CRM 4.0 Entity Navigator: small tip

Well What’s best way to navigate through list of entities and it’s attributes in CRM 4.0 quickly ? I have been using following way and I think it’s quickest way to get these information in CRM 4.0

Open IE Browser and type in following URL

http://[servername]:[portname]/[orgname]/sdk/list.aspx

Replace servername, portname and organization name of your environment in above link.
This will give you list of entities as below…

Now to get list of attribute either click on entities in above screen print or type following URL (replace entity name as per your requirement)

http:// [servername]:[portname]/[orgname]/sdk/mdbrowser/entity.aspx?entity=account”>

Hope this helps..

Cheers,
MayankP:)

The length of the ‘filteringattributes’ attribute exceeded the maximum allowed length of ’100′

While developing one of the plug-in for CRM 4.0 we started getting following error from plug-in registration tool.

Problem/Error Description

Unhandled Exception: System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException: Server was unable to process request.
Detail:

A validation error occurred. The length of the ‘filteringattributes’ attribute of the ‘sdkmessageprocessingstep’ entity exceeded the maximum allowed length of ’100′.
Platform

at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.ReadResponse(SoapClientMessage message, WebResponse response, Stream responseStream, Boolean asyncCall)
at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.Invoke(String methodName, Object[] parameters)
at PluginRegistrationTool.CrmSdk.CrmService.Create(BusinessEntity entity)
at PluginRegistrationTool.RegistrationHelper.RegisterStep(CrmOrganization org, CrmPluginStep step)
at PluginRegistrationTool.StepRegistrationForm.btnRegister_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)

Solution Steps for this are mentioned as below..
Step 1: Run query on database to check current max length..

select Maxlength from MetadataSchema.Attribute
where name ='filteringattributes'

Step 2: Update this field to desired value

Update MetadataSchema.Attribute
SET Maxlength = 500
where name ='filteringattributes'

Step 3: Check the Length again to make sure it update from above queries.

Note: – Above customization is unsupported and you must take precautionary measure to make sure to avoid any problem with CRM system.

Hope this helps..

Regards,
MayankP:)

CRM 4.0 AD Security Groups

When you installed CRM 4.0 then CRM 4.0 installation system creates list of Activity Directory security groups.

Following is the list of security groups that are created as part of CRM 4.0 installed process and their purpose in brief.

PrivUserGroup
The account that the CRMAppPool application pool uses
The account that the ASP.NET process model uses
The user account that runs the Microsoft Dynamics CRM installation
The computer account on which the Microsoft Dynamics CRM-Exchange E-mail Router will be installed

ReportingGroup
All Microsoft Dynamics CRM user accounts (this includes the user who is installing Microsoft Dynamics CRM)

SQLAccessGroup

The account that the CRMAppPool application pool uses
The account that the ASP.NET process model uses

UserGroup
All Microsoft Dynamics CRM user accounts (this includes the user who is installing Microsoft Dynamics CRM)

PrivReportingGroup
The computer account on which the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Data Connector for Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services will be installed.

Since these above AD Security Groups needs to be create as part of CRM 4.0 Installation MS recommends user who is installing CRM 4.0 should be Active directory administrator. This is recommended but you can get around this requirement as well.

Check out following KB article for the same
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946677/en-gb

Hope this helps..

Cheers,
MayankP:)

CRM 4.0 Loading Live Environment Data to Test/Dev

This is most questions or scenario we encounter I had encounter while working CRM and that is we want to load Live Environment Data to Test/UAT or Development environment.

I decided to give it go and following are detailed step to achieve this in CRM 4.0.

STEP 1: Back up existing Live Database

STEP 2: Restore this database on Dev/Test Database Server. Let’s assume our development database server name SQLDEV and we restored this database with name SQLDEV_MSCRM. It is important to have last string in database name as _MSCRM.

STEP 3: Log in to CRM Deployment Manager

STEP 4: Click on Organizations and then click Import Organization (right hand side)

STEP 5: then select the source SQL Server and source database (as shown in figure below) and click Next

STEP 6: then select the report Server name and generally it would be database server so in out case it would be http://SQLDEV/reportserver and then click Next

STEP 7: Now select the mapping of user as per your requirement, you create mapping file and use that for user mapping. For this example we will keep it simple and just use to auto map users using AD account name and click Next.

STEP 8: System will show you entire list of mapped user and allow you edit user mapping as well. Then we can click next and if any of users does not mapped then system will give warning for the same. Ignore warning and click yes because we can map this manually later on…

STEP 9: System check all system requirements for SQL Server and Reporting Services and then click next
STEP 10: the system will show you Ready to install screen with all summary of new CRM Organisation. Click Import button. System will then create new dev environment with live data.
STEP 11: Done, You will see the success screen and if there is any problem you can check installed log file and the correct problem and start again.
STEP 12: Log on to new environment using URL
http://ServerName:port/Organisation name/loader.aspx

Note:-
1. You need to be Active directory administrator to be able to do this.
2. This will not do any extra add-ons or custom development which is not part of database so you will need to manually do this on new CRM Environment.