One of the most popular services that the PFE Dynamics team offers is the Microsoft Dynamics Health Check.  The Microsoft Dynamics Health Check is a comprehensive review of your Microsoft Dynamics environment. The Health Check service will provide you with a detailed analysis of the overall system health, including the Microsoft Dynamics application servers and the Microsoft SQL Server database configuration. In addition, the Premier Field Engineer will review the hardware, infrastructure, and application configuration for identification of potential risk areas. The Health Check offers formal recommendations in a scorecard deliverable that covers each reviewed component of the Microsoft Dynamics implementation.

The Health Check can be scheduled at any time either during implementation or post go-live.  However it can be most effective when users are actively using the environment so actual performance data can be gathered based on real-world usage.  It can also be very helpful prior to a busy cycle in your business to determine how much overhead you have left in your current hardware and infrastructure.

The Health Check is a “point-in-time” snapshot of your deployment and is designed to uncover performance and application configuration risks, saving valuable time and money in the future.  For further information on this service, listen to the podcast below where Premier Field Engineers Brian Bakke and Ryan Anderson discuss the details of the service.  You can also email PFEDynamics@microsoft.com for further information.

Recently one of my customers noticed some of their workflows were failing and had been failing for quite some time without knowing it. When looking at the failed workflow instance within System Jobs it only showed a generic error message that did not provide enough detail to troubleshoot with.  You could get detailed errors by gathering a server side platform trace, but the easiest ways to get the error details is to view the message attribute within System Jobs. The message attribute will contain a stack trace of the error that the workflow or system job had encountered.  Many times this attribute will provide all the detail you need for troubleshooting without having to gather any server side tracing. This attribute is not on the default System Jobs view, but it is very easy to create a personal view in Advanced Find to view this and monitor moving forward.  Below are the steps on creating the personal view and viewing the message attribute.

1. Open CRM Web Client and click Advanced Find.

2. Choose System Jobs from the Look For dropdown menu.

3. Click Show Details so we are able to add filter criteria

4. Add the filter criteria “Message Contains Data”. This way it will only return jobs that have encountered an error. You may also add another filter on status to only show those jobs in a waiting or failed status.

5. Click on the Edit Columns button so that we can add the message attribute to our view.

6. Click on the Add Columns button once the edit columns window opens. Then choose the Message attribute and click OK twice to get back to the main advanced find window.

7. Now that you have an advanced find view created for troubleshooting you can save this as a personal view. To save the view click on Save As in the toolbar, provide a name and click OK. Now this will show up in the system jobs view for future use.

8. Click on Find within the advanced find window to see the results.

9. Scroll to the far right to see the message column for any failed workflows.  You can also export the list to Excel and that will allow you to easily format, filter and search the results.

10. If you saved the view it will show up under the system jobs section. This will provide an easy way to watch for failing workflows and troubleshoot them without accessing the server.

By having a system jobs view that includes the message column it will help catch failing workflows faster and provide necessary data to troubleshoot the issue.

Thanks,

Jeremy Morlock

Microsoft Premier Field Engineer

We are pleased to announce the availability of several open enrollment workshops for Dynamics CRM 2011. The two titles that the Premier Field Engineering team will be delivering are 'Microsoft Dynamics CRM Administration & Troubleshooting Workshop' and 'Microsoft Dynamics CRM Development Workshop'.  These workshops are for Microsoft Premier Support customers only at this time.  Both of these workshops are 3 day workshops with presentation and also hands on labs where you get direct interaction and practice using the skills presented to you during the workshops.  The classroom size is limited to 16 attendees to ensure that you get direct interaction and adequate time from the trainer.  The datasheets for both workshops with a workshop summary, target audience, focus areas and agenda are available below with additional details.

If you are interested in attending these workshops, please work with your Technical Account Manager (TAM) to get pricing details and registration information.

If you are not already a Microsoft Premier Support customer and are interested in finding out more details about Microsoft Premier Support, please visit our site and contact your Microsoft representative for more details.

http://www.microsoft.com/premiersupport

CRM 2011 Admin & Troubleshoot Workshops

Datasheet:http://bit.ly/JL6cH2

1. Los Angeles, CA – June 5^th-7^th

2. Chicago, IL – June 19^th– 21^st

3. Dallas, TX – July 10^th– 12^th

CRM 2011 Development Workshops

Datasheet:http://bit.ly/Hrc0OF

1. Los Angeles, CA – June 12^th-14^th

2. Chicago, IL – June 26^th– 28^th

3. Dallas, TX – July 17^th– 19^th

Thanks!

Shawn Dieken

Microsoft Premier Field Engineer

We're proud to announce that all packages for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 14 were released on Thursday, July 11th, 2013 to the Microsoft Download Center!  The Update Rollup 14 packages should appear on Microsoft Update on or about July 23rd, 2013.

Update Rollup 14 Build number:

5.0.9690.3557

Update Rollup 14 Microsoft Download Center page

Here's the "Master" Microsoft Dynamics Knowledge Base article for Update Rollup 14: (KB 2849744). Going forward, the plan is for the Master Knowledge Base article for CRM 2011 Update Rollups to be published a bit in advance of release to aid planning.

On Friday, July 12th, 2013 Greg Nichols and Ryan Anderson from the Microsoft Premier Field Engineering provided information about:

• The release of Update Rollup 14 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
• New fixes made available In Update Rollup 14
• Collateral available about Update Rollup 14 and CRM Update Rollups in general
• The upcoming release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013, codenamed "Orion"

at 9 AM Pacific time on BlogTalkRadio during their Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 14 Podcast.

Note regarding Podcasts: You can make our CRM Premier Field Engineering podcasts available on Zune by using the RSS feed below.  In the Zune software, go to Collection -> Podcasts and click on the Add a Podcast button on the lower left, then enter the url for the RSS feed: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/pfedynamics.rss. After that, you can adjust the series settings like any other podcast, so you can sync with your smartphone or Zune.

Update Rollup 14 news!

Unlike some earlier Update Rollup releases like Update Rollup 6 and 12, Update Rollup 14 does not add major functionality changes. It is a collection of fixes for issues reported by customers or found by Microsoft's Engineering Team, plus changes to provide support for related technology components. No new support for the technology stack that CRM 2011 relies upon was added via Update Rollup 14, but as per the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Compatibility List Update Rollup 13 provided support for:

• Windows Server 2012
• Both new installs of CRM 2011 on a Windows Server 2012 and upgrading a Windows server to Windows Server 2012 require
• Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) 2.1
• Windows Server role used by CRM 2011 as a security provider for claims-based authentication

Note: to install Microsoft Dynamics CRM on a server running Windows Server 2012, you must install the latest SHS (Self-Healing Setup) package hosted on the Microsoft Update site when you are prompted to "update install files" during CRM setup. This SHS package is also needed for upgrading a Windows Server to Windows Server 2013 when CRM 2011 is already installed.  For more details on the last scenario, see:

How to upgrade a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server application to Windows Server 2012 

Update Rollup 12 news that you need to know because Update Rollups are cumulative, so these significant changes are also in Update Rollup 14!

• UR12 includes the "Microsoft Dynamics CRM December 2012 Service Update"  See:
  • Bob Stutz's blog posting "Announcing Microsoft Dynamics CRM December 2012 Service Update"
  • Microsoft Dynamics CRM December 2012 Service Update - Release Preview Guide - November 2012
• Additional cross-browser compatibility provided
  • The December 2012 Service Update component of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 12 introduces additional browser compatibility for Firefox, Chrome, and Safari
    • For more information, see the Knowledge Base Article 2784954: Browser compatibility introduced with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 12 or the December 2012 Service Update
    • For more information about how this affects your code additional tips see Write JavaScript for Multiple Browsers and http://bit.ly/10hcxfG.
• Indexes added to support the Update Rollup 10 Quick Find Optimizations
  • Update Rollup 12 includes new indexes for the following entities in the Quick Find Search Optimization feature. To fully reap the benefits of the platform changes included in Update Rollup 10, indexing is needed.  The indexes created are listed below:
    • Cases
    • Opportunities
    • Competitors
    • Contact (the Phone Number fields)
    • Business Unit
    • Connection
    • Connection Role
    • KB Article
    • Lead
    • Product
    • Sales Literature
  • These indexes are created during the Update Rollup 12 installation and you may notice that part of the installation will take longer to complete. The reason for this is that the indexes need to be populated and based on the size of your dataset the completion time will vary
    • Note: Documentation provided via the Optimizing Performance of Quick Find queries section of the Optimizing and Maintaining the Data Tier section of the Optimizing and Maintaining a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Server Infrastructure whitepaper was published when Update Rollup 10 was released to the Microsoft Download Center. So, you may have already added Quick Find-related indexes based on some of the entities listed above. So keep in mind that Update Rollup 12 installation may overwrite some of the indexing you previously added
• Enhancements to Activity Feeds
  • The enhancements made to the activity feeds include a new feature called Like/Unlike
  • With this feature, you can express your immediate feedback about a post
  • For more information, see Like/Unlike
• Updated User Experience for Sales and Customer Service and Product Update Functionality for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online
  • The Microsoft Dynamics CRM December 2012 Service Update introduces a variety of new features and functionality, including an updated user experience. For Sales and Customer Service users, the updated user experience provides a new process flow visualization, which appears at the top of the forms, such as the Opportunity , Lead or Case form. The process flow guides users through the various phases of the sales and customer service processes
  • For trials and subscriptions initiated after December 2012, the updated Sales and Customer Service user experience is included by default. Existing Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online customers have an option of adding the updated user experience to the Opportunity , Lead and Case forms by installing the Product Updates. This lets Administrators install selected feature updates based upon the specific needs of their organizations. The Product Updates are installed by using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM web application; they cannot be installed programmatically
  • For more details, see What's New for Developers for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online
• Custom Workflow Activities for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online
  • Custom workflow activities can now be registered and executed on Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. For more information about how to use custom workflow activities in partial trust (isolation mode)
  • For more details, see What's New for Developers for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online
• Developer Toolkit Support for Microsoft Visual Studio 2012
  • The Developer Toolkit for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online now supports Microsoft Visual Studio 2012. The installer can be found in the SDK download in the sdk\tools\developertoolkit\ folder
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Software Development Kit (SDK) updated for Update Rollup 12 (version 5.0.13)
  • SDK download location
  • SDK Online location
  • Developers, please note the SDK Extensions for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online update
• Bulk Data Load performance enhancements
  • To support bulk data load scenarios, this release introduces the ExecuteMultipleRequest message. This message supports the execution of multiple message requests using a single web method call. ExecuteMultipleRequest accepts an input collection of message requests, executes each of the message requests in the order they appear in the input collection, and optionally returns a collection of responses containing each message’s response or the error that occurred. Processing requests in bulk results in lower network traffic and higher message processing throughput
  • For more information, see Use ExecuteMultiple to Improve Performance for Bulk Data Load
• Activity Feeds changes
  • Microsoft Dynamics CRM Activity Feeds provide real-time notifications and quick sharing of information through short updates. These updates appear on your personal wall in the What's New area of the Workplace . Activity Feeds enable you to follow and learn about important activities that take place around people, accounts, contacts, leads, and anything else that you care about
  • Updates can be posted manually by you, or automatically based on predefined system rules through a workflow. Activity Feeds can also be posted to by external applications through the Microsoft Dynamics CRM web services API. Activity Feeds expose Microsoft Lync real-time presence functionality so that you can initiate communication activities such as IM, phone calls, and emails. For more information, see Activity Feeds Entities
• More performance and stability-related fixes, including fixes to the CRM Client for Microsoft Outlook
• Contains all hotfixes / updates released in earlier Update Rollups
• Quick Find performance optimizations and EnableRetrieveMultipleOptimization SQL query performance optimizations (originally released in Update Rollup 10)

For Microsoft Dynamics CRM business solutions that include an entity with a large dataset, record retrieval and grid rendering performance can be negatively impacted for users that do not have global access to all records associated with that entity. Code changes to mitigate this behavior first appeared in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, and have been fine-tuned since then.

With Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 10 and later, big advancements have been made to optimize the performance of queries against large datasets by adjusting specific “statistical” settings to address the issue. Should this fail to achieve desired levels of performance, adjust the value associated with EnableRetrieveMultipleOptimization (ERMO) setting. You may have heard these changes described at this year's Convergence.

A first step in efforts to optimize the performance of queries against large data sets is to make adjustments to the “statistical” settings that affect the behavior of RetrieveMultiple queries. Although you can configure these settings by modifying the Windows Registry (under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSCRM) on the each of the Web servers that is used in a deployment, we recommend that these settings be configured by using the OrgDbOrgSettings, which will ensure that the configuration applies to a specific organization. For additional information about configuring these settings by using the OrgDbOrgSettings, and to download the tool that makes the OrgDbOrgSettings changes you desire, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article titled "OrgDBOrgSettings Tool for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011" (KB 2691237)

If making adjustments to these settings does not yield satisfactory levels of performance, then consider adjusting the value of the EnableRetrieveMultipleOptimization (ERMO) setting. The ERMO setting is commonly used to limit the duration of certain long running queries; specifically, to overcome issues related to local or deep business unit access within Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 security roles.

Many more details describing appropriate scenarios for the available settings are already available via the Microsoft Download Center in a revised version of the whitepaper "Optimizing and Maintaining the Performance of a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Server Infrastructure", in the sections “Optimizing the Performance of Queries against Large Datasets” and “Optimizing the Performance of Quick Find Queries”. The details will appear in the MSDN version of this whitepaper as quickly as possible.

NEW RELEASE REGARDING OrgDbOrgSettings!

You're probably familiar with the OrgDbOrgSettings command line tool (mentioned above) released by the CRM Product Group in the "Tools" package that is updated and released with each set of Update Rollup packages.  With it, you configure some .xml and call your .xml with the command line utility described in KB 2691237. However, you may be daunted by configuring this .xml, to the point that you may not use the tool, or use it minimally - not exploring the many options outlined in KB 2691237 that may be of use to you.  Well, the Microsoft Dynamics PFE team now has another option for you!  By popular demand, our esteemed CRM PFE colleague Sean McNellis has developed a tool  - a CRM 2011 managed solution - that provides you with an easy-to-use GUI with which you can configure all of the options outlined in the Knowledge Base on a per-tenant basis.  Feel free to download it, install it, and check it out... I sure use it!

This is a FREE downloadable tool - the "Dynamics CRM 2011 Organization Settings Editor".  Check it out; the download page has screenshots and information that will help you make good use of the tool.  Sean has also published a Premier Field Engineering blog: "Azure Mobile + JavaScript + WebResources = Easy Editing of OrgDBOrgSettings in Dynamics CRM 2011!" to share more details on the tool.

Thanks, Sean!

General Update Rollup Notes:

• Testing Update Rollups: Best Practices
• Premier Field Engineering recommends treating Update Rollup 12 testing like to a new, major CRM release because of the introduction of new functionality introduced with the December 2012 Service Release. Do all the standard testing like you generally do for all UR’s, but then also all the functional and performance testing that you would do with a new major release
• The “general rule of thumb” for test plans for Update Rollup installs are:
• Test any changes in a pre-production environment BEFORE introducing into your production environment. Manage your risk!
• Consider using the Performance Toolkit for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 to simulate your production user load in your testing environment, to shake out any performance-related issues early
• Test using the permissions your end-user roles (most restrictive) have. Testing with CRM Administrator permissions, for example, does not give you the complete picture
• Concentrate on your SDK customizations, JavaScript, ISV add-ons – basically anything that’s not OOB functionality or customizations done from within the UI
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Custom Code Validation Tool
• Consider familiarizing yourselves with this tool… though the download page mentions Update Rollup 9, it hasn’t had much utility until now since the UR9 changes mentioned in the summary below were never released until UR12:
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Custom Code Validation Tool
• Use the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Custom Code Validation Tool to identify potential issues with custom JavaScript in JavaScript libraries and HTML web resources. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Q2 2012 Service Update and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 9 include significant changes in the web application in order to be able to support a variety of browsers such as Safari, Chrome, and Firefox. When using JavaScript code in Dynamics CRM, it is possible that some code will stop working or cause an error when you upgrade. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Custom Code Validation Tool helps identify potential problems so that a developer can fix them
• Update Rollup 12+ require Microsoft .NET Framework 4
• Update Rollup 6 established a new servicing baseline. This will enable uninstalls of some future CRM 2011 Update Rollups, but this also means that Update Rollup 6 is prerequisite for installation of all future Microsoft CRM 2011 Update Rollups starting with Update Rollup 7
• A database created with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 6 or a higher version cannot be imported to a deployment of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 5 or an earlier version. This scenario is not supported.  Best practice is to import databases or customizations between environments that are at the same Update Rollup level
• As Update Rollup 14 is cumulative, containing all changes released in earlier Update Rollup releases, it also contains the Dynamics CRM Q4 Service Update features released via Update Rollup 6.  Some of these features include:

• Outlook Client Updates:

• Dialog Enhancements

• Data Visualization Enhancements:
• Chart Designer Enhancements
• New Chart Types

• Data Management Enhancements to:

  • Auditing
  • Duplicate Detection

• Activity Feeds

  • Listening in on important activities in Social Media that take place around the people, accounts, contacts, leads or opportunities that you care about, including a Windows 7.5 phone application: "Business Hub"
  • Update Rollup 5 does not install Activity Feeds:
    • New organizations on CRM Online will have this Solution automatically provisioned
    • Existing Online or On Premise organizations must download and import the solution from the Dynamics Marketplace

For more information about the Dynamics CRM Q4 2011 Service Update features, consult:

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM: The Road Ahead

Update Rollup 14 packages are available for download via: 

• The Update Rollup 14 Microsoft Download Center page (released July 11th, 2013)
• The Microsoft Update Catalog  - all packages have a planned release date of July 23rd, 2013
• The Microsoft Update detection / installation process
  • Note: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Updates will be pushed via Microsoft Update as Important updates
  • Client packages installed manually by downloading the packages and running install will require local administrator privileges. If the client packages are installed via Microsoft Update or SCCM (System Center Configuration Manager), they will not require local administrator privileges
  • Consider using Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) or similar software distribution technologies to distribute Dynamics CRM Update Rollups internally.  WSUS is a locally managed system that works with the public Microsoft Update website to give system administrators more control. By using Windows Server Update Services, administrators can manage the distribution of Microsoft hotfixes and updates released through Automatic Updates to computers in a corporate environment
  • For help with installation please see the Installation Information section of the Update Rollup 14 "master" Microsoft Knowledge Base article
  • Please review my teammate Shawn Dieken's superb (and recently updated) blog posting "How to install Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 without an Internet Connection" which provides details on how to set up an install on a machine without access to the Internet
  • Please review my former teammate Jon Strand's equally superb blog posting "CRM 2011: Silently Installing Update Rollups" which provides details on installing CRM Outlook client update rollups "silently" in order to limit end-user interruption

for these CRM components:

NOTE: On Jan. 20th, 2012 these installation files were updated to include CRM 2011 Update Rollup 6 (Build 05.00.9690.1992)

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server 2011
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for Microsoft Office Outlook
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 E-mail Router
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Report Authoring Extension (Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 BIDS (Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or 2008 R2 Business Intelligence Development Studio) Fetch Extension)
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Language Pack (aka Multilanguage User Interface, MUI)
• Note: the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 List Component for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 cannot be patched via an Update Rollup package.  Instead, it will be serviced (if necessary) via a new downloadable version from the Microsoft Download Center

 Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 14 Prerequisites:

• Essentially the prerequisites listed in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Implementation Guide download or online versions for the various CRM components serviced
• You must have Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 6 installed (build 5.0.9690.1992) to apply this Update Rollup

Note regarding Microsoft Dynamics CRM Stack Technology Compatibility:

Do you want to know if certain Service Packs or versions of a Microsoft product are supported with Dynamics CRM? Now we have all of this in one “living" Knowledge Base article: the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Compatibility List.  For example, you can use this KB article to determine the latest Microsoft SQL Server major version and Service Pack that is supported. Microsoft lists new products like Internet Explorer 10, Microsoft Windows 8, and Microsoft Office 2013 Preview as TBD until testing is complete; generally near General Availability (GA) of that product.

