CRM Email Router service interruption...‏

It was near to New Year and I started receiving support call from one my prestigious clients complaining that emails were not received in CRM queues since yesterday.

On further investigation I found that CRM Email Router service was stopped, I tried several times but no luck.

Later I found that CRM Email Router service was stopped due to "SystemState.Xml" file corruption. Once recovered "SystemState.Xml" file, CRM Email Router service was back to normal.

As a normal practice its advisable to backup the following files to avoid such situations.

C:\Program Files\Microsoft CRM Email\Service\Microsoft.Crm.Tools.EmailAgent.Configuration.bin
C:\Program Files\Microsoft CRM Email\Service\Microsoft.Crm.Tools.EmailAgent.SystemState.Xml

Dynamics CRM installation best practices

Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer 2.0 can help you maintain optimal system configuration by analyzing configurations of your computers against a predefined set of best practices, and reporting results of the analyses. Best practices are developed by a product development team or domain experts, and are packaged in the form of a best practice model. Models are available as separately-downloadable packages that can be run and analyzed by MBCA. MBCA lets users work with best practice models in a consistent, user-friendly way.

Good thing is you can use Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer 2.0 to find out if the installation happened based on best practices.

Related Link

White Paper on Scalable Security Modeling with Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Microsoft has recently release white paper on Scalable Security Modeling with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013, which is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center.

Reference Link

CONVERGENCE 2013 - EMEA

Microsoft is deeply committed to transforming the world of business, and Convergence gave delegates the chance to make key business connections and to discover ways to transform their own Microsoft Dynamics solution. We are energized and inspired by all that was learned this week and hope to see you again soon!

The new CRM 2013 Look and Feel

The new User Experience of CRM 2013 and CRM Online Fall ‘13 release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a milestone in moving customers to a new, delightful user experience. The reference link explains the high level overview of on-premise and online versions of the product.

Reference Link

How to identify if you are using legacy features in CRM 2011

To assist you in this effort, Microsoft has created a tool to help identifying and correcting unsupported code prior to upgrade. You can download, install, and run the tools explained below on your Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 organization to confirm.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Custom Code Validation Tool - The custom code validation tool will examine web resources and shows where there might be some problems. The issues that are flagged are either using unsupported coding processes or using the CRM 4.0 objects and functions. You can download this tool and extract the contents. Within the contents you will find instructions about how to install and use the tool.

Reference Link

Legacy Feature Check Tool - The legacy feature check tool detects and reports on server extensions in your organization that use the 2007 endpoint and legacy Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 features. These checks are also performed when you upgrade your server.

Reference Link

Prepare for the Upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013

Microsoft has a powerful vision for CRM. It is defining and delivering a connected and forward-looking enterprise - the successful enterprise of the future, an enterprise that connects its employees, partners and customers to what they need, in the right context. The upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 is the first step to realizing that potential.

I recommend reading this document to prepare your organization for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 upgrade.

Reference link

Using existing Active Directory users with CRM Online

If you have a large organization that uses Active Directory to manage your users and groups, setting up Active Directory synchronization will allow you to manage all of your CRM Online users in a central location, avoiding the need to manage multiple user accounts and passwords. In the Office 365 portal, each user record automatically includes user details such as phone number, which is populated from the corresponding user entry in Active Directory. After you assign a CRM license to a user in the Office 365 portal, the user (and all associated details) will appear within the CRM application. If the user's name or other information is updated in Active Directory, any changes will automatically propagate to CRM.

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Integration CRM and SharePoint to store contents - Part II

Once the SharePoint component for CRM has been installed properly and all the appropriate permissions have been given to intended CRM users for upload, it's time to configure which entities will take advantage of SharePoint document libraries.

Instead of writing full article and just to save the effort I'm providing link to an article on MSDN which covers the rest of the details.

Reference link: MSDN - Integration CRM and SharePoint

Integrating CRM and SharePoint to store contents - Part I

To integrate CRM 2011 and SharePoint 2010/13, your first first step is to install CRM List Component in your SharePoint (site) instance.

Once installed navigate to "Central Site Admin"in SharePoint and make sure ‘Microsoft SharePoint Sandboxed Code Service’ is started under ‘Manage services on

In Central Site Admin select the web application > site collection which will store contents (documents, images, spreadsheets, etc.) for you. Next select General Settings > General Settings from the ribbon menu and set the property  for ‘Browser File Handling’ to ‘Permissive’.

Navigate to the desired site collection, next selction Solutions from ‘Settings’. Next locate the component solution file (*.wsp) you just downloaded and upload into the solutions library.

Once uploaded ‘Activate’ the solution.

Out of scope:
Make sure you have given appropriate permissions to CRM user to upload contents in SharePoint document library.