Friendly Microsoft Dynamics CRM Monster

CRM 2011 & database mirroring

2013-05-16T15:34:00.002+02:00

In most scenarios where you implement CRM 2011 in Enterprise segment you would choose for database clustering. The advantage is that your setup is easy, at least I think so :) You have virtual name for your SQL server no need for extra CRM configuration.

Another alternative is to choose for database mirroring, also supported scenario. Please keep in mind that besides configuration of SQL server is more complex. You also need to make changes to CRM, which can be forgotten easily.

For example you need to change some settings in the registry on the server where the web application is installed:

1) Locate: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSCRM\
2) Change: configdb

Data Source=MSCRM_Primary\SQL1;Failover Partner=MSCRM_Mirror\SQL2;Initial Catalog= MSCRM_CONFIG;Integrated Security=SSPI

You can image when you do node switch and forget this entry your CRM application will crash. More details at: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/hh699791.aspx.

More background about database mirroring:
http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/uploadfile/nipuntomar/sql-server-database-mirroring-part-1/

PS If you wondering about the image, read this article about Droste Effect :-)

Understanding integration concepts

2013-05-16T11:20:00.000+02:00

In my experience as Dynamics CRM consultant I am also involved in several integration projects. The requirements should be business driven, but it still happens that requirements for integration are defined by the IT/support organization.

In some cases due to lack of knowledge people tend to define or choose requirements within their comfort zone. Of course this is not surprising because it is for them known area and they basically keep doing their work without being confronted with new technology or new software.

The downside is that the integration design gets more complex as it should be. I prefer to design integration with according to the 'loosey coupled' principle, which basically means that source(s) and target(s) have no direct links.

In this scenario you would have for example a generic account template. A system that want to deliver account information used the template (in xml format) and the integration process moves it to the desired target system. Very import in this scenario that the templates are defined and changes have major impact, so you would need to take time to define a good generic template. Of course in case you use Scribe as integration platform you need to define a xdr or xsd file. In this file you define all fields, required, data types etc.

In the integration scenario where you exchange xml files you would most likely use MSMQ as reliable and proven technology. In my next post I will explain more about this scenario using Scribe Insight.

So, explore new possibilities by stepping out your comfort zone it could make your life less complex....

Latest musing now on MSDynamicsworld

2013-03-04T15:45:00.000+01:00

Last month, I finally got some time to write new musing. This time about the topic of documentation and handing over your CRM application into support.

It still amazes me that so little attention is spend on value of documentation, especially in enterprise segment. This is a key requirement when you hand over your xRM solutions to the support organization.

But read my musing at msdynamicsworld... yes, click here :)

Happy 2013!

2013-01-01T17:20:00.002+01:00

Happy and friendly 2013!

A blend of integration solutions

2012-11-22T07:28:00.001+01:00

Finally, some time to update my blog. I have been mostly working on integration and migration projects to CRM2011 the last couple of months.

My integration designs are for at least one project a mixture of several technics, mostly due to requirements from the IT department and you might say this is also limiting factor.

Nevertheless, it is interesting to just different approach, basically I use four kinds of approaches:

Standard and custom web service
Standard and custom database views
Integration based on MSMQ with of course Scribe Insight
.NET application

The overal design is "loosely coupled" and between CRM 2011 and legacy systems we have integration database in place. For integration that is synchronous we use of course webservice. For integrations that need to just use data, we use database views and results are stored in memory on the legacy application.

For extracting data from CRM 2011 we use mostly plugins and for a-synchronous processes we use MSMQ.

So basically a nice blend of several technics some technics, which make a integration interesting :)

CRM 2011 Rollup 10 available

2012-08-17T09:17:00.000+02:00

Finally some time to update my blog and what a surprise. We have new update rollup available too. You can find the details about the latest version at kb article: 2710577 and download can be found here.

If you look closely they also offer automatic translation, my kb was presented in Dutch but with the link "click here for automatic translation" It was translated by http://www.microsofttranslator.com, kinda funny because with language code in the kb-article url the article is already available, so why translate it.

Further, I have been busy with some coding and enhancing the (kb) article entity, which needed some 'creative' steps, but more in next post.

Happy updating :)

Simply jump for (Scribe) AX-CRM integration

2012-05-31T21:54:00.001+02:00

At the end of the month Scribe is releasing, yes it is still May 31st here, the new integration between CRM 2011 and AX 2012.