Issues resolved via Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 14: 

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 14 is the thirteenth (considering that Update Rollup 9 was not released publicly) of a series of cumulative Update Rollups that include fixes for the issues that are or will be documented in the "Master Knowledge Base Articles" for CRM 2011 Update Rollups.  As they are cumulative, Update Rollup 14 contains all fixes shipped via Update Rollups 1-14, including fixes that were never publicly released via Update Rollup 9.

Hotfixes and updates that were released as individual fixes before the Update Rollup 14 release:

The following issues were fixed and delivered to requesting customers prior to Update Rollup 14 release as Critical On Demand (COD) fixes and are included in Update Rollup 14:

• When you add recipients to an activity record, the record is unexpectedly shared to all the recipients
• When you create a telephone call, the From value is not updated by a pre-operation plug-in
• A stack overflow occurs at the zero line in a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Outlook client
• When you import text data, a "SecLib::CheckPrivilege" error occurs
• Replies and forwards of a tracked email message are tracked unexpectedly in Microsoft Dynamics CRM
• Assume that you run the Set Regarding function on an item in a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Outlook client. After you cancel the Set Regarding wizard, the item is tracked unexpectedly
• After you import a managed solution in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, labels on the form for the solution display incorrect information
• Assume that a data import operation fails for some records in a nondefault organization. When you try to export the failure history, you receive an error message that states that the record is unavailable
• The web service definition language (WSDL) information for the Organization.svc file is unexpectedly returned with secure sockets layer (SSL) offloading
• When you change properties in a "send email" or "create email" step in a workflow, an exception error occurs
• A "Should never reach this point" exception error occurs during the BackgroundSendEmail process
• After you propose a new time for a recurring appointment, the recurring appointment is converted to a nonrecurring appointment
• When events in a Wait Until condition are met, the condition is not triggered
• When you start to track a contact that was tracked previously in Outlook, a Duplicate Record dialog box appears

Other fixes released via CRM 2011 Update Rollup 14: 

•  Better performance around User and Team caching
• For example, a user is a member of 15,000 teams. You login as this user and it takes a long time to cache all the data
• If you login as another user, you see the same problem due to clearing the cache
• "Show Selected Views" does not work in CRM Dashboard
• Description field in activity views shows HTML style information
• Description field and notes are not displayed correctly during Print Preview after Update Rollup 12
• When you perform a Quick Find search in Outlook, the columns shown in the view are the intersection of the columns from the previous view that was shown in Outlook and the Quick Find view definition
• This differs from what you see when you do a search in the web client
• After the search is run, no columns are displayed because the specific column is not included in the Quick Find view
• WRPC token is missing when you use SharePoint Integration
• Adding a mail template in CRM after Update Rollup 12 causes errors
• Rich Text Editor errors occur when you paste content during creation of mail merge templates in CRM 2011 online
• My Team Members' Activities view displays incorrect results through CRM for Outlook client
• AddressBookMaterializedViewsEnabled triggers a crash if entity does not have an email address
• Outlook folders are filtered only per the user’s security, and does not take into account the security of the team the user is a part of
• SQL CE connections in 32-bit versions of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Client for Outlook are not being released
• Memory errors in 32-bit CRM for Outlook when you go offline
• Templates are applied to distributed campaign email messages despite being deselected
• Formatting exceptions occur during data import
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Reporting Extensions Data connector platform traces are not written when SSRS is on a separate computer from CRM
• Double quotation marks are changed to single quotation marks in KB articles
• When OverrideTrackInCrmBehaviour is enabled, you can't untrack email in CRM Outlook Client
• "Show only my records" in lookup dialog box doesn't always show just my records
• When you click View existing record in CRM in the Outlook client, nothing happens
• Errors occur when you send direct email in CRM outlook client while you're offline
• Sum of currency type field displays an incorrect currency symbol
• Outlook Quick Find displays Filter Criteria incorrectly after Update Rollup 12 is installed
• User can publish articles without the Publish article permission
• Email router stops processing email messages after it encounters a message that does not have a From field value
• Printer prompts for 8.3" x 11" paper when you print a report that was created in the report wizard
• Deleting entity triggers System.Array.Copy throws ArrayTypeMismatchException
• Base64 attributes are returned as MemoAttributeMetadata instead of as StringAttributeMetadata
• Excel sheet name isn't shown correctly on Update Rollup 12 when Advanced Find results are exported to Excel
• Lync presence icon is missing from Grid View/Form controls
• Microsoft CRM ribbon disappears in Outlook 2007 clients
• Process with condition on email recipient fails if recipient is unresolved
• Tasks tab is blank in the Synchronizing dialog box when you go offline
• Updating individual occurrences of a Recurrence Meeting breaks recurrence
• Outlook client crashes when you try to add email activity to order from the Outlook Client
• "Error in LoadSiteWideSettings" error when you start Deployment Manager

 Hotfixes and updates that you have to enable or configure manually

Occasionally, updates released via Update Rollups require manual configuration to enable them. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Update Rollups are always cumulative; for example, Update Rollup 14 contains all fixes previously released via Update Rollups 1-13 as well as fixes newly released via Update Rollup 14. So if you install Update Rollup 14 on a machine upon which you previously installed no Update Rollups, you will need to manually enable any desired fixes for Update Rollups 1-14:

• Update Rollup 1: no updates requiring manual configuration
• Update Rollup 2 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 contains the following update that you must enable or configure manually - details on enabling or configuring can be found in this Microsoft Knowledge Base article:
  • 2535245 RetrieveMultiple optimization for basic depth needed for local and deep depth read privileges in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
  • NOTE: see comments near the beginning of this blog regarding significant rework to EnableRetrieveMultipleOptimization released in Update Rollup 10
• Update Rollup 3: no updates requiring manual configuration
• Update Rollup 4: no updates requiring manual configuration
• Update Rollup 5: no updates requiring manual configuration
• Update Rollup 6 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 contains the following update that you must enable or configure manually - details on enabling or configuring can be found in this Microsoft Knowledge Base article:
  • 2664150  Steps to clean up the PrincipalObjectAccess table in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 after Update Rollup 6 is applied
• Update Rollup 7: no updates requiring manual configuration
• Update Rollup 8: no updates requiring manual configuration
• Update Rollup 10 (includes hotfix components of Update Rollup 9): no updates requiring manual configuration to enable, but
• Note my above comments regarding ERMO (EnableRetrieveMultipleOptimization) option configuration via registry keys or (preferred) OrgDbOrgSettings updates
• This information supercedes the information in KB 2535245, which discusses EnableRetrieveMultipleOptimization enhancements shipped in CRM 2011 Update Rollup 2
• Update Rollup 11 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 contains the following update that you must enable or configure manually - details on enabling or configuring can be found in this Microsoft Knowledge Base article:
• 2820838 Microsoft Dynamics CRM E-mail Router Rule Deployment Wizard does not work in an Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2010 mixed environment
• Update Rollup 12 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 contains the following update that you must enable or configure manually - details on enabling or configuring can be found in this Microsoft Knowledge Base article:
• 2820835 Sync the private property from Outlook appointments to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 with Update Rollup 12
• Update Rollup 13: no updates requiring manual configuration
• Update Rollup 14: no updates requiring manual configuration

 Mismatched Update Rollup versions within a Microsoft Dynamics CRM deployment

In a scenario where you may be running many client workstations with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for Microsoft Office Outlook, a common question is whether it is supported to run mismatched versions. For example, where Update Rollup 5 has been installed on the CRM Server but the Outlook clients are still on Update Rollup 1, or where Update Rollup 1 is on the CRM server but due to updates available to the Outlook client you have decided to install Update Rollup 6 on the clients without installing Update Rollup 4 on the server.

The general rule of thumb is to try to keep the versions in sync as much as possible, and we recommend that you avoid deltas of more than one version between client and server.  So ideally, you would be running Update Rollup 14 server with Update Rollup 13 or 14 on your Outlook client. However, it is permissible (though not recommended as a long-term solution) to run mismatched Update Rollup versions on Outlook client and server, as Microsoft does do some testing of such combinations.

However, regarding the other Update Rollups (for example Rollups for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Email Router or Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Reporting Extensions), it is not supported nor recommended to run mismatched versions. A best practice is to update these components at the same time you update your CRM Server.  Do the best you can to keep these Update Rollup versions in sync.

For more information, see the blog posting "User experience while accessing CRM 2011 application servers while Update Rollups are being applied"

Internet Explorer 10, Windows 8, Office 2013, and Windows Server 2012 Compatibility

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Engineering team consistently Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 against pre-release and release versions of technology stack components that Microsoft Dynamics interoperates with. When appropriate, Microsoft releases enhancements via future Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollups or new major version releases to assure compatibility with future releases of these products.

Greg Nichols
Premier Field Engineering
Microsoft Corporation

On July 27th, 2013 the Dynamics CRM team released a critical update for CRM 2011 targeted on the Update Rollup 11 codebase. The critical update can be downloaded here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=39691 and the KB article for it is found here: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=2855319.  NOTE: Below the “KB2855319 Critical Update” will be referred to as “CU” and “Dynamics CRM 2011 Outlook Client Add-In” will be referred to as “Outlook Client” for consistency and readability.  Please also note, this article discusses both the Server and Outlook Client CU patch files, there are valid scenarios where your client and server versions do not match. As a general rule of thumb the following best practices apply:

• If you are unable to patch your server to UR12 or higher due to compatibility concerns it is recommended to patch to at least UR11, I would strongly encourage you to consider installing this CU instead of UR11 (the CU is essentially UR11 with several updates highlighted at the bottom of the article).  Ultimately, you should have a plan to update your server to the newer update rollups and eventually to UR15 or higher.
• If your server is on UR12, 13, or 14 – it’s encouraged to stay on your current rollup and plan to patch to UR15 when it releases.

Notable points regarding this CU:

• The ServerCU can be installed by customers who wish to have the latest server updates without going to UR12 or higher. If your server version is less than UR11 you must first update to UR11 then apply this CU on top of UR11. If your server version is less than UR11 and you apply this CU, it will bring your server build up to the equivalent of UR11 and will include the fixes in this CU.
• The Outlook Client CU can be installed by any customers who wish to have improved stability and performance in the Outlook Client today – these enhancements and others will be included in UR15 for the Outlook Client and this CU offers a stop gap if you’re experiencing problems today.
• The Outlook Client & Server CU cannot be applied on top of Update Rollup 12, 13, or 14, if you attempt to do so a message is displayed that states that this update rollup is not compatible with your installation.
• The Outlook Client & Server CU version number is: 05.00.9690.2903
• If you apply the Outlook Client CU, wait to apply any further update rollups until Update Rollup 15 has been released. This will preserve the existing stability and performance enhancements – from an Outlook Client standpoint you can deploy UR15 on top of this UR11 CU without compatibility concerns.
• If you wish to have your Outlook Clients use this CU, the CRM server may be at UR level: 11*, 12, 13, 14, or CRM Online
  • *If your server is currently patched to Update Rollup 11 – it is highly recommended you install the latest CRM Server update as part of this CU (file name: CRM2011-Server-KB2855319-ENU-amd64.exe)

CU installation considerations and notable post-installation changes:

• The CU patches are based on the Update Rollup 11 codebase, thus when you install the CRM Outlook Client CU your client version *must* be update rollup 11 or less.
• If your outlook client is already past update rollup 11, (greater than or equal to build number 5.0.9690.3233) – you have two options three options:
  1. Uninstall the Outlook Client entirely and re-install with the base UR6 installation (here), once installed you can then apply the CU.
  2. Choose to remain at your current update rollup level and patch your Dynamics CRM 2011 Client with Update Rollup 15 when it releases.
  3. This option is no longer recommended due to issues encountered, please use one of the above two options. Downgrade the Outlook Client by uninstalling any rollups greater than UR11 on the client until it is at UR11 or below, then apply the new CU.
• Once you apply the CU on your Outlook Client, the next patch you should plan to install is Update Rollup 15 – do not apply any rollups prior to the release of UR15 to preserve the improvements and settings.
• *UPDATE* 8/14/2013: As of today UR12, UR13, and UR14 have been removed from being listed as an Automatic Update on Windows Update.  This will prevent your users Outlook clients from inadvertently receiving automatic updates which would supersede the CU.  UR 15 will be live on the Windows Update site a short time after it is made available to the public.
• The SQL Server CE Outlook Client component is automatically upgraded to SQL CE 4.0 as part of the CU installation.  This is pre-packaged and contained within the update.
• Two recommended registry entries are now automatically added/updated as part of the Outlook ClientCU: “AddressBookMaterializedViewsEnabled” and “DisableMapiCaching” both are set to a value of 1.
• As part of the Outlook ClientCU two recommended registry entries have been removed from the registry and are now automatically defaulted as follows: “AddressBookMaterializedViewsEnabled” set to true and “DisableMapiCaching” set to true (when DisableMapiChaching is set to true pinned views in the Outlook Client will be paged instead of an infinite list after this change).
  • NOTE: If you’ve also installed the Server CU these values can now be overridden using the OrgDBSettings Editor (I will be releasing an update to allow UR11 CU customers to edit the settings in their organization).  Any Outlook Clients with the Client CU installed will then use the OrgDbOrgSettings value instead of the default value. 
• The Outlook Client CU now has process isolation for hosting CRM forms, and the offline Sync process. The processes used for isolation are titled: “Microsoft.Crm.Application.Hoster.exe”, “Microsoft.Crm.Application.Outlook.WebFormsHost.exe”, and “OfflineSyncAgent.exe” and are all launched as child processes of Outlook. If you’re curious what this looks like, here’s a process explorer view of the Outlook.exe process after the CU has been installed and Outlook Client has been configured:

If you’re a premier customer feel free to talk to your TAM about working with a Dynamics CRM PFE (remote or onsite), and if you already have a Dedicated Dynamics PFE make sure to reach out and we can work together to have a plan to get your customizations and system updated.  If you don’t have Premier and are interested in working with us – please reach out and we can set you up to talk with someone about Premier.

Thanks for reading! 
Sean McNellis
Premier Field Engineer

After applying update rollup 12 most of us will likely want to take advantage of a setting which disables HTC’s and allows CRM to take advantage of Internet Explorers latest standards based browser mode. 

NOTE: This reference of HTC is not the mobile phone maker but instead DHTML behavior definitions used in IE5 and greater.

Why disable HTC’s?  There are a couple of reasons, the first of which is a general performance boost, anecdotally I’ve noticed that by disabling the HTC’s the perception of responsiveness in CRM seems to improve.  Second, by dropping the HTC’s (used for CRM 4.0 JavaScript API compatibility) you are removing a bunch of extra components from CRM including the forms – again these components specifically support CRM 4.0 javascript API’s.  By removing these behaviors you’re naturally streamlining the app. 

What are the settings and what do they do?

How do I edit these settings?
You have two different ways to change the settings – both will change the same underlying setting but the second option has you to use an editor which allows for the altering of many other Dynamics CRM 2011 settings.

1. To toggle the two specific settings listed above, open Dynamics CRM 2011 in the web browser and click Settings,then navigate to“Administration” in the left hand navigation.  Within the Administration navigation page, click “System Settings”.  Once in the System Settings modal dialog click the Customization Tab, you’ll find the two settings displayed as checkboxes under “HTML component support” a screenshot of this dialog can be found here. 
2. To access all orgDbOrgSettings (Organization Settings) including the two above: download the Organization Settings Editor (see project page and blog article for more info).  This is a managed solution you import into CRM, then you open the solution in CRM, using the configuration page of the solution you are able to edit the above settings as well as dozens of others used to configure CRM (OnPrem or Online).  First, import the managed solution here.  Once you’ve imported the managed solution: open Dynamics CRM 2011 in the web browser, and click Settings, find and click Solutions in the left hand navigation, in the main solutions grid double click the “OrganizationSettingsEditor” managed solution to launch the configuration and editor page (you’ll want to maximize the editor page so you can see all the settings).  The above two settings, along with many others will be listed and can be edited within this editor page.

What setting values provide the most optimal experience and what are the defaults? To provide a standards based experience in IE and to allow for the user of cross browser mode you’ll should try to have the following settings:

*The values are suggested for the most optimal experience for users in IE – there are many cases where these settings may not be possible until customizations are updated to use CRM 2011 API’s. 
**If you wish to have cross browser support IncludeHTC must be set to False. However, this should not be used this as a way to restrict usage – if you wish to restrict usage of certain browsers read below.

The benefits: If you test and confirm customizations with these settings you can take advantage of the most recent IE versions and avoid having to be reliant on compatibility mode.  Additionally, Dynamics CRM 2011 can operate in cross browser mode and your customizations will meet standards making the use of your custom components in other browsers much easier to achieve. 

Can I control which browsers CRM allows? You can use the Browser Control solution documented on MSDN: here.  However, you’ll also want to work with your configuration management team – if using another browser isn’t supported in your business you want to make sure you inventory that and manage your software configuration appropriately.  Products like System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) or for a cloud based approach appropriate for 1 user or thousands of users you can use Windows Intune.

More documentation: I want to call attention to the “Use JavaScript with Microsoft Dynamics CRM” MSDN article, this article does a great job of calling out many of the best practices when coding for Dynamics CRM.  It’s a great reference article and is a good reminder of the JavaScript best practices. The main issue we’ve observed with these settings is non-compliant or CRM 4.0 specific JavaScript.  The second largest issue I’ve observed is with custom pages in iFrames or embedded as WebResources – these pages should be tested to make sure they will render properly in a standards based browser mode and without HTC support. And a friendly reminder, please do not modify the DOM directly this has potential supportability consequences but this also can cause many unintended memory leaks if there are circular references caused by modifying the DOM.

More questions? Please leave a comment and we’ll try to respond as we have time.  If you’re a premier customer talk to your TAM about dispatching a Dynamics CRM PFE (remote or onsite), and if you already have a Dedicated Dynamics PFE make sure to reach out and we can work with you to put together a plan to get your customizations updated allowing you to take advantage of the most optimal settings.  If you don’t have Premier and are interested in working with us – please reach out and we can set you up to talk with someone about Premier.

By testing, preparing, and moving forward you will put yourself in a good position for future updates and upgrades to the CRM platform. Thanks for reading! 

