Ted H

Microsoft CRM Dynamics 4.0 Implementation Guide 4.1.0

2008-04-17T16:25:00Z

Thanks to Matt Peart for posting about the updated Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Implementation Guide. There are a ton of corrections, as well some new topics - mostly pertaining to the core infrastructure for CRM. Rather than copy Matt's blog, I'll just point you to it here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/crm/archive/2008/04/17/microsoft-dynamics-crm-4-0-implementation-guide-update-4-1-0-is-now-available.aspx

And to the updated Implementation Guide here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1ceb5e01-de9f-48c0-8ce2-51633ebf4714&DisplayLang=en

Improved Process for Redploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0!

2008-03-05T18:51:00Z

If you have ever had to redeploy Microsoft Dynamics CRM to another environment, you know that it can be a cumbersome process. While Microsoft definitely improved the process from the 1.x days, you still have a lot of steps you need to accomplish to make this happen with 3.0:

1. Back up the MSCRM and METABASE Databases from the original source environment
2. Restore them to the destination environment
3. Install and run the redeployment wizard against the databases
4. Install CRM 3.0, any necessary updates (Rollup 2, etc)
5. Move reports to destination environment
a. Customizations, workflows should all be contained in the MSCRM database - but it's good practice to export those from the source environment as well.

Now, if you are trying to refresh an existing CRM 3.0 Development environment with data from your Production CRM, you would have to first uninstall CRM - then go through the steps addressed above. This is very time-consuming, and many clients have complained about this process.

Well, Microsoft has listened to your complaints. With CRM 4.0, the process has become much easier. You no longer have to uninstall CRM - that is huge! All you have to do:

1. Back up the MSCRM database from the original source environment (There is no more METABASE database with 4.0 - and you don't need to move the MSCRM_CONFIG database from one environment to another
2. Restore them to the destination environment
3. Open Deployment Manager, choose "Organizations"
4. Choose "Import Organization"
5. Choose your database server - from there you should see any 4.0 MSCRM database that is not currently associated to this installation. Choose the database you restored in step two
6. The import process will run though steps very similar to the 3.0 Redeploy - where you specify your org name and report server, and map users to CRM

Specify org name

Specify Report Server URL

Select method for mapping users (Select same method you used for CRM 3.0 redeploy process)

That's it - you've just "redeployed" your organization. I know, "seems like more steps". But that is because I glossed over the 3.0 process for you. If you are not familiar with the CRM 3.0 process, you can read the guide found on the CRM 3.0 Server media. The point is, you no longer have to go through the long tedious process of uninstalling and reinstalling the application any time you want to refresh your Production CRM data to Dev.

If you are using CRM 4.0 Enterprise, you can import virtually as many orgs as you want - so you could in theory have your Dev, Test, stage environments on one physical CRM installation. If you have CRM 4.0 Professional, you can only have one active organization. During the process, you will be prompted to disable your current organization, in order to import this new one.

Kudos to Microsoft on improving this process!

How Do I Move CRM 4.0 Reports To A New SQL Report Server?

2008-01-18T04:51:00Z

I don’t know that you would need to move reports yet, now that you are on Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 – but may come up some day. So – how do you do it? I’ll do my best to tell you how.

With CRM 3.0, you may have needed to move reports off the CRM server – or just move them to a new SQL Reporting Services box (maybe you upgraded to SQL 2005 and SRS 2005?). To accomplish this, you would typically:

1. Run DownloadReports.exe, to download the reports to .rdl files

2. Change the Report Server URL

a. Launch Deployment Manager on the CRM 3.0 Server

b. Choose “Server Manager”

c. Right-click the CRM Server, choose “Specify Report Server URL”

d. Enter url of the new report server (http://servername/reportserver)

3. Run PublishReports.exe, to publish the .rdl files to the new SQL Report Server

a. DownloadReports.exe and PublishReports.exe are typically located in \Program Files\Microsoft CRM\Report

