Posted on January 15th, 2012%
Anyone who has attempted to configure Dynamics CRM 2011 with an Internet-Facing Deployment (IFD) knows that it is no trivial task. Where there are blog posts that discuss setting up an IFD, and Microsoft documentation for configuring the IFD, they often assume that ADFS and Dynamics CRM are installed on the same server, and that there is only one Dynamics CRM front-end server. Unfortunately, real-world implementations don’t always follow that.
For example, take the following configuration:
- a Dynamics CRM front-end server on the internal network, providing services to internal clients
- a Dynamics CRM front-end server in an Internet-facing zone, providing services to external clients
- a separate ADFS server accessible to internal and external clients
Dynamics CRM with IFD requires a combination of ADFS relaying party trusts and DNS configuration to get things working. One caveat with IFDs is that the internal and external host names for the Dynamics CRM front-end servers must be different because, externally, the host name includes the CRM organization name. Where, internally, you may have https://icrm.contoso.com/crm, externally you would have https://crm.contoso.com.
Let’s flesh out our sample implementation and requirements:
- icrm.contoso.com is our internal Dynamics CRM front-end server, accessible only on the internal network
- ecrm.contoso.com is our external Dynamics CRM front-end server, accessible to our internal network and the public Internet
- adfs.contoso.com is our ADFS server, accessible to our internal network and the public Internet
- We have two Dynamics CRM organizations: CRM and CRM-Test.
- We want our internal and external (public Internet) clients to access CRM using the same URLs: crm.contoso.com and crm-test.contoso.com. In other words, we don’t want the two-URL problem outlined above.
The last bit has nothing to do with Dynamics CRM: it is all done in IIS. Let me explain how. . . . → Read More: URL Rewriting for user-friendly URLs with Dynamics CRM 2011
Posted on January 13th, 2012%
Working with Dynamics CRM 2011, I started getting an error when attempting to delete a managed solution:
Error deleting a managed solution: State code or status code is invalid
State code is invalid or state code is valid but status code is invalid for a specified state code.
The ErrorDetails.txt file states the following — note the text in bold.
Unhandled Exception: System.ServiceModel.FaultException`1[[Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.OrganizationServiceFault, Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk, Version=5.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35]]: 1 is not a valid status code for state code SavedQueryState.Inactive on savedquery.Detail:
Error Code -2147187704
CallStack
at Microsoft.Crm.Extensibility.VersionedPluginProxyStepBase.Execute(PipelineExecutionContext context)
at Microsoft.Crm.Extensibility.Pipeline.Execute(PipelineExecutionContext context)
at Microsoft.Crm.Extensibility.MessageProcessor.Execute(PipelineExecutionContext context)
at Microsoft.Crm.Extensibility.InternalMessageDispatcher.Execute(PipelineExecutionContext context)
at Microsoft.Crm.Extensibility.ExternalMessageDispatcher.ExecuteInternal(IInProcessOrganizationServiceFactory serviceFactory, IPlatformMessageDispatcherFactory dispatcherFactory, String messageName, String requestName, Int32 primaryObjectTypeCode, Int32 secondaryObjectTypeCode, ParameterCollection fields, CorrelationToken correlationToken, CallerOriginToken originToken, UserAuth userAuth, Guid callerId, Guid transactionContextId, Int32 invocationSource, Nullable`1 requestId, Version endpointVersion)
at Microsoft.Crm.Extensibility.OrganizationSdkServiceInternal.ExecuteRequest(OrganizationRequest request, CorrelationToken correlationToken, CallerOriginToken callerOriginToken, WebServiceType serviceType)
at Microsoft.Crm.Extensibility.OrganizationSdkServiceInternal.Execute(OrganizationRequest request, CorrelationToken correlationToken, CallerOriginToken callerOriginToken, WebServiceType serviceType)
This error came about after we marked some of the out-of-the-box views as Inactive (like “Accounts: Responded to Campaigns in Last 6 Months”). Looking at the database, the . . .
→ Read More: Fixing ‘State code or status code is invalid’ errors when deleting solutions in Dynamics CRM 2011
Posted on November 4th, 2011%
In a recent deployment of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, users were accessing the application via the server’s host name, e.g. https://crmserver01.company.com. That is rather unfriendly, so we created a new DNS record for crm.company.com — giving users the easier-to-remember https://crm.company.com (and removing a dependency on a server name).
Unfortunately, authenticating to https://crm.company.com didn’t work for Internet Explorer users. IE would prompt for the credentials, but they were never accepted. Authentication did work for other browsers, and all browsers — including IE — were able to authenticate to https://crmserver01.company.com without issue.
This didn’t make sense. The domain name of the server shouldn’t matter (both were in IE’s Local Intranet Zone), nor should the browser version. But the different experience between browsers was all I had to go on, so I did some (network) sniffing.
Using Fiddler2 to monitor the network traffic created by web browsers, I opened Firefox and connected to http://crm.company.com (no SSL, so it’s easier to monitor network traffic). Firefox . . .
→ Read More: Troubleshooting Windows Authentication in IIS
Posted on August 15th, 2011%
While working on migrating data from a legacy CRM system to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 using Scribe Insight, I decided to set the owner of all migrated entities to a specific team (rather than the default, which is the Dynamics user specified in the Scribe connection). To do this seemingly would require one simple steps: to look up the GUID of the team, and set the value of the Dynamics CRM “ownerid” to that value.
To set the “ownerid” I used the DBLOOKUP command to look up the team by name, and return the teamid: DBLOOKUP( “MyTeamName”, “CRM”, “team”, “name”, “teamid” ). This worked fine, but on its own, Dynamics threw an error, saying that the GUID wasn’t valid.
The problem lies in how Dynamics manages owners: an owner can be a user or a team. The owner of an entity is assumed to be a user unless you change the “owneridtype” field, which is visible in Scribe but is not . . .
→ Read More: Setting the entity owner to a team using Scribe Insight and Dynamics CRM 2011
Posted on August 12th, 2011%
“Microsoft Dynamics CustomerSource is an information-packed, password-protected site for customers who use Microsoft Dynamics products.” (Microsoft’s words, not mine.) I decided to use this information-packed, password-protected site to get my recently purchased product keys for Dynamics CRM 2011.
Below is a summary of my experience.
First, I go to the Product & Service summary page on the My Account page.
Then, I click on Registration Keys.
Then, I choose the appropriate version (2011) and upgrade option (No) and get the following message: “The keys you are trying are of Volume license, hence they will not be shown from MBS.” (I have no idea what MBS is.)
Frustrated, I try getting support by clicking the support link on the “Contact Dynamics Operations” page.
Which yields a very unhelpful support page that tells me, “Our apologies…An unexpected error occurred.” At least they are apologetic.
Despairingly, I click the ROC Contact Information at the bottom of the page (I have no idea . . .
→ Read More: An exercise in frustration: Getting product keys and support using the Microsoft Dynamics CustomerSource web site
|
|
