Microsoft Business Intelligence Blog

Configuring Kerberos for SharePoint 2007

Patrick Husting — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:27:00 GMT

If you want your credentials to pass throughout all your servers for PPS to work correctly, you really need to enable Kerbero's. I found a couple great articles that explain this and the process to do it. Enjoy...

Another one

http://blogs.msdn.com/james_world/archive/2007/08/20/essential-guide-to-kerberos-in-sharepoint.aspx

Another one in regards to Active Directory

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/technologies/security/tkerbdel.mspx

PerformancePoint Monitoring Readme for SP 1

Patrick Husting — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:24:00 GMT

From the PerformancePoint Server 2007 SP1 Monitoring readme which you can download here

http://office.microsoft.com/download/afile.aspx?AssetID=AM102778591033

PerformancePoint Monitoring Readme

Effective Date: June 6, 2008

Introduction

This file contains important information that was not available when the documentation for the product was written. Workarounds, when they are available, are provided for known issues.

The content in this Readme file applies to the PerformancePoint Monitoring components of Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 with Service Pack 1 (SP1). These include:

· PerformancePoint Monitoring Server

· PerformancePoint Dashboard Designer

· PerformancePoint Dashboard Viewer for SharePoint Services.

PerformancePoint Planning Readme for SP 1

Patrick Husting — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:21:00 GMT

From the PerformancePoint Server 2007 Planning Readme file. You can download it here.

http://office.microsoft.com/download/afile.aspx?AssetID=AM102778581033

PerformancePoint Planning Readme

Effective date: June 4, 2008.

Introduction

This file contains important information that was not available when the documentation for the product was written. Workarounds, when they are available, are provided for known issues.

The content in this Readme file applies to the following Planning components of PerformancePoint Server 2007 with Service Pack 1 (SP1):

· PerformancePoint Planning Administration Console

· PerformancePoint Planning Server

· PerformancePoint Planning Business Modeler

· PerformancePoint Add-in for Excel

· PerformancePoint Data Import Wizard for Microsoft Dynamics AX

· The Alpine Ski House Sample Application and the PerformancePoint Server Minimal Verification Sample Application

Microsoft PerformancePoint Server 2007 SP1 Shipped!

Patrick Husting — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

From Microsoft

We are very happy to announce that Service Pack 1 of Microsoft PerformancePoint Server 2007 has been signed off to ship! Representing Microsoft in the growing performance management market, PerformancePoint Server allows customers to align employees to their organization’s strategy by:

· Planning for the future of the business

· Monitoring the performance of your organization

· Analyzing the results

Thanks to everyone who worked on this release (there were many involved) and those in other organizations that assisted in that work. This is our first service pack of our first release so it signals a milestone in our internal rhythm of business.

With this new Service Pack, many enhancements have been made to help customers enhance their decision making with the monitoring, analyzing and planning functionality found in PerformancePoint Server. Usability, stability and performance enhancements are key focus areas for PerformancePoint Server SP1. Customers will have new workbook options to help improve the performance of queries and show the effects of changes in planning assignments for better “what-if” analysis.

Customers using strategy maps and KPI’s for monitoring and analytics will see improvements to scorecard and filter usability. Scorecards with negative numbers are easier to read and dashboards with filters are now much faster to render and provide the ability to link reports directly to KPI’s. There is also added support for Tabular filters and Time Intelligence Post Formula filters, as well as the ability to link multiple filters to a strategy map.

In addition, SP1 adds support for Windows Server 2008. Support for SQL Server 2008 will be available later this year with PerformancePoint Server SP2.

For more information about what’s available in SP1, please check the online help:

Office Online: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/performancepoint/FX102380591033.aspx

PerformancePoint Server SP1 availability:

Download Center Pages:

Enterprise Version 32-bit: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=28B1F86B-B7F2-4215-8BC9-8F8507FF8831&displaylang=en

Enterprise Version 64-bit: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=6245C354-9191-4C4D-8C0C-C10D6C778AF8&displaylang=en

Evaluation Version 32-bit: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=6372C24F-67DD-42DD-B034-748907B23420&displaylang=en

Evaluation Version 64-bit: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3ADAC793-DEF0-4BA8-A9AB-228979B8DB40&displaylang=en

ProductsWeb for internal users:

http://productsweb/product.aspx?productnameid=2170&status=3&platformid=-999&category=1

MSDN:
We anticipate SP1 availability for MSDN subscribers in the next couple of weeks.