4. An alternative way to change the Report Server URL is to change the SQLRSServerURL value under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\MSCRM, use Regedit

5. You may need to do an IISReset for the change to take effect

Not too terrible of a process. But it’s getting easier with 4.0. To change the report server with CRM 4.0! For out-of-the-box reports, they are now stored in the MSCRM database along with the Reportserver database. So – if you want to change the report server with CRM 4.0:

1. Disable the organization in Deployment Manager, that you want to change the report server for

2. Right-click disabled org, choose “Edit organization”

3. Modify the Report Server URL

a. There will be a diagnostic process, that will determine if reports can be moved to the new URL

b. If the diags pass, the reports will be published to the new report server

c. Note – there is a similar process for moving CRM databases to a new SQL Server

4. Re-enable the organization

Now – this will not work for custom reports. Microsoft is working on a tool that will be similar to the 3.0 DownloadReports.exe tool. Until then – you can manually download them from the user interface, then publish them after you have made the changes note above.

This post is as-is, no warranties. Try it in Dev first. But it worked for me!

CRM License Keys - The Lowdown

2008-01-15T20:25:00Z

So - Simonhu from the MSDN blog site recently posted one of the most helpful blogs I've seen in a while. It didn't show you how to configure SQL Server, or the Email Router, or how to move reports. What it did though, was give the low-down on how you obtain your CRM license key. Sounds simple - and it is. But it's NOT what I'd call the conventional way you obtain your license keys for Microsoft products - and that is a huge source of confusion and frustration for customers and consultants alike.

You can read Simon's post here. The one that we at Inetium deal with most of the time is the Volume License agreements, or occasionally the Microsoft Partner Program (Internally, for example). Typically with the Volume License agreements, customers can log on to eOpen or the MVLS site to get their keys (Windows, SQL Server, Exchange, etc).

But not for CRM. Nope. For CRM, you get your key from the media sleeve. Even for Volume License customers. This is extremely difficult for VL customers to understand when they opt out of ordering physical media, and instead choose to download all their install bits. This started with version 3.0, and it has not changed with version 4.0.

But it is what it is. Once we get over that hurdle, and the customer orders the media, they are taken care of. It's just sometimes been a bit painful to come to an understanding on how it works, and why the CRM product is just a bit different in that regard than other products they have purchased.

Kudos to Simonhu for putting together this post! Again - you can read his post here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/ukcrm/archive/2008/01/14/where-is-your-crm-4-0-license-key.aspx

Microsoft CRM 4.0 and the CRM Email Router.....

2008-01-03T19:53:00Z

With Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, you no longer have to install the CRM Email Router on an Exchange Server! That is exciting information to be able to pass on to larger customers - the CRM 3.0 Email Router (where it resides, where you must run the Rule Deployment Wizard from) has historically been a sore spot with Exchange administrators. So this will be great news for them to hear!

The CRM Email Router can be installed on an Exchange Server, the CRM Server, or even a workstation. The requirements are:

Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2003 (all editions)
Windows Vista
Windows XP Professional SP2
Windows XP Tablet PC Edition SP2
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

There are a handful of different scenarios that you would use the Microsoft CRM Email Router. First of all, we should understand different methods for routing email in general - one cool thing about CRM 4.0 is that you can use your Outlook client to route incoming email to CRM. Below are email routing options (from the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Installation Guide):

Incoming Configuration. The E-mail Router supports Exchange Server 2003, Exchange Server 2007, or POP3 e-mail systems for incoming e-mail messages.
Outgoing Configuration. Microsoft Dynamics CRM supports only SMTP e-mail systems for outgoing e-mail messages.
Mailbox Monitoring Type. The following two mailbox types can be configured.

Forward Mailbox. If you select Forward Mailbox when you run the E-mail Router Configuration Manager, a single mailbox will be used by E-mail Router to process e-mail messages. Then, for each Microsoft Dynamics CRM user or queue that will receive e-mail messages, a rule must be created for the user, or queue, by running the Rule Deployment Wizard.
Individual Mailboxes. If your e-mail system does not allow rules, where an e-mail message can be forwarded as an attachment, you must select Individual Mailbox Monitoring. Notice that, if you are using Exchange Server, we recommend that you use Forward Mailbox Monitoring.

