Create, install, and update a managed solution
This topic applies to Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (on-premises). For the Power Apps version of this topic, see: Create, install, and update a managed solution.
You create a managed solution by exporting an unmanaged solution as a managed solution. The organizations that use your managed solution will install it and any updates that you create for it.
More information: Use solutions for your customizations.
Create a managed solution
Before you can create a managed solution you must first create an unmanaged solution. For more information about how to create an unmanaged solution, see Create an unmanaged solution.
You create a managed solution by selecting the Managed option in the Package Type dialog box when exporting the solution.
A managed solution only includes any customizable solution components that have been customized. Not only does this prevent unintentionally changing existing solution components on the system where the solution is installed, it also keeps the size of the managed solution smaller.
Before the final step of creating a managed solution, you must decide whether there are any customization capabilities that you do not want to allow people who install your managed solution to perform. Each solution component contains a set of managed properties that control which customization capabilities you want to allow. The default settings allow all customization capabilities. More information: Using Managed Properties
You can create a managed solution programmatically by using the ExportSolutionRequest message. More information: Export or Package a Solution
Important
You should not import a managed solution back into the organization you used to create it.
Install a managed solution
You install a managed solution in the same way you import an unmanaged solution. The difference is in how the solution has been packaged.
Important
Installing a solution or publishing customizations can interfere with normal system operation. We recommend that you schedule solution imports when it's least disruptive to users.
If the solution did not import successfully, you can click Download Log in the dialog box to download a report that will provide information about errors that occurred that prevented successful import of the managed solution. This file is an XML document configured to be opened by using Office Excel.
You can import or update a managed solution programmatically by using the ImportSolutionRequest message. When using this message, you can request a reference to an ImportJob
entity record that will include details about the success of the import. More information: Install or Upgrade a Solution
The ImportSolutionRequest can be called using the ExecuteAsyncRequest. More information: Use ExecuteAsync to execute messages asynchronously
There are limits to the size of a solution you can install. More information: Maximum size of solution to import
Update a managed solution
When you install a managed solution that already exists in the organization, the import solution dialog will provide the following options:
Maintain customizations (recommended)
This option maintains any unmanaged customizations performed on components, but also implies that some of the updates included in this solution will not take effect.
Overwrite customizations
This option overwrites any unmanaged customizations previously performed on components included in this solution. All updates included in this solution will take effect.
Note
You may want to direct people who install your managed solution to use the Overwrite customizations option when investigating issues where the customizations conflict with the behavior of your solutions. They should always export their unmanaged solutions first so that they can re-apply them if they need to.
See also
Package and Distribute Extensions with Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (on-premises) Solution
Introduction to Solutions
Planning for Solution Development
Solution Components and Dependency Tracking
Create, Export, or Import an Unmanaged Solution
Uninstall or Delete a solution
Customization Solutions File Schema