PerformancePoint 2013 Dashboard Designer fails to start

Issue:

After the SharePoint 2013 October 2013 cumulative update (CU) the PerformancePoint 2013 dashboard designer fails to start and gives error “Application cannot be started.  Contact the application vendor.”

 

Cause:

The dashboard designer files were not signed correctly during the CU build process.

 

Workaround:

**This issue has been resolved in SharePoint 2013 Service Pack 1

Backup these files on all your SharePoint servers:

C:Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft SharedWeb ServerExtensions15TEMPLATELAYOUTSppsma1033Designer.Application

C:Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft SharedWeb ServerExtensions15TEMPLATELAYOUTSppsma1033DesignerInstallDesigner.exe.manifest

C:Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft SharedWeb Server Extensions15TEMPLATELAYOUTSppsma1033DesignerInstallMicrosoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll

C:Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft SharedWeb Server Extensions15TEMPLATELAYOUTSppsma1033DesignerInstallMicrosoft.PerformancePoint.Scorecards.Client.dll

C:Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft SharedWeb Server Extensions15TEMPLATELAYOUTSppsma1033DesignerInstallMicrosoft.PerformancePoint.Scorecards.DesignerPlugins.dll

C:Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft SharedWeb Server Extensions15TEMPLATELAYOUTSppsma1033DesignerInstallMicrosoft.SharePoint.Client.dll

Replace the files above with the files contained in the PPS.zip attached to this blog post.

 

Final Notes:

This issue has been resolved in SharePoint 2013 Service Pack 1

PPS.zip

The following guide is referring to the following system configuration:

a. Windows Server 2012 datacenter.

b. MS SQL server 2014 enterprise.

c. Sharepoint 2010 enterprise.


Let’s Start:

1. Setup and install Windows 2012 server Datacenter.

2. Install AD (Active Directory)  by adding a role to server. No special feature is needed except NN (click on next then next then next…).

3. At the final screen of AD setup the following screen will appear, click on:

“Promote this server to a domain controller”

sp001

4. At this step click on the following, at ‘Root domain name’ a domain name like:

srv01.com or winserver.com

sp002

5. At the following screen enter a password then click on next:

sp003

6. From this point on follow NN method (click on Next then next then next… till AD finishes to install).

7. Install .Net Framework 3.5 by adding Feature (Role and feature).

8. Under Server Manager goto Tools then select Active Directory Users and Computers.

9. Under the domain from step 4 create Organizational Unit and name is as you want.

10. Under the Organizational Unit at step 9 create 3 users at add them to administrators group.

Add the following 4 users (password never expires, user can’t change password):

a. spAdmin

b. sqlSvcAcc

c. spFarmAcc

d. spAppPoolAcc

11. Install SQL Server 2014:

a. Under Feature Select, select Database engine and Management tools.

b. Under Service Account at Sql Server Agent and Database engine add the user sqlSvcAcc with domain.

c. Under Server Configuration add spAdmin user.

d. User NN method (next next) to finish SQL server install.

e. Open SQL server management studio and under security locate spAdmin user.

f. Make sure spAdmin user under server roles, make sure the following roles are maked:

DBCreator, Public, SecurityAdmin, SysAdmin.

12. At windows server 2012 add the following roles:

a. Application Server.

Under Role services add:

TCP Port Sharing

Web Server (IIS) support

Windows service activation service support.

HTTP Activation

Name pips activation

TCP Activation

b. Web server IIS

Under Role services add:

Health and Diagnostics

Tracing

Application Development

.Net extensiblty 3.5

Asp.Net 3.5

Management tools

IIS 6 Metabase Compatability

IIS 6 Scripting tool

IIS 6 WMI Compatibility

13. Add users from paragraph 10 as local adminitrators (currently they are administrators at the domain).

14. Logout and Logini again as spAdmin.

15. Run Sharepoint PrerequisiteInstaller.exe by the following way:

Extract Sharepoint at local directory of computer and not from CD of mounted image.

User NN method to setup PrerequisiteInstaller.exe of sharepoint.

