Open Management Studio and run the following query:
SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('productversion'), SERVERPROPERTY ('productlevel'), SERVERPROPERTY ('edition')
If SQL 2008 R2 is installed, the following results should be returned:
10.50.1600.1     RTM     Enterprise Edition (64-bit)

The following would indicate SQL Server 2008, with SP1;
10.0.2740.0   SP1     Enterprise Edition (64-bit)

SharePoint 2010 will install and run, including PerformancePoint Services on Windows 7.  This is nice as you can now develop on a laptop without losing sleep, hibernate, other client features and driver issues..  You will need a 64bit machine, preferrably with 6-8 gb ram.

SharePoint 2010 will not install by default on Windows 7, and there are a few workarounds provided by MS here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee554869(office.14).aspx

Successfully installed the RC bits, but was not able to install Patch 4747. Upon configuring Sharepoint, I was unable to create the configuration db.  Install log stated this:

Failed to create the configuration database.

Read More »

This is a statement from a seemingly more official document that can be viewed on the PPS TechNet site at:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/ppsplanning/thread/9d02d0d5-2fd3-4dcf-8517-45fb5ba9177e

The quote is from the last sentence of point 1- What will happen to PerformancePoint Server?:

"Performance management is a critical component of business intelligence and Microsoft will continue marketing and R&D investment in this area in future product releases."

Maybe there is another life for some type of Planning application?  Holding out hope that Microsoft will provide guidance soon on the vision of this statement.

Apparently, the rumors are true.  This is the closest "official" item I've been able to find, but it does appear MS will abandon the Planning component for now:

http://blogs.msdn.com/bi/archive/2009/01/23/microsoft-bi-strategy-update.aspx

Many rumors were circulated today about PerformancePoint changing direction.  These existed of the following:

• PPS Monitoring & Analytics would be integrated into the next release of Sharepoint.
• PerformancePoint (PPS) Planning would be discontinuted, although supported through a service pack 3 released in 2009.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/ppsplanning/thread/001d424a-bc83-4f5e-afd5-76467c5b8908

Those are the only details I have.  Hopefully, they are not completely true, as it would be unfortunate to have the planning component discontinued.

Please feel free to update or add information as to the future direction of the PPS Planning application.

Service Pack 2 for PerformancePoint Server 2007 is now available for download from Microsoft here:

PPS SP2- 32 bit, x86

PPS SP2- 64 bit, x64

Here you will also find what's new with SP2, namely Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V and SQL Server 2008 support.

So you reversed the signs for Income accounts in your SSIS package, and can't figure out why they will not load correctly in your automated PPS Business Modeler job load?  That may be attributed to a setting on the model job load referencing "unsigned values".  If this is set to "True" PPS will reverse the signs for specific accounts- namely Income accounts.  Since you have already reversed the signs in the ELT, they will be reversed again.  Therefore, you must set this value to "False" or change the SSIS package to not reverse the Income account signs.

The following are common BizSystemFlag errors encountered with loading a PPS model from the StagingDB: 

921- Duplicate Label found across New Row(200) and Existing Row(100)

922- Duplicate Label found within New Row(200)

926- MemberId must be NULL for New Row(200)

927- Label and Name must ... Read More »

If you have existing Planning applicatoins when installing SP1 for PerformancePoint, you must upgrade the databases to reflect the install.  Otherwise, you will not be able to see or connect to the applications after installing.  Also, you will receive an error in the planning server log:

Failed to load application [Application] due to incompatible versions. Please upgrade the application to version 3.0.3917.0

After installing SP1, to upgrade the existing applications, use Planning configuration manager:

Be sure to check the Upgrade Application Databases box, as it is unchecked by default.

**  After this process, you must go into the Planning Admin Console, and "Take Online" each application.

When attempting to expand IIS for maintenance or to restart, you may get the following message:

"The path specified cannot be used at this time"

A work around solution to correct this is to end the OWSTIMER process in task manager:

While a better workaround might be considered in production, this seems to work in a pinch, and is a quick solution in a demo environment.  I found this at another site when dealing with this issue initially:

blogs.pointbridge.com/Blogs/pagnusat_tony/Pages/Post.aspx

PerformancePoint 2007 Service Pack 1 is available for download and install.  Support for Windows 2008 and Excel form performance improvements on the planning side.  For monitoring, Windows 2008 support and ability to connect to SQL Server 2008 data sources- however, full SQL 2008 support will be reserved for SP2.