You only need Exchange Server if you plan to use the Email Router to connect to an Exchange Server. If so - you must be using Exchange 2003 with SP2 or above, or Exchange 2007.

If you are going to use the Rule Deployment Wizard, you will need to install the Microsoft Exchange Server MAPI client runtime libraries. You can download them here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e17e7f31-079a-43a9-bff2-0a110307611e&DisplayLang=en

This download has some different scenarios for routing CRM email - and how to configure:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=8ea05b4e-825a-4db1-ad59-d894aa5ef33e&DisplayLang=en

Of course, the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Implementation Guide is a good thing to have during your implementation. Both the Planning and Installation Guides have good information regarding the CRM Email Router and email configuration options.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1ceb5e01-de9f-48c0-8ce2-51633ebf4714&DisplayLang=en

Get Ready for Titan!!!!

2007-10-11T18:02:00Z

Yep - it's coming! I know you're all as excited as I am about this too! I thought I'd take a little time to spell out some basic requirements for running Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 (code-named Titan) in your environment.

Operating System Requirements
Active Directory must be in one of these domain modes:

Windows 2000 Native
Windows Server 2003 Native
Windows Server 2003 Interim
All Windows Server 2008 Modes
All Active Directory forest modes are supported

The following Microsoft Windows Server operating systems will be supported with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

Windows Server 2003, Web Edition
Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition
Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition
Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition
Small Business Server R2, Premium Edition with SBS SP1
64-bit OS is supported with Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter editions of Windows 2003
Service Pack 2 is required for Windows 2003
Windows Server 2008

Note - Windows 2000 Server versions are not supported with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

SQL Server 2005 with Service Pack 2 is the only version of SQL Server supported with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 - SQL Server 2000 is no longer supported

SQL Reporting Services 2005 with Service Pack 2 must be installed, running and available for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 - SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services are no longer supported

Exchange 2003 and 2007 are the only supported versions of Exchange with the Microsoft Dynamics 4.0 CRM Email Router - Exchange 2000 is no longer supported

Note - The Microsoft CRM-Exchange Email Router no longer needs to be installed on an Exchange Server!

So - what does all this mean? If you are currently a CRM 3.0 shop, you'll want to make sure your environment is ready for Titan:

Migrate CRM databases on SQL 2000 Server to SQL 2005 (or upgrade SQL Server)
Migrate CRM reports on SQL 2000 Reporting Services to SQL 2005 Reporting Services (or upgrade SQL Reporting Server)
Replace older Windows 2000 Server with Windows 2003 or 2008 (when available)
Make sure your Active Directory domain mode is at a minimum Windows 2000 Native
Replace older Exchange 2000 Server with Exchange 2003 or 2007

Determining whether to migrate or upgrade for SQL, Windows, etc, really depends on your environment - what is on your SQL Server? How old is the hardware? Is it still supported? Usually the best path (path of least resistance/risk) would be to migrate to new hardware - but there could be situations where performing an upgrade would make more sense.

I'll dig in to client needs, changes in how CRM access SQL Reporting Services and how CRM works with Exchange in later posts.

Interesting Error During CRM Installation…..

2007-09-13T20:41:00Z

I recently attempted to install CRM for a new customer. It gave me an error during processing business, with the following error:

Action Microsoft.Crm.Setup.Server.ProvisionBusinessAction failed.
Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131534.

After verifying network connectivity, name resolution, and security were not an issue, searching online and pulling my hair out a bit - I decided to call Microsoft on this.

It turns out there were some custom time zones created, that we had to remove in the registry in order to get this to fly. The time zones are located at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Time Zones.

