Table of Contents

Reporting Hub Retirement

As a complimentary product to Project Online, the Altus Reporting Hub follows the same lifecycle as the technologies that it relies on. In November 2023, Microsoft announced the retirement of key Project Online technologies by April 2nd 2026, and then subsequently announced the retirement of Project Online itself for Sept 30th 2026.

This page outlines the corresponding Reporting Hub retirement process and what to expect during the service decommissioning process.

Timeline of events

Legacy Retirement Process Diagram

  • November 2023: Communication to customers regarding Reporting Hub retirement.
  • April 2025: Informational banner added for all users. Last renewals commence.
  • January 2026: Optional Early off-boarding period begins. Customers can request through their partners a final data extract and early service decommission to be timed to suit their migration plans.
  • February 2026: Microsoft Deprecates Legacy Authentication and requires customers to run powershell to continue use.
  • April 2nd 2026: Reporting Hub services are decommissioned. Changes to integrated Project Online site collections will be observed.
  • April to May 2026: Final Data Extracts are provided to customers.
  • July 1st 2026: Remaining customer data is securely disposed.
  • September 30th 2026: Project Online service and site collections become inaccessible.

Early Offboarding Period

In the case where a customer has a migration plan in place, it may be necessary to have an earlier service decommission date set and data extract provided to coincide with cutover plans. This early offboarding date can be made by appointment and we will try to accommodate all customer requests for their choice of particular dates as best we can.

In the case a customer elects for an early offboarding, no refunds will be provided for the unused portion of the Reporting Hub subscription, and secure disposal of data will occur from 90 days from the early offboarding date.

Legacy Auth Deprecation

As per the Microsoft Message Center Notice, Microsoft will turn off the Legacy Authentication utilised by many Reporting Hub customers to connect to Project Online. Organizations can temporarily use PowerShell to unblock legacy client authentication, by setting both AllowLegacyAuthProtocolsEnabledSetting and LegacyAuthProtocolsEnabled to TRUE. This can be done any time before 30th January and will allow legacy calls to continue till 30th April 2026.

Enable Legacy Auth Extension

As a Global Tenant Admin save the following PowerShell script to EnableLegacyAuth.ps1 and then run it in a local Administrative terminal window:

# Check for latest module version
$moduleName = "Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell"
$installedModule = Get-InstalledModule -Name $moduleName -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
$latestVersion = (Find-Module -Name $moduleName).Version

if (!$installedModule) {
    Write-Host "Installing $moduleName..." -ForegroundColor Yellow
    Install-Module -Name $moduleName -Scope CurrentUser -Force -AllowClobber
} elseif ($installedModule.Version -lt $latestVersion) {
    Write-Host "Current version: $($installedModule.Version)" -ForegroundColor Yellow
    Write-Host "Latest version: $latestVersion" -ForegroundColor Yellow
    Write-Host "The latest module version is required for the new Set-SPOTenant properties." -ForegroundColor Yellow
    Write-Host "Updating to latest version..." -ForegroundColor Yellow
    
    Update-Module -Name $moduleName -Force
    
    # Verify update succeeded
    $updatedModule = Get-InstalledModule -Name $moduleName
    if ($updatedModule.Version -lt $latestVersion) {
        Write-Host "Update failed. Removing old version and reinstalling..." -ForegroundColor Red
        Uninstall-Module -Name $moduleName -AllVersions -Force
        Install-Module -Name $moduleName -Scope CurrentUser -Force -AllowClobber
    }
} else {
    Write-Host "Latest version ($latestVersion) already installed." -ForegroundColor Green
}

# Import module
Import-Module $moduleName -Force

# Prompt for tenant name (e.g., contoso for contoso.onmicrosoft.com)
$tenant = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter your tenant name (e.g., if your Sharepoint URL is https://contoso.sharepoint.com, enter 'contoso')"

# Connect (supports modern auth/MFA)
Connect-SPOService -Url https://$tenant-admin.sharepoint.com

# Enable the required settings (temporary extension until April 2026)
Set-SPOTenant -AllowLegacyAuthProtocolsEnabledSetting $true -LegacyAuthProtocolsEnabled $true

Write-Host "Legacy authentication protocols enabled. Changes may take up to 24 hours to propagate." -ForegroundColor Green

Service Decommission

On the service decommission date the following changes will occur:

  • Reporting Hub Service will cease to apply realtime updates and overnight reconciliation to the SQL Azure database. Custom database events will no longer fire.
  • Reporting Hub SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) webparts will cease to function and may display an error message. NOTE: If you want have a record of you RDL report definitions after the service ends, please ensure you export them prior to the service decommission date.
  • Integration Hub dataflows into and out of the Reporting Hub will stop.
  • Power BI Embedded webparts will cease to function and may display an error message. NOTE: If you want to have a record or your PowerBI report definitions after the service ends, please ensure you export them prior to the service decommission date.
  • Project Group Integration will cease to function and it is expected clicking the "Project Site" link may show an error message.
  • Empower PPM Canvas Apps that rely on SQL connections will cease to function and may display an error message.
  • Resource Heatmaps webparts will cease to function and may show an error message.
  • The Reporting Hub Azure SQL database service will no longer be accessible by 3rd via party connections (This includes Power BI report refresh, or other direct SQL connections). Customer data will be retained but it will become inaccessible to prevent inaccurate/incomplete data from being used for decision making purposes.

