Customer Effective Blog

Update: Optimized Dynamics CRM Organization Import

Several weeks ago, I posted about the new optimized CRM organization import.  To recap, when you want to make a copy of an existing CRM environment, such as when you have a production environment and want to set up a dev copy, you use the import organization functionality in the CRM Deployment Manager to “import the organization” from a copy of the MSCRM database.  The change, introduced in Update Rollup 8, adds a registry key called OptimizeOrgImport.  When this value is set to 1, the import process is much faster.

There is one consideration, which I discovered by accident this week.  I was importing a copy of an existing organization on the same CRM server and creating a copy of that organization for dev purposes; however, during the import process, it would fail with an error of

System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: A row with a duplicate key cannot be added to the object ‘dbo.SystemUserOrganizations’-object with unique index ‘SystemUserOrganizations_CrmUserId’

It turns out that I should have read KB 977867 closer.  Under the “More Information” section, it says:

When you use the registry entry OptimizeOrgImport and have the value of this entry set to 1, you cannot import the same organization database more than one time. If you want to import the same organization database more than one time, you must do one of the following things:

• Set OptimizeOrgImport = 0 and use the normal import process.
• Delete the organization, and then import the organization again.

It appears that to increase import performance the optimization process does not change the id of organization when it creates the organization in the MSCRM_config database, so if you try to import a database for an organization that already exists in the MSCRM_config database for this deployment, the import will fail.  If you are importing to a CRM deployment on a different server, this is not an issue.

After changing OptimizeOrgImport to 0, the import succeeded.  Lesson learned—always read the “small print.”

del.icio.us Tags: Microsoft Dynamics CRM,import organization,deployment manager

Controlling The Size Of Your Microsoft CRM Database—Automatically Deleting Completed System Jobs

As we have posted previously, one thing to monitor is the size of the system job table in CRM. If you have many workflows or other system jobs, the AsynchronousBase table can grow very large.
Our friends at PowerObjects posted about some options to keep the CRM Asynchronousbase table from growing out of control recently on their blog http://www.powerobjects.com/blog/2010/07/15/completed-workflows-are-now-disappearing-in-microsoft-dynamics-crm-%E2%80%93-managing-the-size-of-the-asyncoperationbase-table/ .

Setting AsyncRemoveCompletedWorkflows to a value of 1 will automatically cause completed workflow instances to be deleted. AsyncRemoveCompletedJobs will remove successful job records that are not workflows, such as expansion tasks.

This is a big help in keeping your database size in check. Keep in mind that it only kicks in for new jobs after you make the change--if you have existing completed jobs or workflows you will have to clear them out.

del.icio.us Tags: Microsoft CRM,system jobs,asynchronoubase table

Update Rollup 12 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

Microsoft has released Update Rollup 12 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM.  Update Rollup 12 is a cumulative update including all updates in the previous 11 Update Rollups, as well as many new fixes.  As usual, we recommend only installing the Update Rollup if you are having any issues resolved by it. 

Read the knowledge base article here and you can download the update here.

Keep in mind that if you are updating the Outlook client, Update Rollup 7 is a prerequisite.  On the server, you do not have to have any prior updates installed to install UR 12.  This update includes some fixes for email tracking, as well as the pesky "disappearing appointment" phenomenon.

From the Knowledge Base article, here is the list of fixes unique to update rollup 12:

• The Rule Deployment Wizard now supports Microsoft Exchange 2010.
• When you try to use Set Regarding feature in an email message to set a campaign to link to the email message, you receive the following error message: "An error has occurred".
• Assume that you create an appointment in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. When you update the appointment in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM client for Outlook, a duplicate appointment is created unexpectedly in the Outlook calendar of the recipients of your appointment.
• When you edit entity attributes in Microsoft Dynamics CRM on a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 together with Windows Internet Explorer 8, the CPU usage is high.
• When you change column properties in the report Wizard in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you receive a "script exception" error message in the Report Wizard. This problem occurs after you install Update Rollup 8 that contains the fix 10413 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.
• Email messages are not removed from the queue after the status of the email messages are programmatically set to Completed.
• When you import customizations, you receive an error message that indicates that a SQL exception has occurred. The error message resembles the following: "Exception: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: 'FilteredCampaignResponse' has fewer columns than were specified in the column list."
• After you add the SDKSerializeSendEmailAPI registry entry from the Microsoft knowledge base (KB) article 981053, email messages that are distributed through campaigns cannot be sent. For more information about hotfix 981053, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  981053   A workflow rule that contains a step to send an e-mail message causes a deadlock when many instances of the workflow are executed at the same time in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