The download sites and more detailed feature listings are available at the MSDN PerformancePoint blog here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/performancepoint/archive/2008/06/04/sp1-for-performancepoint-server-now-available.aspx

Have you ever been attempting to deploy a cube on a new server only to get the following message?

The trust relationship between the primary domain and the trusted domain failed

It's possible you had created roles in your SSAS cube, which reference another domain.  These roles will need to be removed (or at least the members of the roles from the domain).  Also, here is a link where I learned of the fix: 

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?P ... Read More »

A nice listing of the system requirements for all components of PerformancePoint can be found at Microsofts site:

www.microsoft.com/business/performancepoint/productinfo/systemrequirements.aspx

The following are client prerequisites for installing the PerformancePoint Excel addin on the client machines:

 All files except the .net framework are on the Office installation cd, but don't install with the default Office installation.

From my experience with PerformancePoint, and how it fits with the rest of the MS Buisiness Intelligence suite, I'll offer the following:

PPS is strong in establishing standards and processes around the annual planning process.  The Planning component definitely can provide benefit to small and medium sized organizations that are currently using a spreadsheet based budgeting system. 

The Monitoring and Analytics component is relatively strong with the scorecard component, while the analytical component provides basic olap reporting functionalitly.  However, utilizing Excel or Excel Services via a MOSS can greatly enhance the analytics surrounding a scorecard implementation. 

Another friend in SQL is the CAST function.  Assume you need to join 2 tables on columns that have different data types, and the types are not compatible.  Use the CAST function in your join statement:

SELECT     EADP_AppDB.dbo.D_Resource.MemberId AS ResourceMemberID, dbo.vEADP_VistaReadyTransposed.ResourceID,
                      dbo.vEADP_VistaReadyTransposed.KPIName, dbo.vEADP_VistaReadyTransposed.KPI, dbo.vEADP_VistaReadyTransposed.KPIMemberID

FROM         EADP_AppDB.dbo.D_Resource INNER JOIN
              ... Read More »

 Often, you will need to transpose columns to rows in order to deliver data to the staging db or fact table.  When this need arises, the UNION ALL operator in SQL is your friend.

The following statement will accomplish this for you: (Table examples can be found by clicking the "more" link below)

SELECT     ResourceID, 'OSStatus' AS KPIName, OSStatus AS KPIValue
FROM         dbo.ViewOrTable
UNION ALL
SELECT     ResourceID, 'CPUStatus' AS KPIName, CpuStatus
FROM         dbo.ViewOrTable AS ViewOrTable_1
UNION ALL
SELECT     ResourceID, 'ProcessorStatus' AS KPIName, ProcessorStatus
FROM&# ... Read More »

If you need to create the SharePoint application instance  after installing PPS Monitoring, you might need to be sure the following is place in the web.config file for your new SharePoint site:

You should have the following entry in the section of the config file:

 <SafeControl Assembly="Microsoft.PerformancePoint.Scorecards.WebParts, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" Namespace="Microsoft.PerformancePoint.Scorecards.WebParts" TypeName="*" Safe="True" />
 
Once you have added it run IISReset from a command prompt and try your dashboard again.

Before creating a new PPS Planning application, it is best to set up your shared directories first.  These will store your PPS Excel forms and reports, and the paths will be required when you set up the application in the Planning Administration console.  Also, you should just copy and past the machine path into the appropriate boxes during setup.

While working at a client site in Minnesota recently, I had to completely reinstall the Monitoring component as there were some issues with the MOSS deployment. With several days work invested on a dashboard, including multiple scorceards, kpi rollups and some basic reports, I wasn't sure of the outcome... whether or to what extent I might need to rebuild. However, all relevant dashboard information is basically stored in the .bswx file, and the file worked like a charm after completely reinstalling the monitoring software. The only thing that may be necessary is to change your data source connections should these be impacted.