Sean McNellis
Premier Field Engineer

I received a call from one of my customers where when a Deployment Administrator, that was recently added, was receiving SQL errors when opening the Deployment Manager console.  The issue was the new Deployment Administrator did not have rights to the MSCRM_Config database.  TechNet has a series of pages, http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg197626.aspx, that go through the steps of adding a new Deployment Administrator.  Today I’ll walk you through how to create a security group with the proper security privileges to reduce administrative overhead when adding new Deployment Administrators.  Here is an overview of what is in the CRM IG and Technet Articles:

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Deployment Manager is a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in that system administrators and value-added resellers use to manage Deployment Administrator accounts, organizations, servers, and licenses for Microsoft Dynamics CRM deployments.

Important notes:

• At least one deployment administrator must be defined in each CRM deployment group
• To run the CRM Deployment Manager and provision tenant organizations, you must be assigned the Deployment Administrator role
• Deployment Administrators have complete and unrestricted access to perform Deployment Manager tasks on all organizations and servers in a Microsoft Dynamics CRM deployment
• During Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server Setup, the process automatically assigns the Deployment Administrator role to the user who is running the Setup
• While you could use the same account, it is recommended that you use separate accounts per CRM deployment group to minimize risk to a security breach
• Although you should limit the number of Deployment Administrators, the best practice is to enable at least two or three trusted user accounts with this role. This will help prevent potential lockouts that could occur when only using a single account. A second option is to use an additional, separate, service account that would not leave the company and be used to avoid lockout. 

NOTE: The Deployment Administrator role is separate from the Microsoft Dynamics CRM user role.

The following walks you through how to create an AD Group to manage Deployment Administrators privileges:

1: Creating a New CRM Deployment Administrators Security Group in AD

Create a new Active Directory Security group for the CRM Deployment Administrator(s). This group will be used to assign permissions to the systems and security groups necessary to administer fully the CRM organizations in a CRM deployment. Consider naming this group unique to the CRM Deployment, such as CRMDG01Admins.

2: Adding the Deployment Administrators Group as a Local CRM Server Admin

When you add a Deployment Administrator role to a user, Deployment Manager does not grant the user local administrative rights to the CRM Deployment Administration and database servers. This is required to provision resources properly within the deployment.

1. Log on to CRMDEP01 using an account that is a member of Domain Administrators group.
2. Add the Contoso\CRMDG01Admins group to the local Administrators group.
3. Repeat this procedure on CRMSQL01

3: Granting CRM Deployment Administrator Permissions to the CRM Active Directory Groups

The user who creates, modifies, edits, and imports organizations in Microsoft Dynamics CRM must have permissions in the following Microsoft Dynamics CRM security groups in Active Directory:

• PrivReportingGroup {guid}
• PrivUserGroup {guid}
• ReportingGroup {guid}
• SQLAccessGroup {guid}

Note: make sure your various service accounts have the proper group membership, this is documented in our CRM 2011 Setup FAQ, the table in the FAQ is now also listed in the CRM IG.

CRM Deployment Administrator must have permissions to all four Microsoft Dynamics CRM security groups.  The specific permissions a deployment administrator must have on the CRM security groups are as follows:

Basic Permissions

• Read
• Write
• Add/Remove self as member

“Advanced” or Detailed Permissions

• List Contents
• Read All Properties
• Write All Properties
• Read Permissions
• Modify Permissions
• All Validated Writes
• Add/Remove self as member

The Deployment Administrators group you’ve created will allow you to grant the proper permissions on it and in the future you can save time by adding new CRM Deployment admins to the group we’ve created. To setup the proper permissions for members of this security group:

1. Log into a computer with Active Directory Users and Computers management console installed 
2. In Active Directory Users and Computers click the View menu, then check the Advanced Features option
3. In the left hand navigation expand your domain, for this example: contoso.com.
4. Click on the organization unit containing the CRM Security groups (as defined during the installation of the first CRM server), The listing pane should display the following CRM security groups:
   • PrivReportingGroup{…}
   • PrivUserGroup{…}
   • ReportingGroup{…}
   • SQLAccessGroup{…}
     *{…} represents the globally unique identifier (GUID) following the group name. The GUID will be unique in every deployment. A representative example group name could be ReportingGroup {4efba72a-232f-44ec-9d95-155eb6ffb1be}
5. Right-click the PrivReportingGroup security group and then click Properties.
6. In the Properties dialog box, select the Security tab, and in the Group or user names list, click Add.
7. In the Enter the object name to select text box, type CRMDG01Admins, click the Check Names button, and then click OK.
8. With the CRMDG01Admins group selected, click to select the Allow check box for the Write permission. This action causes the system to select automatically the Add/Remove self as member check box.
   • By default, the Allow check box is selected for the Read permission.
9. Click Advanced.
10. In the Permission list, select the CRMDG01Admins group, and then click Edit.
11. Click to select the Allow check box for the Modify Permissions permission.  By default, the Allow check box is selected for the following permissions:
    • List Contents
    • List Object
    • Read All Properties
    • Write All Properties
    • Read Permissions
    • All Validated Writes
    • Add/Remove self as member
12. Click OK three times.
13. Repeat the steps in this procedure to grant the CRMDG01Admins permissions to modify the PrivUserGroup, ReportingGroup, and SQLAccessGroup security groups.

4: Grant CRM Deployment Administrators Permissions to CRM SQL Objects

When you add a Deployment Administrator role to a user, Deployment Manager does not add the required permissions on the instance of SQL Server where the Microsoft Dynamics CRM databases are stored. When the user tries to start Deployment Manager, the user might receive an error message that says, "Unable to access the MSCRM_CONFIG database. SQL Server does not exist or access denied." To resolve this issue, you must add the user to SQL log-ins by using Reporting Services. For the new deployment administrator to manage CRM organizations created by other deployment administrators, he or she must be granted db_owner permissions to those databases, or be assigned the sysadmin server role to manage all databases.

1. Log on to CRMSQL using an account that is a member of Domain Administrators group.
2. Launch the SQL Server 2008 Management Studio.
3. On the Connect to Server dialog box, click Connect.
4. Expand Security.
5. Right-click Logins and select New Login.
6. Click the Search button.
7. In the Select User or Group dialog box, do the following:
   • Click Object Types, and then enable the Groups type.
   • Click Locations, and then select Entire Directory.
8. Click OK.
9. In the Enter the object name to select text box, type domain group name (that is, CRMDG01Admins), click the Check Names button, and then click OK.
10. In the Default database drop-down box, select MSCRM_CONFIG.
11. From the page list on the left, select Server Roles, enable the sysadmin role for the user, and then click OK.
12. Expand Databases.
13. Expand the MSCRM_CONFIG database.
14. Expand Security.
15. Right-click Users and then select New User.
16. In the User name field, type the domain user login name (that is, CRMDG01Admins).
17. In the Login name field, type Contoso\CRMDG01Admins.
18. In the Database role membership section, select the db_owner check box, and then click OK.
19. Close the SQL Server 2008 Management Studio.

5: Adding Domain User Account to CRM Deployment Administrators Group

1. Verify that a domain user account exists for the new deployment administrator. If it does not, create a new account.
2. Add the new user to the previously created CRMDG01Admins group. Also, ensure this account is also member of the Domain Users group.

6: Add the User as a CRM Deployment Administrator in CRM Deployment Manager

You can add the Deployment Administrator using the either the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) or using a PowerShell Script

Add a Deployment Administrator Using MMC

In the console tree, right-click Deployment Administrators, and then click New Deployment Administrator.

In the Select User dialog box, in the Enter object name to select box, type the name of a user, who must exist in Active Directory, and then click Check Names.

After the user name is accepted, click OK.

To add the Deployment Administrator using PowerShell

The New-CrmDeploymentAdministrator cmdlet adds a new Deployment Administrator to the deployment.

Syntax:

New-CrmDeploymentAdministrator -Name username

where: username is the name of the user being given the Deployment Administrator role. It must be in the form domain\username. The user must exist in Active Directory.

1. Logon to the CRM server with the Deployment Administrator role, such as CRMDEP01, using the account used to install CRM services.
2. Launch an administrative Windows PowerShell command window from the quick launch bar, or from the Start menu under Program Files, Accessories, Windows PowerShell, and then Windows PowerShell.
3. In the Windows PowerShell command window, execute the following commands:

   Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Crm.PowerShell

   New-CrmDeploymentAdministrator -Name contoso\<username>
   Note: No data will be returned upon successful completion, as the call is asynchronously processed.

4. To verify that the account was properly created, either open the Deployment Manager and confirm the account is displayed in the Deployment Administrators list, or run the following CRM PowerShell cmdlet and confirm the account specified is found in the Name field: Get-CrmDeploymentAdministrator

Thanks!
Walter Grow

Microsoft Premier Field Engineer

Should we enable CRM tracing via the Registry or Powershell?

Answer: It depends.

Let me explain.  First, let’s talk about why you would turn on CRM Platform tracing.  If you encounter and error in CRM and you are not able to determine the resolution to the issue by the error message and\or downloading the platform error from the error message; the next step you may want to do is to enable CRM platform tracing.  The CRM platform trace can give you more details about the entire call stack and verbose actions leading up to the error.  This would be true for errors received in the CRM web client and in most cases errors in the CRM Outlook client.  However, there is client side tracing you can enable as well if the error does not appear to be a server side error message.  First let’s focus on server side tracing and then later I will include some details on client side tracing.

Registry

We have a KB article about How to enable platform tracing in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.  This method walks you through enabling CRM platform tracing through the registry.  There are also some third party tools like the Diagnostics Tool for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 available on the Internet that customers and partners have written to automate this process.  Even though those are not official Microsoft support tools, they are very commonly used with customers and partners and I personally haven’t seen any issues using these tools.

The registry is an effective way to enable platform tracing when you are troubleshooting an issue on a single CRM server.  You can add the registry keys and you can leave them in place after you disable tracing, so that you can re-use them if needed at a later time.  To disable tracing, you can simply change the TraceEnabled registry value to 0 and you also have to change the TraceRefresh value to a different number.  I always just increment the decimal number by one.  It’s very important to disable tracing when you are done troubleshooting, or you will fill up your C: drive.

Which leads us to my next point which is that the TraceDirectory is always ignored and no matter what you set this value to, the trace files will always go to  <Install Drive>:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics CRM\Trace.  Even if you change this in the registry or in a third party tool, the trace file will always go to the same directory.  Typically this is not too big of an issue, unless you installed CRM on a drive that does not have much available hard drive space and then you have to enable tracing for a long period of time.

Helpful Tips: 

• You should go check that directory if you have enabled tracing in the past, or inherited this CRM Administrator role from someone else who may not have cleaned up old trace files.
• When using a Network Load Balanced (NLB) CRM deployment, you should try narrow down the issue to a single server, so that you only have to enable tracing on a single server.  This will also save you from reading through extra trace files on servers that you were not even hitting while reproducing the issue.
• There are many trace file readers available on the Internet, but here are a few common ones that I have seen customers and partners use.
  • BareGrep– This is a third party tool with a free version and also a registered version.  This works very well if you have several trace files to parse through quickly and do not know which file contains your error.  This is very common if you enabled Verbose tracing on a busy production server.
  • Trace Reader for Microsoft Dynamics CRM– This is a new trace tool that is supposed to work with CRM 4.0, 2011 and 2013, but I haven’t personally used it yet.  However, it was written by tanguy92 who also wrote the Diagnostics Tool for CRM 2011, so I am optimistic this should work well.
  • NotePad – Yes, Notepad.  It’s simple and built in for quick usage.  Turn off Word Wrap (under Format) and just use CTRL+F and search for “Error |” or whatever key word you saw in the error message.

PowerShell

Windows PowerShell is another method that you can use to enable CRM platform tracing when you want to quickly enable tracing for an entire CRM deployment.  This can be very effective when you have multiple CRM servers vs. going to each CRM server and enabling tracing via the registry.  This topic is also covered in the How to enable platform tracing in Microsoft Dynamics CRM KB article.

When tracing is enabled via PowerShell you should specify a different trace directory location to store the trace files.  By default CRM is set to use C:\crmdrop\logs, but since it's very likely that location does not exist on your CRM servers, you will think that tracing was not enabled correctly as you are looking in the <Install Drive>:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics CRM\Trace folder for the trace files.  You either have to update the TraceDirectory via PowerShell to that default location which already exists, or create a different location manually and specify that location (ie: D:\CRMTrace) using PowerShell.  I recommend this option, so that you do not risk filling up your primary C: drive with CRM trace files.

Helpful Tips:

• When tracing is enabled via PowerShell, but disabled via the registry; tracing will still be enabled as it’s tracing for the Deployment vs. just a single server. 
• If tracing is enabled via PowerShell and via the Registry; the Registry will override and the CRM traces will be in the <Install Drive>:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics CRM\Trace folder instead of the location you specified via PowerShell.  
• If tracing is disabled via PowerShell, but enabled via the registry; then tracing will be enabled on that server with the registry key in place and the traces will be going to the <Install Drive>:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics CRM\Trace folder.

Summary

So, as you can see the answer to use the registry or PowerShell can depend on the scenario you are troubleshooting, type of environment you have an where you want to store the log files.  There is no right or wrong answer, so just use what makes sense for you and your CRM deployment based on the information provided in this blog post.

What about the CRM Outlook client tracing mentioned above?  If you were unable to find the error details in the CRM server platform trace and you suspect it’s a client side issue, you can enable CRM platform tracing on the CRM Outlook client machine.  Keep in mind that this only applies to the CRM Outlook clients and not the CRM web clients.  If you are using CRM through a web browser only, then you would just use server side platform tracing.  That’s why the first thing I do when there is an issue with the CRM Outlook client is to try reproduce the issue in the CRM web client to help reduce the complexity of troubleshooting the issue.

You can enable CRM platform tracing on the CRM Outlook client by going to Start, All Programs, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, Diagnostics.  If you are using Windows 8 or 8.1, you can simply click the Windows key and start typing: Diagnostics.  Then click on the CRM Diagnostics tile.  When you are in the CRM Outlook client diagnostics tool, select the Advanced Troubleshooting tab, and then select Tracing to enable or click to clear Tracing to disable and then click Save.  After you reproduce the issue, disable tracing and the CRM for Outlook tracing files are located in the C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\MSCRM\Traces folder.  For additional details on CRM Outlook client tracing, please refer to our documentation on MSDN.

Hopefully this helps to clear up some of the CRM platform tracing questions you have, or may have had at some point while working with CRM platform tracing.

As always our CRM PFE and CRM Support teams are ready to help if you need the assistance.  In addition, we have a plethora of other services we offer such as developer training, admin workshops, and code reviews.  If you would like to have another Microsoft PFE or I visit your company and assist with the ideas presented on our blog, contact your Microsoft Premier Technical Account Manager (TAM) for booking information.  For more information about becoming a Microsoft Premier customer email PremSale@microsoft.com, tell them CRMInTheField or I sent you.

Please share any other helpful tips or tools that you use for CRM platform tracing in the comments below.

Thanks!
Shawn Dieken

Microsoft Premier Field Engineer

This blog article will walk you through installing CRM 2013 without an Internet connection.  We put together a similar article for CRM 2011 that was very popular, so I figured I would do the same for CRM 2013 as it’s not currently in our Implementation Guide for CRM 2013.

The most common scenarios are for virtual (Hyper-V) demo environments and environments with firewalls, and\or other security requirements that block Internet access. 

If you download the CRM 2013 ISO from MSDN, or have a physical DVD that you are installing from, you will already have the Redist folder and all the pre-requisites downloaded.  However, if you downloaded your CRM 2013 installation media from the Microsoft download site, then you will have to manually build this Redist pre-requisite folder structure.  Or, a better option is to use the PowerShell script that Sean McNellis put together in this blog that will automatically create the Redist folder, subfolders and download the pre-reqs into their respective folders as long as you have an Internet connection on the machine you run the PowerShell script from.  However, I still wanted to detail these pre-requisites out, so that you had all the specific links and file names for your deployment.

Note: If you are installing CRM 2013 on a server that has Internet access, the installation will automatically go out and download the pre-requisite files during the install.

Step 1: Create the Redist folder structure at the same level as the Server, Client, EmailRouter and other folders.

IMPORTANT: This step was the most commonly missed one from other customers, so make sure the Redist folder is at the same level as the Server, Client and EmailRouter folders and not within each of those folders.

Once you create the Redist folder it should look something like this:

Step 2: Create the following subfolders directly under the Redist folder

Note: This is a Redist setup for all CRM components: Server, Outlook Client, Email Router, SRS Reporting Extensions and Bids.  For the CRM Outlook client, customers are commonly pushing this out via SCCM or other push technologies, so you want to keep the install package as small as possible.  For the CRM Outlook client the only prerequisites that you would need to include are the ones below.  You could even take it a step further and only include the specific OS and architecture components if you are deploying to clients that are all similar in OS and architecture.

1. dotNETFX – Technically only the Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (dotNetFx40_Full_x86_x64.exe) is needed for the CRM Outlook client.

2. IDCRL

3. MSI45 – This is installed already in most cases, so confirm in your deployment before including in your SCCM package.

4. MSOIDCRL

5. ReportViewer

6. SQLCE

7. VCRedist

8. VCRedist91

9. WindowsIdentityFoundation – This is installed already in most cases, so confirm in your deployment before including in your SCCM package.

10. SQLEXPR - Only needed if installing offline CRM Outlook clients

Step 3: Download the pre-requisite files and copy them into the appropriate subfolders

Note: The following download links are for US English (1033), but you can change the language you want to download if you search for the filename and go to the actual download page. Also, these download links will always have the latest update for the prerequisite software regardless of whether I have the correct name listed below. The reason for this is that I may just not have had time to update the Prerequisite name below for every Service Pack or Cumulative Update that is released.