We had to review each time zone, and remove any time zone key with less than 7 registry values in it. Here is the process to take:

a. Open the Registry in CRM Server and go to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Time Zones.
b. b. Review Time Zone folders, making sure that each time zone folder includes 7 keys: (Default), Display, Dlt, Index, MapID, Std and TZI.
c. c. If you detect a time zone with less than these 7 keys, export the time zone folder using the Registry Editor.
d. d. Delete the time zone.
e. e. Repeat steps 2-4 for each time zone.
f. f. Install CRM v 3.0.
g. g. Re-import deleted time zones from the export if you wish.(This is not required)

NOTE: Before deleting anything, I just exported the entire "Time Zones" key. This way I could re-import it after CRM was installed (Or in case it did not help).

NOTE-2: I did not delete any sub-keys that had less than seven values in the key. For example, there were a handful of keys that had a sub key called "Dynamic DST" under it - I left them alone, and you should too.

Well, it worked. So that made me happy. The odd part - the customer had not created any custom time zones? The server OS was OEM from the manufacturer - not sure if they would have done this? (It was a new server, and maybe the manufacture did something special for DST - I don't know). The bottom line is this issue is something I had never run into before - and I thought I'd pass it along, in case someone else was pulling their hair out somewhere as well. There is no Microsoft KB for this issue, as according to them it's not a common issue.

Thanks to Bryce at Microsoft for the pointer!

This Post is as-is, with no warranties. ;)

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 and Exchange 2007.....

2007-08-22T00:43:00Z

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 and Exchange 2007.......

I posted a while back about the updated CRM Email Router for Exchange 2007, and the fact that you need to keep an Exchange 2003 or 2000 Server in your Exchange environment in order to run it. Well, a while back I found an issue with CRM and Exchange 2007.

If you send a meeting request to other CRM users from Outlook, tracking this in CRM - and you and/or the recipients' mailboxes are on an Exchange 2007 Server - you may see that all recipients of your meeting request with the CRM Sales for Outlook Client installed will end up with TWO entries for this meeting in their Outlook calendar. Why????

The issue is that Exchange 2007 essentially breaks the association that the appointment has with CRM. Then, when your client synchronizes with CRM again, it pulls down the appointment that resides in your CRM activities. The only person not affected by this is the person who tracked the email, as they are the ones who placed it in CRM to begin with (their original meeting is then associated with CRM, and Exchange 2007 does not balk at this).

Microsoft was able to recreate this issue, and is currently working on patches for the Outlook 2007 and 2003 clients to resolve this issue.

In the meantime, we were able to work around the issue by running this command against every CRM user mailbox, from the Exchange Management Shell:

set-mailboxcalendarsettings "Domain/Users/User" -AutomateProcessing None

This essentially turns off new server-side processing in Exchange, and puts that burden on Outlook (Just like Exchange 2003 works today).

One side-effect we saw in turning this off - we had set read permissions on the user mailboxes from the Exchange Server, and this was lost. We had to revert back to setting these permissions from each user's individual Outlook experience.

I'm sure there are other things impacted by disabling AutomateProcessing on the Exchange Server - I just have not been able to test them all out yet. So I would recommend you test this fully in your environment, if you need to make this change. You can always change this setting back in Exchange, if you need/when the patches are released.

Simple Modification to The Email Forward Rule

2007-08-20T20:19:00Z

Ok, so you know how the Exchange Email Router works right? If not here is a little rundown for you:

When you run the CRM Rule Deployment Wizard from the Exchange Server against CRM user mailboxes, it dumps a server-side rule in their mailbox. That rule forwards all email that delivers to their mailbox as attachments to the CRM Email Router mailbox - and THAT account essentially filters out what should be placed in CRM and what should be discarded (from the CRM Router mailbox, not the end-user mailbox).

Here is an example of what the actual mailbox rule looks like:

      Apply this rule after the message arrives
      Where my name is in the To or Cc box
      Forward it to crmrouteremailaddress@business.etc as an attachment

This works just as designed,it forwards EVERY e-mail message you receive in your inbox as attachments to the CRM Router mailbox.

