Microsoft CRM Support Tools Info

Good Bye

MSDN Archive — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 03:40:11 GMT

Hi all,

This is to let you know it will be my last post on this blog.

I’m leaving Microsoft and the Microsoft CRM business for now and will work for another Software Editor.

If you want to keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter :

You can view my profile on LinkedIn below and add me to your professional network:

I’ll update my profile on LinkedIn as soon as possible.

CrmDiagTool will be maintained by the Microsoft CRM Support Team from now on.

Take care!

Benjamin LECOQ

Plug-In Sample to map Address Information between Account and related Contact

MSDN Archive — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:00:05 GMT

Mapping streamlines data entry when a user creates new records that are associated with another record. When an entity has a relationship with another entity, you can create new related entity records from the associated view visible on the primary entity. When the user creates a new record from an associated view, mapped data from the primary entity record is copied to the form for the new related entity record. You control what data is copied by adding new mappings in the relationship between the two entities. If a record is created any way other than from the associated view of the primary entity, data is not mapped. Notice that if there are multiple relationships between the same pair of entities, there is only one entity map. This map will have to be used for mapping fields for both relationships.

For example, you might want to set up a mapping between the address fields in accounts and the address fields in contacts so that when a user adds a contact associated with a specific account, the address fields for the contact are filled in automatically.

You can map one attribute to multiple target attributes. For example, you can map address information in an account to both the billing and shipping addresses in an order.

Mapping only applies just before a new record is created from an associated view. A user can make changes the record is saved, and changes that are made later to the data in the primary record are not applied to the related record.

The below plug-in assembly will keep the data synchronized on subsequent updates. So now data mapping will work not only when you create the child record the first time but also whenever you update the attributes in the parent record the attributes on the child record will be updated.

Default Account Address:

Default related contact address

Basically the contact will inherit the parent account address due to the mapping between the account and contact entity.

This will only take effect the first time you create a contact from the account form.

Account address updated

Account address is updated which fired the post-update plug-in

Related contact address updated

Account post-update plug-in will update the contact address with the same value of the account address

Registration Information:

     <Register LogFile="Plug-in Registration Log.txt" Server="http://sqlcrmsrv:5555" Org="DIC" Domain="frachkid" UserName="crmadmin">

      <Solution SourceType="1" Assembly="AccountContactAddressMapping.dll" Id="95dff72c-3f13-446e-a6e2-fec942e5f34a">

        <PluginTypes>

          <Plugin TypeName="AccountContactAddressMapping.AddressMapping" FriendlyName="0843af34-f381-45e1-974d-1fa8fd722c03" Id="9bcab9d4-9912-4bc7-a364-a1461c77a1ef">

            <Steps>

              <Step PluginTypeName="AccountContactAddressMapping.AddressMapping" PluginTypeFriendlyName="0843af34-f381-45e1-974d-1fa8fd722c03" CustomConfiguration="" SecureConfiguration="" Description="Update of account in Parent Pipeline" FilteringAttributes="" ImpersonatingUserId="" InvocationSource="0" MessageName="Update" Mode="0" PrimaryEntityName="account" SecondaryEntityName="none" Stage="50" SupportedDeployment="0" Rank="1" Id="efea63e6-f0cd-de11-864c-00155dcd1a24">

                <Images>

                  <Image EntityAlias="preEntityImageXml" ImageType="0" MessagePropertyName="Target" Attributes="" Id="f9802df3-f0cd-de11-864c-00155dcd1a24" />

                  <Image EntityAlias="postEntityImageXml" ImageType="1" MessagePropertyName="Target" Attributes="" Id="2040d802-f1cd-de11-864c-00155dcd1a24" />

                Images>

              Step>

            Steps>

          Plugin>

        PluginTypes>

      Solution>

    Register>

Source code of the plug-in assembly:

    using System;

    using System.Collections.Generic;

    using System.Text;

    using System.Web.Services.Protocols;

    using Microsoft.Crm.Sdk;

    using Microsoft.Crm.Sdk.Query;

    using Microsoft.Crm.SdkTypeProxy;

    namespace AccountContactAddressMapping

    {

        //Message: Update

        //Primary Entity: Account

        //Stage: Post Stage

        //Execution Mode: Synchronous

        //Deployment: Server

        //Pipeline: Parent Pipeline

        public class AddressMapping : IPlugin

        {

            public void Execute(IPluginExecutionContext context)

            {

                try

                {

                    DynamicEntity entity = null;

                    if (context.InputParameters.Properties.Contains(ParameterName.Target)

                        && context.InputParameters.Properties[ParameterName.Target] is DynamicEntity

                        && context.MessageName.Equals("Update"))

                    {

                        entity = (DynamicEntity)context.InputParameters.Properties[ParameterName.Target];

                        if (entity.Name.Equals("account"))

                        {

                            //Getting all the address attribute values before the update

                            DynamicEntity preEntityImage = null;

                            preEntityImage = (DynamicEntity)context.PreEntityImages.Properties["preEntityImageXml"];

                            string pre_address1_name = (string)preEntityImage.Properties["address1_name"];

                            string pre_address1_line1 = (string)preEntityImage.Properties["address1_line1"];

                            string pre_address1_line2 = (string)preEntityImage.Properties["address1_line2"];

                            string pre_address1_line3 = (string)preEntityImage.Properties["address1_line3"];