The relatively open architecture of PPS allows for nice flexibility in approaching solutions.  While the open nature does make things more complex at first, it allows for "thinking outside" the box a bit.

For instance, the preface of the Planning component is built aroud your basic Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting (PBF) framework, typically seen in most medium to large sized corporate finance departments.  While the basic framework is built around this, it is certainly not limited to it. 

Currently, I'm developing and testing an application to collect, plan and analyze daily workout routines.  The PPS Planning component and Excel are utilized to collect daily weight lifting routines based on low level inputs and then summarize the data at a meaningful analytical level.  From here, the monitoring and analytics components provide reporting at time driven levels and any other dimensional breakout one would find beneficial in ana ... Read More »

• Cell a1 = ! dimension = dimension name
• Cell a2 = ! hierarchy = All Members
• Cell a3 = Label (value required)
• Cell b3 = Name (value required)
• Cell c3 = Description (value optional)

 Values in the Label and Name columns are required. Values in the Description column are optional, but the header is required in the template. 

Also, you can include other columns with headers and data. ... Read More »

Best practice is to always use a domain account with the password set to never expire for the service identity account when installing PPS Planning.  These settings can be adjusted later, but can create unwanted problems that will be difficult to discover.  When the account designated as the service account has a password expiration, the information is not propagated through PPS and this account can no longer run services.

This is an installation level setting, so it is wise to understand the nature of this account and plan accordingly.  All applications created within your installation will be dependent on this account.

The foundation for PerformancePoint is categorized by the acronym MAP.  Monitor, Analyze and Plan are a basic iterative approach to business performance management and MS has used this approach in developing and delivering PPS. 

As of RTM, there really seem to be two distinct components, with Planning standing alone and Monitoring and Analytics being merged into the Monitoring server component. 

While both are based on SQL Server 2005 and Analysis Services, the structure and delivery of Planning and Monitoring are decidedly different for the initial release.  Planning is delivered via an Excel Addin, with a web interface for application and user administration and a thin client for modeling and process management. 

Monitoring/Analytics is tightly integrated with Sharepoint, requiring either Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0 (WSS) or Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007 (MOSS). 

• Windows Server 2003 Standard, SP1 (XP pro, SP2 for the client)
• SQL Server 2005 Enterprise, SP2 (you will also want the client tools)
• IIS 6.0
• .Net 2.0 Framework
• ASP.NET 2.0
• Client only- MS Office (Excel) 2003, SP2, but 2007 is much better

PPS Monitoring and Analytics is more involved, requiring MOSS (Sharepoint Services) and even components of .NET 3.0.  Will get into that soon..

Progression of PPS from pre-beta to RTM, or V1:

Since July 2006, I've worked frequently with PerformancePoint Server 2007. Most of this, about 90% has been with the Planning component.

The system was challenging to learn at first, but has become significantly more stable since the release of CTP2 and CTP4. Working with RTM also is a significant improvement, and should prove to be a productive tool for finance and planning departments of any size.

Installation of the Alpine Ski House (ASH) sample application has also improved with RTM, and I've been able to have a fully successful installation of this as well. In previous builds, the sample app would install, but with errors.

My confidence in PPS has increased also, as the stability is predictable and dependable. Of course, we are talking about a new product, and simplicity of thought is in order. Keeping things as simple as possible is neve ... Read More »

I'm trying to bring awareness of a new product to the Gulf Coast and southeastern US and beyond.  Last weeks anticipated release of PerformancePoint Server 2007 happened on schedule before the end of the year.  While this is a new product that will see signficant change over the next several years, it will have an immediate impact in reducing costs for business of all sizes to implement and maintain an effective business planning and performance managment solution.

This is an attempt to help explain where the product is today, and determine what we can expect to gain from the first release of this product.  Most of my exposure is with the Planning component, and the ability to create and use forms in Excel that will write back to SQL Server 2005 is the most exciting single use.

The anticipated realease of PerformancePoint Server did happen well before the end of 2007.  The site will try to raise awareness of the product in the Gulf Coast and beyond. 

The immediate impact should be to lower costs for companies to implement a business planning solution.  Most of my experience is related to the Planning component, and the ability to create write back capable forms from Excel into SQL Server 2005.