his article takes up the installation process started in Performance Point 2007: Installing Planning Server, and assumes you have already completed that part of the installation. However, if you don’t need the Planning Server components, you can install the Monitoring Server components separately—but you won’t have access to the Monitoring Server tools.

To summarize TechNet’s helpful overview of Monitoring Server:

Monitoring Server allows business analysts and business decision makers to:

• Measure overall performance using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). A KPI represents an organizational goal, such as sales quotas, inventory monitoring, or customer response time.
• Monitor the performance of units or divisions within in an organization by comparing actual numbers against the KPIs.
• Based on the results, the effectiveness of a specific functional area, such as sales, professional services or retail can be evaluated.
• Ideally, the information can then be used to drill down and analyze the causes of the successes or failures.

Dashboard Designer lets business analysts and IT professionals create:

• Data sources
• KPIs
• Scorecards
• Analytic reports
• Dashboards

Embarking on what I assume will be another challenging installation, I review the prerequisites for Monitoring Server (for a condensed list, see the sidebar “Prerequistes for Monitoring Server“).

From that extensive list, it’s apparent that the Monitoring Server needs a combination of SQL Server and SharePoint Server 2007 (or WSS 3.0) installed, along with other bits and pieces for the client tools, including Visual Studio 2005 with Report Designer.

In my virtual environment (see the sidebar “Lab Environment“), for simplicity, I’d like to keep WSS 3.0 and/or SharePoint Server 2007 off my SQL 2005 back end server, which means fewer instances of SharePoint to support and URLs to remember. Also, that will reduce RAM requirements; I’ll avoid loading an unneeded version of SharePoint and using up another hundred megabytes of RAM. Finally, I just added the PerformancePoint Planning Server module to my SQL 2005 back-end server, and like the idea of adding the Monitoring components to my SharePoint 2007 front end.

Figure 1. PerformancePoint Installation Screen: Choose the Install Monitoring Server option.

Due to the lengthy prerequisites list, I decide to start the installation and see what components it shows as being required on the SharePoint Server 2007 server (ABCMOSS02).

Installation
I map the MOSS server to the ISO image I downloaded for the previous article (en_office_performancepoint_server_2007_x86_cd_X14-00932.iso) and the installation screen comes up (see Figure 1).

I click on Install Monitoring Server, check the “I accept the licensing terms” checkbox, and click Next. On the following screen I accept the default location (C:Program FilesMicrosoft Office PerformancePoint Server), click Next, and then click Install on the following screen to start the installation process.

After the “Monitoring Server Setup has completed” screen comes up (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Monitoring Server Setup: Here’s the completion screen for the Monitoring Server setup component.

Figure 3. Monitoring Server Configuration Manager: The figure shows the Welcome screen with the installation steps listed.

I check “Run the Monitoring Server Configuration Manager Wizard” box, and then click Finish. The wizard opens as shown in Figure 3, and I click Next.

The configuration manager shows that some of the prerequisites haven’t been met (see Figure 4). I click Cancel and exit the wizard.

Figure 4. Monitoring Server Configuration Manager: The Prerequisites analysis shows that some prerequisites are missing. Analysis Results.

As Figure 4 shows, I have four items to install: the Visual Studio 2005 Report Designer, the SQL Server Native Client 9.0 (SP2), the ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions 1.0, and SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services. I’ll fulfill all these requirements, starting with the AJAX Extensions.

Install the ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions 1.0
To get the ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions 1.0. I search Microsoft.com and immediately find the download, so I click the Download button, and then, (because the file is tiny—1.36 MB) I click Run.

Figure 5. Installing ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions: Here’s the first screen for the ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions 1.0 setup.

On the install screen for the AJAX wizard, I click Next (see Figure 5).

I accept the license terms, click Next, then click Install. When the install completes, I uncheck “Display Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions 1.0 Release notes” and click Finish.

To ensure that I’ve installed the correct component I restart the Configuration Manager (Start ? All Programs ? Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 ? Monitoring Server Configuration Manager), which verifies that the AJAX component is installed.

Install SQL Server 2005 Native Client 9.0 and Reporting Services
Next, I’ll install the two SQL components that Planning Server needs: SQL Server Native Client 9.0 SP2 and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services. I map to the ISO for SQL Server 2005 Enterprise (en_sql_2005_ent_x86_cd1.iso).

Author’s Warning: SQL DBA’s probably know this already, but I first selected the SQL Native Client Installation Wizard—and got stuck, because it didn’t install the Business Intelligence Developments Studio (BIDS). Then I applied SP2, and couldn’t get back to a place where the install wizard would let me install the BIDS! Fortunately, I had a VMWare snapshot to roll back to, and got it right the second time around. Moral: Make sure you set a rollback point before you begin.

From the installation screen (see Figure 6), I choose the “Server components, tools, Books online and samples” item.

Figure 6. SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition Install Screen: Select the “Server components, tools, Books Online, and samples” option.