                            string pre_address1_city = (string)preEntityImage.Properties["address1_city"];

                            string pre_address1_stateorprovince = (string)preEntityImage.Properties["address1_stateorprovince"];

                            string pre_address1_postalcode = (string)preEntityImage.Properties["address1_postalcode"];

                            string pre_address1_country = (string)preEntityImage.Properties["address1_country"];

                            //Getting all the address attribute values after the update

                            DynamicEntity postEntityImage = null;

                            postEntityImage = (DynamicEntity)context.PostEntityImages.Properties["postEntityImageXml"];

                            string post_address1_name = (string)postEntityImage.Properties["address1_name"];

                            string post_address1_line1 = (string)postEntityImage.Properties["address1_line1"];

                            string post_address1_line2 = (string)postEntityImage.Properties["address1_line2"];

                            string post_address1_line3 = (string)postEntityImage.Properties["address1_line3"];

                            string post_address1_city = (string)postEntityImage.Properties["address1_city"];

                            string post_address1_stateorprovince = (string)postEntityImage.Properties["address1_stateorprovince"];

                            string post_address1_postalcode = (string)postEntityImage.Properties["address1_postalcode"];

                            string post_address1_country = (string)postEntityImage.Properties["address1_country"];

                            //Getting the account GUID

                            Key accountKey = (Key)postEntityImage.Properties["accountid"];

                            Guid accountid = accountKey.Value;

                            //Creating a CrmService using the plug-in context

                            ICrmService service = context.CreateCrmService(true);

                            //Finding all contacts that belong to ths account

                            QueryByAttribute accountContacts = new QueryByAttribute();

                            accountContacts.ColumnSet = new AllColumns();

                            accountContacts.EntityName = EntityName.contact.ToString();

                            accountContacts.Attributes = new string[] { "parentcustomerid" };

                            accountContacts.Values = new string[] { accountid.ToString() };

                            BusinessEntityCollection contacts = service.RetrieveMultiple(accountContacts);

                            //Updating contacts with the new address of the account

                            foreach (BusinessEntity b_entity in contacts.BusinessEntities)

                            {

                                contact c_contact = (contact)b_entity;

                                if (!post_address1_name.Equals(pre_address1_name))

                                {

                                    c_contact.address1_name = post_address1_name;

                                }

                                if (!post_address1_line1.Equals(pre_address1_line1))

                                {

                                    c_contact.address1_line1 = post_address1_line1;

                                }

                                if (!post_address1_line2.Equals(pre_address1_line2))

                                {

                                    c_contact.address1_line2 = post_address1_line2;

                                }

                                if (!post_address1_line3.Equals(pre_address1_line3))

                                {

                                    c_contact.address1_line3 = post_address1_line3;

                                }

                                if (!post_address1_city.Equals(pre_address1_city))

                                {

                                    c_contact.address1_city = post_address1_city;

                                }

                                if (!post_address1_stateorprovince.Equals(pre_address1_stateorprovince))

                                {

                                    c_contact.address1_stateorprovince = post_address1_stateorprovince;

                                }

                                if (!post_address1_postalcode.Equals(pre_address1_postalcode))

                                {

                                    c_contact.address1_postalcode = post_address1_postalcode;

                                }

                                if (!post_address1_country.Equals(pre_address1_country))

                                {

                                    c_contact.address1_country = post_address1_country;

                                }

                                //Executing the update method

                                service.Update(c_contact);

                            }

                        }

                    }

                }

                catch (SoapException soapex)

                {

                    throw new InvalidPluginExecutionException("Plugin Exception", soapex);

                }

            }

        }

    }

Hope you’ll find this usefull.

Kind regards

Benjamin LECOQ (Code by Fouad Rachkidi)

CrmDiagTool4 (Update v4.0.7333.10)

MSDN Archive — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:48:00 GMT

Hi all,

Please update your copy.

Changes:

There was a bug in the [Server] SQL table information. The tool pickup a random server and this was a problem on multiple server configurations.
Now the query is specified in order to match the information we retrieve in SQL with the current CRM Server we execute the tool on.

So we can compare the SQL output AND the registry output when troubleshooting.

I added UAC support so that CrmDiagTool will be executed with elevated privileges on Windows 2008 (shall prevent some crash issues when enabling platform traces)

Also removed irrelevant tests when tool running on Windows 2008

Removed c:\boot.ini output
Removed aspnet_regiis.exe –lk output (does not work)

This one was generating a lot of garbage data in the log file as it returns the aspnet_regiis.exe HELP text when it fails :-(

Also it outputs now the BUILD of CrmDiagTool4 with which the report was generating to avoid confusions and MAKE SURE customer did update the tool.

You’ll see something like this at the very beginning:

----------------CRM Diagnostic Tool Report----------------Build: 4.0.7333.10

Cheers

Benjamin LECOQ
CRM Escalation Engineer

Plug-In Sample to Synchronize Customization between Organizations

MSDN Archive — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:37:00 GMT

Hi all,

Here is a new Plug-In Sample proposition from my colleague Fouad Rachkidi:

- Scenario is having 2 or more organizations

- These organizations can be for testing, development, acceptance…

- You make schema customization on 1 organization and once you select “Publish All Customizations” the plug-in will be fired

- The plug-in will make a backup of the customization using the export message and a copy will be saved to disk (You can also make the backup before the publish is done Pre-PublishAll message)

- The exported file will be imported into a different organization using the import message

- Eventually both organizations will have the same schema, the plug-in is synchronizing any schema changes between the organizations.