16. Run setup.exe of sharepoint.

17. Run Wizard after finishing setup.

18. Once Wizard finishes then Central Administration page at Web browser will appear.

Microsoft® SQL Server® 2014 Feature Pack
An ADOMD .net is required for Sharepoint in order to activate Performance Point service which is required for Dashboard designer.
Please download ADOMD from the following link for SQL server 2014:
Servers
The Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Feature Pack is a collection of stand-alone packages which provide additional value for Microsoft SQL Server.
PerformancePoint Dashboard Designer is a tool that you can use to create powerful, dynamic dashboards that are hosted in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. This video series is designed to help you learn how you can use Dashboard Designer to create dashboards in your organization.In this article


Original Post at the following link:

https://support.office.com/en-ie/article/Up-to-Speed-with-PerformancePoint-Dashboard-Designer-b58539ee-314c-4b2a-ad37-ce988d0a8d53#__toc258307094


 

Video 1: Introducing Dashboard Designer

Video 2: Tour Dashboard Designer

Video 3: Creating a basic dashboard

Video 4: Adding a report to a dashboard

Video 5: Making changes to a PerformancePoint dashboard

Video 6: Adding a page to a PerformancePoint dashboard

Additional Resources

Video 1: Introducing Dashboard Designer

View this video to get a high-level overview of Dashboard Designer, including how to install and open it. You’ll learn how you can use Dashboard Designer to create a wide variety of dashboard items and save them in designated SharePoint lists and document libraries.

Video 2: Tour Dashboard Designer

View this video to get an overview of the user interface in Dashboard Designer, including the Workspace Browser, center pane, Details pane, ribbon, and File tab.

Video 3: Creating a basic dashboard

View this video to see how to create a basic dashboard by using Dashboard Designer. You’ll see how to easily create a basic scorecard, analytic chart, and a dashboard filter. You’ll also see how to create and assemble a dashboard page, and then deploy the dashboard to SharePoint Server.

NOTE    In this video, we use the Contoso sample data set, which is available for download at the Microsoft Download Center. See Microsoft Contoso BI Demo Dataset for Retail Industry for more information.

Video 4: Adding a report to a dashboard

View this video to see how to add a report to a previously created dashboard by using Dashboard Designer.

Video 5: Making changes to a PerformancePoint dashboard

View this video to see how to make changes to a dashboard by using Dashboard Designer. You’ll see how making changes to the information that is displayed in an individual item does not necessarily mean that you have to redeploy a dashboard. You will also see an example of changes that you might make to a dashboard that do require you to redeploy the dashboard to SharePoint Server.

Video 6: Adding a page to a PerformancePoint dashboard

View this video to see how you can add a page to a dashboard by using Dashboard Designer. You’ll see how to reuse existing reports in the new dashboard page, and how to make sure page navigation is displayed across the top of your dashboard.

Additional Resources

See the following articles for additional information about Dashboard Designer

Getting Started: PerformancePoint Dashboard Designer

What’s New in PerformancePoint Dashboards

Creating dashboards by using PerformancePoint Dashboard Designer

Learn about PerformancePoint report types

SharePoint Tutorial
SharePoint Tutorial

A lot of people still don’t know the answer to a simple question: What is SharePoint? There are a few really good answers out there but in my opinion they need to start their explanation a little bit earlier.



Let’s see the common mistake we are confronted with when searching for the answer:

“SharePoint is a browser based business collaboration tool with composites and insights and search and communities and content and publishing and a document management. It’s collaborative, it’s business intelligence, it’s colleagues, partners, intranet, extranet, internet and much more.”

This guide answers the question ‘What is SharePoint?’ independent of your role. It shows the reasons why we need it and how it solves our problems.

 

Our Problem With Information

I bet you know the following situation from your daily work:

What to do next?

Video Transcription

Information overload is a term which can be found in history before the digital or information age even started.

Usually it means that you have difficulties to make a decision because of too much information.

Information Overload

The amount of available information and the rate in which it is created increased and the way people communicate changed. Within an intranet scenario information can be stored at:

  • File shares,
  • Local hard disks,
  • Personal folders,
  • Different applications,
  • E-Mails or
  • In the head of a person you don’t know.

People may have problems to make decisions because they have too much information.

They may also have problems because they can’t find the information they need.

You can imagine that storage is one of the problems: Files are stored in different folders or sub folders without Meta information or with strange file names.

