Before Beginning the Installation Process

Your server, or servers, are of adequate processor power and memory capacity and are prepared with the Windows 2000 Server operating system (OS) with Service Pack 2 (SP2). One of these boxes has SQL Server 2000 and Analysis Services installed, both with SP2. Any of these servers, which are intended to run Project Server or STS, have IIS installed without any server extensions.

Further, this is the first time you’re attempting to install STS and Project Server on these machines. If not, you’ve read the sections on uninstalling Project Server and STS in the next chapter and have verified that you’ve completed all the required steps.

For the purposes of this book, I’m assuming that everything is installed in a domain environment and the server that will be running Project Server and/or STS is dedicated to this purpose and isn’t running any other applications or Web sites.

Tip

STS, in particular, doesn’t always play well with other applications. The major concern is the unpredictable nature of these conflicts. It’s impossible to completely quantify these risks, but my recommendation is to always deploy on dedicated hardware.

Consider any application that uses Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) a potential problem. Anecdotally, I’ve seen issues with BizTalk Server and problems implementing on servers that are also Primary Domain Controllers. There’s no official compatibility/incompatibility list, so run other applications at your own risk.

STS is the source of most installation anomalies. Pay close attention to the preparatory steps in getting the server ready for the STS installation, as once you’ve successfully installed STS, the rest of your implementation is likely to proceed smoothly.

Caution

Don’t extend Project Server’s version of STS on an existing custom STS site. The Project Server–specific version overwrites the onet.xml file on your STS site and makes other alterations to STS. Therefore, you’ll lose any customizations you’ve already made to the existing site. If you want to test this for yourself, make certain that you first properly back up the STS site.

Before proceeding further, make certain that you have your installation media handy and, if applicable, your license keys for both Project Server and Project 2002 Professional. Keep in mind that some Project Server media types do not require activation keys; this varies by license type. It’s also very important that you’re logged onto the server with a local administrator account. Even if you’re logged on as a domain administrator, your account should be explicitly added to the local administrators group or it may not work.