Oracle Advisor Webcast

P6 Tips and Tricks

Matt Candela
Team Lead, Oracle Primavera Support

January 21, 2015

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Safe Harbor Statement
The following is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for
information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a
commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon
in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of any features or
functionality described for Oracles products remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.

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Objectives

Top Issues Logged by P6 Customers

Avoid Reoccuring Issues

Understand how to Troubleshoot

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Agenda

1
P6 Functional Areas
2 P6 Release 8 Client Issues
3 P6 Release 8 Web Issues

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P6 Functional Areas

Project privileges
Import considerations
Percent complete fields
Baseline dates, budgeted units, and planned dates
Longest Path
Out of sequence activities

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How Are Project Privileges Applied?

Organizational Breakdown Structure (OBS) hierarchy of responsible

managers

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How Are Project Privileges Applied?

Enterprise Project Structure (EPS) hierarchy for organizing projects

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How Are Project Privileges Applied?

An OBS/Responsible Manager is assigned to an EPS

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How Are Project Privileges Applied?

Make OBS and EPS Identical

EPS can have multiple top level nodes, OBS can only have one
Privileges flow down through EPS hierarchy, but not OBS
Less restrictive access overrides more restrictive
Changes are processed by background job
Document 907869.1 How to Manually Run Background Jobs for a P6
Database

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Import Considerations

Microsoft Project (MSP)

To import .mpp files into P6 client, MSP 2003 or earlier must be installed
MSP 2007 and 2010 (P6 8.2 and later) use XML import, no installation required
P3
P3 must be installed with P6 client (not possible on 64-bit OS)
Converter can be run from PC with P3 installed
Document 910992.1 - Unable to Import P3 Project Directly into P6

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Import and Export Considerations
Excel
P6 Web import can only add new activities
Fields marked with an asterisk (*) can not be updated via import

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How are Baseline Dates Calculated?

Current project is being used as baseline

Baseline dates are taken from planned dates

Baseline project is used as baseline

Check Earned Value Calculation setting

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Planned/Budgeted Units and Planned Dates

Planned/budgeted units are spread according to the planned dates

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How are Planned Dates Determined?

Activity has not started

Equal to the start and finish date
Can be changed manually, but will be set back when scheduling

Activity has started

No longer updated by scheduler
Can be changed manually and will no longer be set back when scheduling

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Percent Complete Fields
Activity percent complete fields Duration % complete
Planned duration actual duration /
planned duration
Schedule % complete
Based on data date, baseline start,
and baseline finish

Physical % complete
Entered manually or uses steps
Units % complete
Actual units / at complete units

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Percent Complete Fields

Activity % complete based on physical, duration, or units % complete

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Percent Complete Fields

Activity % complete and physical % complete do not roll up

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How is Longest Path Calculated?

Criticality based on float Criticality based on longest path

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How is Longest Path Calculated?

Driving relationships, starts at the end of the project and works

backwards

Ends when activity has positive float (based on successor calendar)

May not lead back to project start

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Out of Sequence Activities

Activity starts before predecessor

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Out of Sequence Activities

Retained logic relationship honored as best possible

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Out of Sequence Activities

Progress override relationship is ignored

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Out of Sequence Activities

Actual dates actual dates override the logic

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P6 R8 Client Issues

ORACLE_HOME environment variable

JAVA_HOME environment variable

HTML files

Troubleshooting other client issues

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24
ORACLE_HOME Environment Variable

P6 R8 Professional running Oracle XE database

PRINTER SELECTED IS NOT VALID
There was a problem communicating to the printer...
Page setup hangs/freezes
Event Code: tnpwn-2614-a
Event Code: NESIA-1377-F
The network path was not found error when attempting to export to Excel
AVAAO errors attempting to view/run reports

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ORACLE_HOME Environment Variable

Document 1381261.1 - Event Codes, Printing Errors, and Import Issues

Using An Oracle XE Database
P6 R8 Professional running Oracle XE database

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ORACLE_HOME Environment Variable

Advanced System Environment ORACLE_HOME

Properties Variables System Variable

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JAVA_HOME Environment Variable

Affects API functionality in P6 R8 Client

Import/export, update baseline, claim digger, etc.

