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Failure Audit, MSSQLSERVER, Event ID: 18456

Event Type: Failure Audit
Event Source: MSSQLSERVER
Event Category: (4)
Event ID: 18456
Date:  4/10/2009
Time:  2:02:10 PM
User:  N/A
Computer: WebSvr01
Description:
Login failed for user 'BusinessPortalUser'

You may get this error message accompanied by the following error in Business Portal Project Center:

Error:

The application cannot open the system database. The User ID or password is invalid.

Your System Administrator should run pcConfiguration on the Business Portal server to fix this problem.

Whenever you consider running the pcConfiguration.exe file, you'll need to know that you have the correct permissions set in the registry for the PMA key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Business Portal\PMA (Knowledge Base Article 912363).  Specifically, the identity of the Application Pool for the Business Portal Web site needs to have these permissions.

You'll also need to know that your BusinessPortalUser (SQL Account) has the correct permissions in SQL (public and BFGroup).

But be careful not to jump to the conclusion that you should re-run pcConfiguration on the Business Portal server to fix this problem.  The symptoms of this problem could also lead you to think that you have a password mismatch for the BusinessPortalUser account if you get the SQL server "login failed" error message referenced above, along with details from the SQL Server Log indicating Severity 14, and State 8.  If you do think you have password mismatch, don't change the password for BusinessPortalUser in SQL directly, rather use DBAuthentication.exe as documented in the Business Portal Administrator's Guide:

• On the computer where Business Portal is installed, double-click the
  DBAuthenticationUtility.exe file, which is stored in the bin folder.
• The bin folder is located in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories
  \<port number>, where <port number> is the port number of the IIS web site
  where Business Portal is installed.
• The User Name and Password Utility window appears. Expand the tree until
  you see BusinessPortalUser.
• Right-click BusinessPortalUser and choose Edit.
• The Edit User window appears. Type and confirm the new password for the
  SQL Server user account.
• Click OK to save changes and close the window. 

We recently got this error when we installed a new piece of software on the Business Portal, and found that the real cause of the problem was that the Capicom.dll file was changed from version 2.1.0.1 to 2.1.0.2.  The update of the version of the file was not so much the problem as was the fact that the file needed to be re-registered and / or we needed to update the permissions for the file.  The easiest way to re-register the file is as follows:

• Right-click capicom.dll (located in C:\window\system32)
• Click "Open With"
• Choose Program
• Browse by hitting the Open With button
• Select the program from a list
• Browse
• Locate RegSvr32.exe (also located in C:\windows\system32)
• Click on RegSvr32.exe
• Click "Open With" and OK

Now, you must also double-check to make sure your Capicom.dll has the necessary permissions (Knowledge Base Article 927618):

• Right-click capicom.dll (located in C:\window\system32)
• Click on the Security tab
• Look for domain\users (not WebSvr01\Users)
• Make sure you have Read & Execute, Read, and Write Permissions
• Click Apply, and then click OK

If you do end up running the PCconfiguration.exe to fix the problem -- you will update the ProjectServer.wsdl file, and if you have SSL on your Business Portal site, you will have to manually reconfigure the Business Portal URL in the ProjectService.wsdl file (Knowledge Base Article 924723).

Implementing Multi-Company in Dynamics SL (Feature Pack 1)

I'd like to just post some lessons-learned for implementing Multi-Company.  These are not always obvious from reading the implementation guide.  I recently implemented Project Flex Time, and that was a lot of fun -- a genuine learning experience.  Here's hoping a few of these gotcha's will save you and your users a little time as you anticipate a few of the more subtle implications of implementing Dynamics SL multi-company.

1. You will have to make sure all your BP Users are setup to default to the desired company.  (See separate post.)

2. You may lose custom look-ups in back-office application when you re-do the .csv's for the new company.

3. You actually have to run the setup from the BP Setup to see the new company in Business Portal.

More details on this topic to follow as we progress.

How to Set Default Company for User in Business Portal

In the Business Portal for Microsoft Dynamics SL 7.0 Feature Pack 1 (and most earlier versions, also), when you implement a second company in your system, and then log onto the Business Portal, you will notice that you now have a choice to flip between one company and the other. 

If you're not careful though, you will notice that some users are defaulting to one company as opposed to the other.  And the company they default to will be the alphabetically-sorted first company in the Company List.  To control the default company by user, you will have to go back to Business Portal Administration Pages / User / User Properties, and look at the Roles on a user-by-user basis.  The thing to look for is the "User" Role -- then note if the User is setup for "All Companies" or a specific company.  Make sure the User is set to the (BP default) company of choice...

Microsoft Dynamics SL 7.0 and Business Portal Report Scheduler

How awesome is it that more than 600 canned Dynamics SL back-office reports are available to Business Portal Users?  Quite.  It should be possible to get the right information to all the users that need it.  But getting the Report Scheduler to work on Dynamics SL 7.0 can be a little challenging.

You have to install the Solomon Client, but not the full version of Microsoft Solomon on the server that is running the Business Portal.  Most installations will have a database server where the full Solomon application is installed.  From there, you have a Workstation folder (Wrkstn).  When they say the "Microsoft Solomon Client, but not the full version," they mean that you're installing the Microsoft Client the same way you do on client desktops, with a mapped network drive to the Wrkstn folder for the install, and to the rest of the program files mapped to \\SolomonServer\ProgramFiles\MicrosoftDynamics\SL\Applications...

You also need to make sure you have SP in that same shared network drive, and run the SP1 upgrade from there.

Finally, you have to run BPSLClientSetup.exe on the server that is running the Business Portal as shown in screenshot below:

Next, you'll want to make sure you have access to the SampleReports share:

The users that need access to this Share are:

• Network Service
• The Windows User running the Application Server
• The identity of the user for the Microsoft.BusinessPortal.Reports.FileService COM+ object
• The identity for the application pool that is used by the Business Portal

Refer to KB Article 912961 for more details on these accounts.

Lastly, you're ready to make sure your Application Server is running.

This I'll cover later.

N 

Default Search Field in Web Dialog for Project Search in Business Portal Time and Expense Entry

In Business Portal for Microsoft Dynamics SL 7.0, the web dialog is popping up projects to choose from based on a stored procedure that is defined in the Project Portal Setup.  That stored procedure is: pw_WPTProjectID_PV for Web Project Time entry and pw_WPEProjectID_PV for Web Project Expense entry.

In Dynamics SL 6.5, the default was to search by the Project's Customer Name.  This changed in Dynamics SL 7.0, and the default was to search by Customer Number.  Not a big deal since you can use the dropdown list to change the search to look Customer Name instead of Customer Number, but -- hey - a couple of mouse clicks is a couple of mouse clicks...

You can change the default search criteria by modifying the above referenced stored procedures:

First, create a backup of the stored procedure, then just alter it as per following excerpt:

From:

Select '"

+ @ProjCaption +

"'=rtrim(P.Project), 'Description'=P.Project_Desc, 'Customer ID'=P.Customer, 'Customer Name'=C.Name 
from PJProj P (nolock), CUSTOMER C (nolock), PJPROJEM E (nolock)

To:

Select '" + @ProjCaption + "'=rtrim(P.Project), 'Customer Name'=C.Name,'Description'=P.Project_Desc,
'Customer ID'=P.Customer
from PJProj P (nolock), CUSTOMER C (nolock), PJPROJEM E (nolock)