The following are the guidelines specific to SQL Server instance to be used for CRM 2015 platform:

• Don’t modify system tables on the SQL instance where Dynamics CRM is to be deployed.
• Full-text indexing must be installed.
• CRM organization databases have auto growth setting of 256MB. For intensive database transactions increase the auto growth value to improve performance.
• Set Max degree of parallelism to 1 in SQL Server to improve the overall application performance on multiprocessor systems.

Dynamics CRM platform creates two databases:

• MSCRM_CONFIG: Contains the CRM metadata, such as configuration and location information specific to each organization database.
• OrganizationName_MSCRM: The main organization database where CRM data is stored viz., entity (aka table) records, activities etc. There will be several of these organization databases depending on the number of the organizations setup using CRM Deployment Manager.

SQL Server Connection & SSRS:

• Dynamics CRM connection to SQL Server is only via Windows Authentication.
• Dynamics CRM Reporting Extensions are data processing extensions and are installed on the Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services server. Two data processing extensions: Fetch data processing extension for Fetch-based reports and SQL data processing extensions.
• The identity account running the instance of Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services must be added to PrivReportingGroup AD security group.
• Separate deployments of Microsoft Dynamics CRM cannot share one SQL Server Reporting Services server. But a single deployment of Microsoft Dynamics CRM can use the same SQL Server Reporting servers.

For Internal Access

1. The client sends a request to access the Dynamics CRM website.
2. IIS refuses the connection and sends a HTTP 302 and redirect to ADFS
3. The client sends a request for a security token to ADFS
4. ADFS returns a HTTP 401.1 error indicating the client must supply a Kerberos ticket
5. The client sends an Kerberos Authentication request to Active Directory
6. Active Directory validates the client and sends a Kerberos ticket
7. The client sends a request for security token to ADFS along with the Kerberos ticket.

Typically for internal access the Client logons to internal domain example mydomain.com and is already validated by Active Directory and hence the Kerberos ticket is already available so steps 4 through to 7 are skipped.

8. ADFS provides a security token containing claims for providing access to CRM data
9. The client sends the security token containing claims as obtained from ADFS to CRM server
10. The CRM server decrypts and validates the security token and presents the user with the information.

For External Access

The flow is similar to Internal Access with the exception of the following:

• The Client will not be logging onto the domain directly and hence there is no Kerberos ticket.
• The ADFS will present the client a logon page to select a attribute store at which point they enter the credentials which are then validated against Active Directory.

The E-mail Router Configuration Manager is windows based GUI application that helps to:

• Configure profiles typically Incoming /Outgoing
• Associate a deployed Organization to Incoming and Outgoing profile
• Manage incoming / outgoing e-mail configurations for users and queues.

In the following section we look at details of several functions available in the GUI application.

Tab > Configuration Profiles

Typically two profiles will be set up viz., Incoming and Outgoing. The various list columns that are displayed will be values that will set when a new profile is created by clicking the “New” button

Creating Incoming Profile:

Creating Outgoing Profile:

Tab > Deployments

Under this tab we specify the CRM organization and set the Incoming/Outgoing profile

Tab > Users, Queues, and Forward Mailboxes

This tab allows to assing Incoming /Outgoing profile against each CRM user, set up Forward Mailbox.

Every user in CRM platform must be assigned an incoming or outgoing e-mail access type for the above list to be populated. Within the user administration of CRM this is done at E-mail Access Configuration section in the user details screen.

As in the above screen shot for a user “User1” Incoming profile is set to Forward Mail Box and Outgoing is set to E-mail Router.

The action buttons available against each user in the list above are:

Select a User and click on Modify.

Why is the Incoming Configuration Profile drop down disabled? > In the E-mail Access Configuration section against the “User 1” details  the “E-mail access type Incoming” is set to Forward Mailbox.  Typically this will be same for all the Organization users and a Forward Mailbox will have to be configured.

Go to Forward Mailboxes tab and click on New

The following functions can be performed for the Forward Mailbox setup above:

The Test Access button will validate if the setup is right.

E-mail router serves the purpose of delivering and creating mails into Dynamics CRM platform. The windows service “Microsoft CRM Email Router” brokers the communication between CRM platform and e-mail handling service typically Microsoft Exchange. The following diagram illustrates the capability provided by the CRM platform for sending e-mail messages.

Sequence of Step(s):

• The user will create an E-mail Activity the status of which progresses from Open > Draft (when Save button is clicked) > Pending Send (when Send button is clicked)
• The Email Router will query the CRM and retrieve e-mails with status of “Pending Send” that are to be sent.
• The Email Router will now establish connection with Exchange Server and the e-mails will be delivered to the Server.

If the e-mail server is able to deliver the message to the recipient a notification is sent to E-mail Router and status changes from “Pending Send” to “Sent”.

To check the status of all e-mail messages that were attempted by the E-mail Router use the Advance Find

Processing of Incoming E-mails:

In this section we look at how CRM platform handles the reply e-mail sent by the recipient.

• When the User replies back to an e-mail received from CRM, the e-mail is available in the Exchange Server Mail box.
• The E-mail Router connects to the mail box using the credentials that has full mail box permission and then crawls the folder(s).
• For each e-mail identified a query is sent to CRM to determine if an e-mail activity needs to be created and if required creates an e-mail activity with a status of “Received”.

In this post I will detail the steps involved in Importing an Organization from a database backup. For the scenario we consider a Sample Organization named ACM

• Within the CRM Deployment Manager disable and delete the organization.Deleting the Organization through the Deployment Manager UI does not delete the underlying SQL database. Logon to the SQL instance and perform database deletion.

• Restore the database backup with required name for example ACM_MSCRM on the SQL server Instance.
• Run the following script to put the database in SINGLE_USER and revert back to MULTI_USER mode, recovery mode to SIMPLE and disable Read_Committed_SnapShot this will speed up the organization import process.

Note: In the above script the database is set to SINGLE_USER mode first to quickly disable RCSI and then reverted back to MULTI_USER mode. Without MULTI_USER mode the Deployment Manager will not pick up the Organization database.

Once the above script is completed successfully run the following to ensure   that database level changes are applied as expected.

• Go to Dynamics CRM Deployment Manager and click on Import Organization under Actions pane. The various Wizard Navigation steps are as per screen snap shots below.

Note: The Next step in the above wizard will prompt to Edit User Mappings.

Typically the things that need attention in this dialogue window will be the service accounts that will be used across different environments. Correct this mapping and navigate to next step this will bring up the System Checks window.

After the checks are completed successfully click on Import button.

• Once the Import process is successful runs the following script to > enable RCSI, Full Recovery mode, Multi-User mode.

This will now complete the successful Import of Organization