I had a bear of a time getting SQL Server 2008 R2 November CTP’s Integrated PowerPivot feature installed.  It looks like several other people in the Twitter/Blogosphere are running into the same issue, but for potentially different reasons.

For me, ProClarity Analytics Server (PAS) 6.3 was the culprit: If it was already installed on my machine, I could NOT get Integrated PowerPivot installed. As a result, I was forced to install Gemini first, then PAS. In order for everything to play nicely, I then needed to manually move the PAS install from port 80 into a new website which listened on a different port. How did I do it? Here’s how:

WARNING: Before you install PAS, I suggest you read the couple of sentences & 3 bullets towards the end of this entry – you are about to inadvertently (but temporarily)  BREAK MOSS by changing all of MOSS’s x64 app pools to x86/x64. I suggest you record a list of all your applications pools as they exist right now and note whether they Enable 32-bit Applications or not so you can make sure they have the correct values when you’re all done.

• I set the identity of IIS’s DefaultAppPool to my domain admin account to make life simple. You might not want to.
• Install PAS as you normally would, including all the extra goodies that come with PAS like ProClarity Web Pro, etc.
• Install PAS 6.3 Service Pack 3 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=E6B784A8-E7C2-4E27-9D98-41E2F2FD7467&displaylang=en
• Install WebDAV. Here’s a link which gets more specific (see section “Installing and configuring WebDAV”): http://office.microsoft.com/download/afile.aspx?AssetID=AM103875331033
• Open IIS Manager via Start  | Run | inetmgr
• Create a new website named ProClarity. Bind it to port 81. Along with it, you’ll be creating a new AppPool named ProClarity, as well.
• Modify the AppPool named “ProClarity“, set it’s Framework Version to v2.0.50727, Pipeline Mode = Integrated. Set the Identity of this pool to your domain admin account or something more secure.
• Copy the PAS and PASUploads applications plus the ChartFXInt62 VDIR currently under Default Web Site to the ProClarity website
  • Under Default Web Site, right-click the PAS application, choose Manage Application, then Advanced Settings. Copy the Physical Path string to your clipboard
  • Right-click the ProClarity web site, choose Add Application, and create a new application with the same name/alias (PAS). Paste in the Physical Path string.
  • Repeat for PASUploads
  • Repeat for the ChartFXInt62 Virtual Directory, but create a VDIR under the ProClarity web site instead of an application
• Browse to C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\config and back up ApplicationHost.config somewhere safe
• Open ApplicationHost.config and scroll all the way to the bottom of the file until you hit the closing </configuration> element.
• Paste the following stuff right before the closing </confiiguration> tag. I’m assuming you named your website ProClarity, btw:

     <location path=”ProClarity”>
             <system.webServer>
                <isapiFilters>
                     <clear />
                     <filter name=”PHttpFilter” path=”C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\ProClarity\Server\PHTTPFilter.dll” enabled=”true” />
                 </isapiFilters>
             </system.webServer>
         </location>
         <location path=”ProClarity/PAS”>
                  <system.webServer>
                 <directoryBrowse enabled=”false” showFlags=”Date, Time, Size, Extension” />
                 <handlers accessPolicy=”Read, Script” />
                 <security>
                     <authentication>
                         <windowsAuthentication enabled=”true” />
                         <anonymousAuthentication enabled=”false” />
                         <digestAuthentication enabled=”false” />
                         <basicAuthentication enabled=”true” />
                     </authentication>
                 </security>
                 <defaultDocument enabled=”true”>
                     <files>
                         <clear />
                         <add value=”ProClarity.asp” />
                     </files>
                 </defaultDocument>
                 <asp enableParentPaths=”false” bufferingOn=”true”>
                     <session allowSessionState=”true” />
                     <limits scriptTimeout=”00:03:00″ />
                 </asp>
             </system.webServer>
         </location>
         <location path=”ProClarity/PASUploads”>
             <system.webServer>
                 <directoryBrowse enabled=”false” showFlags=”Date, Time, Size, Extension” />
                 <handlers accessPolicy=”Read, Write, Script” />
                 <security>
                     <authentication>
                         <windowsAuthentication enabled=”true” />
                         <anonymousAuthentication enabled=”false” />
                         <digestAuthentication enabled=”false” />
                         <basicAuthentication enabled=”true” />
                      </authentication>
                 </security>
                 <defaultDocument enabled=”false”>
                     <files>
                         <clear />
                         <add value=”ProClarity.asp” />
                     </files>
                 </defaultDocument>
                 <asp bufferingOn=”true”>
                     <session allowSessionState=”true” />
                     <limits scriptTimeout=”00:03:00″ />
                 </asp>
             </system.webServer>
         </location>
         <location path=”ProClarity/ChartFXInt62″>
             <system.webServer>
                 <directoryBrowse enabled=”false” showFlags=”Date, Time, Size, Extension” />
                 <handlers accessPolicy=”Read, Script” />
                 <security>
                     <authentication>
                         <windowsAuthentication enabled=”true” />
                         <anonymousAuthentication enabled=”false” />
                         <digestAuthentication enabled=”false” />
                         <basicAuthentication enabled=”true” />
                     </authentication>
                 </security>
                 <defaultDocument enabled=”true” />
                 <asp>
                     <limits scriptTimeout=”00:03:00″ />
                 </asp>
             </system.webServer>
         </location>