• Redist
  • dotNETFX
    • Prerequisite Names:
      • Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (Standalone Installer)
      • Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0.3 Runtime Update
    • File names:
      • dotNetFx40_Full_x86_x64.exe
      • NDP40-KB2600211-x86-x64.exe
    • Download: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=182091&clcid=0x409
    • Download: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=299426&clcid=1033
  • IDCRL
    • Prerequisite Name: Windows Live ID Sign-in Assistant 6.5
    • File names:
      • wllogin_32.msi
      • wllogin_64.msi
    • Downloads:
      • x86: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=194721&clcid=0x409
      • x64: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=194722&clcid=0x409
  • MSI45
    • Prerequisite Name: Windows Installer 4.5 Redistributable
    • File names:
      • Windows6.0-KB942288-v2-x86.msu
      • Windows6.0-KB942288-v2-x64.msu
    • Downloads:
      • Windows6.0-KB942288-v2-x86.msu -
        http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=139108&clcid=0x409
      • Windows6.0-KB942288-v2-x64.msu -
        http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=139110&clcid=0x409
  • Msoidcrl
    • Prerequisite Name: Microsoft Online Services Sign-in Assistant
    • File names:
      • msoidcli_32bit.msi
      • msoidcli_64bit.msi
    • Downloads:
      • x86: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=317650&clcid=1033
      • x64: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=317651&clcid=1033
  • ReportViewer
    • Prerequisite Name: Microsoft Report Viewer 2010 Redistributable Package
    • File name:
      • ReportViewer.exe
    • Download: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=193386&clcid=0x409
  • SQLCE
    • Prerequisite Name: Microsoft SQL Server Compact 4.0 SP1
    • File names:
      • SSCERuntime_x86-ENU.exe
      • SSCERuntime_x64-ENU.exe
    • Downloads:
      • x86: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=253117&clcid=1033
      • x64: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=253118&clcid=1033
  • SQLExpr
    • Prerequisite Name: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express SP1
    • File name:
      • SQLEXPR_x86_ENU.exe
    • Download: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=179623&clcid=1033
  • SQLNativeClient
    • Prerequisite Name: Microsoft SQL Server Native Client
    • File name:
      • sqlncli_x64.msi
    • Downloads:
      • Note: The file name in the download is sqlncli.msi, but should be renamed to sqlncli_x64.msi when you save it in the SQLNativeClient folder.
      • x64: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=178252&clcid=0x409
  • VCRedist
    • Prerequisite Name: Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Package
    • File names:
      • vcredist_x86.exe
      • vcredist_x64.exe
    • Download: x86 http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=195255&clcid=0x409
    • Download: x64 http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=195257&clcid=0x409
  • VCRedist9SP1
    • Prerequisite Name: Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Package SP1
    • File Names:
      • vcredist_x86.exe
      • vcredist_x64.exe
    • Download: x86  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=299417&clcid=1033
    • Download: x64 http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=299585&clcid=1033
  • WindowsIdentityFoundation
    • Prerequisite Name: Windows Identity Foundation
    • File names:
      • Windows5.2-KB974405-x86.exe
      • Windows5.2-KB974405-x64.exe
      • Windows6.0-KB974405-x86.msu
      • Windows6.0-KB974405-x64.msu
      • Windows6.1-KB974405-x86.msu
      • Windows6.1-KB974405-x64.msu
    • Downloads:
      • Windows5.2-KB974405-x86.exe -
        http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=200432&clcid=0x409
      • Windows5.2-KB974405-x64.exe -
        http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=200430&clcid=0x409
      • Windows6.0-KB974405-x86.msu -
        http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=190775&clcid=0x409
      • Windows6.0-KB974405-x64.msu -
        http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=190771&clcid=0x409
      • Windows6.1-KB974405-x86.msu -
        http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=190781&clcid=0x409
      • Windows6.1-KB974405-x64.msu -
        http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=190780&clcid=0x409

Now you have all of the pre-requisites downloaded and saved in the correct folder structures, so you can continue with the CRM 2013 installation without an Internet connection.

Hopefully this saves those of you who run into this scenario some time!

Thanks!
Shawn

Shawn Dieken

Follow the conversation:
@sdieken
@pfedynamics | http://www.pfedynamics.com

The CRM 2011 blog post that I wrote with all the links to the white papers was very popular, so I am doing a similar post for CRM 2013.  I will try to update this blog post quarterly with new white papers as well.

I am often finding myself searching for CRM 2013 White Papers & Technical Documentation URL’s to reference or send to customers and while Bing works well to find these individually, I thought it would be nice to just try include them all in a single URL for easy reference.  There are some other good blogs out there with similar lists, but I can’t update those, so I wanted my own list.  I will try keep this updated as new white papers are released also.

Enjoy!

Shawn Dieken

Follow the conversation:
@sdieken
@pfedynamics | http://www.pfedynamics.com

I am pleased to announce the General Availability of RAP (Risk Assessment Program) as a Service for Dynamics CRM. This Microsoft Premier Service takes our existing Health Check to the next level with on-demand data collection and analysis to give you the flexibility to check and re-check the state of your system whenever you want as many times as you want with regular updates to best practice guidance for up to a year.*

The best part is you still get to work with the same experienced Dynamics CRM Premier Field Engineers who deliver Health Checks today to make sure you understand the assessment results in the context of your specific deployment and make sure your questions get answered.

This service is available for a single deployment of Dynamics CRM 2011 with up to 5 Organizations and up to 5 Dynamics CRM Application Servers.**

Support for Dynamics CRM 2013 and CRM On Line should be available later in 2014 - I'll provide an update when dates are determined.

What is available in RAP as a Service for Dynamics CRM?

We are checking the following categories:

• Dynamics CRM system configuration and settings
• SQL Server and database configuration
• Event logs information
• Operating system information and settings
• Operational Excellence

Learn more about RAP as a Service here:

https://services.premier.microsoft.com/raas

RAP as a Service Blog:

https://spsites.microsoft.com/sites/ITOE/ST/RaaS/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=149

More information about RAP as a Service for Dynamics CRM is available here:

https://services.premier.microsoft.com/raas/crm

• Datasheet
• Prerequisites

Talk to your Microsoft Technical Account Manager (TAM) if you’re interested in getting started with RAP as a Service for your Dynamics CRM environment or if you just want to know more about it.

* An active Microsoft Premier Support contract is required to use the online portal and tools.

** RAP as a Service for Dynamics CRM can be used to assess a single Dynamics CRM deployment. This service is available for deployments with more than 5 Organizations / Application servers, but these are considered custom engagements that must be scoped with an engineer.

Thanks,

Brian Bakke

Microsoft Premier Field Engineer

Contents:

• Build number, Download Center Page, Master KB article
• CRM Premier Field Engineering Update Rollup Podcast
• CRM Update Rollup Collateral Page
• Update Rollup News!
• Cumulative Update Rollup changes
• OrgDbOrgSettings Tool
• Deferring database updates
• General Update Rollup notes
• Update Rollup packages available for download
• Update Rollup prerequisites
• Issues resolved by this Update Rollup
• Hotfixes and updates that you have to enable or configure manually
• Mismatched Update Rollup versions within a Microsoft Dynamics CRM deployment
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM compatibility with technology stack components

   

We're proud to announce that all packages for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 16 were released on Wednesday, January 22nd, 2014 to the Microsoft Download Center!  The Update Rollup 16 packages should appear on Microsoft Update in February, 2014.

Update Rollup 16 Build number:

5.0.9690.3911

Update Rollup 16 Microsoft Download Center page

Here's the "Master" Microsoft Dynamics Knowledge Base article for Update Rollup 16: (KB 2872369).

On Friday, January 24th 2014 at 9 AM Pacific Greg Nichols and Ryan Anderson from the Microsoft CRM Premier Field Engineering Team will provide information about:

• The release of Update Rollup 16 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
• New fixes made available In Update Rollup 16
• Collateral available about Update Rollup 16 and CRM Update Rollups in general 

on BlogTalkRadio during their Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 16 Podcast.

Note regarding Podcasts: You can make our CRM Premier Field Engineering podcasts available on Zune by using the RSS feed below.  In the Zune software, go to Collection -> Podcasts and click on the Add a Podcast button on the lower left, then enter the url for the RSS feed: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/pfedynamics.rss. After that, you can adjust the series settings like any other podcast, so you can sync with your smartphone or Zune.

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The "CRM Update Rollup Collateral Page"

For pointers to download locations, release dates, build information, and CRM Premier Field Engineering blogs and podcasts for all Microsoft Dynamics CRM Update Rollups, visit the "CRM Update Rollup Collateral Page"

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Update Rollup 16 News!

Update Rollup 16 is one of the larger CRM 2011 Update Rollups released, including over 140 fixes.  As mentioned earlier, we plan on including the Update Rollup 16 fixes in Update Rollup 2 for CRM 2013

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Update Rollup 16 is a collection of fixes for issues reported by customers or found by Microsoft's Engineering Team, plus changes to provide support for related technology components.

Update Rollup 16 news that you need to know because Update Rollups are cumulative, so these significant changes are also in Update Rollup 16!

• UR12 includes the "Microsoft Dynamics CRM December 2012 Service Update"  See:
  • Bob Stutz's blog posting "Announcing Microsoft Dynamics CRM December 2012 Service Update"
  • Microsoft Dynamics CRM December 2012 Service Update - Release Preview Guide - November 2012
• Additional cross-browser compatibility provided
  • The December 2012 Service Update component of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 12 introduces additional browser compatibility for Firefox, Chrome, and Safari
    • For more information, see the Knowledge Base Article 2784954: Browser compatibility introduced with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 12 or the December 2012 Service Update
    • For more information about how this affects your code additional tips see Write JavaScript for Multiple Browsers and http://bit.ly/10hcxfG.
• Indexes added to support the Update Rollup 10 Quick Find Optimizations
  • Update Rollup 12 includes new indexes for the following entities in the Quick Find Search Optimization feature. To fully reap the benefits of the platform changes included in Update Rollup 10, indexing is needed.  The indexes created are listed below:
    • Cases
    • Opportunities
    • Competitors
    • Contact (the Phone Number fields)
    • Business Unit
    • Connection
    • Connection Role
    • KB Article
    • Lead
    • Product
    • Sales Literature
  • These indexes are created during the Update Rollup 12 installation and you may notice that part of the installation will take longer to complete. The reason for this is that the indexes need to be populated and based on the size of your dataset the completion time will vary
    • Note: Documentation provided via the Optimizing Performance of Quick Find queries section of the Optimizing and Maintaining the Data Tier section of the Optimizing and Maintaining a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Server Infrastructure whitepaper was published when Update Rollup 10 was released to the Microsoft Download Center. So, you may have already added Quick Find-related indexes based on some of the entities listed above. So keep in mind that Update Rollup 12 installation may overwrite some of the indexing you previously added
• Enhancements to Activity Feeds
  • The enhancements made to the activity feeds include a new feature called Like/Unlike
  • With this feature, you can express your immediate feedback about a post
  • For more information, see Like/Unlike
• Updated User Experience for Sales and Customer Service and Product Update Functionality for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online
  • The Microsoft Dynamics CRM December 2012 Service Update introduces a variety of new features and functionality, including an updated user experience. For Sales and Customer Service users, the updated user experience provides a new process flow visualization, which appears at the top of the forms, such as the Opportunity , Lead or Case form. The process flow guides users through the various phases of the sales and customer service processes
  • For trials and subscriptions initiated after December 2012, the updated Sales and Customer Service user experience is included by default. Existing Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online customers have an option of adding the updated user experience to the Opportunity , Lead and Case forms by installing the Product Updates. This lets Administrators install selected feature updates based upon the specific needs of their organizations. The Product Updates are installed by using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM web application; they cannot be installed programmatically
  • For more details, see What's New for Developers for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online
• Custom Workflow Activities for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online
  • Custom workflow activities can now be registered and executed on Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. For more information about how to use custom workflow activities in partial trust (isolation mode)
  • For more details, see What's New for Developers for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online
• Developer Toolkit Support for Microsoft Visual Studio 2012
  • The Developer Toolkit for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online now supports Microsoft Visual Studio 2012. The installer can be found in the SDK download in the sdk\tools\developertoolkit\ folder
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Software Development Kit (SDK) updated December 19th, /2013 for Update Rollup 15 (version 5.0.18)
  • SDK download location
  • SDK Online location
  • Developers, please note the SDK Extensions for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online update
• Bulk Data Load performance enhancements
  • To support bulk data load scenarios, this release introduces the ExecuteMultipleRequest message. This message supports the execution of multiple message requests using a single web method call. ExecuteMultipleRequest accepts an input collection of message requests, executes each of the message requests in the order they appear in the input collection, and optionally returns a collection of responses containing each message’s response or the error that occurred. Processing requests in bulk results in lower network traffic and higher message processing throughput
  • For more information, see Use ExecuteMultiple to Improve Performance for Bulk Data Load
• Activity Feeds changes
  • Microsoft Dynamics CRM Activity Feeds provide real-time notifications and quick sharing of information through short updates. These updates appear on your personal wall in the What's New area of the Workplace . Activity Feeds enable you to follow and learn about important activities that take place around people, accounts, contacts, leads, and anything else that you care about
  • Updates can be posted manually by you, or automatically based on predefined system rules through a workflow. Activity Feeds can also be posted to by external applications through the Microsoft Dynamics CRM web services API. Activity Feeds expose Microsoft Lync real-time presence functionality so that you can initiate communication activities such as IM, phone calls, and emails. For more information, see Activity Feeds Entities
• More performance and stability-related fixes, including fixes to the CRM Client for Microsoft Outlook
• Contains all hotfixes / updates released in earlier Update Rollups
• Quick Find performance optimizations and EnableRetrieveMultipleOptimization SQL query performance optimizations (originally released in Update Rollup 10)

For Microsoft Dynamics CRM business solutions that include an entity with a large dataset, record retrieval and grid rendering performance can be negatively impacted for users that do not have global access to all records associated with that entity. Code changes to mitigate this behavior first appeared in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, and have been fine-tuned since then.

With Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 10 and later, big advancements have been made to optimize the performance of queries against large datasets by adjusting specific “statistical” settings to address the issue. Should this fail to achieve desired levels of performance, adjust the value associated with EnableRetrieveMultipleOptimization (ERMO) setting. You may have heard these changes described at this year's Convergence.

A first step in efforts to optimize the performance of queries against large data sets is to make adjustments to the “statistical” settings that affect the behavior of RetrieveMultiple queries. Although you can configure these settings by modifying the Windows Registry (under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSCRM) on the each of the Web servers that is used in a deployment, we recommend that these settings be configured by using the OrgDbOrgSettings, which will ensure that the configuration applies to a specific organization. For additional information about configuring these settings by using the OrgDbOrgSettings, and to download the tool that makes the OrgDbOrgSettings changes you desire, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article titled "OrgDBOrgSettings Tool for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011" (KB 2691237)

If making adjustments to these settings does not yield satisfactory levels of performance, then consider adjusting the value of the EnableRetrieveMultipleOptimization (ERMO) setting. The ERMO setting is commonly used to limit the duration of certain long running queries; specifically, to overcome issues related to local or deep business unit access within Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 security roles.

Many more details describing appropriate scenarios for the available settings are already available via the Microsoft Download Center in a revised version of the whitepaper "Optimizing and Maintaining the Performance of a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Server Infrastructure", in the sections “Optimizing the Performance of Queries against Large Datasets” and “Optimizing the Performance of Quick Find Queries”. The details will appear in the MSDN version of this whitepaper as quickly as possible.

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NEW RELEASE REGARDING OrgDbOrgSettings!

You're probably familiar with the OrgDbOrgSettings command line tool (mentioned above) released by the CRM Product Group in the "Tools" package that is updated and released with each set of Update Rollup packages.  With it, you configure some .xml and call your .xml with the command line utility described in KB 2691237. However, you may be daunted by configuring this .xml, to the point that you may not use the tool, or use it minimally - not exploring the many options outlined in KB 2691237 that may be of use to you.  Well, the Microsoft Dynamics PFE team now has another option for you!  By popular demand, our esteemed CRM PFE colleague Sean McNellis has developed a tool  - a CRM 2011 managed solution - that provides you with an easy-to-use GUI with which you can configure all of the options outlined in the Knowledge Base on a per-tenant basis.  Feel free to download it, install it, and check it out... I sure use it!

This is a FREE downloadable tool - the "Dynamics CRM 2011 Organization Settings Editor".  Check it out; the download page has screenshots and information that will help you make good use of the tool.  Sean has also published a Premier Field Engineering blog: "Azure Mobile + JavaScript + WebResources = Easy Editing of OrgDBOrgSettings in Dynamics CRM 2011!" to share more details on the tool. He will be updating it for the settings available in Update Rollup 16 very shortly.  Thanks, Sean!

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NEW NOTE REGARDING "Deferring Database Updates when installing CRM 2011 Update Rollups"

My esteemed PFE teammate Sean McNellis published a blog you should be aware of regarding the possibility of deferring the CRM database updates when installing CRM 2011 Update Rollups.  Essentially, Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup executable packages automatically process and update the organization database updates during the installation.  If your deployment has several large tenants or just one very large tenant you may prefer to first install the “binary” updates and worry about applying the database updates after the binary installation of the rollup (on an organization by organization basis). This would put the control and timing of when to update organizations from a SQL perspective in the hands of the administrator, and may make troubleshooting easier.

This feature allows you to separate the installation of the binary updates (DLL’s, executables, etc) from the installation of the database components (updated stored procedures, UDFs (user-defined functions), schema updates, out-of-box index changes, etc). Both updates still need to be completed as part of the update but you can now separately manage and execute those operations. This also allows you to retry database updates if they timeout or do not complete, without jeopardizing the installation binary updates.

I strongly urge you to read the entire blog to see if it applies to your needs.  Thanks again, Sean!

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General Update Rollup Notes:

• Testing Update Rollups: Best Practices
• Premier Field Engineering recommends treating Update Rollup 12 (and above) testing like testing a new, major CRM release because of the introduction of new functionality introduced with the December 2012 Service Release. Do all the standard testing like you generally do for all UR’s, but then also all the functional and performance testing that you would do with a new major release
• The “general rule of thumb” for test plans for Update Rollup installs are:
• Test any changes in a pre-production environment BEFORE introducing into your production environment. Manage your risk!
• Consider using the Performance Toolkit for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 to simulate your production user load in your testing environment, to shake out any performance-related issues early
• Test using the permissions your end-user roles (most restrictive) have. Testing with CRM Administrator permissions, for example, does not give you the complete picture
• Concentrate on your SDK customizations, JavaScript, ISV add-ons – basically anything that’s not OOB functionality or customizations done from within the UI

 Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and 2013 Custom Code Validation Tool

• Consider familiarizing yourselves with this tool!
• The Custom Code Validation tool for CRM 2013 is mostly the same as the Code Validation Tool for CRM 2011 UR12; the 2011 version has been deprecated and is no longer available. We added some additional checks for things that reference the 2007 endpoint or other things that will go away in 2013, so it's best to start removing them now. And, most of the checks in the tool were built into the installer for CRM 2013 as validation checks
• Note that the URL for the CRM 2011 version of the tool now directs to the CRM 2013 version
• Use the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Custom Code Validation Tool to identify potential issues with custom JavaScript in JavaScript libraries and HTML web resources. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Q2 2012 Service Update and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 9 include significant changes in the web application in order to be able to support a variety of browsers such as Safari, Chrome, and Firefox. When using JavaScript code in Dynamics CRM, it is possible that some code will stop working or cause an error when you upgrade. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Custom Code Validation Tool helps identify potential problems so that a developer can fix them
• Update Rollup 12+ require Microsoft .NET Framework 4
• Update Rollup 6 established a new servicing baseline. This will enable uninstalls of some future CRM 2011 Update Rollups, but this also means that Update Rollup 6 is prerequisite for installation of all future Microsoft CRM 2011 Update Rollups starting with Update Rollup 7
• A database created with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 6 or a higher version cannot be imported to a deployment of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 5 or an earlier version. This scenario is not supported.  Best practice is to import databases or customizations between environments that are at the same Update Rollup level
• As Update Rollup 15 is cumulative, containing all changes released in earlier Update Rollup releases, it also contains the Dynamics CRM Q4 Service Update features released via Update Rollup 6.  Some of these features include:

• Outlook Client Updates:

• Dialog Enhancements

• Data Visualization Enhancements:
• Chart Designer Enhancements
• New Chart Types

• Data Management Enhancements to:

  • Auditing
  • Duplicate Detection

• Activity Feeds

  • Listening in on important activities in Social Media that take place around the people, accounts, contacts, leads or opportunities that you care about, including a Windows 7.5 phone application: "Business Hub"
  • Update Rollup 5 does not install Activity Feeds:
    • New organizations on CRM Online will have this Solution automatically provisioned
    • Existing Online or On Premise organizations must download and import the solution from the Dynamics Marketplace

For more information about the Dynamics CRM Q4 2011 Service Update features, consult:

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM: The Road Ahead 

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 Update Rollup 16 packages are available for download via: 

• The Update Rollup 16 Microsoft Download Center page (released January 22nd, 2014)
• The Microsoft Update Catalog  - all packages have a planned release date in February, 2014
• The Microsoft Update detection / installation process
  • Note: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Updates will be pushed via Microsoft Update as Important updates
  • Client packages installed manually by downloading the packages and running install will require local administrator privileges. If the client packages are installed via Microsoft Update or SCCM (System Center Configuration Manager), they will not require local administrator privileges
  • Consider using Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) or similar software distribution technologies to distribute Dynamics CRM Update Rollups internally.  WSUS is a locally managed system that works with the public Microsoft Update website to give system administrators more control. By using Windows Server Update Services, administrators can manage the distribution of Microsoft hotfixes and updates released through Automatic Updates to computers in a corporate environment
  • For help with installation please see the Installation Information section of the Update Rollup 16 "master" Microsoft Knowledge Base article
  • Please review my teammate Shawn Dieken's superb (and recently updated) blog posting "How to install Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 without an Internet Connection" which provides details on how to set up an install on a machine without access to the Internet
  • Please review my former teammate Jon Strand's equally superb blog posting "CRM 2011: Silently Installing Update Rollups" which provides details on installing CRM Outlook client update rollups "silently" in order to limit end-user interruption

for these CRM components:

NOTE: On Jan. 20th, 2012 these installation files were updated to include CRM 2011 Update Rollup 6 (Build 05.00.9690.1992)

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server 2011
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for Microsoft Office Outlook
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 E-mail Router
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Report Authoring Extension (Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 BIDS (Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or 2008 R2 Business Intelligence Development Studio) Fetch Extension)
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Language Pack (aka Multilanguage User Interface, MUI)
• Note: the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 List Component for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 cannot be patched via an Update Rollup package.  Instead, it will be serviced (if necessary) via a new downloadable version from the Microsoft Download Center

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 Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 16 Prerequisites:

• Essentially the prerequisites listed in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Implementation Guide download or online versions for the various CRM components serviced
• You must have Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 6 installed (build 5.0.9690.1992) to apply this Update Rollup

Note regarding Microsoft Dynamics CRM Stack Technology Compatibility:

Do you want to know if certain Service Packs or versions of a Microsoft product are supported with Dynamics CRM? Now we have all of this in one “living" Knowledge Base article: the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Compatibility List.  For example, you can use this KB article to determine the latest Microsoft SQL Server major version and Service Pack that is supported. Microsoft lists new products like Internet Explorer 10, Microsoft Windows 8, and Microsoft Office 2013 Preview as TBD until testing is complete; generally near General Availability (GA) of that product.