Plug-In Registration Details:

<Register LogFile="Plug-in Registration Log.txt" Server="http://sqlcrmsrv:5555" Org="Acceptance" Domain="frachkid" UserName="crmadmin">  <Solution SourceType="1" Assembly="ExportPublishImport.dll" Id="f6ec33d5-18f5-45d2-995c-bba5fda12443">    <PluginTypes>      <Plugin TypeName="ExportPublishImport.PluginClass" FriendlyName="c0f48c56-eeb5-48da-9bf0-c435ad4ddd14" Id="531f2c4a-7843-4bbe-af0d-33148bfea8a2">        <Steps>          <Step PluginTypeName="ExportPublishImport.PluginClass" PluginTypeFriendlyName="c0f48c56-eeb5-48da-9bf0-c435ad4ddd14" CustomConfiguration="" SecureConfiguration="" Description="PublishAll of none in Parent Pipeline" FilteringAttributes="" ImpersonatingUserId="" InvocationSource="0" MessageName="PublishAll" Mode="0" PrimaryEntityName="none" SecondaryEntityName="none" Stage="50" SupportedDeployment="0" Rank="1" Id="3ca8b544-bfce-de11-864c-00155dcd1a24">            <Images />          Step>        Steps>      Plugin>    PluginTypes>  Solution>Register>

Plug-In Source Code:

using System;using System.Collections.Generic;using System.Text;using System.Web.Services.Protocols;using System.IO; using Microsoft.Crm.Sdk;using Microsoft.Crm.SdkTypeProxy; using ExportPublishImport.ProductionCrmService; namespace ExportPublishImport{    //Message: PublishAll    //Primary Entity: None    //Stage: Post     //Mode: Synchronous    //Pipeline: Parent    public class PluginClass : IPlugin    {        public void Execute(IPluginExecutionContext context)        {            try            {                if (context.MessageName.Equals("PublishAll"))                {                    //Exporting all customizations from test organization                    ICrmService service = context.CreateCrmService(true);                    Microsoft.Crm.SdkTypeProxy.ExportCompressedAllXmlRequest exportRequest =                         new Microsoft.Crm.SdkTypeProxy.ExportCompressedAllXmlRequest();                    exportRequest.EmbeddedFileName = "All_CRM_Customizations.xml";                     Microsoft.Crm.SdkTypeProxy.ExportCompressedAllXmlResponse exportResponse =                        (Microsoft.Crm.SdkTypeProxy.ExportCompressedAllXmlResponse)                        service.Execute(exportRequest);                     byte[] compressedXml = exportResponse.ExportCompressedXml;                     //Saving a backup copy                     using (FileStream fs = new FileStream(@"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics CRM\Customizations_Backup\AllCrmCustomizations.zip", FileMode.Create))                    {                        fs.Write(compressedXml, 0, compressedXml.Length);                        fs.Close();                    }                     //Importing customization into a different organization                    ProductionCrmService.CrmAuthenticationToken token = new ProductionCrmService.CrmAuthenticationToken();                    token.AuthenticationType = 0;                    token.OrganizationName = "Production";                     ProductionCrmService.CrmService crmService = new ProductionCrmService.CrmService();                    crmService.CrmAuthenticationTokenValue = token;                    crmService.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;                    crmService.Timeout = 1000000;                     ProductionCrmService.ImportCompressedAllXmlRequest importRequest =                        new ProductionCrmService.ImportCompressedAllXmlRequest();                     importRequest.CompressedCustomizationXml = compressedXml;                     ProductionCrmService.ImportCompressedAllXmlResponse importResponse =                        (ProductionCrmService.ImportCompressedAllXmlResponse) crmService.Execute(importRequest);                }            }            catch (SoapException soapex)            {                throw new InvalidPluginExecutionException(soapex.Detail.InnerText);            }            catch (IOException ioex)            {                throw new InvalidPluginExecutionException(ioex.Message);            }        }    }}

Hope you’ll find this useful.

Regards

-Ben

Cross Organization Contact Synchronization Plug-In Sample

MSDN Archive — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:05:00 GMT

Hi all

My colleague Fouad Rachkidi (CRM Escalation Engineer) who already posted another sample on this blog, created today a Pug-In which can allow you to create/update Contact across multiple Organization.

Ex: You created Contact1 in Org1, it gets automatically created in Org2.

It does also work on Updates of course, here are all the details and code.

