Managing the Cube Building Service in Project Server 2007

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Topic Last Modified: 2016-11-14

The Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 Cube Building Service uses the technology provided by SQL Analysis Services to create a database containing several online analytical processing (OLAP) cubes that are used for data analysis reporting. After ensuring that configuration requirements are met, you need to manage additional tasks such as scheduling the cube build, specifying fields for cube data, customizing the OLAP cubes, and configuring access to the cube data.

Proper configuration of the Cube database is essential if you want your users to be able to access the data that they need. Your Project Server administrator should use the Project Web Access cube management pages to ensure that the OLAP cubes are configured to meet your users' needs.

You can use the cube management pages to optimize the frequency of updates to your cube data. Because updating OLAP cube data can be very resource intensive on the computer running SQL Server Analysis Services (where the OLAP database resides), you can determine the proper settings based on the need for your users to see the most recent data, the amount of data to be updated, and the resources dedicated to SQL Server Analysis Services.

To make your cube data available to users, you must create Data Analysis views in Project Web Access. Data Analysis views are similar to Portfolio Analysis views in Microsoft Office Project Server 2003. The Create Views page in Project Web Access Server Settings allows you to configure these views to your users' needs and manage access to them. If you are not using Project Web Access, there are also other methods of reporting on Project data, such as viewing Project data through Microsoft Office Excel 2007.

The Office Project Server 2007 Cube Building Service provides a Build Tracking Comments utility that posts status information about your cube build. If the cube build should fail, it will post detailed information about the error. This information will allow you to troubleshoot the problem or search for reference information about the error.

The following tasks for managing the Cube Building Service are performed in this sequence:

• Specify build and configuration settings for the cube database   Describes using the Cube management pages in Project Web Access server settings.

• View OLAP Cube data   Describes methods for your users to access OLAP cube data.

• Troubleshoot the Cube Build Service   Describes common errors and provides possible solutions.

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