Migration Strategy for Dynamics CRM

I was asked recently to suggest what is the best strategy for Migrating medium ( 1000 + ), large (Million +) records to Dynamics CRM.

It is a complex question and relies on many things like complexity of data model and ability to perform all validations outside system. However the following things must be considered to make sure maximum through put can be achieved.

1) Do not rely on plug-ins while data in inserted.

At the time of migrating large data, it is best if SQL can work only on inserting data. If SQL needs to perform additional fetches to perform additional validations, performance will be affected. Hence to increase performance, switch off all plug-ins.

2) Turn off all workflows.

Workflows are not designed to help correct / update data during migration. It is best to make sure data is inserted first and if need be trigger workflows in batch for 1000 records at a time after data is inserted.

3) Prepare and validate data before running migration

It is critical that all data is validated before data is inserted into Dynamics CRM to make sure it meets business validations. Also, staging area needs to be setup where data is transformed in CRM like structure to easily map data as 1-to-1 for most tables for Dynamics CRM. This will make sure that a lot of complex queries are not needed during migration. It is a well known fact that if a lot of joins are needed for queries, performance will be affected.

4) Optimised servers

This is the most important factor for migration. At the end of the day it will rely on how much network bandwidth is available and how much physical grunt the servers can take at a given time. Make sure the servers are optimised for gaining better performance. There are many articles for this. Here is link to few of them for CRM 2011 but most are still relevant for 2013 and 2015:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh413200(v=crm.6).aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/en-au/download/details.aspx?id=27139


Microsoft has completed bench mark tests for migration and links for this can be found here.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/download/details.aspx?id=34688

Hope this helps!!!

CRM 2013 with Google Glass

With emerging technology it is required for the platform to keep up to date. It is great to see CRM emerge from it's IE only days to now most browser and most device enabled. Word is also to make CRM offline capable OOTB in near future.

However the topic for the day is Google Glass capability for CRM. I am pleased to see the capability built by Resco.Net. Refer to  following news release from Resco.

http://www.resco.net/news.aspx?file=2014-03-04

Exciting days ahead!!!

Error Connecting to Online instance from outlook client

Recently I could not connect to CRM 2013 online instance using CRM 2013 outlook client. I got following error:

11:03:38|  Error| Error connecting to URL: https://disco.crm.dynamics.com/XRMServices/2011/Discovery.svc Exception: Microsoft.Crm.CrmException: Logon failed due to missing credentials
   at Microsoft.Crm.Outlook.ClientAuth.PassportAuthProvider`1.SignIn()
   at Microsoft.Crm.Outlook.ClientAuth.ClientAuthProvidersFactory`1.SignIn(Uri endPoint, Credential credentials, AuthUIMode uiMode, IClientOrganizationContext context, Form parentWindow, Boolean retryOnError)
   at Microsoft.Crm.Application.Outlook.Config.DeploymentsInfo.DeploymentInfo.LoadOrganizations(AuthUIMode uiMode, Form parentWindow, Credential credentials)
   at Microsoft.Crm.Application.Outlook.Config.DeploymentsInfo.InternalLoadOrganizations(OrganizationDetailCollection orgs, AuthUIMode uiMode, Form parentWindow)

The problem is the single sign on assistant. For some reason the single sign on assistant does not install correctly and hence when we try to connect to online instance it fails.

Solution, Follow the steps given below:

1) Download the single sign on assistant from the link given below:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-au/download/details.aspx?id=28177

2) Run the download. This will prompt you for repair / remove option. Select remove.

3) After removing, run the installer again and install the single sign on assistant.

4) Reboot the machine.

This will now allow you to sign in properly and connect to CRM 2013 online instance.

Marketing Pilot with CRM 2013

Marketing Pilot will soon be released with Dynamics CRM 2013. After a lot of research found following video which displays the Marketing Pilot functionality in detail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpDjTcZyGGc&feature=player_embedded

I found this video very useful to understand what to expect in the new release. Please note the actual release may contain different functionality. The video should be good indication of what to expect but by no means contain the complete functionality.

Hope this helps.

NetBreeze release for Microsoft CRM 2013

Microsoft CRM 2013 will release NetBreeze soon. So to prepare for the release here is few reference videos and screenshots.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-yfW6vgNlQ

http://www.slideshare.net/CodeBakers/netbreeze-crm

Hope this helps.

Modify Opportunity Product inline grid

If you worked with Opportunity Product inline editable grid, you have noticed that this grid cannot be customized.

If the given in-line grid does not serve the business needs of your organisation, it is possible to revert to CRM 2011 style where the opportunity product form opens on click of add.

 

You can create a new sub-grid for opportunity product and select the relevant view for the grid. This opens the opportunity product when + sign is clicked. Please note you should hide the other grid and not delete it just in case you want to revert back to it any point of time. This is because as it is inline editable grid, the behaviour of this grid is different than other grids.

Unknown in the sitemap

If you see label like Unknown234 in the sitemap, here is how to fix this.

1) Export the CRM solution as unmanaged solution with sitemap.
2) Unzip the solution file.
3) Open customizations.xml file.
4) Navigate to Sitemap area.
5) Look for GroupId tags without ResourceId. These are the cause of Unknown in the sitemap.

6) Add relevant ResourceId and then package the solution again.
7) Import the solution.

Hope it helps.