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Issues resolved via Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 16: 

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 16 is the fifteenth (considering that Update Rollup 9 was not released publicly) of a series of cumulative Update Rollups that include fixes for the issues that are or will be documented in the "Master Knowledge Base Articles" for CRM 2011 Update Rollups.  As they are cumulative, Update Rollup 16 contains all fixes shipped via Update Rollups 1-16, including fixes that were never publicly released via Update Rollup 9.

• Emails generated by RightFax software are not tracked by CRM when using Exchange 2010
• UnhandledException: Microsoft Dynamics CRM has experienced an error. Reference number for administrators or support: #3244E1C6 when deleting a solution
• Email attachments are not being deleted from the dbo.Attachment table when their parent record is deleted
• SSL Offloading does not work when CRM is not using Claims/IFD authentication
• OverriddenCreatedOn* attribute is missing from V3 Custom Entities
• Clicking on report preview throws error on an Updated Organization from Update Rollup 6:
• "HttpUnhandledException: Microsoft Dynamics CRM has experienced an error. Reference number for administrators or support: #3423D182"
• When you click to create a folder for a record in CRM 2011 the SharePoint page is shown instead of the list part grid page. This causes confusion with customers
• Conditional formatting breaks page navigation in view within CRM for Outlook client
• When you select an email that is tracked in CRM, and you have the reading pane viewable for emails, Outlook may hang or become unresponsive.
• Once Outlook returns controls and becomes responsive you notice that the Track in CRM form region for the tracked in CRM email contains a large number of parties on the TO, CC, or BCC
• Retry logic causes unexpected results on some OrganizationServiceProxy methods
• Appointment created and deleted from the web will only be deleted from the organizers Outlook calendar. Occurs when the meeting organizer sends Outlook invitations
• When you attempt to configure the outlook client for an organization and the organization friendly name matches an organization that you already have configured, you will be prompted that an organization with that display name already exists.
• If you then correct the display name and proceed with the configuration, configuration will succeed.
• However the next time that you launch the configuration wizard the wizard will fail to launch. "There is a problem communicating with the Microsoft Dynamics CRM server. The server might be unavailable. Try again later. If the problem persists, contact your system administrator."
• When you have more subjects in the subject tree than can be viewed without a scrollbar, the scrollbar is not shown in IE or FireFox.The scrollbar is shown correctly in Chrome
• When you attempt to view html web resources in the CRM web or outlook client application by opening them from the ribbon, the web resources that are shown are old versions.
• This occurs even after you have published changes to the web resources. If you clear temporary internet files the web resources are shown correctly
• When you create a process step using create, update, or send email step and you put in the body of the email more than 65K characters and then publish and execute the process the step will fail
• Outlook Appointment Form is not saving fields updated by Silverlight / JavaScript
• A 404 error is seen when accessing an organization if:
• Prior to getting the 404 error you deleted thousands of managed optionset values through the SDK or UI without replacing those deleted optionset values with new values
• Then you published customizations
• Deployment Manager and Plugin Registration performance is slow due to Domain Controller communication
• Appointments and Service appointments are automatically shared with the user that shared the record
• Organizations that were upgraded from Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 and have existing ISV.config customizations in place may encounter situations when the import of managed solutions fails to update or overwrite components in the ribbon that were created as part of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 upgrade
• Searching for a contact in address book fails raising this error:
• "The Contacts folder associated with this address list could not be opened; it may have been moved or deleted, or you do not have permissions. For information on how to remove this folder from the Outlook Address Book, see Microsoft Outlook Help"
• Or, the data in the columns is not correct
• Outlook pops up error if clicking CRM folders before the loading of CRM toolbar:
• "Microsoft CRM has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience."
• Can't renew or copy a Contract when Contract Line items dates are greater than the Contract
• Custom Plugins registered against the RetrieveMultiple message and specifying "none" as the Primary Entity will fail with a SerializationException starting with the December 2012 Service Update due to an unknown Type originating from the plugins that are part of the ActivityFeeds solution
• Some fields lose data on save and synchronization when focus is not moved from the field when using the CRM Outlook client
• Reports do not render correctly after applying CRM 2011 Update Rollup 12
• "SQL Server error" on Campaign Activity quick find search if including "channeltypecode"
• Sporadically, e-mail sent from Outlook router are sent with winmail.dat attachment
• Re-tracking contacts in child contact folders result in duplicate contacts after synchronization
• When a form that contains a Silverlight Web Resource in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, the Silverlight control fails to be resized when the user resizes the form, making it difficult to access some portions of the Silverlight resource
• You can access System Settings no matter the security role assigned
• Users are unable to view audit history is the records they own are part of another record that they do not have sufficient privileges to access.
• If they only happens for one record, users are unable to see the remaining audit details they do have access to
• Summery Filter is not shown when using N:N relationship criteria
• Export to Excel in Outlook fails with long relationship/entity/field names
• Unable to navigate to next page records through the CRM form window using the short cut (Up/Down Arrows) in the top right corner of form
• When using Process Driven forms in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, users with restricted privileges may encounter:
• "Error on Page" messages or
• "Error:  Unable to get property 'trigger' of undefined or null reference" error dialogs
• Memory growth is experienced in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Client for Outlook when the Activity Feeds Solution is present in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online organization
• Mail Merge fails for Office 2013 Outlook clients when using Cached Mode
• Currency symbol keeps as the base currency symbol in activity created by Dialog
• User from 1 business unit are able to see records of other business unit when entity records between business units are merged and the records are owned by the default teams for the associated business units
• If the chart pane is enabled on any view for an entity in the Outlook client, and if the user utilizes the "Email a Link" feature and selects the current view, the URL that is generated and then copied to a blank e-mail will contain invalid parameters.
• Clicking on this link then generates a CRM platform error which indicates that invalid parameters were passed to the request
• Offline script generated Orders change Order ID's upon offline/online Sync
• When you attempt to use a service account to impersonate users in Exchange to poll for email to be delivered into CRM using the email router, and that service account does not have a mailbox, the CRM email router will not be able to proceed either with check access or during normal execution
• Controls on the new driven forms introduced in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 December 2013 Service Update are not being updated with data that was modified as part of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 plugin
• Outlook saved views are not sorted alphabetically like in the web client
• When JavaScript references a lookup via the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 SDK and tries to access the EntityType property to see the record type, users with the Read Only license access will receive Undefined, instead of the proper entity name
• Cannot delete managed solution because of IsMapiPrivate and LeftVoiceMail fields
• Workflow failed with "The deserializer has no knowledge of any type that maps to this name"
• With a Decimal Number field with Precision parameter > 6,  a number beginning with 0.000000 errors on Orders:
• "Error. An error has occurred"
• There is an error in XML document (1, 1181) when validating MAPI properties through EWS (Exchange Web Services)
• When you use the CRM web client or CRM client for Outlook you notice memory usage increasing when you use the SharePoint List Web Part for CRM
• Deployments with large datasets in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 may suffer performance bottlenecks on default views, lookups, and queries if the EnableRetrieveMultipleOptimization registry setting is set to zero
• Notes in the Outlook preview section are sorted by modified date instead of created date
• In Update Rollup 13 users cannot print the whole grid page with Internet Explorer 10
• When users change the field 'Start Time' (or any other date field) to third Sunday of October, for any year, in the Brasilia time zone the field is changed to 1/1/1970
• Users receive "not read" receipts if <DeleteEmails> is true in the EmailAgent.xml for the Email Router
• Post Polaris: the Timeout option in wait condition of workflow disappears on Edit
• JavaScript errors are shown when using the CRM Web Client with DOM Local Storage disabled in IE
• After applying Update Rollup 12 on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Server, users of the offline edition of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Client for Outlook are unable to configure their Offline Scheduled Sync settings under Personal Settings
• When running an SSRS report and using certain specific locales in personal options in CRM, the report does not contain the correct format as the correct language is not selected based upon the current users locale.
• In this specific example end user has selected English (India) locale of 16393
• When you use IE 10 and you attempt to view an email activity using the CRM email activity form, the body of the email is not fully shown.
• This occurs when the email that was viewed was promoted into CRM either by the Outlook client or Email router and the email body was well formed HTML
• When synchronizing service appointments in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 from Outlook To CRM, the activity parties on the appointments are being rescheduled even though they may not have changed.
• This can potentially cause workflows or plugins to be invoked unnecessarily on the server producing inconsistent results
• Multi-threaded SDK app crash with System.InvalidOperationException
• Unable to view Personal E-mail Templates with EnableRetrieveMultipleOptimization is set to 2
• When you attempt to choose a value from a multi parameter drop down in a SSRS report from within CRM web or Outlook client you receive a script error:
• "Error: No such interface supported"
• You cannot import a solution which contains an out of the box chart where that out of the box chart has been deleted in the destination system
• After Update Rollup 12, datetime picklist does not show the selected value when opened
• After Update Rollup 12, rows of Audit History view are not aligned
• Importing an updated solution version fails to import with UR12 or later
• Changing the resource on a service activity creates temporary duplicates
• Service activity tooltip/color not updated for change in status reason
• Deployment Manager not opening after making the failover to the SQL mirror
• Cannot use print preview for draft replied emails with images after Update Rollup 12 and 13
• Outlook offline reports not showing parameter pane
• Unable to configure CRM outlook client when TurnOffFetchThrottling is enabled
• When an error is raised when submitting the merge dialog form, and upon a second attempt to merge the data you change the selection of fields on the dialog, those changes are not submitted to the platform.
• The initial set of fields are used instead of updated
• UI rendering issue with dynamic position option set for web hosted applications
• Multi-text content is not printed correctly
• When the Deployment Profile is set to Local System after Update Rollup 12 for the Email Router is applied, when you restart the service, the router hangs and will not send messages.
• When you enable verbose logging, you see that it does not continue checking settings. Also, the Email Router Configuration Wizard window either hangs or takes a long time to open
• Jscript error when opening field editor for Yomi field
• Subgrid does not display correctly when using Internet Explorer 8
• After Update Rollup 12, the prvWriteSdkMessageProcessingStep privilege is required to enable some workflows
• LeftVoiceMail field is missing on some custom activities after Update Rollup 12
• Tracked Email Not Promoted if Opened in Inspector View from Sent Items
• Voice mail messages are being rejected by the email router with the error below. These emails were tracked fine when the mailboxes were on Exchange 2007. However the issue started occurring post migrating the mailboxes to Exchange 2013. The issue is only with the emails that come as part of voice mail messages; other emails are tracked correctly
• Instance validation error: 'OneOff' is not a valid value for MailboxTypeType
• Recurring Appointment "Data Propagation" does not list Custom attribute
• Most recently viewed data disappears periodically after you have used to open more than 40 records
• SQL Deadlocks when calling Associate request adding users to teams
• Add activity button gets enabled for closed case even though it should be grayed out
• The first tab on the form becomes visible unexpectedly overriding customizations
• Filter in view does not work when for Option Set containing entries with '&' character
• Invalid XML when creating a campaign with special characters in view criteria
• Data from related entities missing when exporting to Excel from the CRM for Outlook Client
• Consider the scenario where you are creating an e-mail template:
• During the process copy part of a rich text or HTML formatted document and paste it into the subject line. The template creation appears to have a normal subject
• However the resulting e-mails from the template contain style tags
• Any modification to Duplicate Detection Email Template corrupts it
• When you attempt to use a view that has a condition for Owner Equals Current User's Teams and the user does not belong to any team with a security role you receive an error:
• Invalid Argument
• Outlook Filter settings not taken into consideration when performing a quick search
• IME Settings for "Multiple lines of text” fields are not respected
• Custom entity grid icon is not visible in Outlook
• You receive error messages when accessing CRM fields in the CRM for Outlook client. "An error has occurred"
• Set Regarding does not work on a CRM 4.0 Client connecting to a CRM 2011 Server
• Save & New when editing existing Connection does not populate the Connected From field
• When you copy and paste a tracked recurring appointment in the CRM client for Outlook, the copied recurring appointment will become untracked in CRM, however a duplicate will be synchronized to Outlook upon each manual or background synchronization
• This occurs when the source recurring appointment contains an instance of the recurrence which has been modified or deleted and it is outside of the current effective range. For example an instance of the recurring appointment was canceled many months ago
• UR12 and later, spacing between dynamic fields in Processes is not maintained correctly
• InvalidOperationException Errors occur after installing the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Client For Outlook Update Rollup 11 Critical Update (KB 2855319)
• SharePoint documents are stored to the root folder, not under accounts/contacts
• When you create an new record and as part of the process of creating the new record you add notes to the record before performing the initial save some notes may not be created
• This occurs if you click Save, Save & Close, or Save & New on the Ribbon with focus still in the body of the note that is being entered
• Retry logic causes unexpected results on some OrganizationServiceProxy methods
• Outlook Client quick find search box suggests search will be on current view
• When opening and closing forms in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Client For Outlook, users may notice the memory of the WebFormsHost processes climb over time until the application reports it is low on memory
• When installing the slipstreamed Update Rollup 6 version of the CRM client for Outlook and the "Give me updates for Microsoft products and check for new optional Microsoft software when I update Windows" option is checked in Control Panel -> Windows Update -> Change Settings, Windows Update will automatically install the Critical Update (build 2903) patch during installation
• However, the Microsoft.Crm.Outlook.Diagnostics.exe executable (and potentially other files) that it installs are build 3557 instead of 2903, causing Diagnostics to crash and problems when uninstalling
• There is an issue when a customer is using Outlook 2007 with the option 'Send immediately when connected' unchecked
• When he composes a new mail, it first goes to the Outbox and when we click on Send/Receive, it goes out
• When the CRM add-in is enabled and if we open the e-mail when it is in the Outbox to edit it, or simply to see the content, when we click on Send/Receive after that the mail does not go out
• After Update Rollup 14, the Print Preview on records does not display correctly. The footer overlaps the last tab with content
• Outlook crashes when you have ShortTel Communicator and CRM client for Outlook installed
• Mail merge fields not appear in word, template field definition not applied after template selection
• Unable to configure CRM outlook client when TurnOffFetchThrottling is enabled
• Cannot update StateCode and StatusCode of Phone Call entity via plugin code
  When you type text and separate each value you want to resolve by a semi colon in a partylist field, only the first entry you types will persist after the auto resolve completes if each entry would resolve to more than one value
• After CRM 2011 Update Rollup Up 12 lengthy form names in the Form selector are getting mixed with record data:
• When viewing an entity form with a display name that exceed the width of the left navigation it overflows onto the form. Before UR12 form names were simply truncated and "..." was appended
• After Update Rollup 12 the form display name overflows onto the body and can over run the data. This issues is present in all Internet Explorer versions, Chrome and Firefox
• Clients having the Update Rollup 11 Critical Update (KB 2855319) are unable to configure if the server has attributes with a DisplayMask of ValidForAdvancedFind set to be non-searchable
• Error importing org from CRM 2011 UR14:
• System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Column names in each table must be unique. Column name 'LeftVoiceMail' in table 'ActivityPointerBase' is specified more than once
• Outlook client unresponsive during startup
• Copying and pasting multiple lines of text from a Word document to the body of a CRM E-mail activity record causes additional line breaks to be inserted in between each line
• This issue did not occur prior to Update Rollup 12
• Exporting solution does not contain relationship information if changed
• Quick find within a Custom dashboard for Articles does not render any results
• When you run Contact Duplicate Detection rule Full Name does not appear in the list
• When the MAPI store for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Client for Outlook is empty, updates to the cache may cause Outlook to terminate unexpectedly
• When replying to e-mail activity records in the application, if a user presses the enter key in the body, followed by the delete key, a line break is inserted into the body of the form
• Shared activities do not show in outlook offline mode
• CRM Outlook Client attempts to handle tracked Items in Shared Calendar
• When you open an entity form and you attempt to navigate to a side navigation item, for example Activities or Closed Activities, the navigation may be interrupted
• You may instead find that your form focus is now the first selectable field on the main section of the entity form
• For example on the Account entity form, the Name field is selected
• Entity records containing textarea attributes such as Notes on the Reading Pane in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Client for Outlook may cause the client to become unresponsive
• Developer experience for script debugging is broken
• Same Ribbon Display Rule in multiple solutions cause extremely slow form load
• Script Error clicking links on side navigation before form fully loads
• Wait Until condition are not being triggered if watched attribute contains NULL value
• Outlook crashes when using CRM client for Outlook UR15 or UR11 CU
• When you attempt to choose a value from a multi parameter drop down in a SSRS report from within CRM web or Outlook client you receive a script error:
• Error: No such interface supported
• Outlook client fails to load or crashes when client OrgDBOrgSettings are set
• Changes made to the personal view query is not updating in Outlook client since Update Rollup 12
• After installing Update Rollup 15 for CRM 2011, the Mail Merge button on the entity record Add tab does not seem to do anything when clicked
• In some environments, conditions may exist when the registry keys of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook Client are being duplicated when being read causing an exception to occur that terminates the Outlook process
• This functionality changed after Update Rollup 12:
• The custom activity form is not automatically closing when clicking on Mark Complete. The ribbon buttons are disabled and only option is to close with the X
• Prior to Update Rollup 12 the form closed when clicking "mark as complete"
• Users of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Client for Outlook may be unable to configure the client if they are utilizing a proxy PAC file
• The configuration wizard will terminate with a "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" error
• Creation and deletion of business units cannot be done in a timely manner
• When you are using the CRM 4.0 Client for Microsoft Outlook while connected to a CRM 2011 organization using IFD authentication you are not able to access the Organization (SOAP) endpoint or the ODATA (REST) endpoint
• This works if you are using the CRM 2011 client for Outlook or the CRM web client
• The process of assigning records from one user to another user and changing business units via the SetBusinessSystemUserRequest takes a long time to execute if the original owner owns a large number of records
• For example, 50,000 contacts
• This process can also cause the tempdb log to increase in size and cause problems if you run out of disk space for tempdb
• Dashboard Tab Ordering is incorrect
• The owner of the child record in a merge inherits invisible rights to the master record