Information may not be retrieved since people just don’t know that certain information exists.

The access to information can be problematic because of remote or mobile access or due to granular security.

So how should I make a decision if I can’t find or use the information I need? Even if I find all the information how should I make a decision in time if it takes me hours or days to search and rate them?

Yes you are an Information Worker!

In our daily work we all have problems making a decision since we can’t find or use the information we need to make a good decision.

I need to have access to information and I need to know if they exist or not independent of their storage.

So how about an application that helps me:

  • To work more easily and more efficient and
  • To securely store, manage and retrieve any information from anywhere?

I don’t want to waste time finding something, doing the same job someone else already did or to prepare information just to make a decision based on that.

I need something to store, to manage and to retrieve information, to find a person who may have the information I need and to access it from anywhere. I also need something that not only gets information I also need something that prepares,visualizes it or sorts it by relevance.

An application that can do all the things will have a great impact on my performance during my working day.

Being more efficient doesn’t mean working more.

The Solution called SharePoint

SharePoint is the tool Microsoft provides which can improve my work and the result of my work. It can also improve the work of my team, my department, my company or my partners.

You already know the following graphic:

SharePoint 2010 Product Information

You can use sites and communities to store and manage information as well as to collaborate with colleagues.

You can use content management features to set up compliance features for the information stored.

Content management also allows you to use information in your already existing working environment like Microsoft Office.

Search allows you to retrieve information independent of their storage or to find people with the skills needed.

Insights allow you to get, to prepare and to visualize (business) information stored in a different repository.

SharePoint provides a solution to all your information management needs with a secure and remote access.

Furthermore SharePoint can be enhanced with no code solutions called Composites.

The great thing is that SharePoint has a lot more facets and advantages  than outlined here.

SharePoint Product Overview

See the different SharePoint 2010 products available…

SharePoint 2010

There are 3 different version of SharePoint 2010 if it comes to differences in functionality:

  • SharePoint Foundation 2010
  • SharePoint Server 2010 – Standard
  • SharePoint Server 2010 – Enterprise

For an overview about the different functionality visit SharePoint 2010: How to buy.

SharePoint 2010 Licensing

If you create an intranet you need to license:

  • Servers,
    Each server running SharePoint needs to have a license.
  • Users or devices
    Each user or device needs a CAL (client access license)

For each user or device you can buy the standard CAL. If you want enterprise features you need both: The standard CALand an enterprise CAL.

If you create an extranet or internet site you need to license:

  • Servers,
    Each server running SharePoint needs to have a specific SharePoint 2010 for internets license.

Learn more about SharePoint 2010 Licensing or read the SharePoint 2010 Licensing details.

What is SharePoint for end user?

Maybe too complex to use… I don’t know. If you are trying to search a column in a list it works with one column globally defined in the columns gallery but not with another locally created. Well for me SharePoint is easy to use and it comes with a lot of cool things like uploading to, filtering, sorting or grouping a list… there is a lot of out-of-the-box functionality. It has a mix based on lists and wikis: Have you ever tried to create and sort a table in a wiki? Even if they are supported it can’t be compared to the usability of a SharePoint list.

What is SharePoint for developers?

SharePoint developers evolve from ASP.NET developers and as a web developer you are used to implement things and to test it right away pressing F5. As a SharePoint developer you need to configure XML, deploy a solution, need to know about infrastructure including Active Directory, SQL Server, DNS or IIS… usually an ASP.NET developer doesn’t need to take it into account. The worst thing as a SharePoint developer is to explain SharePoint and how to use it to consultants, project managers, end user, authors and even administrators. The actual task called development gets smaller and smaller as you knowledge grows.

What is SharePoint for administrators?

Instead of having a lot of different systems which are easy to handle for their own but getting complex in a huge infrastructure SharePoint is a complex system. SharePoint is so complex that it doesn’t behave sometimes as expected: On one day it works and on another day it suddenly stops working. E.g. if you have hundreds of different folders on file shares and no global read group you need to manually assign read permission to the search account which can result in the membership of hundreds of groups for the search service account. Using Kerberos the token becomes bigger and bigger and only after a service restart you encounter the problem of the search not working. Looking for the reason takes a lot of time and requires a lot of specialized knowledge.