Figure 7. SQL Server 2005 Setup: Here’s the screen that appears to install prerequisites.

I accept the licensing terms and conditions, and click Next, then click Install on the Prerequisites screen (see Figure 7).

When the Prerequisites install completes, I click Next, which brings up a welcome screen, where I again click Next (see Figure 8).

Figure 8. SQL Server 2005 Setup: The figure shows the Installation Wizard’s welcome screen.

Figure 9. SQL Server 2005 Setup: This screen shows the results of the system configuration check.

When the configuration check completes, you should review the results to see if there are any show stoppers. In this case, I had one warning (see Figure 9) which turned out to be that my system doesn’t meet minimum hardware requirements—but I’ll keep going anyway, so I click Next.

Next, I enter a name and company information on the third screen (see Figure 10) and click Next.

Figure 10. SQL Server 2005 Setup: Enter your name and company on this screen.

Figure 11. SQL Server 2005 Setup: Select the components you want to install.

From the next screen (see Figure 11) I select the Reporting Services and “Workstation components, Books Online and development tools” options. I then click on the Advanced button to review the features that will be installed. The key thing (as I learned in a previous installation attempt) is to make sure the Business Intelligence features get installed.

As shown in Figure 12, this installation includes the Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS), so I click Next.

Figure 12. SQL Server 2005 Setup: Clicking the Advanced button from the screen in Figure 11 shows details about the installation.

Figure 13. SQL Server 2005 Setup: You can elect to install a default instance or a named instance.

On the next screen (see Figure 13) I keep “Default instance” selected, and click Next.

I choose to log in using a domain user account—the administrator account, as shown in Figure 14. Note that using the administrator account is not good practice. Don’t do this in a real-world situation. For this test, however, I want to keep things simple, and not have to maintain too many unique accounts in my VMWare environment. I click Next to continue.

Figure 14. SQL Server 2005 Setup: You can assign a domain account for the service.

Figure 15. SQL Server 2005 Setup: Report Server Installation Options: This screen simply informs you that you’ll need to configure Reporting Services after the install completes.

The screen in Figure 15 clarifies that “setup will install, but not configure, the report server software.” So I’ll need to use the Reporting Services Configuration tool after the setup process is complete. I click Next to continue.

You can elect to automatically send information to Microsoft on the next screen. I leave the boxes unchecked and click Next, which gets me to the Ready to Install screen (see Figure 16). I click Install.

Figure 16. SQL Server 2005 Setup: The Ready to Install screen shows the components you’ve elected to install.

Figure 17. SQL Server 2005 Setup: Insert Disc 2 Window.

The install begins, and eventually requests Disc 2 (see Figure 17), so I change the ISO mapping to Disc 2 to install SQLXML4, the SQL Native Client, and the Workstation Components, and complete the configuration for several other components.

When the setup completes (see Figure 18), I click Next. Finally, I click Finish on the next screen.

Figure 18. SQL Server 2005 Setup: This progress screen shows you the install results for the selected components.

Figure 19. Monitoring Server Configuration Manager: This time, the Prerequisites screen shows that only SQL Server Native Client 9.0 (SP2) is missing.

Now I’ll launch the Monitoring Server Configuration Manager to see which prerequisites are still pending (Start ? All Programs ? Microsoft Office Performance Point Server 2007 ? Monitoring Server Configuration Manager). That brings up the welcome screen, so I click Next to run the prerequisite checker again. This time, the results in Figure 19 indicate that everything’s installed except the SQL Server Native Client 9.0 (SP2)—which makes sense since I haven’t installed SP2 yet. I click Cancel to exit the Configuration Manager.

Install SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 (SP2)
Now I need to install SQL 2005 SP2, so I launch SQLServer2005SP2-KB921896-x86-ENU.exe by double-clicking on it from a VMWare shared folder, and click Run. I click Next on the Welcome page, accept the licensing agreement and click Next again. On the feature selection screen (see Figure 20), I’ll accept the defaults and click Next.

Figure 20. SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 Setup: The Feature Selection screen shows the default components to be installed for SP2.

The default values on the Authentication screen (see Figure 21) seem fine, so again, I just click Next, and then click Next again to get past the error and usage reporting screen, leaving the boxes unchecked.

Figure 21. SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 Setup: The screen shows the default Authentication options for SQL Server 2005 SP2.

Figure 22. SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 Setup: This screen lists running processes that you need to stop so SP2 can update files.

The next screen checks for Running Processes (see Figure 22), and lists Report Server, so I’ll need to turn off that service. To do so right-click on My Computer, select the Manage option, open the Services and Applications node, and then click on Services. I highlight SQL Server Reporting Services and click on Stop the service (see Figure 23).

Figure 23. SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 Setup: You can stop running services by clicking the Services item in the Computer Management applet, selecting the process you want stop by clicking the Stop icon (the black square) on the toolbar.