Most interesting change from technical point of view that for the integration the web services adapter is used and primary keys are stored in source and target system.

The web service adapter is one of the very interesting and useful integration options of Scribe Insight. It gives you many opportunities to integrate with all kind of other application.

Of course we like to have integration 'out of the box' and we know that could be hard to achieve, I won't mention Microsoft Connectors here ;-)

Luckily, Jumpstart makes it easy to set up your basic integration(s). In a nutshell the solutions comes with the components for CRM 2011, AX 2012 and Scribe Insight to setup your integration. Next you have to do a little configuration and you up and running.

By the way you need the new version 7.5.1, which is also released today and offers for example enhanced web service adapter functionality. Also supporting MS SQL 2012.

AX-CRM Jumpstart

The principle for integration is similar to other integration you can achieve with Scribe Insight. The core is Microsoft Message Queue. The changes from source system are published to the queue processed by Scribe Insight and send to your target system and vice versa.

Of course, every integration is custom and sometimes you lucky you get away with standard integration. Nevertheless this is a great step to get your basic integration up and running and take it beyond!

Happy Jumping.... you can start NOW!

Returning speaker at Decisions 2012

2012-05-16T17:31:00.004+02:00

Of course always good time for some shameless self promotion. I actually also did some things in April I wrote my next musing and also started writing on my next presentation for Decisions 2012 called 'A Practical Approach for Keeping Data Integrity'

My latest musing 'Three Keys to Keeping Data Accurate and Reliable in Your Microsoft Dynamics CRM Application' also prepares for what is coming and I am actually still amazed how companies are struggling with data migration approaches, data strategies, but hopefully my effort (or read crusade) will finally pay off :)

See you at Decisions 2012, oh it is free and virtual so not attending is not an option.

Keeping track of your CRM build number

2012-05-16T15:39:00.001+02:00

The build numbers of your CRM are important it indicated with version is installed and you can determine which of the many roll ups you have deployed.

build number

Same useful tips is that in case you have Microsoft software contract like Volume licensing etc it might be that if you download your CRM software it is still RTM version. It will help to just download version from the internet which usually already has latest roll-up applied.

Ok, some of you are a bit scared to apply the latest roll up you could download a previous one too.

Nevertheless common issue as my roll-ups cannot be installed might be due you already installed CRM which includes the roll-up you try to apply. Also reading the notes with roll-up can be handy so you now you first have to apply roll-up 6 and then 7 or 8, depending how much cuts you have ;)

Same easy site that gives you overview of the rollup can be found:

CRM 2011
CRM 4.0 ( might be time to think about upgrading )
CRM 3.0 ( really time to move ahead)
In case you want to have any idea when the next one will be available go here. Please notice it is "Projected" which basically means if you lucky we have it and else you just wait a 'bit' longer...

Time to keep track of your build number!

CRM 2011 Javascript old times same struggle with syntax

2012-05-16T15:07:00.000+02:00

Oh where did the time go? It is already May and I guess I skipped April this year ;) I am back in the field and actually doing some basic coding not the C# stuff but good old JavaScript.

I did start ages ago and just to add some historic facts a quote:

"...JavaScript was originally developed in Netscape, by Brendan Eich. Battling with Microsoft over the Internet, Netscape considered their client-server solution as a distributed OS, running a portable version of Sun Microsystem's Java... " (source wikipedia)"

Basically you like it or you hate it. In my case I need to do it often too keep track of the DOM and the syntax. In CRM 2011 as you noticed there are some changes made in comparison with CRM 4.0. Nevertheless the basic stuff of hide, show, copy files is nice, but interesting part is calling web services and this could give you some nice functionality. Also the way you can store your coding in CRM is definitely improved.

Example code and yes no guarantees it works :-)

So, basically I was making some ugly script and run of course in bug with getting the value of check box. It works fine when you use radio button or list, but not with the famous box. There was some workaround, but of course we try to use supported coding for a change and lucky I could change the layout of the checkbox and got the script working on a onChange event.

I also tried to add some JSON but I stranded on the CRM 2011 permission got some error stating the protocol was not supported. I got tipped by colleague to use " XrmServiceToolkit" and this would help you to use SOAP and worked like a charm :)

So happy scripting :)

Back to the .....