• When you switch between subareas that were added by customizing a sitemap, Internet Explorer 8 or Internet Explorer 7 crashes.
• When you set the primary key of an entity by using a PreCreate plugin, the Duplicate Detection window returns a "Duplicate Found" error message if a duplicate record exists. The error message resembles the following:

  Error: Exception of type 'System.Web.HttpUnhandledException' was thrown.
  
  Error Message: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.
  
  Error Details: Exception of type 'System.Web.HttpUnhandledException' was thrown.

• After appointments are tracked in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, the appointments dissapear from the Outlook calendar of the user in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM client for Outlook.
• By default, the Record a closed campaign response check box is selected in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. After you apply update rollup 12,this check box will not be selected by default.
• The Quick Find feature is slow to perform searches because the query runs two times.
• When you view related data in Microsoft CRM Mobile, the data is not displayed if the data contains more than 30 characters.
• The Neglected Accounts report shows accounts that have recent activity.
• Duplicate records are not displayed when you edit records if the duplicate rule contains a lookup condition.
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM is now updated to be compatible with the update that is described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article: 981793 May 2010 cumulative time zone update for Windows operating systems 
• Assume that you customize the length of the address fields on a lead entity to a value that is greater than the default length. When you save the record, you receive an error message that resembles the following:

  Error: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.
  
  Error Message: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.
  
  Source File: Not available
  
  Line Number: Not available
  
  Request URL: URL
  
  Stack Trace Info: [SqlException: String or binary data would be truncated.The statement has been terminated.

• After you send email messages to a queue in Microsoft Dynamics CRM by using the POP3 protocol together with a text format, the "Unicode (UTF-8)" encoding option, and the MIME format that uses the "None" encoding text, the email activity content is not readable in the queue in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. 
• When you run a report that is created by using the Report Wizard, you receive the following error message: "Query execution failed for data set DSMain."
• When you install the Microsoft Dynamics CRM client for Outlook together with Microsoft Office 2010 on a computer, and then you apply Update Rollup 11, you notice that the ISV buttons and menus do not appear on the Office Ribbon.
• Outlook crashes after the CRM synchronization fails when you use the Czech version of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM client for Outlook.

Our Annual User Group Conference is October 13 - 15, 2010

Mark your calendars for this year's annual Customer Effective CRM User Conference. Hosted at the beautiful and historic Westin Poinsett in downtown Greenville, South Carolina, the 2010 Conference will once again highlight engaging customer presentations, break out sessions discussing tips and tricks of CRM from our MVP team and interesting keynote speakers.

Plus, you can learn more about the next big release of CRM:  CRM 2011

Watch the video from last year's conference and please be on the lookout for more information about registration. A link to our conference registration website will be available soon.

Quickly Create Custom Entities and Attributes in Dynamics CRM

The other day I had a large custom entity to create in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.  This entity had over 150 custom attributes of various types, and my brain and fingers were already starting to ache just thinking about manually creating this entity.  I had an excel spreadsheet with an extract from a legacy system that had each of these fields defined, and I was dreading typing them in manually.

Then I remembered a tool in my CRM tool chest that I rarely use—the  CRM Data Migration Manager.  If you read the Customer Effective blog regularly, you probably know that we typically use Scribe Insight for integrations and migrations.  The standard CRM import tools are good for simple data imports, but lack the depth of features to do updates or scheduled migrations.

