Refreshing a Project Server 2010 Development instance from Production

Hey folks,

Many people have done this, and it seems there are several ways to do it.  Some people merely copy overwrite development databases (four PS2010 databases) with fresh production databases.  Others delete the development instance, and provision a new one using fresh production databases.  Of the two methods, the second is definitely the superior choice.  The method below is a third that uses the general approach as the second method above.  The advantage to the method below, however, is it brings over the SharePoint content/Project Sites as well. 

1. Use the backup-spsite command to backup the SharePoint content (Site Collection) from the PROD instance
   1. Example 1: Backup-SPSite http://server_name/sites/site_name -Path C:Backupsite_name.bak
   2. Example 2: Get-SPSiteAdministration http://server_name/sites/site_name | Backup-SPSite -Path C:Backupsite_name.bak
   3. Example 3: Backup-SPSite http://server_name/sites/site_name -Path C:Backupsite_name.bak -UseSqlSnapshot
2. Backup the 4 PROD Project Server databases from production and restore them to your development environment (typical names below)
   1. ProjectServer_Published
   2. ProjectServer_Reporting
   3. ProjectServer_Archive
   4. ProjectServer_Draft
3. Delete the DEV instance (PWA and Site Collection)
   1. Navigate to the Project Server Service Application and Delete the development instance
   2. From within Central Administration –> Application Management, click delete Site Collection and delete the development site collection
4. Create a new Site Collection from within Application Management
5. Use the restore-spsite command to restore the SharePoint content into the new DEV Site Collection
   1. Example 1: Restore-SPSite http://server_name/sites/site_name -Path C:Backupsite_name.bak
   2. Example 2: Restore-SPSite http://server_name/sites/site_name -Path C:Backupsite_name.bak -Force -DatabaseServer SQLBE1 -DatabaseName SQLDB1
   3. Example 3: Restore-SPSite http://www.example.com -Path \file_serversharesite_name.bak -HostHeaderWebApplication http://server_name
6. Build a PWA instance in the new DEV site collection from the copies of the 4 PROD databases
   1. Navigate to the Project Server Service Application
   2. In provisioning settings, specify the four databases from step 2 above
7. In the new DEV instance: Fixup any hard coded links, change the cube name and build time, fixup the project site links with the bulk tool

Related

• Microsoft Project Online Migration
• Create a PWA site (Project Server 2010)
• Change permission mode of Microsoft Project Online instance
• Unable to open Projects from PWA after migration to Microsoft Project Server 2013