Cannot connect to PerformancePoint Services in SharePoint 2010

Today I am going share some troubleshooting that we have performed with respect to Performance Point Service. In this article, I will try to explain on

-Performance point Service (PPS) service application (SA)

-their associations, proxy SA

-services required

-dependent services

What is Performance point Service (PPS)?

Dashboards are a fundamental component of any performance management solution, and SharePoint 2010 Performance Point Services provides a rich set of tools and services for building highly interactive dashboard experiences that can help organizations of all sizes monitor and analyze their performance.

Problem Description:

After dashboard designer is opened, I try to define a new data source by right clicking on data connections. After I chose excel services, the error message is displayed.

Error Message:

Cannot connect to PerformancePoint Services. Contact the administrator for more details.

Recommended:

I am definitely going to share my troubleshooting steps, but what i can suggest is- if you face the same error message then please check the SharePoint ULS logs for better clarity.

Troubleshooting steps:

-use firebug to analyse the traffic

-check sharepoint logs to target the exact root cause

-check the service applications and their associations i.e. proxy Sa

-make sure that the PerformancePoint Service is turned on

-make sure that the secure store service is turned on

-make sure that secure store service has been properly configured in your farm.

Resolution steps:

1-When I checked the secure store service in my farm then i came to know that it was not 100% configured. Next question definitely comes into picture as what is meant by not configured.

Please follow these steps and make sure it is properly configured:

-Central Administration

-Application management

-service applications

-secure store service

-manage

-generate a new key

-enter the passphrase

-make sure the secure store service is turned on

-unattended service account is an optional step, if you wanna configure it then you can proceed ahead.

2-make sure the performance service is turned on.

Note: make sure that performance service application is already created and in started mode.

Please follow these steps:

-Central Administration

-Application management

-manage services on server

-performance point service

-status should be in STARTED mode.

Reference:  if you want to configure performance point service application in your farm then please refer the following link for detail description:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee748643(v=office.14).aspx

3-make sure that performance point service application is properly associated with the web application.

Please follow these steps if it’s not there:

Go to Central Admin > Application Management > Configure service application associations > click default.

You should see that PerformancePoint Services will be unchecked. Check that box and you should be good to go.

You can cross check whether the PerformancePoint service application is properly configured by accessing PPS sites, Dashboard designer and other PPS first class objects in Business Intelligence Center Site. Before that, ensure to activate the PPS feature in Site Settings > Site collection features.

If you have any queries/questions with respect to the above mentioned information then please let me know. I would be more than happy to help you as well as resolves your issues. Thank you.