Site2

    https://ServerName/PWA/Site3

5. Select the automatic provisioning setting.

    This way, PMs do not have to decide whether to create a SharePoint site.

6. Select the automatically synchronize option.

    This way, team members/project managers can service the project's SharePoint site.

7. Click Save.

Configuration settings are saved to the server. When new sites are created, they use the settings in this page.

Bulk update project sites

Use this page to update the URL path of one or more project sites. You might have to run this tool after you restore or migrate a site or content database that contains project sites.

Test Step Expected / Desired Results Actual Results (if deviation)

1. Open Project Web App.

The Project Web App loads.

2. Click Server Settings.

The Server Settings page appears.

3. Click Bulk Update Project Sites.

    (Located in the Operational Policies section.)

The Bulk Update Project Sites page appears.

4. Select the previous site path and URL and set the new set path and URL.

    Select or clear Update Content Types.

    Select or clear Synchronize site permissions.

5. Click Save.

Configuration settings are saved to the server; the site paths change according to your specifications.