Error during prerequisite checklist when upgrading from CRM v3 to v4 - "The PrivUser Group is not specified"

Scenario - You're upgrading from CRM v3 to v4 and during the Prerequisite Checklist, you receive the following error and cannot proceed: "The PrivUser Group is not specified"

Solution - This error is most likely due to a Timeout issue.  Follow the steps below on the CRM server to increase the timeout settings and then go through the upgrade process again.

1) Regedit (Start>Run>Regedit)

2) Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSCRM.

3) Right-click on the MSCRM folder, select Export and save as a backup.

4) In the MSCRM folder, right-click in a blank space in the pane and select New>DWORD Value and name it OLEDBTimeout. 

5) Once this key is created right-click on it and select Modify.  Enter a value of 600 and select the Decimal option for Base.

6) Repeat Steps 4 and 5 above using the name ExtendedTimeout and the decimal value of 5400.

7) Open Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio, look for MSCRM_CONFIG database and delete if present.

8) Verify CRM v3.0 is still functioning properly. (if not - MAKE SURE you have current backups of the CRM v3.0 databases and configurations, then delete any remaining CRM v3.0 databases, restore your 3.0 databases from backup, reinstall CRM 3.0 and verify it is functioning properly)

9) Run the CRM v4 install again and attempt to upgrade.

Comments

[Chad Rexin]

Note that after the upgrade completes that the HKLM\Software\Microsoft\MSCRM\OLEDBTimeout key value should be changed to a value between 30 and 300 decimal. This will help prevent long running Microsoft CRM queries from causing excessive SQL Blocking and performance issues. Also note that depending on how large the Microsoft CRM 3 database is, you may have to set the OLEDBTimout key to a value of 86400 (which corresponds to 24 hrs) just for the purposes of the upgrade.