Hi
I am baffled by this one. I have a PowerShell script I have built up to install PowerPivot, which I have put together by reading various blogs and by picking apart the scripts that come with the PowerPivot installer.
However, once I have built the service app and installed/activated the solutions and features, I get the error "The PowerPivot service application could not connect to the Analysis Services instance" when trying to use it. I can't find any more detailed messages, even with verbose logging turned on. SSAS\PowerPivot is of course installed and connected to Excel as it should be.
I have tried running the PowerPivot for SharePoint validation tool and it doesn't find anything.
If I install PowerPivot using the PowerPivot for SharePoint installer, then delete the service app and rerun my scripts, everything then works fine.
So there is something the installer is doing that I am not, but I cannot for the life of me figure out what it is. I though it might be permission related, but the official installer installs the service under the farm account, not my BI service account. Ahaa, I thought, but when I then reinstall the service myself with my scripts, using my BI service account, the service app then works, so I don't think it can be permission related.
Doing a Google search on that message pulls up only one old post (repeated a few times), which talks about using a domain account for the SSAS instance instead of a Local System account - I am using the same domain service account for SSAS, Excel and PowerPivot already, so that doesn't help me much.
Does anyone have any ideas for me or suggestions on how I might proceed?
Andrew vR