2012-03-29T16:26:00.002+02:00

My bug hunting days are almost over and in April getting back to the darkside. I must say it was very interesting experience and to see and join the MS Support way of life.

Nevertheless,not much will change I will still need to solve those issues and also good to be back at the other side and continue integration, migration and implementing CRM.

Of course also time to spam you again with my blog post and also working on some new articles for MS Dynamicsworld

Keep on coming and reading.. don't be afraid.. we have cookies :)

exceeded the threshold of 10 seconds?

2012-03-29T16:13:00.001+02:00

As you should know by now in case of mysterious CRM bugs always check the event viewer. It is the source of all kinds of events like: information, warning and our fav "errors".

Guess, the common one is the printer, yes we do not install those on servers. Nevertheless the event viewer logs are often overlooked and especially the warnings might give you some nice clues.

You might have seen something like "Query execution time of 10.6 seconds exceeded the threshold of 10 seconds." and also mentions your CRM database. In my case and think also others still might wondering, where the *&^% we can change those 10 seconds.

My first guess would be "treshold" settings in MS SQL server, but this is something completely different. It is some cursor stuff (stalk your dba). Hmmm what other settings we might have the most important are described in the following post:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/crminthefield/archive/2011/06/13/microsoft-dynamics-crm-timeout-settings.aspx

Nevertheless, nothing mentioning those 10 secs....

My latest information about this famous 10 secs is, that it is internal warning of CRM. The warning is automatically send after, yes indeed an query exceeded the 10 seconds. It is just warning that some of your processes are taking too long, duh :)

Your best guess for the cause is in the use of fetch xml and accompied by database locks. To prevent this add the 'no lock' feature.

Happy threshold hunting

Heading for the Cloud

2012-02-14T20:13:00.000+01:00

It looks 2012 is becoming the year of the 'Cloud'. I remember that years back people did talk about 24/7 online, easy data access, not bounded to certain device. It seems that many steps are currently taken into this direction.

We see the offering of CRM Online, Office 365, Scribe Online (RS & SYS) and also the competition is not sitting still and offers services like Oracle On Demand and Salesforce. I personally think we are on the right track, but still at the beginning. A lot of steps still have to be taken in the area of connected clouds together, integration and hybrid solutions (cloud & on-premise) .

There is also a down site to all this cloud business, people still worry about the safety of cloud, is my data still secure, is my privacy still guaranteed are just some frequently asked questions.

Also new laws to control the internet e.g. ACTA & SOPA might have negative effect on the development of cloud business. Nevertheless, this development would also raise awareness at companies to see that data have to be kept save and hopefully they start taking the topic more serious and come up with solution to keep our data safe.

Personally, I think the strength in the internet still is the ability to provide & share knowledge, which is a great asset and should not be bounded.

So, I am very eager to discover the cloud and experience it all.

Happy clouding :)

started with bug hunting

2012-02-14T19:45:00.001+01:00

Yes, the first post of the year, so you might say a bit late :) This year started not too bad and if you might have heard or seen I am currently hunting bugs.

The bugs come in all different sizes and different forms and where better to hunt bugs than at Microsoft EMEA support. As we speak I am now almost 6 weeks working as CRM Support Engineer. It is also refreshing to see the other side for a change and more or less facing the same issues as CRM consultant only now from Microsoft perspective.

So, the last few weeks I did see a variety of bugs from simple installation issues, to complex ADFS issue and actually also some real bugs.

Already working on some post about common issue and ways to solve them.

Just as appetizer the CRM EMEA support website, which is good source for gettin up-to-date and check in case you might run into an issue yourself.

Happy bug hunting :)

Merry Christmas !

2011-12-22T13:06:00.003+01:00

Only few days, hours left and it is X-mas, the time for eating, celebrating and have a good time.

So, I would like to wish all the readers of my blog a

Of course, more posts are coming your way :)

Keep reading!

New CRM 2011 book

2011-11-17T22:01:00.001+01:00

Of course several books have been published about CRM 2011 already, but this book is kinda special. I was one of the technical reviewers of the book (yes, shameless echo boost).

As reviewer you just get the chapters review them and send them back. The book Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 New Features book dropped on my doormat few days ago. It was kinda cool to see that the authors were Jim Wang & Darren Liu.

Of course I can tell you that you should buy and read it, but decide for yourself. Its good book and also for more experienced CRM users nice to have and it might give you some new insights. More info about the book here .

