Remove MS Project Server from SharePoint 2016

Question

Background: We are currently running SharePoint 2016 Enterprise. We also apply the monthly cumulative patches every month as well. After the patches are applied we run the “ps config” using this command is power shell:

PSConfig.exe -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -force -cmd applicationcontent -install -cmd installfeatures

When we first installed SharePoint 2016 we also enabled the MS Project feature set with the intent that later we would purchase the Project Server licenses. However, that has yet to happen. We get this error in the “PSConfig” process as follows:

An exception of type Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.PostSetupConfigurationTaskException was thrown. Additional exception information: Action 16.1.313.0 of Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Database.Extension.Upgrade.PDEUpgradeSequence failed. (EventID:ajywk)

Exception: The SELECT permission was denied on the object 'MSP_PROJECTS', database 'WSS_Content', schema 'pjpub'. (EventID:ajywk) (EventID:ajywk) Upgrade [SPContentDatabase Name=WSS_Content] failed. (EventID:an59t) Inner Exception: The SELECT permission was denied on the object 'MSP_PROJECTS', database 'WSS_Content', schema 'pjpub'. (EventID:an59t) (EventID:an59t) Exception: Action 16.1.313.0 of Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Database.Extension.Upgrade.PDEUpgradeSequence failed. (EventID:an59t) (EventID:an59t)

Upgrade Timer job is exiting due to exception: Microsoft.SharePoint.Upgrade.SPUpgradeException: Action 16.1.313.0 of Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Database.Extension.Upgrade.PDEUpgradeSequence failed. ---> System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: The SELECT permission was denied on the object 'MSP_PROJECTS', database 'WSS_Content', schema 'pjpub'. --- End of inner exception stack trace ---

Please note the rest of SharePoint is updated it’s just the Project section that is not.

I know why we get the Access Denied error. It is because the entire project tables in the database are read-only and this is because we do not have a licenses.

Which brings me to my question. How can I safely remove all the MS Project tables from the database, since I am not sure when a licenses will be purchased, I would like to squash this error if possible.

Answer 1

Two things:

1. You can't remove Project Server, but you can delete the Service Application and verify the Service Instance is stopped.
2. Licensing isn't why you're having this issue, rather it is due to the dbo mapping on the content database(s). I blogged about that at SharePoint Server 2016 Project Server Public Update Issue but the gist is that you need to map your farm admin (owstimer) service account to dbo on your content databases.