What I have recently seen (at two users in the past week - each at a different customer) is that sometimes, SOME emails actually appeared in their Sent Items folder,but not all messages . As you know, none of these emails should show up in your Sent Items - it should bascailly be transparent to the user (No need to clutter up their Sent Items folder with these messages).

The common theme here was that both of these users had an POP3 account set up in Outlook, in addtion to their Exchange mailboxes - and all of the messages in Sent Items were related to these POP3 accounts. This was easy to fix, as we don't really need any of the email coming in to these POP3 accounts even attempting to deliver to CRM. I just modified the rule in the users' mailboxes, adding an exception at the end of the rule for anything sent to their POP3 account:

      Apply this rule after the message arrives
      Where my name is in the To or Cc box
      Forward it to crmrouteremaladdress@business.etc as an attachment
      Except if sent to mailto:pop3email@provider.isp

You could do something cool globally too. A really smart colleague of mine, who shall remain nameless, suggested that we look at modifying the rule, so that it only attempts to deliver email to the router that has the prefix you define for your organization in the Subject line:

      Apply this rule after the message arrives
        and with CRM: in the subject or body     (CRM: being whatever prefix you defined in your organization)
      Where my name is in the To or Cc box
      Forward it to crmrouteremaladdress@business.etc as an attachment

I have not tested this last suggestion, so use at your own risk. Also - I don't believe you'd be able to deploy this rule using the CRM Email Deployment Wizard. Instead, you could export it from one client, and then import in to other mailboxes. But it might help cut down on traffic on your mail server.

CRM Rollup 2! Big News and Some Interesting Things to Note

2007-06-27T03:47:00Z

OK - so Rollup 2 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 is officially out! I know I'm a bit behind in blogging about this. But I thought I'd touch on a few things you should keep in mind.

Before I get to that - here is a link to the download, and here is a link to Greg Nichol's blog on Rollup 2. Greg's post has some very informative Q&A. This is what I'd like to touch on.

1. Rollup 2 CANNOT be uninstalled. So make sure you back up your MSCRM and METABASE databases prior to installation. If something blows up, you can reinstall CRM with the backed up databsase. Of course, that won't be an option even one day later, once there is new data entered in the database.

2. All post Rollup 2 fixes will require Rollup 2 to be installed. This was not the case with Rollup 1. This will be very important to understand - if you have an issue that calls for a hotfix, you will need Rollup 2 in your environment in order to install the fix.

3. Customizations exported from a CRM system with Rollup 2 installed cannot be import to a CRM system that does not have Rollup 2 installed (and vice versa). This is very important to keep in mind, for folks who work extensively in Dev. If you are using Dev to test customizations, etc., and you test out Rollup 2 in Dev prior to rolling out in Prod (great idea), you will not be able to publish these Dev customizations in Production until after you apply Rollup 2. Why would that matter?

Well - let's say you want to test Rollup 2 extensively. Which could take a while. Then add in your change control window - let's say it's one day a month. If you hit that window in Production, but are not yet ready to apply Rollup 2 (and you have in Dev), you will have to wait to apply any customizations you may have done on your Rollup 2 Dev environment. Just something to keep in mind here.

None of this is really daunting, or a reason to hold off on Rollup 2. I'm just suggesting you test thoroughly, with a good plan in place for this process. If you have a separate Staging environment, that may be the best place to test out your Rollup 2 deployment. That way, you can keep Dev and Production removed from Rollup 2 until you are ready to deploy. Just make sure to deploy it to all environments, once you are ready.

Download Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Rollup 2
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=81674da5-ffef-492a-a7b1-7e1f1951b05f&displaylang=en

Greg Nichols' post on CRM 3.0 Rollup 2
http://blogs.msdn.com/crm/archive/2007/06/22/update-rollup-2-for-microsoft-dynamics-v3-0.aspx

CRM DST Patches Released

2007-03-06T04:45:00Z

Microsoft has finally released their Daylight Savings Time patches for CRM on March 2nd. You can download them, and the documentation, here. There is also a remediation tool you can run to clean up any activities that are innacurate in CRM, due to the Daylight Savings Time change.

