PowerPivotGeek » Installation

PowerPivot and Windows 7

powerpivotgeek — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 04:11:37 +0000

Recently I was making a pass through my old emails and I noticed that several folks have been asking me about PowerPivot and Windows 7. As you know – and I hope that everyone knows – PowerPivot is *NOT* supported on Windows 7. We have very specific prerequisite requirements – and running on a Windows Server OS is one of our requirements. However, from time to time, customers ask about using Windows 7 (even if it is not supported). I went back in my old files and I found this very interesting posting from Stacia Misner who explained her experiences.

http://blog.datainspirations.com/2010/05/23/installing-powerpivot-for-sharepoint-on-windows-7/

I don’t know how long Stacia ran with Windows 7; nor how much of PowerPivot and SharePoint worked (all or just some). In either case, I thought the general community might be interested in her experiences.

_-_-_ Dave

Installation error: “System.IO.FileLoadException: Loading this assembly would produce a different grant set from other instances.”

powerpivotgeek — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 03:48:17 +0000

Occasionally I’ve ran into this problem as part of a SharePoint installation. Typically this is with Excel Services – but since Excel Services is so central to the PowerPivot architecture, we run into this too. The ULS shows something like:

Medium             ExcelServiceBase.BeginProcessOperation: Caught an exception: System.TypeInitializationException: The type initializer for ‘Microsoft.Office.Excel.Server.CalculationServer.ExcelServerApp’ threw an exception. —> System.IO.FileLoadException: Loading this assembly would produce a different grant set from other instances. (Exception from HRESULT: 0×80131401)     at Microsoft.Office.Server.Diagnostics.ULS.SendWatsonOnExceptionTag(UInt32 tagID, ULSCatBase categoryID, String output, Boolean fRethrowException, TryBlock tryBlock, CatchBlock catchBlock, FinallyBlock finallyBlock)     at Microsoft.Office.Excel.Server.CalculationServer.ExcelServerApp..ctor()     at Microsoft.Office.Excel.Server.CalculationServer.ExcelServerApp..cctor()     — End of inner exception stack trace —     at Microsoft.O…       555ec6e6-4a53-49cf-8cb7-4b8614a8fa21
10/14/2010 11:56:42.20*            w3wp.exe (0×1E38)                                     0×25B8              Excel Services Application           Excel Calculation Services            ecd1              Medium                …ffice.Excel.Server.CalculationServer.ExcelServiceBase.SafeSetContext()     at Microsoft.Office.Excel.Server.CalculationServer.ExcelServiceBase.BeginProcessOperation(CommandParameter parameter, WebMethodBehaviorAttribute webMethodBehavior, WebMethodType webMethodType, AsyncCallback callback, Object state, UserOperation operation)          555ec6e6-4a53-49cf-8cb7-4b8614a8fa21
10/14/2010 11:56:42.20              w3wp.exe (0×1E38)                                     0×25B8              Excel Services Application           Excel Calculation Services            d64g              Medium             UserOperation.Dispose: Disposing Microsoft.Office.Excel.Server.CalculationServer.Operations.EmptyOperation, WebMethod: . 555ec6e6-4a53-49cf-8cb7-4b8614a8fa21

Solution: Reboot

What I believe is happening is that as part of the installation process, an object is being registered in a different app domain (if you follow the long convoluted threads on this topic from the web). On a reboot this is cleared up. I’ve never been able to discover the circumstance root cause – but always a reboot has solved it.

Enjoy!

_-_-_ Dave

Cheat sheet: Pointer to the right installation instructions

powerpivotgeek — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 02:11:20 +0000

1 — Is this a single machine farm? Will it be used for departmental use? Then go for “New Server”: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee210708.aspx This is NOT a standalone machine in SharePoint terms (PowerPivot does not support standalone SharePoint installations) — It is a full farm with all the capabilities of a farm, it is just that we have a single machine so far.

Another interesting resource is a 4-part video series available here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/install-powerpivot-for-sharepoint-on-a-domain-controller.aspx. This shows you how to install a single “All-In-1″ standalone PowerPivot server with the domain controller role installed, SharePoint, and a “New Server” installation. Very useful if you want to build your first demo system; particularly if you want it installed on a laptop (you must have a domain controller if you disconnect from the network).