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 Hotfixes and updates that you have to enable or configure manually

Occasionally, updates released via Update Rollups require manual configuration to enable them. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Update Rollups are always cumulative; for example, Update Rollup 16 contains all fixes previously released via Update Rollups 1-15 as well as fixes newly released via Update Rollup 16. So if you install Update Rollup 16 on a machine upon which you previously installed no Update Rollups, you will need to manually enable any desired fixes for Update Rollups 1-16:

• Update Rollup 1: no updates requiring manual configuration
• Update Rollup 2 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 contains the following update that you must enable or configure manually - details on enabling or configuring can be found in this Microsoft Knowledge Base article:
  • 2535245 RetrieveMultiple optimization for basic depth needed for local and deep depth read privileges in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
  • NOTE: see comments near the beginning of this blog regarding significant rework to EnableRetrieveMultipleOptimization released in Update Rollup 10
• Update Rollup 3: no updates requiring manual configuration
• Update Rollup 4: no updates requiring manual configuration
• Update Rollup 5: no updates requiring manual configuration
• Update Rollup 6 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 contains the following update that you must enable or configure manually - details on enabling or configuring can be found in this Microsoft Knowledge Base article:
  • 2664150  Steps to clean up the PrincipalObjectAccess table in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 after Update Rollup 6 is applied
• Update Rollup 7: no updates requiring manual configuration
• Update Rollup 8: no updates requiring manual configuration
• Update Rollup 10 (includes hotfix components of Update Rollup 9): no updates requiring manual configuration to enable, but
• Note my above comments regarding ERMO (EnableRetrieveMultipleOptimization) option configuration via registry keys or (preferred) OrgDbOrgSettings updates
• This information supercedes the information in KB 2535245, which discusses EnableRetrieveMultipleOptimization enhancements shipped in CRM 2011 Update Rollup 2
• Update Rollup 11 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 contains the following update that you must enable or configure manually - details on enabling or configuring can be found in this Microsoft Knowledge Base article:
• 2820838 Microsoft Dynamics CRM E-mail Router Rule Deployment Wizard does not work in an Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2010 mixed environment
• Update Rollup 12 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 contains the following update that you must enable or configure manually - details on enabling or configuring can be found in this Microsoft Knowledge Base article:
• 2820835 Sync the private property from Outlook appointments to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 with Update Rollup 12
• Update Rollup 13: no updates requiring manual configuration
• Update Rollup 14: no updates requiring manual configuration
• Update Rollup 15: no updates requiring manual configuration
• Update Rollup 16: no updates requiring manual configuration

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 Mismatched Update Rollup versions within a Microsoft Dynamics CRM deployment

In a scenario where you may be running many client workstations with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for Microsoft Office Outlook, a common question is whether it is supported to run mismatched versions. For example, where Update Rollup 5 has been installed on the CRM Server but the Outlook clients are still on Update Rollup 1, or where Update Rollup 1 is on the CRM server but due to updates available to the Outlook client you have decided to install Update Rollup 6 on the clients without installing Update Rollup 4 on the server.

The general rule of thumb is to try to keep the versions in sync as much as possible, and we recommend that you avoid deltas of more than one version between client and server.  So ideally, you would be running Update Rollup 14 server with Update Rollup 13 or 14 on your Outlook client. However, it is permissible (though not recommended as a long-term solution) to run mismatched Update Rollup versions on Outlook client and server, as Microsoft does do some testing of such combinations.

However, regarding the other Update Rollups (for example Rollups for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Email Router or Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Reporting Extensions), it is not supported nor recommended to run mismatched versions. A best practice is to update these components at the same time you update your CRM Server.  Do the best you can to keep these Update Rollup versions in sync.

For more information, see the blog posting "User experience while accessing CRM 2011 application servers while Update Rollups are being applied"

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Microsoft Dynamics CRM compatibility with technology stack components: Internet Explorer, Windows Client and Server, Office, .NET Framework, and more

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Engineering team consistently tests Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 against pre-release and release versions of technology stack components that Microsoft Dynamics interoperates with. When appropriate, Microsoft releases enhancements via future Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollups or new major version releases to assure compatibility with future releases of these products. This compatibility matrix is updated via this Microsoft Knowledge Base article: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Compatibility List.

Greg Nichols
Premier Field Engineering
Microsoft Corporation

I just wanted to share with our blog followers that the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Implementation Guide (IG) and Software Development Kit (SDK) are now available on MSDN and TechNet!  These have both been available via download since CRM 2013 released, but they were just recently published to MSDN and TechNet.  They should be indexed now or very soon and searchable via your favorite web search engine.  Bing of course!

IG- http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh699811(v=crm.6).aspx

SDK - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg309408(v=crm.6).aspx

I prefer the online links for ease of searching via Bing and also because you will always have the most recent versions of the IG and SDK as they are updated quarterly.

Enjoy!

Thanks!
Shawn Dieken

Follow the conversation:
@sdieken
@pfedynamics | http://www.pfedynamics.com

For those attending Convergence 2014 in Atlanta, GA in a few weeks, I wanted to let you know that we will have members of the PFE Dynamics team there presenting some great content.  In addition, make sure to follow @PFEDynamics on Twitter to get updates on other PFE Dynamics activities at Convergence.  Below is a list of the sessions we will be presenting during the conference.  It would be great to meet you at our sessions, so please stop by and check them out! You can also find us at the Expo throughout the week in the Premier Support booth.  You can get more info on these sessions and others via the Convergence Session Catalog.

Virtual Convergence
We will once again be offering a Virtual Convergence for those of you who are unable to attend in person.  Virtual Convergence is our free online event experience for those unable to attend Convergence in person.  Tune in the morning of March 4, 2014 for live broadcasts from Atlanta, including our amazing pre-show and keynote from Philips Arena, followed by our roster of General Sessions. We’ll also give you an insider’s view of the event with our on-site reporting – talking to customers, partners and speakers about their experiences with Microsoft Dynamics and Convergence.  While watching, you'll be able to join the conversation via social media, including a chance to have live Q&A with the experts!

Registration is simple! Sign up today, share the opportunity with your friends and colleagues and then return on March 4, 2014 for the live event. We’ll see you (virtually) in Atlanta!

PFE Sessions @ Convergence 2014 – click on the hyper linked names to see a real-time listing of sessions in the session catalog.  This will include scheduled repeats and room changes.

Click on the hyper linked names to see a real-time listing of sessions in the session catalog.  This will include scheduled repeats and room changes.

I know that personally Convergence is my favorite onsite of the year as I get a chance to network and reconnect with so many great customers and partners.  I really enjoy hearing all of the success stories about how you are leveraging Dynamics products to accelerate and grow your business success!  I also enjoy hearing about any challenges you are having with your deployment and how we can help make it successful.

Thanks for reading and I hope to see you at Convergence 2014!

Shawn Dieken

Follow the conversation:
@sdieken
@pfedynamics | http://www.pfedynamics.com

Contents:

• Build number, Download Center Page, Master KB article
• CRM Premier Field Engineering Update Rollup Podcast
• CRM Update Rollup Collateral Page
• Ramp up on Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013!
• Important CRM 2013 Update Rollup considerations
• General Update Rollup notes
• OrgDbOrgSettings Tool
• Update Rollup packages available for download
• Update Rollup prerequisites
• Issues resolved by this Update Rollup
• Hotfixes and updates that you have to enable or configure manually
• Mismatched Update Rollup versions within a Microsoft Dynamics CRM deployment
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM compatibility with technology stack components

   

We're proud to announce that all packages for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Update Rollup 1 were released on Monday, December 16th 2013 to the Microsoft Download Center!  The Update Rollup 1 packages should appear on Microsoft Update in January, 2014.

Update Rollup 1 Build number:

6.0.0001.0061

Update Rollup 1 Microsoft Download Center page

Here's the "Master" Microsoft Dynamics Knowledge Base article for Update Rollup 1: (KB 2891271). Going forward, the plan is for the Master Knowledge Base article for CRM 2013 Update Rollups to be published a bit in advance of release to aid planning.

On Thursday December 19th 2013 at 12:30 PM Pacific Time Greg Nichols and Mike Gast from the Microsoft CRM Premier Field Engineering Team provided information about:

• The release of Update Rollup 1 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013
• What's new and very cool in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013
• New fixes made available In Update Rollup 1
• Collateral available about Update Rollup 1 and CRM Update Rollups in general

on BlogTalkRadio during their Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Update Rollup 1 Podcast

BlogTalkRadio and Internet Explorer 11 compatibility

If you're having trouble viewing the podcast when using Internet Explorer 11,

• View the Podcast in Compatibility View
• in IE 11, select Tools (the upper right "Gear" icon) -> Compatibility View Settings -> add the blogtalkradio.com website, or
• Use the "New Window" link on the Blogtalkradio page

Note regarding Podcasts: You can make our CRM Premier Field Engineering podcasts available on Zune by using the RSS feed below.  In the Zune software, go to Collection -> Podcasts and click on the Add a Podcast button on the lower left, then enter the url for the RSS feed: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/pfedynamics.rss. After that, you can adjust the series settings like any other podcast, so you can sync with your smartphone or Zune.

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The "CRM Update Rollup Collateral Page"

For pointers to download locations, release dates, build information, and CRM Premier Field Engineering blogs and podcasts for all Microsoft Dynamics CRM Update Rollups, visit the "CRM Update Rollup Collateral Page" 

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RAMP UP ON CRM 2013!

As we're just getting started with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013, I'll provide some pointers to directly accessible ramp-up resources and some insight into what people are most excited about regarding this new major release:

Recommended Ramp-up materials:

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customer Center
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Developer Center
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM IT Pro Center
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Implementation Guide
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 SDK (Software Development Kit)
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog
• Upgrading to the CRM 2013 User Experience

 Most Popular Features in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013!

• Flat User Interface (modern look UI)
• Process driven UI
• Quick create and quick view forms
• BingMaps / Skype / Lync integration
• Social and mobile integration
• Server side sync

Business Process UI

• Rich and guided UX to implement end to end business scenarios
• Reduced number of clicks and pop ups to complete transactions
• Ability to span the process UI across entities
• Security modelling and ability to assign processes to security roles
• Ability of accessing the UI using MoCA clients

 The new ‘skin’ of CRM 2013

• Flat and modern UI avoiding frequent pop ups
• Inline editing
• Quick view form enabling parent entity details in child record
• Form level notifications where errors, warnings and information can be viewed inline in the field
• Avoiding redundant ribbon buttons thus showing only which is really required
• Header controls to highlight the most relevant data of the entity
• BingMaps embedded control

Configuration & Customization

• Synchronous Workflows will help developers to quickly configure workflow instead of using a plug-in (writing code/deploying)
• Actions enable multiple operations which are frequently used to be created as single action and can be re-used to minimize Dev cycle
• Power to create custom actions such as schedule, Escalate and Route Lead are highly beneficial as well
• Portable Business Logic This easy way avoids lots of scripting for easy validations and enables CRM functional analysts to quick add validations without touching the code base

 Yammer Integration

• Native integration with Yammer and thus enabling social collaboration
• Private and Public settings to control the activity feed stream

 Mobility

• MoCA (Mobile Client Application) clients and Mobile clients make the long awaited dream a reality
• Support across expected devices and browsers
• Availability of process bar and new UI in the tablet clients
• UI in MoCA clients is highly appreciable, survey shows many of them like the MoCA UI more than the native web UI

 General

• Quick create forms to accelerate the record creation
• Light weight command bar UI
• Multi activity support in the collaboration area 

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Important CRM 2013 Update Rollup considerations!

A common question I get is “if I either upgrade from CRM 2011 or install the RTM version of CRM 2013 (build 6.0.0000.0809), what is the equivalent CRM 2011 Update Rollup level I have?" The answer is: essentially Update Rollup 14.

Some specific port requests for post-Update Rollup 14 fixes for CRM 2011 were included the original (RTM) release of CRM 2013, and port requests for other post-Update Rollup 14 CRM 2011 fixes can be requested via the normal Support process.

One set of port requests that you may be wondering about are the dramatic changes to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Client for Microsoft Office Outlook

• They were released via CRM 2011 Update Rollup 15 and the Critical Update for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 11 CRM Server and CRM for Outlook Client
• These post-Update Rollup 14 changes WERE included in the RTM version of CRM 2013, and include:
• A feature that moves the CRM client-specific workload into its own process so that it no longer shares memory with the Microsoft Office Outlook process
• This feature is also known as Process Isolation
• An upgrade to Microsoft SQL Server for Windows CE 4.0 for better memory management, better caching, and connection enhancements
• Updates to CRM for Outlook configuration files to make the CRM for Outlook SDF files compatible with SQL Server for Windows CE 4.0
• Materialization of the Address Book Provider to reduce performance issues that are caused by large address books
• Limits to the amount of active open forms
• A MAPI Lock time-out
• Hard coding of a previous registry setting that prevented pinned views from pulling down information to local SQL CE cache
• This new DisableMapiCaching setting defaults to a value of 1
• For more information about the behavior of this setting, see Slow Performance When Pinning Views in Microsoft Dynamics CRM

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General Upgrade Rollup Notes:

• Testing CRM 2013 Update Rollups: Best Practices
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Premier Field Engineering recommends doing all the standard testing you generally do for all Update Rollups, which could be the functional and performance testing that you would do with a new major release or a subset of that test plan
• The “general rule of thumb” for test plans for Update Rollup installs are:
• Test any changes in a pre-production environment BEFORE introducing into your production environment. Manage your risk!
• Consider using the Performance Toolkit for Microsoft Dynamics CRM to simulate your production user load in your testing environment, to shake out any performance-related issues early. The CRM 2011 version is currently being evaluated against CRM 2013
• Test using the permissions your most restrictive end-user roles have. Testing with CRM Administrator permissions, for example, does not give you the complete picture
• Concentrate on your SDK customizations, JavaScript, ISV add-ons – basically anything that’s not OOB functionality or customizations done from within the UI

 Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Custom Code Validation Tool

• Consider familiarizing yourselves with this tool!
• The Custom Code Validation tool for CRM 2013 is mostly the same as the Code Validation Tool for CRM 2011 UR12; the 2011 version has been deprecated and is no longer available. We added some additional checks for code that references the 2007 endpoint or other functionality that has been deprecated in CRM in 2013. And, most of the checks in the tool were built into the CRM 2013 Server installer as validation checks
• Note that the URL for the CRM 2011 version of the tool now directs to the CRM 2013 version
• Use the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Custom Code Validation Tool to identify potential issues with custom JavaScript in JavaScript libraries and HTML web resources. When using JavaScript code in Dynamics CRM, it is possible that some code will stop working or cause an error when you upgrade. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Custom Code Validation Tool helps identify potential problems so that a developer can fix them

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NEW RELEASE REGARDING OrgDbOrgSettings!

You're probably familiar with the OrgDbOrgSettings command line tool (mentioned above) released by the CRM Product Group in the "Tools" package that is updated and released with each set of Update Rollup packages.  With it, you configure some .xml and call your .xml with the command line utility described in KB 2691237. However, you may be daunted by configuring this .xml, to the point that you may not use the tool, or use it minimally - not exploring the many options outlined in KB 2691237 that may be of use to you.  Well, the Microsoft Dynamics PFE team now has another option for you!  By popular demand, our esteemed CRM PFE colleague Sean McNellis has developed a tool  - a CRM 2011 / CRM 2013 managed solution - that provides you with an easy-to-use GUI with which you can configure all of the options outlined in the Knowledge Base on a per-tenant basis.  Feel free to download it, install it, and check it out... I sure use it!

This is a FREE downloadable tool - the "Dynamics CRM 2011 Organization Settings Editor".  Check it out; the download page has screenshots and information that will help you make good use of the tool.  Sean has also published a Premier Field Engineering blog: "Azure Mobile + JavaScript + WebResources = Easy Editing of OrgDBOrgSettings in Dynamics CRM 2011!" to share more details on the tool. It is currently updated with settings for CRM 2011 Update Rollup 16 and CRM 2013 Update Rollup 1, and he takes pride in keeping it updated as new Update Rollups are released. Thanks, Sean!

Note: there is a code issue with the CRM Client for Microsoft Outlook that was resolved in Update Rollup 16 Client packages.  Do not set either the AddressBookMaterializedViewsEnabled or DisableMapiCaching settings in the Organization entity metadata via the OrgDbOrgSettings tool in the Update Rollup Tools package or the Organizational Settings Editor on Codeplex if you are not running CRM 2011 Update Rollup 16 or higher on the Client.  Also, do not set this key prior to the next major release of CRM 2013.

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 Update Rollup 1 packages are available for download via: 

• The Update Rollup 1 Microsoft Download Center page (released December 16th, 2013)
• The Microsoft Update Catalog  - all packages should be released in January, 2014
• The Microsoft Update detection / installation process
• Note: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Updates will be pushed via Microsoft Update as Important updates
• Client packages installed manually by downloading the packages and running install will require local administrator privileges. If the client packages are installed via Microsoft Update or SCCM (System Center Configuration Manager), they will not require local administrator privileges
• Consider using Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) or similar software distribution technologies to distribute Dynamics CRM Update Rollups internally.  WSUS is a locally managed system that works with the public Microsoft Update website to give system administrators more control. By using Windows Server Update Services, administrators can manage the distribution of Microsoft hotfixes and updates released through Automatic Updates to computers in a corporate environment
• For help with installation please see the Installation Information section of the Update Rollup 1 "master" Microsoft Knowledge Base article
• Please review my former teammate Jon Strand's blog posting "CRM 2011: Silently Installing Update Rollups" which provides details on installing CRM Outlook client update rollups "silently" in order to limit end-user interruption, which also applies to CRM 2013 Update Rollups

for these CRM components:

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server 2013

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 for Microsoft Office Outlook (Outlook Client)

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Email Router

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) Data Connector

• The SSRS Data Connector is not available as an individual download. It is included in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server 2013 download. When you extract the Server package (CRM2013-Server-ENU-amd64.exe /extract:path: extracts the content of the package to the path folder), you’ll find the Data Connector in the SrsDataConnector folder

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Language Packs

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Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Update Rollup 1 Prerequisites:

• Essentially the prerequisites listed in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Implementation Guide download for the various CRM components serviced 

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Issues resolved via Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Update Rollup 1: 

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 1 is the first of a series of cumulative Update Rollups that include fixes for the issues that are or will be documented in the "Master Knowledge Base Articles" for CRM 2013 Update Rollups.  As they are cumulative, Update Rollup 2 will contain all fixes shipped via Update Rollups 1 and 2... you get the idea.