However, there is one feature of the Data Migration Manager that doesn’t exist in any other import tool (as far as I know).  That’s the ability to create new entities or attributes.  And while you may use other tools, such as Scribe, for the actual data migration, this functionality of the DMM can make it a very useful tool to add to the mix. 

Using the Data Migration Manager I cut what otherwise would have taken and hour and a half down to 10-15 minutes.  My fingers thanked me.

So here is how you would use the CRM Data Migration Manager to create a new entity:

Step 1: Create a spreadsheet of your data.  The columns should be the database/schema names you want your attributes to have.  Include at least one row of sample data.

Step 2: Launch the Data Migration Manager and create a new mapping.

Step 3: Select “Create a custom Microsoft Dynamics CRM Entity.

Step 4: Define the Entity, including the name and the primary attribute.

Step 5: The wizard will guide you through creating the new attributes.  Select the field type for each field.

 

Step 6:  When finished, the Data Migration Manager will create the entity and attributes for you.

Ready to go!

del.icio.us Tags: Microsoft CRM,Dynamics CRM,time saving,create entity,Data Migration Manager

Microsoft CRM 4.0 database structure (to find your data and report on it)

Having become so familiar with the CRM database structure I almost take it for granted.  There is great value in how Microsoft designed and built the database and how it handles creation of new entities.  I found myself explaining the benefits of how the database is structured twice this week so I figured that warrants a post.
 
The CRM database is structured with views that prevent the need to query the tables directly.  Each entity in CRM consists of two tables in the database.  For example, the account entity consists of the AccountBase and AccountExtensionBase tables.  The AccountBase table contains the out of the box attributes and any custom attributes are in the AccountExtensionBase table.  The database has a view named Account that automatically joins those two tables so when querying for data you would query the view and use a query such as ‘select * from account’.  This view also has joins to related tables based on foreign key ids to retrieve the name text value of the related entity.  For instance, it contains the ownerid but also contains the owneridname which returns the name of the owner.  This can prove handy when creating reports.
Another view also exists named Filtered<entity name> (i.e. FilteredIncident).  This view has the same structure as the Incident view yet also applies the system security to that view.  This allows someone to write a report using the FilteredIncident view named ‘My Cases’ and distribute it to the entire organization.  When executed, the report is filtered to only show Cases that the executing user has access to.
Most tables and views in CRM bear the same name as it is labeled in CRM yet a system customizer can rename an entity.  Case is one object out of the box that has underlying tables with a different name.  The Incident tables and views represent the Case entity in CRM.  Any custom entites you create contain the customization prefix in the table and view name as defined in the CRM System Settings.  Once the new entity is created, the supporting tables and views as I defined above are automatically created for you and no additional work is needed on the database end.
If ever you are unable to locate the tables and views that support an entity, you can locate that in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM interface.  In CRM, click “Settings” in the Wunderbar, click “Customization” in the navigation links on the top left of the screen, and then select “Customize Entities”.  Find the entity you are interested in by viewing the “Display Name” column as that represents the name used in the user interface.  The “Name” column will show you what the underlying table/view name is in the database.
When you open an entity in the CRM customization area, you can locate the 1:N, N:1, and N:N relationships for that entity in the left navigation area.  It will display the name of the foreign key id field in the related entity if you are viewing a 1:N relationship for instance.
This post should give you an idea of the database structure in Microsoft Dynamics CRM and the value it provides for reporting or other purposes.

Customer Effective Joins Elite 2010 Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle and President’s Club

Greenville, SC - - July 21, 2010 - - Customer Effective Inc., a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner focused on Microsoft Dynamics CRM, announces their appointment to the prestigious 2010 Inner Circle for Microsoft Dynamics and the President’s Club. The elite Inner Circle group includes only the most strategic Microsoft Dynamics partners from across the globe whose sales achievements rank them in the highest echelon of the Microsoft Dynamics global network of partners. Members of the Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle have performed to a high standard of excellence by delivering valuable customer solutions that help organizations achieve increased success. The President’s Club award recognizes the top five percent of Microsoft value-added resellers worldwide. This marks Customer Effective’s fourth Inner Circle and fifth President’s Club achievement.