Figure 24. SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 Setup: After stopping the ReportServer service, the Running Processes screen no longer shows any locked files.

I then close the Computer Management window (if you neglect to close the window the Running Processes page will still show that process as running!), return to the SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 Setup window, and click Refresh. The updated screen verifies that no running processes will interfere with the update (see Figure 24), so I click Next, and begin the install from the next screen to install the Service Pack for the relevant components.

After the Service Pack install completes (see Figure 25), I click Next, and then click Next once more from the Installation Complete screen.

Figure 25. SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 Setup: The figure shows the Installation Process screen.

Finally, I unclick the “Launch user provisioning tool?” and then click Finish on the Additional Information screen.

Monitoring Server Configuration: Post Prerequisites
Once again, I’ll run the Monitoring Server Configuration Manager to check the prerequisites. This time, the show that I can proceed (see Figure 26). I click Next.

Figure 26. Monitoring Server Configuration: The checkmarks show that all prerequisites have been met.

Figure 27. Monitoring Server Configuration: You can choose which items the Monitoring Server Configuration should install.

The next screen shows several installation options (see Figure 27). I elect to install all the options, leave the Distributed configuration option checked, and click on Next.

On the Database screen (see Figure 28), I enter the name of my SQL Server (abcsql01), accept the default database name (PPSMonitoring), leave the “Create Monitoring System Database” option selected, and click Next.

Figure 28. Monitoring Server Configuration: Enter the name of your SQL Server on this screen.

Figure 29. Monitoring Server Configuration: You can require SSL for connections to the monitoring web site on this screen, but I elected not to.

On the Web Site screen (see Figure 29) I uncheck “Require SSL connections to Monitoring Web site” as I’m not worried about that level of security in the test environment. I accept the default TCP port (40000), the default “All Unassigned” setting for the IP address, and click Next.

Author’s Note: It’s probably a good idea to check IIS to make sure this port isn’t being used.

The next screen (see Figure 30), asks you to provide a domain, user name and password for the Application Pool Identity. I created an Active Directory user account named SQLMonitor for this purpose, so I enter that information and click Next.

Figure 30. Monitoring Server Configuration: Enter the information required for the Application Pool identity.

Figure 31. Monitoring Server Configuration: From the Web Parts screen, choose a SharePoint site collection for the Dashboard Viewer.

Figure 31 shows the next screen, Web Parts, which lets you select the SharePoint site collection to use for the Dashboard Viewer. In my case, this is an existing SharePoint front-end server that already has a site collection. I select it, and click Next.

On the SQL Server Reporting Services page (see Figure 32), I leave the SQL Server Reporting Services instance as the default, and click Next.

Figure 32. Monitoring Server Configuration: Here’s the SQL Server Reporting Services Screen.

Figure 33. Monitoring Server Configuration: The Validation screen shows that everything’s ready to go.

The validation page (Figure 33) shows that everything looks ready to go, so I click Next.

The next Review screen (see Figure 34) summarizes what I’ll be installing, so I click Configure.

Figure 34. Monitoring Server Configuration: The Review screen presents a summary of the install tasks.

Figure 35. Monitoring Server Configuration: The Summary screen appears when the configuration process completes.

When the configuration completes, it brings up a Summary screen telling me that the configuration completed successfully, as shown in Figure 35. I click Close to close the configuration manager.

Access the Monitoring Central Console
With Monitoring Server configures, I can launch the Monitoring Central Console (Start ? All Programs ? Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 ?Monitoring Central).

Figure 36. PerformancePoint Server Monitoring Central Page: When this page appears, click Run to download the Dashboard Designer.

The console opens (see Figure 36). I click the Run button to download the Dashboard Designer.

The download is approximately 13MB. When the Security Warning download window opens, I click Run. When the process completes, the Microsoft PerformancePoint Dashboard Designer opens (see Figure 37).

Figure 37. PerformancePoint Dashboard Designer: Here’s the Dashboard Designer interface as it first appears after installation.

Figure 38. SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio: BIDS uses Visual Studio 2005 as the client interface.

Next, I’ll fire up Business Intelligence Studio (Start ? Programs ? Microsoft SQL Server 2005 ? SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio). That opens Visual Studio 2005 (see Figure 38).

Optional: Check for Updates on the Server
Finally, it’s a good time to check for updates, because I just installed so many new components. I right-click on My Computer, click on Properties, select the Automatic Updates tab, and then click on “Windows Update Web Site.” I choose the Custom option and the site scans for updates.

Finally, I click on “Review and install updates,” and then “Install Updates.”

As a final step I always find it helpful to review what Control Panel’s “Add or Remove Programs” feature shows for installed components. Figure 39 shows the entire list, without updates.

Figure 39. Add or Remove Programs: The figure shows all the installed components.

As you can see, if you carefully work your way through the prerequisites list, making sure the prerequisites are installed and running properly, you shouldn’t have much trouble completing the Monitoring Server installation.