Volume Licensing:

English bits will be available in Volume Licensing in August, 2008

Documentation:

On Office Online: Links to README and other useful information: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/performancepoint/FX102380591033.aspx
On TechNet: For the IT pro - Deployment Guide, Operations Guide, Whitepapers: http://technet.microsoft.com/office/performancepoint/default.aspx

More PPS M&A SP1 Features/Fixes

Patrick Husting — Thu, 08 May 2008 16:03:00 GMT

PerformancePoint Monitoring Server SP1 includes the following enhancements:

· Support for Microsoft Windows Server 2008

· Add a default display condition report view (see related blog post)

· Multi-select Monitoring server filters passing to multi-select SQL Server Reporting Services report parameters

· Time Intelligence Post Filter formula date corrections

o In some instances filters were passing a one day offset, this is resolved

o Date format of filter will now honor localized formats

· Negative numbers will not cause a text wrap in scorecards

· Dashboard filter performance improvements

· Expand/collapse functions work properly with hidden parent KPI members

· Updated sample data file

· Tabular filter support

· Multi-select filters can now be passed to a Strategy Map report view

· Limit of 1,000 characters in an MDX expression for KPIs has been removed

· No longer blocked from using SQL Server 2008 as a data source (NOTE: full support for 2008 is coming in SP2, we just won’t prevent you from running on it with SP1)

Useful SharePoint Site

Patrick Husting — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:19:00 GMT

Since PPS M&A requirements SharePoint, I bet you find yourself doing a lot of SharePoint setup and development. I found the following link today that I have found kind of useful.

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/Pedia/pages/home.aspx

Installing PPS on a Domain Controller

Patrick Husting — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:09:00 GMT

I got this from an internal document on how to install PPS on the same machine that has Active Directory installed.

Domain Controllers

While it's not a hard-and-fast rule, most AD administrators will tell you that a domain controller should not run other applications. Since your domain controllers are the "keys" to your network "kingdom", you should do your best to isolate them from attack. By adding additional applications to run on a DC, you are increasing the number of ways that a malicious user can attack that DC. Depending on the size of your network, having dedicated domain controllers may also improve performance in terms of user authentication, and logon times.

Running PerformancePoint Server 2007 on a domain controller is not an advised production scenario and is not a supported scenario. This is why the installer blocks the install of PerformancePoint Server 2007 on domain controllers.

Workaround

There is a command line parameter that will allow the PerformancePoint Server 2007 to install and configure on a domain controller. There are some manual steps to be complete before installation and configuration.

Installing PerformancePoint Planning Server on a Domain Controller

1. You MUST create a new domain account for the Planning Service Identity. You cannot use the domain administrator account as the Service Identity.

2. Using Start\Administrators\Active Directory Users and Computers:

a. Create a new domain account, e.g. DOMAIN\PlanningSI

b. Add it to the Domain Administrators group

c. Add it to the IIS_WPG group

3. Open Start\Administrative Tools\Domain Controller Security Policy

a. Under Local Policies\User Rights Assignment:

i. Grant PlanningSI the “Log on as a batch job” right

ii. Grant PlanningSI the “Log on as a service” right

4. Install the Planning server MSI using this command line:

a. msiexec /i PPLSrv.msi SKIPOSCHECK=true

5. In the Configuration Wizard, specify the domain account created above as the SI account

Installing PerformancePoint Monitoring Server on a Domain Controller

1. If you are using a domain account, you must add it to the Administrators and IIS_WPG groups before installing the Monitoring Server. You don’t need to do this if using Network Service (recommended).

2. To add a domain account to the appropriate groups: Use Start\Administrators\Active Directory Users and Computers:

a. Add it to the Domain Administrators group

b. Add it to the IIS_WPG group

3. Install the Monitoring server MSI using this command line:

a. msiexec /i PscSrv.msi SKIPOSCHECK=true

PerformancePoint Server 2007 Service Pack 1

Patrick Husting — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:38:00 GMT

What is in it, got this email the following week. It doesn't list everything, but if they are doing everything that is in the email, that is a good thing.