Plugin Registration Information:

Plugin Registration XML:

<Register LogFile="Plug-in Registration Log.txt" Server="http://sqlcrmsrv:5555" Org="Org1" Domain="frachkid" UserName="crmadmin">  <Solution SourceType="1" Assembly="IntegrationPlugin.dll" Id="3290a2ae-b3c0-4e13-a89d-605e9c58a5fd">    <PluginTypes>      <Plugin TypeName="IntegrationPlugin.IntegrationClass" FriendlyName="7a38185e-afd4-400a-b651-135783c44505" Id="48d50154-3ee5-4441-aca5-e52af2a5da82">        <Steps>          <Step PluginTypeName="IntegrationPlugin.IntegrationClass" PluginTypeFriendlyName="7a38185e-afd4-400a-b651-135783c44505" CustomConfiguration="" SecureConfiguration="" Description="Update of contact in Parent Pipeline" FilteringAttributes="" ImpersonatingUserId="" InvocationSource="0" MessageName="Update" Mode="1" PrimaryEntityName="contact" SecondaryEntityName="none" Stage="50" SupportedDeployment="0" Rank="1" Id="e47a6698-c7c2-de11-895a-00155dcd1a24">            <Images>              <Image EntityAlias="preEnityImageXml" ImageType="0" MessagePropertyName="Target" Attributes="" Id="41b818ab-c7c2-de11-895a-00155dcd1a24" />              <Image EntityAlias="postEnityImageXml" ImageType="1" MessagePropertyName="Target" Attributes="" Id="157ae5b4-c7c2-de11-895a-00155dcd1a24" />            Images>          Step>          <Step PluginTypeName="IntegrationPlugin.IntegrationClass" PluginTypeFriendlyName="7a38185e-afd4-400a-b651-135783c44505" CustomConfiguration="" SecureConfiguration="" Description="Create of contact in Parent Pipeline" FilteringAttributes="" ImpersonatingUserId="" InvocationSource="0" MessageName="Create" Mode="1" PrimaryEntityName="contact" SecondaryEntityName="none" Stage="50" SupportedDeployment="0" Rank="1" Id="a9cfab49-cac2-de11-895a-00155dcd1a24">            <Images />          Step>        Steps>      Plugin>    PluginTypes>  Solution>Register>

Creating a new Contact in Org1….

Contact created successfully in Org1…

Same contact created in Org2 by the integration plugin.

Now updating contact in Org1…

Same contact in Org2 updated by the plugin.

Plug-In Source Code :

using System;using System.Collections.Generic;using System.Text; using IntegrationPlugin.Org1CrmSdk; //Web proxy for Org1 CrmServiceusing IntegrationPlugin.Org2CrmSdk; //Web proxy for Org2 CrmService using Microsoft.Crm.Sdk;using Microsoft.Crm.SdkTypeProxy; //This sample code provide integration between 2 organizations hosted on the same CRM server//Org1 and Org2//Creating a contact in Org1 will fire the IntegrationPlugin and the same contact is created in Org2//Updating a contact in Org1 will fire the IntegrationPlugin and the same contact is updated in Org2//This is only for demostation purposes of course the sample code can be extended further to add further integration requirements//Also other entities can implement the same plug-in concept namespace IntegrationPlugin{    public class IntegrationClass : IPlugin    {        public void Execute(IPluginExecutionContext context)        {            try            {                //    Message: Create                //    Primary Entity: contact                //    Sate: Post Stage                //    Mode: Asynchronous                //    Pipeline: Parent                //    Deployment: Server                if (context.InputParameters.Properties.Contains(ParameterName.Target)                    && context.InputParameters.Properties[ParameterName.Target] is Microsoft.Crm.Sdk.DynamicEntity                    && context.MessageName.Equals("Create"))                {                    Microsoft.Crm.Sdk.DynamicEntity entity = null;                     entity = (Microsoft.Crm.Sdk.DynamicEntity)                        context.InputParameters.Properties[ParameterName.Target];                     if (entity.Name == Microsoft.Crm.SdkTypeProxy.EntityName.contact.ToString())                    {                        if (context.OutputParameters.Properties.Contains(ParameterName.Id))                        {                            //Retrieving the contactId of the contact created in Org1                            Guid org1ContactId =                                new Guid(context.OutputParameters.Properties[ParameterName.Id].ToString());                             //Creating a Token for Org1                            Org1CrmSdk.CrmAuthenticationToken org1Token = new Org1CrmSdk.CrmAuthenticationToken();                            org1Token.AuthenticationType = 0;                            org1Token.OrganizationName = "Org1";                             //Creating an instance of the CrmService for Org1                            Org1CrmSdk.CrmService org1CrmService = new Org1CrmSdk.CrmService();                            org1CrmService.CrmAuthenticationTokenValue = org1Token;                            org1CrmService.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;                             //Retriving the contact details from Org1                            Org1CrmSdk.contact org1Contact = (Org1CrmSdk.contact)                                org1CrmService.Retrieve(Org1CrmSdk.EntityName.contact.ToString(), org1ContactId, new Org1CrmSdk.AllColumns());                             //Creating a Token for Org2                            Org2CrmSdk.CrmAuthenticationToken org2Token = new Org2CrmSdk.CrmAuthenticationToken();                            org2Token.AuthenticationType = 0;                            org2Token.OrganizationName = "Org2";                             //Creating an instance of the CrmService for Org2                            Org2CrmSdk.CrmService org2CrmService = new Org2CrmSdk.CrmService();                            org2CrmService.CrmAuthenticationTokenValue = org2Token;                            org2CrmService.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;                             //Setting the details for the contact in Org2 based on the details of Org1 contact                            Org2CrmSdk.contact org2Contact = new Org2CrmSdk.contact();                            org2Contact.firstname = org1Contact.firstname;                            org2Contact.lastname = org1Contact.lastname;                                                        //Creating the contact in Org2                            Guid org2ConactId = org2CrmService.Create(org2Contact);                             //Update contact in Org1 with the GUID of contact created in Org2                            //Synch concept between the 2 contacts.                            //We have a custom attribute so store the GUID                            org1Contact.new_org2contactid = org2ConactId.ToString();                            org1CrmService.Update(org1Contact);                        }                    }                }                //    Message: Update                //    Primary Entity: contact                //    Sate: Post Stage                //    Mode: Asynchronous                //    Pipeline: Parent                //    Deployment: Server                else if (context.InputParameters.Properties.Contains(ParameterName.Target)                    && context.InputParameters.Properties[ParameterName.Target] is Microsoft.Crm.Sdk.DynamicEntity                    && context.MessageName.Equals("Update"))                {                    //Preupdate image of the firstname and lastname                    Microsoft.Crm.Sdk.DynamicEntity preEntityImage = null;                    preEntityImage = (Microsoft.Crm.Sdk.DynamicEntity)context.PreEntityImages.Properties["preEnityImageXml"];                    string preFirstName = (string)preEntityImage.Properties["firstname"];                    string preLastName = (string)preEntityImage.Properties["lastname"];                     //Postupdate image of the firstname and lastname                    Microsoft.Crm.Sdk.DynamicEntity postEntityImage = null;                    postEntityImage = (Microsoft.Crm.Sdk.DynamicEntity)context.PostEntityImages.Properties["postEnityImageXml"];                    string postFirstName = (string)postEntityImage.Properties["firstname"];                    string postLastName = (string)postEntityImage.Properties["lastname"];                    string org2ContactId = (string)postEntityImage.Properties["new_org2contactid"];                     //Creating a Token for Org2                    Org2CrmSdk.CrmAuthenticationToken org2Token = new Org2CrmSdk.CrmAuthenticationToken();                    org2Token.AuthenticationType = 0;                    org2Token.OrganizationName = "Org2";                     //Creating an instance of the CrmService for Org2                    Org2CrmSdk.CrmService org2CrmService = new Org2CrmSdk.CrmService();                    org2CrmService.CrmAuthenticationTokenValue = org2Token;                    org2CrmService.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;                     //Setting the details for the contact in Org2                    Org2CrmSdk.contact org2Contact = new Org2CrmSdk.contact();                    org2Contact.contactid = new IntegrationPlugin.Org2CrmSdk.Key();                    org2Contact.contactid.Value = new Guid(org2ContactId);                    if (!postFirstName.Equals(preFirstName))                        org2Contact.firstname = postFirstName;                    if (!postLastName.Equals(preLastName))                        org2Contact.lastname = postLastName;                                        //Update contact in Org2                    org2CrmService.Update(org2Contact);                }            }            catch (System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException soapex)            {                throw new InvalidPluginExecutionException("An error occurred in IntegrationPlugin", soapex);            }        }        }}

