Manda QoP

I've created an installation check list for Microsoft Dynamics CRM based upon my experiences during installation and also including some of the notes from the planning guide provided by Microsoft. It's attached as a word document and you can download it from the right hand side of this page .

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1. When checking for updates you get an error. No problem, hit the back button and try again and it should work the second time. 2. It wants to install visual C++ runtime every time, this is a known issue - doesn't take too long to reinstall it each time thankfully. 3. Install thinks SQL Full Text Search is not installed - make sure you have the latest update of Dynamics CRM before installing, it's a known bug that has been fixed in a patch (of course, you should also make sure that you've started the service).

I have finally made it past the verification screen. Dynamics CRM is now installing on the virtual server. On the plus side - all this mucking around has given me a good idea of what to double and triple check before even trying to start the install. :) 1. Make sure you have a Dynamics CRM AD group setup with permissions. The network support guys really don't like letting you have access to their servers so this is a good alternative solution. Get them to set up a group and give you permissions to that. 2. Install SQL Server 2008 with everything installed. 3. Make sure IIS is installed and running 4. Make sure Windows Server is totally up to date with its patches 5. Head on in to control panel, administrative tools, services - make sure Remote Procedure Call (RPC) and Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator are both started. 6. Open SQL Server Configuration Manager - make sure all the services are started and using an account with access rights. I used NT Authority\NetworkServi

The Dynamics CRM installing is still going on.... this has to be the hardest install of software ever. It was easier installing Red Hat ten years ago. This is a completely fresh install on a nice new Windows 2003 virtual server. SQL 2008 is installed, IIS etc... basically all the requirements from the planning doc are there, I spent several days making sure they were there, and ALL services are running with the correct access rights including the full text search, but can I get past the verification screen on the CRM install? Nope. For some reason it thinks the full text search is not installed. I'm getting to the point where banging my head repeatedly against the wall may be more productive than doing this install. I'm losing a lot of time here that could be spent on other work.

This week's missions: Mission 1 Create a DynamicsCRM environment for peeps at work to play with. The plan is, 1 x virtual CRM server on Windows Server 2003 o/s, 1 x virtual SQL server (might just include that on the CRM server), 1 x virtual MOSS server (again, will include on the CRM server), 1 x virtual client that people can copy and destroy as they see fit. It's going to be hooked in to our actual domain/AD server. Still stuck on installing the server updates for the base o/s system.... could take a while this. Mission 2 Once we have signed our partner agreement, grab a copy of the CRM vpc that can be used for demos - very handily created by Microsoft so that it's all set up and ready to go with every option you could possibly think of adding to CRM. Jump on to Amazon and set up a 64-bit Windows 2008 server, stick the virtual demo on the cloud based server and see how we go running the vpc in the cloud. This one could be fun. :)

Notes from Greg Low's talk at TechEd NZ '09. Visual Studio Team System database edition has merged with developer edition Now called Visual Studio Team System: DB Pro (VSTS:DBPro) - a.k.a. 'DataDude' Released initially as SQL Server 2005 edition 2008 edition of VSTS:DBPro does NOT use SQLS 2008 database GDR release provides SQLS 2008 support GDR2 recently released T-SQL is re-parsed T-SQL parsing dlls can be incorporated into your own apps Should be more extensible in VS2010 Gives great control over database projects Project Management Model based development Team collaboration - TFS, Workitems, Tasks Change Management: SCCI source code management integration Refactoring Schema and data comparison tools Testing Database unit testing MSTest integration Automated data generation system Build/Deploy MSBuild integration Command line tools Allows for multiple inconsistent target systems Build & deploy phases have been separated All important tasks are scriptable Project