Happy ~~reviewing~~ reading :)

The Magic Ribbon: greyed-out + active buttons

2011-11-17T21:18:00.001+01:00

Releasing your solution to another environment brings a lot of challenges, especially when this is the production environment. It is an extra challenge to deploy to architecture where RDS (Remote Desktop Services), the next version of Terminal Server 2003.

During testing we runned into strange behaviour of the ribbon. It suddenly got greyed-out, but even stranger, the buttons still worked.

Magic Ribbon: grey-out but clickable buttons

Looking closely we saw an JavaScript error (yes, bottom left of your IE). The error point out to SEC7115, which should have something to do with CSS not loaded correctly (to show errors hit F12). You may have similar errors.

Error message in debug window

Security settings in IE

After some basic debugging and searches we also got some messages stating that "This page is accessing information that is not under control...".

Other side effect was that reaching the CRM application on server name worked fine, using the ip-address did show the mystery ribbon.

After some research this should do the trick and get it working again:
1) Add your CRM url to Local internet (Internet Options > Security)
2) Edit the settings in this zone -> Custom Level
3) Change in Miscellaneous section: Access data sources cross domain to Enable

Hope this post save you some frustrations and looking for solutions. The error might sent you to different path..

Happy debugging :)

iSad

2011-10-06T08:23:00.000+02:00

Just started to wake up and read the breaking news that Steve Jobs has passed away. I must say in the beginning I disliked the iMac ( tv like "PC"), in the time that I was building website. I spent lot of hours to have the same site on all OS's and browser versions.

This changed since the introduction of the iPad, which is used even more then my pc by my family, almost more then the television :) The step to iPhone was heavenly after all crappy other Smartphone like Blackberry, how you can type with that tiny keyboard, Nokia and also Samsung.

R.I.P. - Steve Jobs, 1955 - 2011

Prototyping CRM with mSketch

2011-09-01T13:46:00.001+02:00

Yes, August was quiet month or at least it seems so on my blog. Nevertheless, very busy month with a lot going on.

Currently working on an new implementation of CRM 2011. In every project you have to demonstrate/show the screen based on the requirements you have gathered.

Its commonly down in mock-up, images (either vmware, hyper-v or virtualbox) or via demo system like crm online. In all cases you have the challenges that you cannot show full functionality (besides out-of-box stuff).

A good alternative is the use of mSketch a solution (e.g. stencils) for Microsoft Expression Blend. I must admit I seen the name popup in my MSDN account, but didn't use it before.

The most interesting about this mSketch is that you can make a mock-up with actually functionality behind it e.g. pull downs are opening when clicking on it. The solution, yes everything is called solutions today same as in Visual Studio, exist of toolbox with all fields you can use for designing your form as you can see in the image to the left.

So you might think I could also use my own tools or my own development enviroment. There is more about this way of working then you might expect. I did some basic research I came across the book "Dynamic Prototyping with Sketchflow in Expression Blend".

There have been a lot of studies about how our brain is processing images. In short our visual cortex initially reacts and is attracted by straight lines and angles of light,which means that if we use black and white sketches we have a advantage over something with lots of colors, images etc. It would also mean that the audience quicker should understand what you mean and your feedback should also be more constructive.

Of course, you have to get used to the Microsoft Expression tool first, but that shouldn't be that hard. You don't have build your own solution for CRM, it is already there too, so you can start almost immediately.

The mSketch stencils are made by Magnetism, also more information about the out of the box functionality can be found there.

So start make your prototyping easier and more convincing, who wouldn't like that :-)

Dynamics connector... nice but no worthy yet?

2011-07-28T10:19:00.000+02:00

I first saw the Dynamics connector at Convergence of last year. I was at that time not very impressed and it seems still a lot of work had to be done for making it a solid solution.

I am currently working on new assignment and due to the requirement we have to implement Biztalk 2010 for integration purposes. So I am currently focusing on the heavy weight for integration.

Nevertheless, I also had to look to two integration based on the Dynamics connector and as you might expect they both failed. It was integration between CRM and ERP (Nav and AX). Most complaints I heard that its almost impossible to debug, I also experienced it myself. The error messages are so general that you keep searching untill.... The other complaint I heard that Microsoft support on the connector is bare minimum and seems not to get a lot of attention.

In both cases the solution tends to be to turn to non-free integration solution either of Scribe or even custom .NET solutions.