· Filter performance – you should see a 4-6x improvement in your filter performance, this is an area we would like some feedback on

· Multi-select filters in PPS will now pass to multi-select parameters in SSRS reports

· Negative numbers causing text wrap

· Time Intelligence day offset issues and localization issues

· Display conditions not working for strategy map and excel services views

· Null actual values yielding incorrect status

· Dashboard designer dashboard layout improvements

· Chart/grid bug fixes

· Strategy map improvements

· And many more

There are almost 300 fixes that are implemented in SP1.

Integrate SharePoint Web Parts into a PerformancePoint Server Dashboard

Patrick Husting — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:50:00 GMT

I saw this question on an internal Microsoft alias, so I answered it and several people like the answer so I figured I should blog it...

Question: What are the possibilities for combining Dashboard elements (KPIs, scorecards, filters and reports) with SharePoint elements (e.g. as shown below: list of links, announcement and shared documents)? Can this be accomplished through PerformancePoint Server / Dashboard Designer or do we have to construct the page from SharePoint using the different webparts, including Dashboard elements?

You can also do this, we have done this numerous times, works well. I have also presented this "how-to" at the Office and SharePoint developer conferences recently.

Create a blank .ASPX page using SharePoint Designer
Drop your desired "List" onto the page
Link the page with your site style sheet, so it looks pretty
Save the page and remember the URL
Open PPS M&A Designer
Create a NEW Web Page Report View
Enter the URL from above
Go to your Dashboard page and drop that report view where you want it.
Publish ALL and then Publish Page to SharePoint.
Done.

Example Screen

New Performance Management book! Drive Business Performance.

Patrick Husting — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:03:00 GMT

Got an email from Bruno today about a new book by him, Bruno Aziza and Joey Fitts.

I hope you have been doing well. I just wanted to share some news with you – and it’s not an April Fool’s Day joke! My book, Drive Business Performance is being printed as we speak! It will be available at your local bookstore (Barnes & Noble, Borders, etc.) by April 25, 2008. However, you can pre-order it now for 40% off from

About the book

Stories and guidance…not jargon

Drive Business Performance explains the competitive advantage experienced by organizations that create and manage a "Culture of Performance." It is filled with first-hand accounts from Fortune 500 companies who are winning by building accountability, intelligence, and informed decision-making into their organizational DNA. The book aims to demystify performance management and is jargon-free.

Debut events

· World Innovation Forum in NYC on April 8-9^th: Featured in a session on Please let me know if you happen to be attending the World Innovation, the book will make its debut there.

· Stanford Executive Briefing on April 16^th: The book co-author Joey Fitts and I will present on How to Drive Business Performance. Please let me know if you are planning to attend & I’ll look forward to seeing you there!

I hope you enjoy the book!

Performance Tuning and Capacity planning for PPS M&A

Patrick Husting — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 00:46:00 GMT

Found this article on PerformancePoint Monitoring and Analytics performance tuning.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb660539.aspx

PPS Live on the web

Patrick Husting — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 23:37:00 GMT

One of my consultants passed this link onto me with PPS M&A live on the web against web logs. Pretty neat, check it out.

http://richardlees.com.au/sites/Demonstrations/Documents/Web%20Dashboard%20-%20close%20to%20real%20time%20analytics%20of%20this%20internet%20site/Internet%20Activity%20Today.aspx

PPS Management Reporting - More Screenshots

Patrick Husting — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:24:00 GMT

My laptop was not joined to a domain, so it took a little while longer to install that I wanted it to. The setup help wasn't any good either... Anyway, I got it up and running. Looks like this should be fun to learn... More to come

The first screenshot is what the startup screen looks like.

This screen is a good example of the Report Definitions.

PerformancePoint 2007 Management Reporter

Patrick Husting — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 14:26:00 GMT

Microsoft just released to manufacturing PerformancePoint 2007 Management Reporter. I'm in the process of installing it and will upload some screenshots and thoughts over the next couple weeks.

Microsoft Gets Gartner's Business Intelligence Top Ranking

Patrick Husting — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 20:42:00 GMT

Business Objects and Cognos have long been considered the leaders in business intelligence platforms. But in a surprising new report, Gartner ranks Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) ahead of those companies in its ability to execute.

More at link: http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206104502&subSection=News