Hope this helps

Benjamin LECOQ (Code & Idea by Fouad Rachkidi)

Automatic Fix-It tool for KB968793 (Post UR installation changes)

MSDN Archive — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 08:44:00 GMT

Hi all,

The other day I installed UR6 on my box and hit this problem.
I found it annoying to go an modify my web.config myself. Also I remember many customers & partners hit this too. So.. I decided to create a tool to make it automatically.

Here is the interface:

How it works?

Well, the tool comes with an XML file containing the needed entries as specified in the KB.

There are 5 entries today in this file.

It offers two buttons, one for addition, one for removal and a status bar to notify the user about success/failure and the amount of entries modified.
Addition is safe and prevent any DUPLICATE problems. The tool compare the content of the Web.Config file and the content of the provided XML and perform a smart merge.
If entries are already there, the tool does nothing. If only one is needed, it will add this one, etc……

Same for removal, we will remove only the entries present in the provided XML.

Features:

Two buttons for addition or removal
Flexible tool (if one of the next CRM Update Rollup needs more authtypes, we can simply add them in the XML provided with the tool, no code change is required)
Safe :
- it’s not possible to create duplicate entries when performing the addition. It’s not possible to remove un-wanted entries.
- Before any action (add/remove) a backup file of the current web.config is created and restored In case of any exception.
More information button is redirecting you to the URL of the KB article.

Download:

Download CrmKB968793FixIt.zip from here, or go to the Download Page mentioned in the side column of this blog.

Usage:

Unzip the content of the archive anywhere locally on the CRM Server and execute the tool.

Archive content:

MissingAuthTypes.xml
CrmKB968793FixIt.exe

It’s possible in the near future that this will be integrated as a fix-it tool within the related KB article.
We are also check in front of the developer responsible for creating the UR installers to see if we can integrate this.

Kind Regards

Benjamin LECOQ

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 E-Mail Router unexpectedly stalls

MSDN Archive — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 06:09:00 GMT

Hi all,

It can happen that for no apparent reason the E-Mail Router sometimes stops working and you can receive the following error in the E-Mail Router machine Application Log:

#26234 - The E-mail Router service could not process a provider work item using assembly:Microsoft.Crm.Tools.EmailProviders.dll and class: Microsoft.Crm.Tools.Email.Providers.ExchangePollingMailboxProvider.System.Threading.ThreadAbortException: Thread was being aborted.at Microsoft.Crm.Tools.Email.Agent.ServiceCore.ExecuteProviderWork(Object providerQueueRequestObject)

#14494 - A provider work item using assembly: Microsoft.Crm.Tools.EmailProviders.dll and class: Microsoft.Crm.Tools.Email.Providers.ExchangePollingMailboxProviderhas been aborted because it has been running for longer than the allowed execution time. This behavior may occur when there is a problem with the network or because the e-mail server is busy.Verify that you can log on to the e-mail server by using an e-mail application that uses the account specified for the E-mail Router.