Of course, I am curious if this was just my bad luck or that more of you have bad experience with the free connector? I also read some post that people got it working, but it didn't say if it was just basic or more complex integration.

Keep it integrated! :)

You missed it?

2011-06-22T10:41:00.000+02:00

Yes, you might have missed it. Last Friday it was CRM day at Decisions Spring 2011. This time the event was held for 4 days in a row and also AX, NAV and GP had their own day.

It was a very interested event with many presentation including an impressive list of presentations given by people like: Varun Krishna, Larry Lents, Anne Stanton and Matthew 'CRM Bible' Wittemann :-) Of course, I must admit I was one of the speakers too and of course a litte proud to be in the company of big names in the crm community.

Of course, I had a presentation about data migration. This time about the 5 sins of data migration and after the ppresentation some very interesting questions and positive feedback too.

Now waiting for the next event, unfortunately I cannot make it to WPC but waiting for other events... might be Convergence and Decisions Fall 2011?

Don't miss it next time....

CRM & Marketing global workshop: "True Stories of Marketing with Microsoft CRM"

2011-05-22T09:34:00.000+02:00

How to extend a customer profile with marketing, how you know what information is shared on social media, howto measure your marketing campaigns, good use of newsletters? All genuine questions the answer you can obtain by visiting the global workshop of Clickdimensions.

This live workshop will include examples of real world campaigns where Microsoft CRM
was used to:

- Double a newsletter list in two weeks using a unique approach toward email marketing and lead scoring
- Develop an easy way to improve web traffic by understanding the quality of visitors by traffic sources
- Implement a strategy for creating great content that positions your firm as a leader
- Apply simple tips for search engine marketing and search engine optimization
- Provide sales with easy to use automated prospecting and marketing tools to make them more effective and efficient
- Identify how to best use the right social channels to drive business value

Interested in joining? Click here

Happy marketing :-)

The "June" event to visit : Decision Spring 2011

2011-05-05T13:27:00.003+02:00

Guess, you should already have been marked it in your agenda. The next edition of Decision is coming in June. The virtual event, yes no travelling required, no expensive tickets and you just can order pizza at home :)

It will take place from June 14th until June 17th and it covers of course CRM, AX, GP and NAV. You can visit presentations, real time Q & A sessions, network online, discover new products.

The schedules:
June 14 - AX Day
June 15 - GP Day
June 16 - NAV Day
June 17 - CRM Day

Of course I prefer 17th and you could visit my session about "The 5 sins of data migration" and also visit the sessions of CRM specialist like: Anne Stanton and Matthew Wittemann... mmmm didn't he write the 'bible'? ;-)

You can register here and here and here.

See you there, oh did I mentioned I have session too? ;-)

Reading, reading & more

2011-05-05T12:58:00.000+02:00

Guess the downside of new version for consultants is that we have to learn and get used again to new interface, new features etc. of CRM 2011.

I still wondering where are my tabs :-) Also some technical changes are interesting to know, so I am currently diving into subject as claim bases authentication, SharePoint 2010 and solution feature.

I guess I am bit old fashioned, but I gather some documents including installation guide, some background about claim based authentication etc. Oh and I did buy the book of Matthew Wittemann "Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Administration".

I did read/scanned the book and I think its very useful and addresses most interesting topics you would need to know. It covers topics like installation, implementation strategy, functional area e.g. Relationship, service, sales, marketing etc. The books touches most area and in good detail. Of course I would personally more interested in migration & integrations, but the disadvantage of CRM 2011 that it has so many functionality that one book isn't simply enough.

Nevertheless I would definitely buy it and it fits well next too the collection of my CRM books :)

Happy learning :-)

Interviews about all you want to know about MS CRM

2011-03-04T17:57:00.002+01:00

You want to know more about the current CRM market, CRM Online vs SalesForce and right from the source. Yes it's possible on the blog of Software Advice you can find an interesting series of 7 video's about CRM.

The interviews you can watch are with .... Brad Wilson, indeed the GM of Dynamics CRM.

Below three of the video's, you can even click straight to the video yourself :-)

Ready to click?

"State of the CRM Software Market" interview with Brad Wilson
"Will Microsoft CRM 2011 Slow Sales force" interview with Brad Wilson
"Can Dynamics Crm Partners Survive in the Cloud Era" interview with Brad Wilson

Check them all out yourself :-)