Be sure to read the documentation prior to installing the patches, or running the remediation tool. You should also apply all Windows and exchange/Outlook patches prior to applying the CRM patches.

Thanks!

Ted

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?amp;displaylang=en&familyid=8A7319E6-5B86-4E7A-9BE1-763F2072BE21&displaylang=en

CRM 3.0-Exchange E-mail Router and Exchange 2007? Kind of....

2007-02-08T20:07:00Z

OK - so by now, you all know about the Microsoft Dynamics CRM V3C client, which provides compatiblity with Windows Vista and Office 2007. But - what bout Exchange 2007? Can't we use the CRM 3.0-Exchange E-mail Router with Exchange 2007????

The answer is - sort of. You will still need an Exchange 2000 or 2003 machine to install the Email router on - this can not be installed directly on an Exchange 2007 machine. But with the new Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0-Exchange E-mail Router Update, you can now deploy rules on mailboxes that reside on Exchange 2007. You can download the update here.

Thanks!

Ted

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=f7656f0f-4195-4a7d-b654-2786787e1422&DisplayLang=en

New Hotfix for CRM Client

2007-01-26T03:28:00Z

As a follow up to my post about issues with a new Outlook hotfix and Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft has released a new hotfix for CRM that will resolve these issues.

On January 9th, Microsoft released their latest batch of security fixes, including KB924085. This particular hotfix, when applied, caused many users with Outlook 2003 and the CRM Sales for Outlook client to crash repeatedly. Microsoft addressed this very quickly, and have now released a hotfix to resolve this issue. There are actaully two patches to apply - one for the server and one for the client. You will need to call product support to attain this patch - but you shouldn't be charged for this call.

Unfortunately, Microsoft has not yet released a patch for anyone using the CRM V3C client. While this would not affect anyone using Office 2007, anyone using Office 2003 and the V3C client could still have issues with the Outlook client crashing. Microsoft will update their KB article when they have made the V3C patch available, so be sure to keep an eye out for that.

Thanks!

Ted

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931270

New Change in Daylight Savings Time Will Impact Microsoft Dynamics CRM

2007-01-25T03:45:00Z

As many of you know, in 2007 the Daylight Savings Time start and end dates are being changed to comply with the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This of course will impact our computers and applicatoins - including Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Microsoft is on top of this - and is working on a patch as we speak. I would keep an eye on this link for updates on patch availability. In fact, you can find more information on many of your Microsoft operating systems and applications here.

For more information on the Energy Policy Act of 2005, you can check this article from whitehouse.gov.

Thanks!

Ted

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/timezone/dst2007.mspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925874

Issues with Office 2003 Outlook Hotfix and CRM SFO Client

2007-01-12T22:16:00Z

Microsoft has confirmed there is an issue with a new Outlook hotfix released Tuesday (KB924085), that will cause Outlook to crash if you have the CRM Sales for Outlook client installed. They are working on a fix for the CRM client now, but the current workaround is to uninstall the hotfix. It only affects Office 2003, with the CRM Sales for Outlook client installed. If you are using Office 2007, you should not be affected.

Some info from Microsoft:

User Error:

"Microsoft Office Outlook has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience."

Application Event log shows:

Event Type: Error

Event Source: Microsoft Office 11

Event Category: None

Event ID: 1000

Date: 1/10/2007

Time: 5:19:40 PM

User: N/A

Computer: STOCKBRIDGE

Description:

Faulting application outlook.exe, version 11.0.8118.0, stamp 456628bf, faulting module unknown, version 0.0.0.0, stamp 00000000, debug? 0, fault address 0xffffffff.

Current Workaround: Uninstall hotfix KB924085

Microsoft is working on a hotfix for the CRM desktop and laptop clients. It is a high priority hotfix, so the turnaround time should be short.