2 — If you change your mind and wish to later *add* a server to this single server farm, then use: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee210610.aspx for them — However you might want to move your RDBMS off to another machine prior to doing that. Look to the SharePoint BOL for how to move the content and config databases to another server in the farm.

3 — Is this an existing SharePoint farm? If Yes, then is this the first server you are installing PowerPivot? If so, use: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee210616.aspx Is this the 2nd or later server you are installing PowerPivot? If so, use: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee210610.aspx

_-_-_ Dave

Bug: cannot install PowerPivot if a SQL Server shared folder has been specified in a previous installation to other than the default folder

powerpivotgeek — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 22:51:01 +0000

Clearly if you read my blog, you will see that as a development team we could have done a better job of testing all of the various installation combinations with SQL Server on ‘test servers’. Unfortunately, our limited test time was focused on production configurations; not on single demo machines. So as a result you can see some of our installation issues that have arisen. Recently we ran into another installation problem when a previous SQL Server installation has been done on a machine prior to installing PowerPivot.

SQL Server stores it files in “instance” folders and a “Shared” folder of tools, SDK, and installation files. Normally the shared folder is specified in:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Sever\100\
but it does not have to . . . Many times DBAs specify a folder to a different location (off of the system drive) when you do your first SQL Server installation. However if you do this, you will find that PowerPivot will return errors, either:

Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Or: (if you look at details.txt installation file)

2010-08-17 16:56:29 AS: The location is C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\SDK\Assemblies\Microsoft.AnalysisServices.SharePoint.Integration.DLL.
2010-08-17 16:56:29 AS: Microsoft.AnalysisServices.SharePoint.Integration.DLL not present in SDK

So how do you fix it? A quick workaround is to copy the file from the folder that you specified to its default location:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\SDK\Assemblies\Microsoft.AnalysisServices.SharePoint.Integration.DLL

The issue is that the SQL installer copies the file to shared folder but it will look for it in C: in its default location (this is a registry key/directory sync problem). So the workaround is to just copy it there. Smart huh?

Enjoy!

_-_-_ Dave

A Peek Inside: Special steps for Excel Services-only app servers

powerpivotgeek — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 22:50:08 +0000

It has been a while since I did one of the “A Peek Inside” postings and I thought “what the heck . . . do I have anything better to do while I am visiting with my in-laws during a vacation” . . . I couldn’t think of one so here goes.

PowerPivot has some special steps that have to be done to get all of our components in and running on an Excel Services-only app server. While we document what these steps are, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee210608.aspx , we don’t describe why this is an issue – thus this is a great “A Peek Inside” topic.

First, the root cause is that SharePoint 2010 ships with the SQL Server 2008 SP2 version of the msolap OLE DB provider; NOT THE POWERPIVOT R2 version. I won’t bore you with why this was done, but it was. Thus as the BOL entry tells you, the administrator must go to the R2 feature pack and manually install the R2 version of the msolap OLE DB provider. Sure that is it . . . right? Well, unfortunately it isn’t.

The distribution is purposely missing a required component, called the ChannelTransport.dll, that is used by the SharePoint PowerPivot implementation to communicate from the Excel Services app server to the PowerPivot System Service. When the PowerPivot installation is done on the same machine as Excel Services this DLL is automatically installed and registered. But how does that happen on the Excel Services machines? That is a piece of black magic and is the topic of this “A Peek Inside”.

The Microsoft.AnalysisServices.ChannelTransport.dll is actually deployed as a two step process:

Getting the .dll file physically onto the Excel Services machine. To do this, the file is included in the PowerPivot global solution. When this solution is deployed out onto the SharePoint farm, it is physically copied to each machine. Actually it is serialized into the config db and then a timer job on each machine re-hydrates the file and copies it into the target folder. The problem is that while the solution can copy the file, it cannot regasm it.
To regasm it, and get a load of this one, we use a health rule. There is a health rule that is deployed with PowerPivot that fires on each machine in the SharePoint farm. It looks to see if the ChannelTransport.dll is available (in the correct, deployed folder) but not registered. If so, the health rule does a regasm on it. Now the Excel Services machine can communicate with PowerPivot . . .

Now that is a nasty piece of geek black magic.

Enjoy!