Data Extract Availability

As per the current terms of the Reporting Hub subscription, Altus will retain customer data for a period of 90 days after the subscription end-date. During this time, for Altus hosted databases (excludes BYOD customers) Customers can request an extract of their Reporting Hub data. Altus will then provide the customer with an link to a secure download of their data as at the time their service was decommissioned. The data download link will be securely communicated via encrypted email and have a time expiration set when issued, typically 1 week. As mentioned, the service decommissioning and extract can be made on an earlier date by appointment.

The data extract will be in BACPAC file format suitable for restoration into another Azure SQL Database by the customer or partner is required. Other use cases for the BACPAC file (e.g. restoration to older versions of on-premises SQL Server) are out of scope but if needed could be provided by your Altus partner. The BACPAC file has the same schema that is modelled on the Project Server 2013 structure - a data dictionary is available here.

Warning

The BACPAC file will contain the data used for reporting via the REPORTING HUB product - this is not a complete backup of your Project Online instance which needs to be conducted via Microsoft Steps outlined here.

For customers with Project Online installations that span multiple site collections, we will be providing 1 BACPAC file per site collection.

The Data Extract will contain just the data that the Reporting Hub provides - this most notably will NOT include SharePoint files, and should not be thought of as a complete replica of your Project Online information. We strongly advise customers and partners to follow Microsoft guidance on extracting all Project Online data prior to the Microsoft decommissioning date for Project Online.

BYOD customers already have a copy of the database in their own Azure tenancy - and are encouraged to enforce their own controls to prevent it being used or considered accurate after the service decommission date.

Custom Report Extracts

In the case where a Cloud -> On Premises migraiton is planned, it may be desireable to capture custom reports that have been developed over time.

In order to do this visit each report and navigate to Edit Page -> Edit Webpart and use the download button.

Export SSRS Report

Background and Technical Information

Microsoft Project Online was released in 2013, and since then we have been enhancing its reporting capabilities via the Reporting Hub service. Unfortunately Microsoft has decided to deprecate certain key features that the Reporting Hub relies on. The Altus Reporting Hub service will be retired in part due to Microsoft announcing the retirement of the following underlying technologies:

  • Azure ACS: Used to authenticate the Reporting Hub.
  • SharePoint Add-ins: Used to show Reporting Services Paginated Reports and Power BI Reports.
  • SharePoint 2013 Workflows: Used to advance projects from one Stage to another.
  • SharePoint Remote Event Receivers: Used to update the Reporting Hub in real-time in relation to changes.
  • SharePoint Designer: Used to author Project Workflows

If you are a current Altus Reporting Hub customer, you are encouraged to transition from Project Online to an alternative like Altus - please talk to your existing Project Online partner or contact an Altus Partner near you to plan your transition.

For reference, the following are the technical details of the retirements from Microsoft:

Azure ACS retirement in Microsoft 365:

"Azure ACS will stop working for new tenants as of November 1st, 2024 and it will stop working for existing tenants and will be fully retired as of April 2nd, 2026. This applies to all environments including Government Clouds and Department of Defence."

SharePoint Add-In retirement in Microsoft 365:

"SharePoint Add-Ins will stop working for new tenants as of November 1st, 2024 and they will stop working for existing tenants and will be fully retired as of April 2nd, 2026. This applies to all environments including Government Clouds and Department of Defence."

Multiple Altus products rely on these technologies and must follow the same schedule for retirement. We understand that this may pose challenges for our customers, but we are committed to providing ample time for continuity planning.

Frequently Asked Questions

What parts of the Reporting Hub are affected?

Three key technologies are being retired; are Azure ACS (Access Control System), Remote Event Receivers and SharePoint Add-in's. The Reporting Hub utilises Remote Event Receivers authenticated by ACS in order to collect data, and SharePoint add-ins to display embedded reports to end users. Once these technologies are decommissioned, this functionality will also fail.

But Microsoft has newer technologies to replace these retirements, why aren't you using them?

Although Microsoft offers newer technologies—such as SharePoint Framework as a replacement for Add-ins and Entra ID to substitute for some ACS use cases — there is no complete replacement for ACS or Remote Event Receivers. The retirement of ACS, Add-Ins, RERs and Workflows represents just a part of the broader wave of technology retirements affecting Project Online end-users. By April 2026, it is anticipated that additional technology retirements will further impact the platform. Consequently, even if we were to adapt parts of the Reporting Hub, the discontinuation of other technologies by Microsoft would adversely affect the end-user experience to such an extent that maintaining the platform's viability would become impractical.

For more information on other Microsoft deprecation announcements that affect Project Online see:

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