#26090 - An error occurred while opening mailbox crmemail@contoso.com. System.Net.WebException: The operation has timed outat System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetRequestStream()at Microsoft.Crm.Tools.Email.Providers.HttpDavRequest.SubmitXmlCommand(HttpWebRequest httpWebRequest, String body)at Microsoft.Crm.Tools.Email.Providers.HttpDavRequest.RetrieveInboxUri()at Microsoft.Crm.Tools.Email.Providers.ExchangePollingMailboxProvider.OpenMailbox()at Microsoft.Crm.Tools.Email.Providers.CrmPollingMailboxProvider.Run()

If you run the “Test Access” from the Configuration Manager you can also receive a timeout.

This is due to a lack of connections from a .Net perspective when we try to connect to Exchange via HttpDav. For more information, check the following article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;915599

In order to resolve this issue please follow these steps :

On the CRM E-Mail Router machine, go to the following folder: %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft CRM Email\Server

1°) Right click on this file : Microsoft.Crm.Tools.Email.Management.config and open it in notepad.

Under the tag, add the following:

<system.net><connectionManagement><add address="*" maxconnection = "24" />connectionManagement>system.net>

Save the file.

2°) Still within the same folder, create a file called: Microsoft.Crm.Tools.EmailAgent.exe.config

Edit the file in Notepad and add this content:

<configuration><system.net><connectionManagement><add address="*" maxconnection = "24" />connectionManagement>system.net>configuration>

Save the file and restart the E-Mail Router service (“NET STOP MSCRMEMAIL”, then “NET START MSCRMEMAIL” from a command line)

This should resolve this issue.

Kind regards

Benjamin LECOQ
CRM Escalation Engineer

SDK Cleanup script for unwanted Workflow Instances stuck in Waiting… state

MSDN Archive — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 09:55:13 GMT

Hi all,

We regularly receive questions about how to get rid of many workflow instances stuck in Waiting state.
You can cancel these workflow within the UI but for some reason this is sometime not suitable and executing a script is better.
Once these Workflow instances are canceled, you might need to perform a cleanup of the MSCRM Database.

Here is the code based on the SDK documentation my colleague Fouad Rachkidi (CRM Support Escalation Engineer) wrote:

        1: /*

       2: Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only without warranty either expressed or implied.

       3: This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose

       4: This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language that is being demonstrated and with the tools that are used to create and to debug procedures 

       5: Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure. 

       6: However, they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific requirements

       7: 

       8: You should install CRM 4.0 Rollup 3

       9: Also enable the registry keys part of KB 968755

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968755

*/

  

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Text;

using System.Web.Services.Protocols;

using CleanAsyncConApp.CrmSdk;

  

namespace CleanAsyncConApp

{

    class Program

    {

        static void Main(string[] args)

        {

            try

            {

                CrmAuthenticationToken token = new CrmAuthenticationToken();

                token.AuthenticationType = 0; //AD authentication

                token.OrganizationName = "DIC"; //Organization Name

  

                CrmService service = new CrmService();

                service.CrmAuthenticationTokenValue = token;

                service.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;

                service.UnsafeAuthenticatedConnectionSharing = true;

                service.Timeout = 3600000;

                

                ConditionExpression operationTypeCondition = new ConditionExpression();

                operationTypeCondition.AttributeName = "operationtype";

                operationTypeCondition.Operator = ConditionOperator.Equal;

                operationTypeCondition.Values = new object[1];

                operationTypeCondition.Values[0] = 10; //Workflow

  

                ConditionExpression statusCodeCondition = new ConditionExpression();

                statusCodeCondition.AttributeName = "statuscode";

                statusCodeCondition.Operator = ConditionOperator.Equal;

                statusCodeCondition.Values = new object[1];

                statusCodeCondition.Values[0] = 10; //Waiting

  

                FilterExpression queryFilter = new FilterExpression();

                queryFilter.FilterOperator = LogicalOperator.And;

                queryFilter.Conditions = 

                    new ConditionExpression[] {operationTypeCondition, statusCodeCondition };

  

                ColumnSet queryColumns = new ColumnSet();

                queryColumns.Attributes = 

                    new string[] { "asyncoperationid", "operationtype", "statuscode"};

  

                QueryExpression query = new QueryExpression();

                query.EntityName = EntityName.asyncoperation.ToString();

                query.Criteria = queryFilter;

                query.ColumnSet = queryColumns;

                query.PageInfo = new PagingInfo();

                query.PageInfo.PageNumber = 1;

                query.PageInfo.Count = 50;

                Console.WriteLine("CRM query created");

  

                BusinessEntityCollection bec = service.RetrieveMultiple(query);

                Console.WriteLine("CRM query executed");

                Int64 counter = 0;

  

                if (bec.BusinessEntities.Length > 0)

                {

                    do

                    {

                        foreach (BusinessEntity be in bec.BusinessEntities)