“We’re excited to recognize Customer Effective as a leader in the Microsoft Dynamics global partner community for promoting and delivering solutions that drive customer success,” said Doug Kennedy, vice president of Microsoft Dynamics Partners. “By providing the highest level of sales and innovation, customers can have absolute assurance they are dealing with the ‘best of the best’ when working with Customer Effective.”

This recognition of the Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle and President’s Club came during the annual Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) held recently in Washington, D.C. As Microsoft’s premier partner event, WPC provides the partner community with the opportunity to learn about Microsoft’s road map for the upcoming year, establish connections, share best practices, experience the latest product innovations and learn new skills.

“We've had another very good year,” said Scott Millwood, President of Customer Effective. “Not only was it a great year for our partnership with Microsoft and our customers but for us as a company. Being named to The President’s Club and Inner Circle again is a huge honor. Our entire team is grateful for the recognition and excited for what’s to come in 2011.”

About Customer Effective

Customer Effective, with headquarters in Greenville, South Carolina, is a leading innovator in relationship management solutions based on Microsoft Dynamics Customer Relationship Management (CRM). The company is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, CRM Consultant and Solution Implementer having completed hundreds of Microsoft CRM implementations and development projects. Recent CRM and Microsoft awards include recognition as a 2010 Partner of the Year Finalist, 2009 Microsoft Dynamics Financial Services Partner of the Year, being named to the 2010 Microsoft Dynamics President’s Club, recipient of the 2010 Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle distinction and a member of the 2008 Inc. 500 list. For more information, visit www.CustomerEffective.com.

WPC 2010 News Roundup

The Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC 2010) is happening in Washington DC this week.  In case you didn’t have a chance to attend, here’s some of the biggest news coming from WPC regarding Dynamics CRM:

• Introducing Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 – the next version of CRM (aka CRM 5 or CRM.Next) has officially been named Dynamics CRM 2011. 
• CRM Online has been expanded to 40 countries and 41 languages
• The public beta of CRM 2011 will be available in September.  You can register to be notified when the beta is available.
• See the keynote from Stephen Elop, President of Microsoft Business Division.  Start watching at about the 3 hour 12 minute point.
• Dynamics CRM has 23,000 customers with 1.4 million users
• CRM 2011 will be available Online by end of this year, on premises beginning of 2011.
• Microsoft is launching an online store of Dynamics CRM solutions that will be available in September 2010.  It will be a online marketplace of solutions that you can try and buy.
• New demo vpc for CRM 4 is available for partnersource and customersource members.  Includes the portal accelerators and a tool that caches pages to increase performance

Lots of exciting stuff—we’ll have more information about CRM 2011 in the next few weeks—stay tuned.

del.icio.us Tags: Dynamics CRM 2011,Microsoft CRM,WPC 2010

Scribe vs. Biztalk

When looking at data migration or integration options, a frequent question is why should we use Scribe instead of Biztalk? Scribe has created a very detailed and unbiased white paper that compares the two solutions and explains when you should use Scribe and when you should use Biztalk. Their point about the adapters is very good--the Biztalk adapters require a fair amount of coding to implement, while the Scribe adapters provide a more complete solution for data driven integrations.

You can read more about it and download thermite paper here: http://blog.scribesoft.com/2010/07/scribe-or-biztalk-you-ask.html

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 - xRM Application Scalability Study

This paper describes the details and results of a benchmark testing effort around the multi-tenancy and xRM capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, the virtualization features of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V, and the enterprise capabilities of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 running on IBM System xSeries hardware with intelligent quad-core Intel Xeon processers and Intel SSDs. Results demonstrate a solution that can scale to support a complex enterprise solution ecosystem with multiple applications and 20,000 concurrent users, achieving discrete atomic response times of less than one second.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=7aab3172-43e2-4a88-9d05-d933962001d4