Event Code: CNFF-3348-2

The selected application <path>\java.exe cannot be found

Example C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6

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HTML Files

Unable to type the letter s or save in header/footer

Event Code: NSIS-2739-6 accessing Page Setup or Print Preview
Unable to add text to header/footer
Event Code: FPDBZ-3853-D modifying notebook topic
Document 1362694.1 - Headers & Footers Do Not Allow Typing The
Letter S or Saving
Download and register dhtmled.ocx and triedit.dll

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Other P6 Client Issues

Event Codes, AVAAO errors, Access Violation errors

Check More information
Process of elimination specific to project, user, layout, workstation, etc.
Document 894279.1 How To Delete A User's Application User Preference
Settings (Edit, User Preferences) If The Account Has Become Corrupted In Project
Management Or Web Access
Document 1083481.1 Check Project Integrity Utility: Description of Utility
Including Detailed SQL Statements Executed

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P6 R8 Web Issues

Java issues
Display issues
Java errors
Java prompts
Web Access Log
Other errors or problems

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Java Issues

Display issues
Browser hangs, page does not load
Page is blank
Red X in upper left corner
Check version in Java Control Panel
Should match Tested Configurations
Document

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Java Issues

Clear the Java cache

Java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetEx
ception
Java.lang.NullPointerException
Useful after making a change, such
as downgrading Java version

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Java Issues

Disable automatic updates

Prevent new, incompatible version
Avoid prompts

Java was blocked because it is out

of date... in Internet Explorer, add
P6 as trusted site

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Java Issues

Java and browser should match 64-bit or 32-bit

Firefox is 32-bit
Multiple Java Runtime Environments (JRE) should be uninstalled
Document 898373.1 How To Fully Uninstall Java Runtime Environments (JRE)
To Prevent Conflicts with Other Versions

JAVA_HOME should point to appropriate Java location

Java must match value specified in P6 Configuration
Document 899568.1 How To Hardcode P6 Web Access To Use A Specific Java
Runtime Environment (JRE) Version When Running Applets

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Web Access Log

Document 1575379.1 - SRDC Process to set the Web Access HTML log
file logging level
Log file locations:
WebLogic on Windows webaccesshome\WebAccessLogs
WebSphere on Windows webaccesshome\WebAccessLogs
WebLogic on Linux - :/webaccesshome/WebAccessLogs
WebSphere on Oracle Enterprise Linux-
:/mount_point/WebSphere/AppServer/WebAccessLogs

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Web Access Log

Error attempting to copy and paste project

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Web Access Log

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Summary

What we covered today

Top issues logged by P6 customers
P6 functional areas
Release 8 Client Issues
Release 8 Web issues
How to troubleshoot

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Top Articles and Community Links

Document ID 1353831.2 Information

Center: Primavera P6 EPPM and PPM

Document ID 1292929.1 Master Note for

Primavera P6 Common Application
Questions or Issues

The following thread will have a copy of the

presentation and can be used for additional
questions or discussions on this topic.
https://community.oracle.com/thread/365
0484

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Learn More
Available References and Resources to Get Proactive

My Oracle Support Essentials Webcast Series

https://support. oracle.com | Doc ID: 553747.1

My Oracle Support Blog

https://blogs.oracle.com/supportportal/

Get Proactive in My Oracle Support

https://support. oracle.com | Doc ID: 432.1

Ask the Get Proactive Team

get-proactive_ww@oracle.com

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Accessing My Oracle Support Community

1. Via My Oracle Support -> Community Tab 2. Directly https://communities.oracle.com

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Session Related Community Links

https://community.oracle.com/docs/
DOC-894765

https://community.oracle.com/thread
/3650484

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Where Can I Get The Slides From This Session?
1. PDF link from Doc ID 740966.1 (within 48 hours)
2. Primavera - PRIM Community >Content Tab > Documents (within 24 hours)

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Oracle Advisor Webcast Program

Locating Current Schedule & Archived Recordings

From Note ID : 740966.1 drill

down to your area of interest

Select your Product Area

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