Troubleshooting system administration in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0

SBS 2003 R2 includes Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Workgroup Edition. Microsoft Dynamics CRM works in this environment, although several reporting features are not available. You cannot use Reporting Services Report Manager, or the optional Microsoft Dynamics CRM Report Scheduling Wizard, to schedule reports, or export reports to DHTML, comma-separated value, or XML formats.

Yes, however before you install either Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Server, review your server installations and note the following:

When you visit a Web page that uses a custom pop-up object, as Microsoft Dynamics CRM does, Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 closes unexpectedly. This problem occurs after you install security update 918899 on a computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) or Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1).

An update to Internet Explorer 6 is available to resolve this problem. To download the update, go to the Microsoft Knowledge Base article “When you visit a Web page that uses a custom pop-up object, Internet Explorer 6 closes unexpectedly (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923996).

For the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web application to work with Microsoft Internet Explorer 7, you must turn off application mode for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web site. If you don't, the browser window closes when a user launches a Microsoft Office application from the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web site.

By default, application mode is on for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web site. In this mode, Microsoft Dynamics CRM opens with no Microsoft Internet Explorer toolbars. When you turn off application mode, all users see the Internet Explorer toolbars while using Microsoft Dynamics CRM, even if they are using Internet Explorer 6.

To turn off application mode for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web site:

<add key="AppMode" value="On"/>

<add key="AppMode" value="Off"/>

If your account has the Restricted Access Mode check box selected, you have access to areas of Microsoft Dynamics CRM necessary for administering the system, but not to the customer records areas. This enables you to administer Microsoft Dynamics CRM without using a license.

To clear this check box, click Settings, click Business Unit Settings, click Users, double-click your account, and then clear the Restricted Access Mode check box.

There are several reasons why this may occur:

If Reporting Services is not set up correctly, you may get an error message when you attempt to access the Settings area, or if you can access the area, any changes are not saved. You can find troubleshooting information in Chapter 15 of the Microsoft CRM 3.0 Implementation Guide.

There are two versions of the Personal Options form, one for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM client for Outlook and one for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web application. If you have the Outlook client, a cookie may cause Microsoft Dynamics CRM to display the wrong version of the Personal Options form. To view the correct form, close the Outlook client and the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web application, and reopen the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web application first.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM client for Outlook uses the time zone set in Outlook. Microsoft Dynamics CRM uses the time zone set on the computer running Microsoft Dynamics CRM or for the individual user. If they are different, this can cause issues.

To resolve this conflict, the system administrator needs to sign into Microsoft Dynamics CRM as the user that was used for installation, and in the user’s record, change the time zone to match the time zone in Outlook.

To maintain data integrity, some items cannot be deleted. If you no longer need the item or made a mistake creating it, you can deactivate the item.

Adding a field to a form or view requires the System Administrator or System Customizer security role. If you don’t have this security role, contact the person who does, as this is typically an easy change for this person to make.

If you have one of these security roles, read the online Help topic “Create or edit an entity.”

Adding or modifying drop-down list values requires the System Administrator or System Customizer security role. If you don’t have one of these security roles, ask someone who does to make the change. It is typically easy to do.

If you have one of these security roles and want more information, read the online Help topic “Create or edit an entity.”

The fields that are searched when you type text into the Look for box can be easily modified by a person with the System Administrator or System Customizer security role. For example, you may want to be able to type in a zip code or phone number to find records quickly. The view that is used by the Look for search is called the Lookup View, and to change which fields are searched, you click Add Find Columns.

You cannot create new entities that are activity entities. Instead, customize an existing activity entity to be usable for the new activity type. You can add a new attribute called Type, and then use client-side scripting to hide fields that are not relevant for the selected activity type.

The duration attribute is not a standard drop-down list (picklist), and the values cannot be customized by editing the properties for the duration attribute. You can use client-side scripting to change the default value. Create an OnLoad event for the form for the type of activity you want to change the default duration for (for example, Appointment entity), and add the following code, substituting the number of minutes you want displayed as the default instead of 5.
if (crmForm.FormType == 1){ crmForm.all.scheduleddurationminutes.DataValue = 5;      }

We have recently published an article that explains how to decide which tool to use to import data: This article explains which tool to use for each entity, and what can and can’t be imported: 5 ways to import data

If a security role has Create and Write privileges for an entity, but not the Read privilege, users with that security role will not be able to see the entity in the navigation. The entity will only appear on the New menu.

To make an entity visible for users with this security role, add the Read privilege.

This issue may occur if the e-mail tracking token prefix value is set to null in the System Settings area. Resetting the prefix value does not resolve the issue. To resolve this issue, determine whether this issue is caused by the prefix value. For more information, including an update for this issue, view the Microsoft Knowledge Base article, “You receive error messages when you try to send or promote an e-mail message in Microsoft CRM 3.0” (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/910242/en-us).

This issue occurs if the computer account for the Exchange server is not a member of the PrivUser group in the Active Directory directory service or if the Microsoft CRM-Exchange E-Mail Router Service logging level is set too high. For more information about this issue including a resolution, view the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 908390 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/908390/en-us).

Data loss may occur if you use the default system mappings in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Connector for Microsoft Dynamics GP. The data loss can occur when you synchronize a sales order in Microsoft Dynamics CRM and in Microsoft Dynamics GP. Then, when you add data to some fields in the sales order by using Microsoft Dynamics GP, the fields are not mapped to the corresponding fields of the sales order in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. To resolve this issue, you must install a hotfix. For more information about this issue and how to obtain the hotfix, view the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 924581 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924581/en-us).