                        {

                            asyncoperation async = (asyncoperation)be;

                            async.statecode = new AsyncOperationStateInfo();

                            async.statecode.Value = AsyncOperationState.Completed;

                            service.Update(async);

                            counter += 1;

                        }

                        query.PageInfo.PageNumber += 1;

                        query.PageInfo.PagingCookie = bec.PagingCookie;

                        bec = service.RetrieveMultiple(query);

                    } while (bec.MoreRecords);

                }

                else

                {

                    Console.WriteLine("No workflows found with status waiting");

                }

  

                if (counter != 0)

                {

                    Console.WriteLine(counter + 

                        " workflows have been updated with a state code completed");

                }

            }

            catch (SoapException soapex)

            {

                Console.WriteLine(soapex.Detail.InnerText);

            }

            catch (Exception ex)

            {

                Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);

            }

        }

    }

}

Once these Workflow status will change, you can clean the CRM MSCRM Database using the following script:

968520 Performance is slow if the AsyncOperationBase table becomes too large in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;968520

More information:

AsyncOperationState Enumeration (CrmService)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb890231.aspx

Hope this helps.

Benjamin LECOQ

How to troubleshoot [System Jobs] failures using [Advanced Find]

MSDN Archive — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 06:36:11 GMT

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is using a lot of System Jobs to drive many features like: Send Bulk E-Mail, Import Data, Workflows, Duplicate Detections, Campaign Activities distribution, etc….. These jobs are processed by the Asynchronous Service and it can happen that the service fails to process these jobs. Jobs can fail or get stuck in waiting state. This is generally due to a configuration issue on the CRM Server.

Here are a few steps you can try to get more information about the System Jobs failures reasons and how to troubleshoot this:

Within the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web Application, go to Settings \ System Jobs, click Advanced Find button, click Save As to save your custom query, name it “Troubleshooting System Job” for instance and click OK.

Here you will need to add the two columns which will be helpful for troubleshooting. Click Edit Columns, Add Columns and select Error Code and Message. Click OK twice.

You will now get back to your view criteria (click Save to save the column change). Here you can for instance click Show Details and filter on the System Jobs which are showing errors (this is what we want), to do this, select the Error Code field and select Contains Data criteria.

You can also precise the query a little bit if you have more idea about the System Job type you are troubleshooting. Let say you want to troubleshoot Bulk Delete and Import File parse failures. Then filter on the System Job Type as shown on the screenshot.

When you are done, click Find. The result will look like this:

You can see there the Message and Error Code column will give you the reason of the failure. The failure is likely to be that the Asynchronous Service cannot contact the CRM Web Services because of a bad configuration. It could be configuration within the MSCRM_CONFIG database or in the Server MSCRM Registry Hive. In this example above, the service cannot connect to the server named “WRONG”. Wrong was the name of the CRM Server i put in the AsyncSdkRootDomain value in my DeploymentProperties table.

Please have a look at the following articles for more information and for potential solutions:

950416    System Jobs are in a waiting state and Outlook clients cannot connect after you set the CRM Web site to an assigned IP address
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;950416

947423    How to update the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web site port after you install Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;947423

950542    Synchronous plug-ins do not respond to the events that are triggered in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;950542

Technorati Tags: CRM 4.0,Asynchronous Service,Performance,System Jobs

Hope this helps.

Benjamin LECOQ

Deadlocks, Performance issues, MSCRM database growth, AsyncOperationBase table increase [Updated 03/12/09]

MSDN Archive — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:57:00 GMT

Hi all,

Performance issues can have many root cause and this article will not cover this.

For general CRM 4.0 Performance Optimization, the first thing you need to do is to go through are these documents:

Optimizing and Maintaining Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ba826cee-eddf-4d6e-842d-27fd654ed893&displaylang=en

and also if you run SQL 2008:

Improving Microsoft Dynamics CRM Performance and Securing Data with Microsoft SQL Server 2008
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b5bb47a4-5ece-4a2a-a9b5-5435264f627d&DisplayLang=en

Apart from that, there are several hotfixes included in the Update Rollup 2 and 3 you should pay attention to.

The action plan to take advantage of these hotfixes and to maintain your CRM Database is the following:

A°) Install CRM 4.0 Update Rollup 3 (kb961768)
B°) Enable performance related Hotfixes (Pro-Active Action)
C°) Run additional cleanup script to address existing Database problems.

NOTE: About C°) before running SQL Cleanup scripts you might need to do a backup of your database in case you would run into any problem.
Also you shall ensure that you have the Max Degree Of Parallelism option greater than Zero (1 is just fine) if you are running a multi CPU SQL Server. This option is under the Advanced options of your SQL Server:

Here is a list of Hotfixes and Articles you need to review:

B-1°) Performance can be affected because your AsyncOperationBase table contains millions of unnecessary records.

B-1.1°) Workflow related records (OperationType=10) cause the AsyncOperationTable and WorkflowLogBase table in the MSCRM database to grow too large

Fix included in Update Rollup 3, here is the related KB article:

968755 The AsyncOperationBase and WorkflowLogBase tables grow very large and performance issues occur when you use many workflows in CRM 4.0
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;968755

Read this article carefully, you need to enable it via registry key.

And easy way to identify if you are running into this issue is to check how many records are in the AsyncOperationBaseTable by runnning a simple Count(*) and checking how many records you have of OperationType = ‘10’ and Succeeded/Completed.

