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Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Reporting Extension (SRS Data Connector) Installation Service Account Warning

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Reporting Extensions, previously known as the SRS Data Connector, will sometimes return an error message during installation that is intended to be a warning, not an error. The message that you see is ‘A Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server component is using the same account as the instance of SQL Server Reporting Services.’

There are several conditions which will provoke this message

· A Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server 2011 component is installed on the computer where Microsoft Dynamics CRM Connector for SQL Server Reporting Services Setup is being run.

· The SQL Server Reporting Services account is a member of the Active Directory SQLAccessGroup security group. This can occur when the Reporting Services is running under the same account as another Microsoft Dynamics CRM component.

· All Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server 2011 components, SQL Server, and Reporting Services are installed on a computer that is running Microsoft Windows Server Small Business Edition where Microsoft Dynamics CRM Connector for SQL Server Reporting Services Setup is being run.

· The SQL Server Reporting Services account is set as "Local Service."

To get around this error, follow the steps below. Once this is completed, you will still see the error message however the ‘Next’ button will be available and you can continue with the installation. This does require a registry setting change, so it is recommended that the registry be backed up PRIOR to making any changes. One thing to note before using this, if you change this key on your CRM server, any checks that are supposed to take place during the CRM installation will also be ignored. This should only be used with great care and turned off after the Reporting Extensions installation is completed. Failure to do so may result in checks being ignored during other installations and could have negative consequences.

1. Close the installer window

2. Find the MSCRM key in the HKLM\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT directory

3. If the MSCRM key does not exist, create it in the HKLM\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT directory

4. Once you have the key, create a new DWORD value named IgnoreChecks and set the value to 1

5. Launch the installer and follow its instructions. When you get to the environment checks the ‘Next’ button will be available.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Email Router Throws 5.7.1 Client Could Not be Authenticated When Sending Emails

I was working on a 2011 upgrade and came across an issue when running the Email Router on a Windows Server 2008 R2 machine. I installed the router with no issues, but when someone sent an email it failed. The following message was in the event viewer of the machine the router was installed on:

‘5.7.1 – Client could not be authenticated.’

During our troubleshooting, we found that the Email Router worked on a Windows Server 2008 machine with no Exchange authentication challenges. A Network Monitor trace confirmed the authentication challenge on the Windows Server 2008 R2 machine as an Exchange challenge. Research confirmed that Exchange 2007 was setup to accept anonymous users.

The solution to this was to set the authentication method to ‘Anonymous’ in the email router configuration manager. On the Windows Server 2008 machine, the authentication method was set to ‘Windows Authentication,’ however there is a conflict when sending authentication from a Windows Server 2008 R2 machine to an Exchange Server 2007 environment which is configured to accept anonymous users. It is also important to note that in this particular environment the Exchange server as well as the server with the Email Router are on the same network.

Top Five Tips for Troubleshooting Generic SQL Error Messages in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

When working with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, you may occasionally see an error message that says “A SQL Server error occurred.  Try this action again.  If the problem continues, check the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Community for solutions or contact your organization’s Microsoft Dynamics CRM Administrator.”

When you get these error messages, you will want to focus your troubleshooting on the database level.  The following are five of the most common causes of these SQL errors, and good things to check when troubleshooting these types of issues:

1.  Check the event log on both CRM and SQL servers.  The event log will typically give you a more detailed error message that will help you troubleshoot the issue more precisely.

2.  Check the SQL server--are you low on disk space on the SQL server, or are there possibly limits to how much your Microsoft CRM database (*_MSCRM) can grow?

Even if you are on CRM online, this may be applicable--at one time I received generic SQL errors with CRM Online, and it turned out there was a limit on the amount of growth on our database at the Microsoft hosting center.  Call Microsoft support if this is the case.

3.  Increase the OLEDBTIMEOUT registry setting (or create it if it doesn't exist).  See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918609 for more details.

4.  Are there any unsupported database hacks like triggers that are running on the base tables, or are there any integration processes reading or writing to CRM that could be creating database locks?  These are the kind of things that can create generic errors in CRM, especially if they are “unsupported.”

5.  Are there any big/complex reports being run at the time you got the errors, or reports reading from CRM views or tables without "with (nolock)?"  These can cause database locks and result in SQL errors in CRM.