_-_-_ Dave

Cheat sheet: Re-installing the client add-in

powerpivotgeek — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 22:49:15 +0000

“Help! My PowerPivot for Excel is totally messed up. How do I just reinstall everything?”

I’ve had to do this lots of times as we’ve gone through various beta builds. Here are the steps that I go through to totally clear out the client add-in:

Uninstall the PowerPivot for Excel add-in
Manually delete all the files under C:\Program Files\Microsoft Analysis Services\
If it is an x64 bit box, also C:\Program Files(x86)\Microsoft Analysis services\ folder as well.
Install the PowerPivot for Excel add-in again

Hope this helps.

_-_-_ Dave

Updated: Links to the Single Server Installation Guide

powerpivotgeek — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 03:53:27 +0000

Newly published this week is the final version of the PowerPivot for SharePoint – Single Server Installation Guide. I’ve updated the “Server Installation” pointers at the top of my blog to indicate the new pointers. If interested, visit here:
http://powerpivotgeek.com/server-installation/single-server-install-rtm/

Enjoy!

Installing PowerPivot on a standalone server

powerpivotgeek — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 21:41:08 +0000

Recently there have been several asks on the forums about getting more information for installing PowerPivot on a standalone server. Well . . . we have a video produced that addresses how to do this. Besides the installation itself, I also discuss how you go about adding the domain controller role to the server and get everything installed and running. The file is pretty large, so while the Microsoft internal folks struggle with how to get it loaded on Microsoft servers, I figured that I’d upload it to PowerPivotGeek.com and give you guys some early exposure.

http://powerpivotgeek.com/videos/DaveVideoInstall.wmv
(this is a large file 360MB, so depending on your connection, it may take some buffering before it comes up . . .)

(click on ‘Continue reading:’ to see the video on-line)

Here is the video:

Enjoy!

If running on Windows Server, make sure you have ‘Desktop Experience’ feature turned on

powerpivotgeek — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 04:30:43 +0000

Oh the joys of SharePoint again. I just responded to an internal posting where someone was raising the issue that “Path not found” errors were being reported when Excel Desktop tried to publish a workbook to SharePoint. Again, this isn’t PowerPivot directly, but it can be reported as a PowerPivot problem if the workbook contains PowerPivot data.

The issue is that on Windows Server machines (Window Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2), the ‘Desktop Experience’ feature contains a required component for Excel (or any application posting content to SharePoint).

Normally you don’t see this because on a Windows client machine (Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP), Desktop Experience is turned on by default – but not for Server OS’s. The underlying component at issue here is WebDAV. Excel desktop need it for the publishing process because they post content to SharePoint as if SharePoint was a remote file share. Thus if you are going to run Excel desktop on a Windows Server OS and publish content to SharePoint – then you need ‘Desktop Experience’ turned on.

Enjoy!

Installation error: Running the wrong version of SharePoint

powerpivotgeek — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 23:53:03 +0000

(Well, maybe you are – maybe you aren’t . . . How can you check directly?)

In an earlier post (http://powerpivotgeek.com/2010/03/04/installing-the-right-version-of-sharepoint/) I spoke about the way that PowerPivot determines if you are on the right version of SharePoint. Cory Retherford reported some errors and after investigating it for a few days we found the solution.

Here is some more info:

The SQL setup rule checks for the guid of installed SharePoint. We have two guids that correspond to the SharePoint Server Enterprise Edition SKU. If the guid in the registry doesn’t match one of our guids and a farm is configured and the bits for SharePoint exists then the rule is triggered.

What is the value of the following registry key?

SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\14.0\InstalledProducts\{90140000-110D-0000-1000-0000000FF1CE}

The installed guids we are looking for is either one of these:

"D5595F62-449B-4061-B0B2-0CBAD410BB51"
"88BED06D-8C6B-4E62-AB01-546D6005FE97"

If your guids do not match these then we believe that the installation is not SharePoint 2010 Enterprise Edition and you see a validation error.

It turns out that in Cory’s case, there is an interesting SharePoint bug that you might run into. There was a bad early SharePoint Server 2010 FIS distribution made available for download, see KB2143810 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2143810), that impacted the guids installed on the system. Cory installed the right ‘version’ of SharePoint 2010, but not all of the features were activated and the wrong guid was being reported.

At least now, if you get a “wrong version of SharePoint installed” error, you have something to check.

Hope that helps.