Hotfixes and updates that were released as individual fixes before the Update Rollup 1 release:

No issues were fixed and delivered to requesting customers prior to Update Rollup 1 release as Critical On Demand (COD) fixes.

Fixes released via CRM 2013 Update Rollup 1: 

• Publishing a CRM report fails as the parent report already links to another report with same name
• Invalid Argument when navigating to view with related entity lookup
• The chart (for any other entity) does not display in Korean due to System.ArgumentException: "Value of 'Malgun Gothic, Segoe UI, 9.5px' is not valid for 'units'."
• Script error occurs when moving from a form. "Unable to get property 'get_filterType' of undefined or null reference"
• Disabling checkbox fields using the JavaScript API does not work
• Creating a workflow to update an appointment with fields from the regarding Lead field fails. "An unexpected error occurred."
• Hiding the last field of a section does not hide the section. Hiding the last field of a tab does not collapse the tab
• Unable to create automatic full address field workflows, as the spaces and tabs are removed if there are no other symbols like comma
• Using the Quick Search in Outlook and clicking Advanced Find right afterwards, the Advanced Find filter is populated with irrelevant criteria
• Re-import of existing solution fails with The label for base language code 1033 is not set
• Users cannot associate multiple records at once for N:N relationships
• CRM 2013 no longer warns you when you are about to delete a parent record that child records with cascade delete set on their relationships to the parent will also be deleted
• Unable to set a web resource to visible in script if 'Visible by default' not set in the Designer
• You´ve created a new business process flow and assigned that process flow to the security role of "sales manager", "system administrator" and "system customizer"
• You publish this modification and expect the process the be visible only for these security roles
• Instead, the BPF business process flow is hidden for all users
• When data is entered into a form, the Save button can be clicked multiple times which results in multiple of the same record being created
• For a custom duration field Xrm.Page.getAttribute("durationfield").getValue() method returns a formatted value like 30 minutes instead of 30 as expected
• When organization is deleted and then immediately imported back, import organization wizard unexpectedly displays a warning about version mismatch
• Autosave off: Entity form loses command bar after navigating away and re-opening
• Consider you've created a Business Process for cases having a related task stage with several steps and you'd like to translate all stages to different language
• Your solution contains task and case entity as well as Business Process
• You're exporting translation files and try to edit those
• You'll find all stage names from case entity, but you do not find those of the related task step
• Therefore you cannot translate those
• "Email a link" URL does not navigate to the specified entity if opened in existing browser tab
• Errors occur when using different country formats with currency attributes
• When browsing to various locations in CRM, a JavaScript exception is thrown that reports "Object expected"
• The .addCustomFilter javascript function does not work properly
• Workflow triggered on Before Delete event cannot be imported in a new organization
• When email activity with unresolved email recipient is created and saved, on load on email, value in TO field is hidden, field is empty
• Not able to see "Page Index" on subgrids from dashboards
• Published customization changes do not roll down to mobile client consistently
• Opportunity closed as won does not take custom status reason while closing
• Notes control shows time but not date for notes created before yesterday
• Mobile clients crash with UI Error: "We're sorry. Sorry, something went wrong while initializing the app. Please try again, or restart the app"
• Access team does not use correct metadata driven by Advanced Find view and hence fails in Mobile Clients
• If you create a new email message in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 web application, you discover that you cannot modify the Description field when using the latest version of Google Chrome

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Hotfixes and updates that you have to enable or configure manually

Occasionally, updates released via Update Rollups require manual configuration to enable them. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Update Rollups are always cumulative; for example, Update Rollup 2 will contain all fixes previously released via Update Rollup 1 as well as fixes newly released via Update Rollup 2. So if you install Update Rollup 2 on a machine upon which you previously installed no Update Rollups, you will need to manually enable any desired fixes for Update Rollups 1-2:

• Update Rollup 1: no updates requiring manual configuration

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Mismatched Update Rollup versions within a Microsoft Dynamics CRM deployment

In a scenario where you may be running many client workstations with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 for Microsoft Office Outlook, a common question is whether it is supported to run mismatched versions. For example, where Update Rollup 2 has been installed on the CRM Server but the Outlook clients are still on Update Rollup 1, or where Update Rollup 1 is on the CRM server but due to updates available to the Outlook client you have decided to install Update Rollup 2 on the clients without installing Update Rollup 1 on the server.

The general rule of thumb is to try to keep the versions in sync as much as possible, and deltas of more than one version between client and server are not supported.  So ideally, you would be running Update Rollup 2 (when it is released) on your CRM Servers with Update Rollup 1 or 2 on your Outlook clients. However, it is permissible (though not recommended as a long-term solution) to run mismatched Update Rollup versions on Outlook client and server, as Microsoft does do some testing of such combinations.

However, regarding the other Update Rollups (for example Update Rollups for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Email Router or Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 SSRS Data Connector), it is not supported nor recommended to run mismatched versions. A best practice is to update these components at the same time you update your CRM Server.  Do the best you can to keep these Update Rollup versions in sync.

For more information, see the blog posting "User experience while accessing CRM 2011 application servers while Update Rollups are being applied", which still applies to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013

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Microsoft Dynamics CRM compatibility with technology stack components: Internet Explorer, Windows Client and Server, Office, .NET Framework, and more

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Engineering team consistently tests Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 against pre-release and release versions of technology stack components that Microsoft Dynamics interoperates with. When appropriate, Microsoft will release enhancements via future Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Update Rollups or new major version releases to assure compatibility with future releases of these products. This compatibility matrix is updated via this Microsoft Knowledge Base article: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Compatibility List.

Greg Nichols
Dynamics CRM Senior Premier Field Engineer
Microsoft Corporation

Much of this content is a repost from: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/crm/archive/2014/03/20/introducing-sandbox-instances-in-crm-online.aspx 

More Test Environment (sandbox) UI capabilities are now launched for Dynamics CRM Online. If you’re an existing customer and have multiple instances you may have noticed this change in one of your organizations.  Also, just an FYI – if for any reason your production organization was marked as “Sandbox” please don’t panic – the change made was literally a visual differentiator and keep reading on how to alter your organization settings.  For those familiar with CRM from a development perspective this term may be a bit confusing – but I assure you this is completely separate from CRM’s sandbox plugins and sandbox service – this term is being used to describe non-production CRM instances.

Many of you with CRM Online may have logged in early this week and noticed changes to the navigation bar at the top of one or more of your Dynamics CRM Online instances.  For both free and paid test instances, you’ll now see an orange navigation bar with a SANDBOX watermark.  Production instances will continue to display the blue bar you’ve come to expect.  This post covers what this change means to you and how this relates to some new capabilities we’ll be releasing in the near future.

Changes to Non-production Instances

Dynamics CRM Online 2013 introduced the concept of non-production, test, instances.  These instances could either be purchased as an add-on to your subscription or you would be granted a single free non-production instance if you purchased 25 or more user licenses for CRM Online.  Since they are either purchased at a considerable discount from additional production instances or free, these instances may only be used for non-production purposes.  Earlier this year we published a thorough blog post introducing test instances.

Up until now, the only noticeable difference between a production and non-production instance was the instance type displayed on instance’s edit settings page in the CRM Online admin center.  The type displayed was either Production instance, Paid Test instance, or Free Test instance, depending on how it was obtained.  The type is set when an instance is provisioned and can’t be changed by a customer administrator.

The most recent changes amount to the following:

Free Test instance and Paid Test instance types have been renamed to Sandbox instances.  Not sure what your settings are?  See the edit settings page in the CRM Online admin center (you can access this from your Microsoft Online Portal http://portal.office365.com):

After this change, when you sign into a Sandbox instance, you’ll see the orange nav bar and SANDBOX watermark:

We’ve made this change to ensure that end users know when they’ve signed into a sandbox instance and do not make production changes by mistake.

Other than the changes mentioned above, there are no functional differences between production and sandbox instances.  You can perform all of the customization, development, and testing work in a sandbox instance without concerns that the experience will be different in production.

Welcoming Sandbox Instances to CRM Online

These changes are part of a much larger wave of improvements we are making in Dynamics CRM Online to better support enterprise application development.

Your mission critical business applications run on Dynamics CRM Online and all changes must be managed carefully.  Without the proper development time, evaluation, and testing, the stability of your application may suffer and result in unnecessary downtime that could have been avoided by making these changes elsewhere.  The ideal place to develop and test new application change is a Sandbox instance that is isolated from your production application.

We don’t treat the running Sandbox applications any differently from Production instances.  They are both given the same level of resources and support.  By design, though, your Sandbox Instance application database is completely isolated from production.  It may contain a full or partial copy of production data, users, and customizations.  Since changes in a Sandbox Instance do not affect production, you can build your applications with the confidence that their daily productivity will not be adversely affected.

In the near future, we’ll release additional capabilities to the CRM Online admin center that target Sandbox instances exclusively.

Reset Instance (RESET)

Delete the instance completely and re-provision from scratch.  This is particularly useful when you are starting a new implementation or have completed a project and you’d like to free up the resource consumed by a large sandbox instance.

- Copy Instance (COPY)

• Make a copy of an instance into a sandbox.  You can copy either a production or sandbox instance, but the target must be a sandbox.  There are two types of copies you can perform:

- Full Copy

• Copy the full application database from the source to the target.  This make an exact copy of the source instance, including all application data, users, customizations, etc.  You’ll need to make sure you have enough available storage space to copy before you copy the instance.

- Minimal Copy

• Copy only the customizations, core configuration data, and users from the source to the target.  This is primarily useful for development scenarios when the full production database is not needed.  You will need to import your custom configuration and sample data to complete the process.

Administration Mode (ADMIN)

Even though the production and sandbox databases are isolated from each another, you may have customizations that reach out to external services.  Without updates to these connections, you could inadvertently perform operations in a production service while working in a sandbox instance.  We’re introducing a new administration mode for sandbox instance to reduce the risk of production impact.  When you perform a copy operation, for example, the target sandbox instance is placed in administration mode.  After the copy is complete, the admin will have an opportunity to resolve any issues in the sandbox instance before bringing the instance fully back online.

- Enable Administration Mode

• Only users with the System Administrator or System Customizer role can sign in at this time.  This allows an admin to lock out end users and give them a chance to make customization changes without having end user signed into the system.

- Disable Background Operations

• Sometimes, even with no users signed into the system, asynchronous operations may result in your CRM application reaching out to an external service.  With this mode enabled, all asynchronous operations will be cancelled.  This includes workflows, sending email, Exchange sync, and Yammer.

- Custom message for end users

• This text will be displayed to end users when they attempt to sign in.  Admin can use this to provide more information on what is going on in the sandbox instance and when the instance is expected to be available.

Between these new sandbox admin capabilities and our rich development tools, we are making it easier than ever before to build, test, deploy, and maintain your Dynamics CRM Online solutions.  Keep an eye on this blog for announcements of future updates to your CRM Online administration experience.

Contents:

• Build number, Download Center Page, Master KB article
• CRM Premier Field Engineering Update Rollup Podcast
• CRM Update Rollup Collateral Page
• Ramp up on Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013!
• Important CRM 2013 Update Rollup considerations
• General Update Rollup notes
• OrgDbOrgSettings Tool
• Update Rollup packages available for download
• Update Rollup prerequisites
• Issues resolved by this Update Rollup
• Support for new technologies provided by this Update Rollup
• Hotfixes and updates that you have to enable or configure manually
• Mismatched Update Rollup versions within a Microsoft Dynamics CRM deployment
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM compatibility with technology stack components

   

We're proud to announce that all packages for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Update Rollup 2 were released on Saturday, March 22nd 2014 to the Microsoft Download Center!  The Update Rollup 2 packages should appear on Microsoft Update in April 8th 2014.

Update Rollup 2 Build number:

6.0.0002.0046 (Server re-release is 6.0.0002.0051)

Note: The CRM 2013 Update Rollup 2 Server package has been re-released for customers potentially having issues with authentication associated with Yammer integration or with CRM 2013 Server installation issues on Windows Server 2012 R2.  The filename for the re-released package is CRM2013-Server-KB2919956-v2-ENU-amd64.exe, and is not needed if you are not using Yammer integration or setting up on Windows Server 2012 R2.  The UR2 Server re-release build number is 6.0.0002.0051.

Update Rollup 2 Microsoft Download Center page

Here's the "Master" Microsoft Dynamics Knowledge Base article for Update Rollup 2: (KB 2919956). Going forward, the plan is for the Master Knowledge Base article for CRM 2013 Update Rollups to be published a bit in advance of release to aid planning.

On Friday, March 21st 2014 at 3:30 PM Pacific Time Greg Nichols and Ryan Anderson from the Microsoft CRM Premier Field Engineering Team provided information about:

• The release of Update Rollup 2 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013
• New supporting Microsoft technologies supported in CRM 2013 via Update Rollup 2
• New fixes made available In Update Rollup 2

on BlogTalkRadio during their Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Update Rollup 2 Podcast

BlogTalkRadio and Internet Explorer 11 compatibility

If you're having trouble viewing the podcast when using Internet Explorer 11,

• View the Podcast in Compatibility View
• in IE 11, select Tools (the upper right "Gear" icon) -> Compatibility View Settings -> add the blogtalkradio.com website, or
• Use the "New Window" link on the Blogtalkradio page

Note regarding Podcasts: You can make our CRM Premier Field Engineering podcasts available on Zune by using the RSS feed below.  In the Zune software, go to Collection -> Podcasts and click on the Add a Podcast button on the lower left, then enter the url for the RSS feed: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/pfedynamics.rss. After that, you can adjust the series settings like any other podcast, so you can sync with your smartphone or Zune.

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The "CRM Update Rollup Collateral Page"

For pointers to download locations, release dates, build information, and CRM Premier Field Engineering blogs and podcasts for all Microsoft Dynamics CRM Update Rollups, visit the "CRM Update Rollup Collateral Page" 

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RAMP UP ON CRM 2013!

As we're just getting started with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013, I'll provide some pointers to directly accessible ramp-up resources and some insight into what people are most excited about regarding this new major release:

Recommended Ramp-up materials:

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customer Center
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Developer Center
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM IT Pro Center
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Implementation Guide
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 SDK (Software Development Kit)
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog
• Upgrading to the CRM 2013 User Experience

 Most Popular Features in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013!

• Flat User Interface (modern look UI)
• Process driven UI
• Quick create and quick view forms
• BingMaps / Skype / Lync integration
• Social and mobile integration
• Server side sync

Business Process UI

• Rich and guided UX to implement end to end business scenarios
• Reduced number of clicks and pop ups to complete transactions
• Ability to span the process UI across entities
• Security modelling and ability to assign processes to security roles
• Ability of accessing the UI using MoCA clients

 The new ‘skin’ of CRM 2013

• Flat and modern UI avoiding frequent pop ups
• Inline editing
• Quick view form enabling parent entity details in child record
• Form level notifications where errors, warnings and information can be viewed inline in the field
• Avoiding redundant ribbon buttons thus showing only which is really required
• Header controls to highlight the most relevant data of the entity
• BingMaps embedded control

Configuration & Customization

• Synchronous Workflows will help developers to quickly configure workflow instead of using a plug-in (writing code/deploying)
• Actions enable multiple operations which are frequently used to be created as single action and can be re-used to minimize Dev cycle
• Power to create custom actions such as schedule, Escalate and Route Lead are highly beneficial as well
• Portable Business Logic This easy way avoids lots of scripting for easy validations and enables CRM functional analysts to quick add validations without touching the code base

 Yammer Integration

• Native integration with Yammer and thus enabling social collaboration
• Private and Public settings to control the activity feed stream

 Mobility

• MoCA (Mobile Client Application) clients and Mobile clients make the long awaited dream a reality
• Support across expected devices and browsers
• Availability of process bar and new UI in the tablet clients
• UI in MoCA clients is highly appreciable, survey shows many of them like the MoCA UI more than the native web UI

 General

• Quick create forms to accelerate the record creation
• Light weight command bar UI
• Multi activity support in the collaboration area 

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Important CRM 2013 Update Rollup considerations!

A common question I get is “if I either upgrade from CRM 2011 or install the RTM version of CRM 2013 (build 6.0.0000.0809), what is the equivalent CRM 2011 Update Rollup level I have?" The answer is: essentially Update Rollup 14.

Some specific port requests for post-Update Rollup 14 fixes for CRM 2011 were included the original (RTM) release of CRM 2013, and port requests for other post-Update Rollup 14 CRM 2011 fixes can be requested via the normal Support process.

One set of port requests that you may be wondering about are the dramatic changes to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Client for Microsoft Office Outlook

• They were released via CRM 2011 Update Rollup 15 and the Critical Update for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 11 CRM Server and CRM for Outlook Client
• These post-Update Rollup 14 changes WERE included in the RTM version of CRM 2013, and include:
• A feature that moves the CRM client-specific workload into its own process so that it no longer shares memory with the Microsoft Office Outlook process
• This feature is also known as Process Isolation
• An upgrade to Microsoft SQL Server for Windows CE 4.0 for better memory management, better caching, and connection enhancements
• Updates to CRM for Outlook configuration files to make the CRM for Outlook SDF files compatible with SQL Server for Windows CE 4.0
• Materialization of the Address Book Provider to reduce performance issues that are caused by large address books
• Limits to the amount of active open forms
• A MAPI Lock time-out
• Hard coding of a previous registry setting that prevented pinned views from pulling down information to local SQL CE cache
• This new DisableMapiCaching setting defaults to a value of 1
• For more information about the behavior of this setting, see Slow Performance When Pinning Views in Microsoft Dynamics CRM

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General Upgrade Rollup Notes:

• Testing CRM 2013 Update Rollups: Best Practices
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Premier Field Engineering recommends doing all the standard testing you generally do for all Update Rollups, which could be the functional and performance testing that you would do with a new major release or a subset of that test plan
• The “general rule of thumb” for test plans for Update Rollup installs are:
• Test any changes in a pre-production environment BEFORE introducing into your production environment. Manage your risk!
• Consider using the Performance Toolkit for Microsoft Dynamics CRM to simulate your production user load in your testing environment, to shake out any performance-related issues early. The CRM 2011 version is currently being evaluated against CRM 2013
• Test using the permissions your most restrictive end-user roles have. Testing with CRM Administrator permissions, for example, does not give you the complete picture
• Concentrate on your SDK customizations, JavaScript, ISV add-ons – basically anything that’s not OOB functionality or customizations done from within the UI

 Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Custom Code Validation Tool

• Consider familiarizing yourselves with this tool!
• The Custom Code Validation tool for CRM 2013 is mostly the same as the Code Validation Tool for CRM 2011 UR12; the 2011 version has been deprecated and is no longer available. We added some additional checks for code that references the 2007 endpoint or other functionality that has been deprecated in CRM in 2013. And, most of the checks in the tool were built into the CRM 2013 Server installer as validation checks
• Note that the URL for the CRM 2011 version of the tool now directs to the CRM 2013 version
• Use the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Custom Code Validation Tool to identify potential issues with custom JavaScript in JavaScript libraries and HTML web resources. When using JavaScript code in Dynamics CRM, it is possible that some code will stop working or cause an error when you upgrade. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Custom Code Validation Tool helps identify potential problems so that a developer can fix them

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NEW RELEASE REGARDING OrgDbOrgSettings!