Total count of records:

Select Count(*) from AsyncOperationBase

Total count of unnecessary records:

Select Count(*) from AsyncoperationBase Where OperationType = 10 AND StateCode = 3 AND StatusCode = 30

You can make a quick ration and see how bad you are affected by this.

There is a link in this KB to another article (KB968520) you need to execute the script mentioned there to cleanup your database.

B-1.2°) KB957871 The Workflow Expansion Task records (Operation Type=1) cause the AsyncOperationTable table to grow too large in CRM 4.0
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;957871

If you have the Update Rollup 2 or 3 you already have this hotfix, however it needs to be enabled via registry (please check the article).
Also note that this hotfix is Pro-Active only and prevent the issue to occur after fix installation. If your SQL Table is already full of these records you need to address this issue by running KB968520 clean-up scripts.
And easy way to identify if you are running into this issue is to check how many records are in the AsyncOperationBaseTable by runnning a simple Count(*) and checking how many records you have of OperationType = ‘1’ and Succeeded/Completed.

Total count of records:

Select Count(*) from AsyncOperationBase

Total count of unnecessary records:

Select Count(*) from AsyncoperationBase Where OperationType = 1 AND StateCode = 3 AND StatusCode = 30

You can make a quick ration and see how bad you are affected by this.

B-2°) SQL Blocking can occur if you are using E-mails heavily in CRM (ActivityParty, ActivityPointer tables contains millions of records)

KB959248 Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 slows to unacceptable levels when you process e-mail messages by using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM E-mail Router
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;959248

If you have the Update Rollup 2 you already have this hotfix, in addition, the article also contains some SQL instructions you will need to follow to create INDEXES in order to improve performance (please check the article).

B-3°) MSCRM Database size is growing due to an increasing number of BulkDeleteIndependent_ tables

Under certain circumstances BulkDeleteIndependent_ temporary tables used by CRM to perform Bulk Delete operation are never deleted.
This issue has been fixed inside Update Rollup 2 however, there is no KB article associated with it.

Like scenario 1°) the hotfix is PRO-Active only and if you are already running into this issue, you will need to use the following SQL Cleanup script to remove the tables.

   1: -- Drop the Bulk Delete non metadata tables that had been created with [non-dbo] as owner.    2: -- This is to clean up any hanging tables during upgrade that were left due to a bug fixed in UR2   3:     4: DECLARE @name varchar(255)   5: DECLARE @dropCommand varchar(255)   6:     7: DECLARE tableCursor CURSOR FAST_FORWARD FOR   8:     SELECT '[' + SU.name + '].' + SO.name name FROM dbo.sysobjects SO, dbo.sysusers SU    9:     WHERE SO.xtype='U'AND SO.name LIKE 'BulkDelete%[_]%' AND SO.UId = SU.UId AND SU.name <> 'dbo'  10:    11: OPEN tableCursor  12:    13: FETCH next FROM tableCursor INTO @name  14: WHILE @@fetch_status=0  15: BEGIN  16:     SET @dropcommand = N'drop table ' + @name  17:     EXECUTE(@dropcommand)  18:     FETCH next FROM tableCursor INTO @name  19: END  20:    21: CLOSE tableCursor  22: DEALLOCATE tableCursor

B-4°) The data column of some AsyncOperationBase table records is not cleared once these records are completed.

This issue is similar to 1°) the PRO-Active hotfix is included in the Update Rolllup 2 however there is a need for a SQL Scripts to clear up manually the Data field of impacted records.

The related KB article is this one:

954929 Performance is poor when you change a user from one business unit to another in Deployment Manager in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;954929

In order to know the number of records impacted by this issue, you can run the following script:

   1: select Count(*) from AsyncOperationBase Where   2: (OperationType <> '17'    -- ImportingFile   3: AND OperationType <> '23'  -- BulkDeleteChild   4: AND OperationType <> '13') -- BulkDelete   5: AND StateCode = '3'       -- Completed   6: AND StatusCode = '30'     -- Succeeded   7: AND Data is NOT NULL

In order to cleanup the Database from these records, we suggest you to run the script mentioned in KB968520

C°) General clean-up script you can run after you check above points:

968520 Performance is slow if the AsyncOperationBase table becomes too large in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;968520

NOTE: Once you will have checked all these steps, you might need to re-index and update the statistics of the two above mentioned tables.

- You must not do this during Working hours because it will take a lot of resources on the SQL Server.
- You need to ensure that the Recover Model is set to Simple during this operation to prevent the Log file to grow to much. This is a Database option

You can run the following script to perform this operation:

   1: -- Rebuild Indexes & Update Statistics on AsyncOperationBase Table   2: ALTER INDEX ALL ON AsyncOperationBase REBUILD WITH   3: (FILLFACTOR = 80, ONLINE = OFF,SORT_IN_TEMPDB = ON, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF)   4: -- Rebuild Indexes & Update Statistics on WorkflowLogBase Table   5: ALTER INDEX ALL ON WorkflowLogBase REBUILD WITH   6: (FILLFACTOR = 80, ONLINE = OFF,SORT_IN_TEMPDB = ON, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF)

NB: Run one statement after the other, wait for the 1st one to complete before executing the other one

Hope this helps

Benjamin LECOQ