        What is this? It’s the basic configration of your Default Web Site with PAS installed (only PAS, nothing else) . I just snipped it out of my config file, and renamed “Default Web Site” to “ProClarity” in the appropriate places).

• Save, and do an IISReset
• Browse to http://machinename:81/PAS, and ProClarity should be happy.
• Assuming all is well, remove the PAS, PASUploads and ChartFXInt62 applications/VDIRS from under Default Web Site.
• Next, select the Default Web Site and click ISAPI Filters in the Features View pane.
• Delete PhttpFilter, which is most likely the only thing there.

If you’re trying to install the Integrated PowerPivot engine for SharePoint, then I know you’re on a 64-bit machine, which leaves you with another problem. Since you just put PAS (32-bit) on your box, IIS has switched all of your Application Pools  around so that they allow 32-bit apps. Your x64 MOSS install won’t like this at all. It is broken. SO, fix it:

• In Internet Information Manager, click Application Pools. You’ll see a bunch of stuff from MOSS including multiple app pools with a GUID for a name, Classic .NET AppPool, DefaultAppPoolk, Sharepoint – 80, SharePoint Central Administration v4, SharePoint Web Services Root.
• Right-click each one, choose Advanced Features, and then set the Enable 32-bit Applications property back to False. (You must leave the ProClarity app pool set to True).
• IISRESET

 That’s it, you should be good. BTW, if you chose not to set the identity of the ProClarity and/or DefaultAppPool to a set of domain admin \ admin credentials, you still might have a bit of work to do to make sure that ProClarity can read everything it needs to. Read this link for more information http://blogs.technet.com/proclarity/attachment/3171346.ashx. You’ll be interested in steps 5 and 6 of section 1.

I was in an inflammatory mood at the beginning of the week and tweeted the following at #sqlpass:

DBAs don’t like it, but Excel IS the database for many. This hasn’t and won’t change. Manage to this reality.

The lion’s share of people (DBAs, I guess) who responded…Well, let’s say they didn’t agree.  I don’t know, maybe I’m nuts or something but the users I work with generally take the path of least resistance.  Of course Excel isn’t a real database, but do users care? No. They just want to get their work done. If the data they want is available right now from an IT-provisioned data source, they’ll use it. If it’s not, the average user will end-run you so fast your head will spin. 

Are spread marts a good thing? No, they suck.  Are they a fact of life? Who knows…but I see just as many “mission critical” excel workbooks now as I did 5 or 10 years ago. That says something.

So why not embrace Excel as a potential solution for certain scenarios? Introduce them to Project Gemini (PowerPivot!)  and now you at least can get a view into what they’re up to – you can actually begin to manage some of their output.

What do you think? Honesly, I’m curious…I could be out of my mind, after all.