You're probably familiar with the OrgDbOrgSettings command line tool (mentioned above) released by the CRM Product Group in the "Tools" package that is updated and released with each set of Update Rollup packages.  With it, you configure some .xml and call your .xml with the command line utility described in KB 2691237. However, you may be daunted by configuring this .xml, to the point that you may not use the tool, or use it minimally - not exploring the many options outlined in KB 2691237 that may be of use to you.  Well, the Microsoft Dynamics PFE team now has another option for you!  By popular demand, our esteemed CRM PFE colleague Sean McNellis has developed a tool  - a CRM 2011 / CRM 2013 managed solution - that provides you with an easy-to-use GUI with which you can configure all of the options outlined in the Knowledge Base on a per-tenant basis.  Feel free to download it, install it, and check it out... I sure use it!

This is a FREE downloadable tool - the "Dynamics CRM 2011 Organization Settings Editor".  Check it out; the download page has screenshots and information that will help you make good use of the tool.  Sean has also published a Premier Field Engineering blog: "Azure Mobile + JavaScript + WebResources = Easy Editing of OrgDBOrgSettings in Dynamics CRM 2011!" to share more details on the tool. It is currently updated with settings for CRM 2011 Update Rollup 16 and CRM 2013 Update Rollup 1, and he takes pride in keeping it updated as new Update Rollups are released. Thanks, Sean!

Note: there is a code issue with the CRM Client for Microsoft Outlook that was resolved in Update Rollup 16 Client packages.  Do not set either the AddressBookMaterializedViewsEnabled or DisableMapiCaching settings in the Organization entity metadata via the OrgDbOrgSettings tool in the Update Rollup Tools package or the Organizational Settings Editor on Codeplex if you are not running CRM 2011 Update Rollup 16 or higher on the Client.  Also, do not set this key prior to the next major release of CRM 2013.

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 Update Rollup 2 packages are or will be available for download via: 

• The Update Rollup 2 Microsoft Download Center page - released March 22nd, 2014
• The Microsoft Update Catalog  - packages scheduled for release April 8th, 2014
• The Microsoft Update detection / installation process
• Note: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Updates will be pushed via Microsoft Update as Important updates
• Client packages installed manually by downloading the packages and running install will require local administrator privileges. If the client packages are installed via Microsoft Update or SCCM (System Center Configuration Manager), they will not require local administrator privileges
• Consider using Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) or similar software distribution technologies to distribute Dynamics CRM Update Rollups internally.  WSUS is a locally managed system that works with the public Microsoft Update website to give system administrators more control. By using Windows Server Update Services, administrators can manage the distribution of Microsoft hotfixes and updates released through Automatic Updates to computers in a corporate environment
• For help with installation please see the Installation Information section of the Update Rollup 2 "master" Microsoft Knowledge Base article
• Please review my former teammate Jon Strand's blog posting "CRM 2011: Silently Installing Update Rollups" which provides details on installing CRM Outlook client update rollups "silently" in order to limit end-user interruption, which also applies to CRM 2013 Update Rollups

for these CRM components:

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server 2013

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 for Microsoft Office Outlook (Outlook Client)

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Email Router

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) Data Connector

• The SSRS Data Connector is not available as an individual download. It is included in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server 2013 download. When you extract the Server package (CRM2013-Server-ENU-amd64.exe /extract:path: extracts the content of the package to the path folder), you’ll find the Data Connector in the SrsDataConnector folder

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Language Packs

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Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Update Rollup 2 Prerequisites:

• Essentially the prerequisites listed in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Implementation Guide download for the various CRM components serviced 

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Issues resolved via Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Update Rollup 2: 

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 2 is the second of a series of cumulative Update Rollups that include fixes for the issues that are or will be documented in the "Master Knowledge Base Articles" for CRM 2013 Update Rollups.  As they are cumulative, Update Rollup 2 contains all fixes shipped via Update Rollups 1 and 2... you get the idea.

Fixes released via CRM 2013 Update Rollup 2: 

• CRM 2013 Outlook filtering does not work after you perform a quick find search
• When you use Internet Explorer 8, the related record dropdown is missing when a record is opened
• When you use the Upgrade Wizard, an error message is shown with a red flag in the System Checks window: "The product key is not compatible with the installed version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM"
• Upgrade does not create relationship for custom activity entities to mailbox_sendermailboxid
• When you run the email router to process incoming email, some email may be skipped. This occurs if the email in Exchange Server has a different message class than the IPM.Note default
• When you try to use a view that has a condition for Owner Equals Current User's Teams and the user does not belong to any team that has a security role, you receive an error:
• Invalid Argument
• When you click the hyperlink in a lookup field after you focus in the field, you receive a script error
• When you create a recurring appointment that has exactly 16 occurrences, only 15 occurrences are created. When you create 17 occurrences or more (or 15 occurrences or less), the correct number of appointments are created
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 has inconsistent behavior, depending on the place from which the case is resolved:
• When you click Resolve Case from the entity Form, the Resolution (subject) that is passed in by the end-user is replaced by the generic phrase "Resolve Case."
• When you click Resolve Case from the Grid, Microsoft Dynamics CRM saves the value that was provided by the end-user
• In Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, the value was provided by the end-user and not overridden by CRM
• When you view completed activities, such as email, you cannot select any text on the record
• This includes the body control
• Users of the offline edition of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Client for Outlook cannot configure their Offline Scheduled Sync settings under Personal Settings
• Depending on the placement of an option set field in a section of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 form, the number of visible options is limited, and the user has to scroll to see the remaining options
• After you upgrade Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 or import Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 appointment customization, you receive a pop-up error message while you are saving appointments:
• There was an error with this field’s customized event
• Field:crmform
• Event:onsave
• Error: Object doesn't support property or method 'Form_onsave'
• Field alignment setting is not respected on Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 forms
• You cannot customize YomiName fields because the detail form does not display
• Copying and pasting multiple lines of text from a Microsoft Word document to the body of a Microsoft Dynamics CRM email activity record causes additional line breaks to be inserted between each line
• When you use the Chrome browser to view duplicate detection rules in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013, the criteria are not shown every time that you open the record
• You may have to close and then reopen the record an undetermined number of times before the criteria are shown
• The Client for Microsoft Office Outlook client is unresponsive during startup
• When you save or send an email from the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 web client in an email activity that had a template inserted, the body is saved or sent with nothing in it
• If you edit the email body after you insert the email template, or if you use the insert template button on the email editor toolbar, the body is saved or sent correctly
• When you use Internet Explorer 8, the related record dropdown is missing when a record is opened
• After you upgrade or install Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 when you create a telephone call activity from an existing contact or lead, the telephone number field is not populated correctly
• This behavior is different from what occurred in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
• Outlook saved views are not sorted alphabetically as they are in the web client
• Outlook saved views should be sorted exactly as they are in the web client
• Deadlocks occur when an Associate request is called to add users to teams
• Custom entity grid icon is not visible in Outlook
• A large number of notes cause the focus to be lost when you create new notes
• Custom reports that aggregate with a groupby on OptionSet fields display:
• #Error
• When a user searches for a string of numbers that exceed the upper bound of the whole number column in Microsoft SQL Server, the following error is returned to users, and the search is ended:
• "Invalid Argument"
• Field security on check boxes causes JScript error when you save
• When you have a web resource that should be shown across the width of a section, and you change the visibility of the web resource, the width is reduced by half
• Incorrect "Do Not Allow" notification is generated on Phone Call/Email
• Subgrids update continuously with a "Loading..." message
• Consider the scenario in which using Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 affects synchronous plug-ins or synchronous workflows to perform an update of the StateCode and StatusCode of Activity entity:
• The StateCode and StatusCode action is taken Post-Create synchronously then an exception occurs on the Save
• When the same plugin code registered asynchronously, it will process and complete without error
• Query Builder error occurs when you use addCustomView that contains a related attribute
• When you set IME mode on an attribute on an entity to ACTIVE, the IME mode is not honored
• This occurs with Single Line of Text, Multiple Lines of Text, and other attributes that are bound to input elements or text area elements
• After you paste a numbered list into the email body control and convert the pasted content to a bulleted list, the bullets are misplaced above the selected text
• The bullets will appear on their own separate line, even though there is no line break
• Additionally, the text cannot be moved up to the bullet so that both the text and the bullet appear on the same line
• Personal View is removed when Show Selected Views is used on Dashboard Grid after redraw
• Time Format selection is not reflect correctly in setting
• Unexpected format changes occur when you create mail messages from an email template
• Users who have no Create permissions but has Read, Write, Append, and Append To permissions cannot select an Entity record that has an N:N relationship
• This occurs for both custom-to-custom and system-to-custom entities:
• Unable to get property 'get_element' of undefined or null reference
• SCRIPT5007: Unable to get property 'get_element' of undefined or null reference
• File: inlineeditcontrols.js, Line: 1, Column: 89186
• When you import an updated solution that contains lots of entities, the import is not completed in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013
• If a user presses the Enter key in the body and then presses the Delete key when the user is replying to email activity records in the application, a line break is inserted into the body of the form
• The mailbox (CRM User) has been disabled for synchronizing appointments, contacts, and tasks due to unknown error
• The owner of the associated email server profile (Profile Name) has been notified
• When you review Microsoft Dynamics CRM client for Outlook tracing, the tracing incorrectly suggests that an item was being updated when in fact it was being created in Outlook from a synchronized CRM Microsoft Dynamics CRM item such as a contact, appointment, or service activity

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Support for new technologies provided by this Update Rollup

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Engineering team consistently tests Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 against pre-release and release versions of technology stack components that Microsoft Dynamics interoperates with. When appropriate, Microsoft releases enhancements via future Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Update Rollups or new major version releases to assure compatibility with future releases of these products. This compatibility matrix is updated via this Microsoft Knowledge Base article: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Compatibility List. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Update Rollup 2 provides support for:

• Microsoft Windows 8.1 and Internet Explorer 11 using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 web application and Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Tablets
• iOS 7 support with Safari on iPad using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM web application
• Support for Safari using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM web application and CRM for Tablets using the tablet app for iPad Air
• Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server

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Hotfixes and updates that you have to enable or configure manually

Occasionally, updates released via Update Rollups require manual configuration to enable them. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Update Rollups are always cumulative; for example, Update Rollup 2 will contain all fixes previously released via Update Rollup 1 as well as fixes newly released via Update Rollup 2. So if you install Update Rollup 2 on a machine upon which you previously installed no Update Rollups, you will need to manually enable any desired fixes for Update Rollups 1-2:

• Update Rollup 1: no updates requiring manual configuration
• Update Rollup 2: no updates requiring manual configuration

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Mismatched Update Rollup versions within a Microsoft Dynamics CRM deployment

In a scenario where you may be running many client workstations with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 for Microsoft Office Outlook, a common question is whether it is supported to run mismatched versions. For example, where Update Rollup 2 has been installed on the CRM Server but the Outlook clients are still on Update Rollup 1, or where Update Rollup 1 is on the CRM server but due to updates available to the Outlook client you have decided to install Update Rollup 2 on the clients without installing Update Rollup 1 on the server.

The general rule of thumb is to try to keep the versions in sync as much as possible, and deltas of more than one version between client and server are not supported.  So ideally, you would be running Update Rollup 2 (when it is released) on your CRM Servers with Update Rollup 1 or 2 on your Outlook clients. However, it is permissible (though not recommended as a long-term solution) to run mismatched Update Rollup versions on Outlook client and server, as Microsoft does do some testing of such combinations.

However, regarding the other Update Rollups (for example Update Rollups for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Email Router or Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 SSRS Data Connector), it is not supported nor recommended to run mismatched versions. A best practice is to update these components at the same time you update your CRM Server.  Do the best you can to keep these Update Rollup versions in sync.

For more information, see the blog posting "User experience while accessing CRM 2011 application servers while Update Rollups are being applied", which still applies to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013

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Microsoft Dynamics CRM compatibility with technology stack components: Internet Explorer, Windows Client and Server, Office, .NET Framework, and more

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Engineering team consistently tests Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 against pre-release and release versions of technology stack components that Microsoft Dynamics interoperates with. When appropriate, Microsoft will release enhancements via future Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Update Rollups or new major version releases to assure compatibility with future releases of these products. This compatibility matrix is updated via this Microsoft Knowledge Base article: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Compatibility List.

Greg Nichols
Dynamics CRM Senior Premier Field Engineer
Microsoft Corporation

FYI Everyone – the product team released a blog post regarding supportability for the next major release of CRM (A.K.A. “Vega” in the 2013 release preview guide or v7).

NOTE: This is a summary from the product teams posting – if you have comments or questions feel free to head over and post in the product team’s blog comments section: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/crm/archive/2014/05/14/important-information-about-supported-configurations-in-the-next-major-release-for-crm.aspx.  What you’ll find below is a summary of the CRM Team blog post, as well as a few helpful notes around the current version numbers, etc.

To level set, right now the versions (as of today 5/19/2014) are as follows:

• Operation System and DB:
  • Windows Server 2012
  • Windows Server 2012 R2
  • SQL Server 2012
  • SQL 2014 support is still pending for the initial release – keep your eye on the CRM Product Team blog for more information
• Removed OS and DB support:
  • Small Business Server, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2
  • SQL 2008 and SQL 2008 R2 are no longer part of the support matrix
  • Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 versions of Remote Desktop Services, and Office 2007
• Browser Support:
  • Removing support for Internet Explorer 8 and Internet Explorer 9 – *important* these browsers will not be blocked from accessing CRM.  However, because they are no longer part of the support matrix the best experience will be on Internet Explorer 10 or 11 (or any other supported browser version)
• Endpoints:
  • MSCRM 2007 SOAP Endpoint is now going to be completely removed.  This was replaced in CRM 2011 by a WCF Endpoint, for scripting access there was also a REST endpoint added in CRM 2011.
• JavaScript:
  • GetServerUrl() is removed – replaced by getClientUrl since CRM 2011 UR12
  • IsOutlookClient() is removed – replaced by client.getClient()
  • IsOutlookOnline() is removed – replaced by client.getClientState()
  • getAuthentication() was deprecated previously and was removed in CRM 2013
• Forms:
  • ReadOptimized forms are removed (this was a CRM 2011 form type)
  • CRM 2011 Forms are no longer allowed – you will have to update your 2011 forms to 2013 forms before you upgrade to the next version.
  • The associated form types will also be removed from GetFormType()
• Entities:
  • Product Kits are deprecated in the next version (the next major release after Vega or V7+1). 

Make sure to keep these things in mind as you’re planning for your releases and updating your code.  If you’re using any of the deprecated functions or areas it’s worth taking the time to plan today so nothing catches you by surprise.

Thanks!

Sean

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 (on premise and online) introduces Field-Level Data Encryption, which encrypts several out of the box password fields – it does not apply to custom fields or any non-password fields. You can find more details here. This is great feature, yet you may encounter an issue when you use Import Organization.

1. This feature is enabled by default.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM generates strong random password during creating new organization/upgrading existing organization and use it as an encryption key.

2. The encryption key will not be re-generated during the Import of a CRM Organization.

The key is not re-generated on import as you may have changed the encryption key since creating you’re the CRM Organization, After import you will need to manually re-active the feature by using correct encryption key. However, if you haven’t changed the encryption key, you will not know what the original key value was.

3. You may encounter errors if you don’t activate the feature.

Whether or not you have password data for password fields, CRM always tries to decrypt the field when it needs to. For example, if you open a mailbox record, then CRM tries to decrypt the password field. Therefore, if you didn’t active the feature, CRM fails to decrypt the field and display following error message.

In case you see the error message, you can resolve the issue by activating the feature. However to active the feature, you need to use HTTPS by default as you put encryption key via browser.

If your On-Premise environment does not have HTTPS enabled you have 2 options:

[Option 1]
Enable HTTPS by using a certificate, changing IIS bindings, change deployment manager’s properties, etc. This is not a bad thing (and is highly recommended), but it can take time to test and implement.

[Option 2]
Change CRM settings so that you can activate the feature without using HTTPS. To do this, follow the steps below.

a. Download SDK from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40321 and extract it.
b. Open PowerShell on CRM Server.
c. Change directory to SDK folder you extracted and move to SampleCode\PS directory.
d. Run the following command.
> ./setadvancedsettings.ps1 -ConfigurationEntityName Deployment -SettingName DisableSSLCheckForEncryption -SettingValue 1
"If you encounter an error saying you need to change execution policy, please follow the instruction in the error.

SetAdvancedSettings.ps1 is a sample script which lets you update CRM settings easily.

[Option 3]
If you cannot use powershell for any reason, you may need to change the setting by directly updating SQL (not recommended)

a. Open SQL Server Management Studio.
b. Click New Query and select MSCRM_CONFIG database.
c Run the command : UPDATE DeploymentProperties SET BitColumn = 1 WHERE ColumnName = 'DisableSSLCheckForEncryption'
d. IISRESET
e. Put the CRM user who will activate the feature to PrivUserGroup. (You need to remove the user form the group after you active the feature.)
Please refer to following article regarding how to find correct PrivUserGroup in your Active Directory.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/crminthefield/archive/2013/04/08/how-to-find-which-active-directory-security-groups-belong-to-your-crm-deployment.aspx

After you have done the steps, log into CRM and navigate to: Settings | Data Management | Data Encryption, and activate the feature. If you are not using HTTPS, the encryption key will be sent over the wire in plain text and unencrypted. For this reason we strongly recommend you to change the key on CRM server or use SSL. Please note that if you already have data stored in any password fields and activate the feature using a new encryption key, you will lose that data and will need to re-enter the data in the password fields.

You won't have any issues if you do not have any data stored for encryption enabled fields, but as best practice, and to avoid having to reset the key, we strongly recommend you to create/backup encryption key in every deployment. Please also refer to following article which explains how to backup the encryption key.

Post-installation and configuration guidelines for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh699726.aspx

Copy your organization data encryption key
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/f88f7c87-2ee2-42f3-8101-7271f6731cf9#BKMK_copy_your_org_enc_key
 

Thanks for reading!

Ken

Premier Field Engineer
Microsoft Japan

I am cross posting this blog post from our AX In the Field blog post where Rod Hanson recommends using Performance Analyzer for Microsoft Dynamics (DynamicsPerf) in development, test or QA environments while load testing prior to moving to production.  This makes a lot of sense and is something I have done with a few of my customers.  Many times customers do not allow time for this testing in their timelines and then later run into performance issues that could have been found and resolved proactively prior to the production release.

Rod also has links to his other DynamicsPerf posts covering Core Installation, Baselines and Documenting at the bottom of this blog post I am cross posting.

If you or your team would like assistance with installing, reviewing or even want a full onsite Hands On Lab, please reach out to your Designated Support Engineer (DSE) or Technical Account Manager (TAM).

Thanks!
Shawn Dieken

Follow the conversation:
@sdieken
@pfedynamics | http://www.pfedynamics.com