Installing PerformancePoint Planning SP1

Well I successfully updated our development server with SP1. Our dev environment is a distributed environment with Analysis Services on one server and PerformancePoint and the relational databases on another. Before installing Service Pack 1 you should review the following documentation on TechNet:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc514369(TechNet.10).aspx

Here are the steps as outlined on the TechNet site that I went through to install SP1:

Shutdown all the planning services

The first thing I did was shutdown all the PerformancePoint Services. This includes the following two services:

• Planning Process Service
• World Wide Web Publishing Service (IIS)

Backup databases

Once the services have been stopped the following databases need to be backed up:

• PPSPlanningService
• PPSPlanningSystem
• Application Databases

Run SP1 update for the planning server components

Now you can install SP1 for the planning server:

• PPLSrv.msi

This step is very straightforward. Just double click on the file and follow the wizard. The next step is the most important and is probably worth reviewing.

Run the PerformancePoint Configuration Manager

When you run the configuration manager a couple things to note is that when you get to the add/remove service step (#4) you want to select Upgrade Databases. Secondly when you get to the Upgrade Databases screen (#5) you need to check the option that says Upgrade Application Databases. You can also specify the location of the Application Database Upgrade log file which is useful if the upgrade fails. Below are the screen shots for most of the key steps:

1. Open the Configuration Manager	2. Click Next
3. Verify Components	4. Upgrade databases
5. Check upgrade databases	6. Validate upgrade
7. Final confirmation	8. Install status

After you install SP1 you will need to restart the server. Once the server has been restarted make sure all the necessary services are running:

• Planning Process Service
• World Wide Web Publishing Service (IIS)

You may also need to ensure that the SQL Server Relational Service and the Analysis Server Service are running depending on your server configuration (Startup setting for the service could be set to manual). Once you have verified that all the services are running make you will need to access the Planning Administration Console (http://servername:46788/). Navigate to the PerformancePoint Applications. The applications should all be set to Offline. You can now set the application to Online:

Run SP1 for all client computers

Although installing SP1 if very simple for the client computers it is important that you upgrade these components (Business Modeler and the Excel Add-in) before connecting to the PerformancePoint Server. After the components have been successfully installed you will need to reboot the client machine. Here is a list of the install files for the client:

• PBMCli.msp (Business Modeler )
• PPLXCli.msp (Excel Add-in)

Taking it for a test drive

Well once you have installed SP1 its a good idea to take it for a little test drive. I thought a good test would be to deploy the Alpine Ski House application. Sure enough I deployed the site and everything worked okay. I also created a quick form based on the Alpine Ski House application and there does seem to be a significant increase in performance. One cool thing to note is that you can now apply conditional formatting for numbers and the formatting will remain after you refresh the worksheet or workbook. This should decrease the need for macros to format your reports.

Although I was able to install SP1 in an evening on our test servers it will definitely require a lot more time and planning for production environments.

Troy

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