Project Server 2010 : Failed to provision site PWA with error: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Problem:

I was trying to take project server 2010 databases from PROD and refresh them in the DEV environment by using 5 database restore process (Reference: Project Server 2010 : Migration or Restore in New Farm) .

When I tried initially, the PWA site was missing the Project Site urls under Server Settings -> Project Sites page. Then, I deleted the SharePoint web application and also deleted the Project Server related 5 DBs manually. I restored the 5 DBs and added the project server content db to the newly created web application. When I tried to Provision the Project Web Application (PWA), it failed and I observed the following 3 error messages in Event Log:

Event Log: Error Log Entry 1
Failed to provision site PWA with error: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite..ctor(Guid id, SPFarm farm, SPUrlZone zone, SPUserToken userToken)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite..ctor(Guid id)
at Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Administration.ProjectSite..ctor(Guid webAppId, Guid siteId, String adminName, Int32 lcid, Boolean needsUpgrade, PsiServiceApplication parent)
at Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Administration.ProjectSiteCollection.Add(Guid webAppId, Guid siteId, String adminName, Int32 lcid, String PubDBConnString, String VerDBConnString, String WorkDBConnString, String RepDBConnString, Boolean needsUpgrade)
at Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Administration.PsiServiceApplication.CreateSite(ProjectProvisionSettings provset)

Event Log Error Entry 2: Provisioning ‘PWA’: Project site object creation failed. Exception ‘System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite..ctor(Guid id, SPFarm farm, SPUrlZone zone, SPUserToken userToken)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite..ctor(Guid id)
at Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Administration.ProjectSite..ctor(Guid webAppId, Guid siteId, String adminName, Int32 lcid, Boolean needsUpgrade, PsiServiceApplication parent)
at Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Administration.ProjectSiteCollection.Add(Guid webAppId, Guid siteId, String adminName, Int32 lcid, String PubDBConnString, String VerDBConnString, String WorkDBConnString, String RepDBConnString, Boolean needsUpgrade)
at Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Administration.PsiServiceApplication.CreateSite(ProjectProvisionSettings provset)’.

Event Log Error Entry 3: ProjectSite not created.

SOLUTION:

Something in the SharePoint config or Project Server Config was corrupted.

After hours of trial, I ran the Project Server Installation wizard and did Repair of the installation. The repair process went successfully. 

After that, I did following:
a. Created Web Application with default root site collection.
b. Ensure that site is up and working fine.
c. Go to manage content databases, remove the content database for the above created web application.
d. Restored all the 5 databases in the database server.
e. Attached the project server content database(s) to the web application using the STSADM command (not thru UI). After attaching, if we go to View Site Collections option from Central Admin, we should be able to see PWA site collection for the above created web application.
f. Navigated to Project Server Service Application and created a new Project Web Application by pointing to restored Archive, Published, Reporting, Draft databases.
g. Project Web Application provisioning took sometime and provisioned successfully.
h. When I opened the PWA site, the site came up fine but faced few minor issues which I resolved with the help of following posts:

Project Server 2010 : PWA Errors and Trouble-shooting

Project Server 2010 : Common errors when a PWA site is deleted ‘incorrectly’

Finally happy with the output 

Note: The above is just my experience. Please ensure you fully understand and leverage from my experience for your needs to avoid any further issues.

Project Server 2010 : PWA Errors and Trouble-shooting

While I was refreshing DEV environment from PROD for Project Server, I ran into many issues.

The following article explained the solution for various of the issues:

MS Project Server 2010 -> PWA Errors & Troubleshooting

Project Server 2010 : Common errors when a PWA site is deleted ‘incorrectly’

From last few days, I was working multiple Project Server 2010 installations/migrations.

I ran into many issues and I came across the following blog post which helped me in resolving those issues.

Common errors when a PWA site is deleted ‘incorrectly’

Project Server 2010 : Migration or Restore in New Farm

Currently, I am working on Project Server 2010 restoring the PROD copy in DEV/TST environment.

As we know, there are 5 databases related to Project Server 2010 which we need to use for migration/restoring in new farm.

There are many approaches for this operation which are explained well in the following blog posts from Andrew:

Project Server 2010 Database Restore (Part I)

Project Server 2010 Database Restore (Part II)

PowerShell - "The local farm is not accessible. Cmdlets with FeatureDependencyId are not registered." or Microsoft SharePoint is not supported with version 4.0.30319.17929 of the Microsoft .Net Runtime

I ran into the following issues, when I open PowerShell management console for SharePoint:

a. The local farm is not accessible. Cmdlets with FeatureDependencyId are not registered
b. Microsoft SharePoint is not supported with version 4.0.30319.17929 of the Microsoft .Net Runtime

The solution is mentioned in microsoft support post.  Click Here to see the post.

Solution:

To work around this issue, change the Target field value for SharePoint 2010 Management Shell. To do this, follow these steps:

• Click Start, and then right-click SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.
• Click Properties.
• Click the Shortcut tab in the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell Properties window.
• Input the following value in the Target field:

 C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -Version 2.0 -NoExit " & ' C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\CONFIG\POWERSHELL\Registration\\sharepoint.ps1 ' "

Issues Uploading Large Files To SharePoint

At a client, I came across with an issue with uploading large files to SharePoint.

We have SharePoint servers in US and the user is located in Asian countries. When the user tries to upload large file, the SharePoint site's request is getting time-out message.

I am still trying to know more details but found a blog post which contains various methods/approaches to fix the issue.

Very nicely documented post (we may know some of them but good to see everything related are placed together)  :  Issues Uploading Large Files To SharePoint

SharePoint Config database Log file too big – reduce it!

Today, I wanted to refresh a content database in test environment from production environment.

In test environment, I see the d drive is almost full. Out of 200 GB, only 8 GB was left out.

There were 10 web applications and many service applications were configured in test environment.

I checked the SQL Server and found that transaction log file sizes became huge.

For SharePoint config database log, I see the transaction log file size as 36 GB.

Due to lack of space, I was not able to restore my content db from prod.

I started focusing on shrinking the transaction log files.

We need to ensure that transaction log file backup are taken before we start shrinking. As it is test environment, we don't need to worry about backup as it contains test data.

I was able to shrink all transaction log files for all the config databases and able to get around 60 GB free space.

Note: We can perform shrinking on databases or individual database files (.mdf & .ldf).

Reference article about how to shrink database or files