We have had numerous reports that the loading of CRM pages is delayed on clients that use McAfee and have the script scanning option enabled.

An option to whitelist the CRM namespace is now avalable. Further details at https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=KB65382

Best Regards

Lutz Eickenberg
CRM Escalation Engineer

-- THIS SCRIPT HAS TO BE USED IN CASE THE SQL SERVER CPU REMAINS CONSTANTLY AT 100%

-- IT ALLOWS TO INTERCEPT (AND KILL IF NECESSARY) THE PROCESS CAUSING THE PROBLEM

-- CHANGE THE CONTEXT TO MASTER AND LIST ALL THE PROCESSES RUNNING

-- AGAINST THE CRM DATABASE SORTING BY CPU UTILIZATION.

-- REMEMBER TO CHANGE THE DATABASE NAME ACCORDING TO THE NAME OF THE CRM DATABASE

USE Master

GO

-- RETRIEVE THE DATABASE ID FOR THE MSCRM DATABASE

DECLARE @DATABASE_ID INT

SET @DATABASE_ID = DB_ID(N'OrganizationName_MSCRM');

SELECT ST.TEXT,

SP.*

FROM DBO.SYSPROCESSES SP

CROSS APPLY SYS.DM_EXEC_SQL_TEXT(SP.SQL_HANDLE) ST

WHERE SP.DBID = @DATABASE_ID

ORDER BY CPU DESC

GO

       KB968176    Update Rollup 4 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is available:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968176

       You can download Rollup 3 from the following link:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=0ddf8e83-5d9c-4fe7-9ae6-f2713a024071

The update is applicable to the following CRM Components:

·         Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server

·         Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Email Router

·         Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Outlook Client

·         Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Connector for SQL Reporting Services

-          You can uninstall Update Rollup 4. However, you should back up your databases before you install Update Rollup 4.

Fixes worth noting…

·         Increased robustness in CRM Offline Sync

·         Watson reporting instrumentation improvements

·         Improvements in email promotion

·         Improvements in Email Router

·         Data Import Wizard with IE8

·         Improved scalability for multi-tenant

·         Provided an alternative to Smart Matching for email tracking

·         Watson fixes

·         Clean-up to AsyncOperationBase table to control size

·         Enable tracking of appointments in shared calendars

SyncEntry_<GUID> and SubscriptionStatistics_<GUID> tables are created in the <CompanyName>_MSCRM SQL Database when using the CRM-outlook clients.  Generally you will have 2 of each table for each Online Client, and 3 of each table for each Offline Client.  However, these tables are created per user per machine, so in a citrix farm environment or if users have recently changed hardware, you may find that you have an extraordinary amount of these tables and would like to remove them from the database.

Below is a script that removes all SyncEntry_<GUID> and SubscriptionStatistics_<GUID> tables, along with corresponding records in other tables:

Update Rollup 3 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is available. This update rollup is available for all languages that are supported by Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.

The Below link contains the Issues addressed in this rollup

961768    Update Rollup 3 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is available
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;961768

You can download Rollup 3 from the following link

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=05453fa4-9551-4a88-9852-634a9ad0e140&displaylang=en

The update is applicable to the following CRM Components:

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Email Router
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Outlook Client
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Connector for SQL Reporting Services
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Data Migration Manager Client

Update Rollup 1 & 2 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is not a prerequisite for the installation of Rollup 3. Rollup 3 is cumulative and contains all the fixes that were part of Rollup 1 & 2.

Best Regards

Kevin Tunstall BSc

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Support Engineer

Update Rollup 2 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is available. This update rollup is available for all languages that are supported by Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.

The Below link contains the Issues addressed in this rollup

959419    Update Rollup 2 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is available
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;959419

You can download Rollup 2 form the following link

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=aa671769-61e9-45c4-919f-c88199aa4241&displaylang=en

The update is applicable to the following CRM Components:

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Email Router
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Outlook Client
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Connector for SQL Reporting Services
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Data Migration Manager Client

Update Rollup 1 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is not a prerequisite for the installation of Rollup 2. Rollup 2 is cumulative and contains all the fixes that were part of Rollup 1, Rollup 2 is language specific and hence the size is smaller than Rollup 1.

For more information, check the following Blog

Jibran Ali

CRM Support Escalation Engineer | EMEA CRM Support Team | GTSC UK MBS | Microsoft UK Ltd.

Dynamics CRM 4.0 does not automatically delete the emails from the exchange mailbox of the queue. This results in the mailbox filling up with Emails which are not needed, as the activities are already created within the Dynamics CRM 4.0 application.

To automatically delete emails from within the mailbox of a queue, one would need to follow the steps below.

Important: Make a copy of the Microsoft.CRM.Tools.emailAgent.xml file located in C:\Program Files\Microsoft CRM Email\Services  and move it to a backup folder

1. Once the  Microsoft.CRM.Tools.emailAgent.xml is backed up, please open the file using visual Studio

2. On Opening the file locate the portion which refers to your queue. for example mentioned below my Queue is called Support with an Email address Support@adventureworks.local.

<EmailAddress> support@adventurework.local </EmailAddress>

(see below)

3. Change the  deploymentId for the queue to “Manual”

<ProviderConfiguration deploymentId="Manual">

4. Change the <DeleteEmails>false</DeleteEmails> to true

<DeleteEmails>true</DeleteEmails>

5. Save the XML file. Once saved the Support details within the XML would look like this

6. Log in to the CRM web application using an account with administrative privileges within CRM application

a. Click on Settings
b. Click on Business Management
c. Click on Queues
d. Double click the queue that we edited in the XML file
e. Under E-mail Access Configuration, set None for E-mail Access type – Incoming

7. Restart the Microsoft CRM Email Router or the changes will not take effect

Disclaimer - This information is provided by way of general information only and should not be relied on without obtaining independent expert advice. These postings are provided "AS IS" with no warranties and confer no rights. You assume all risk for your use.

Jibran Ali

CRM Support Escalation Engineer | EMEA CRM Support Team | GTSC UK MBS | Microsoft UK Ltd.

In November 2008 the Chancellor stated that the standard rate of UK VAT will drop from 17.5% to 15% on 1st December 2008, until end of Year 2009.

The guidance documentation for partners and customers is now up and live and up on our public facing website.

The standard rate of VAT will affect customers using the following Microsoft software products:

Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics RMS

Microsoft Dynamics CRM*1, Microsoft Dynamics SL*2, Older versions of Microsoft Axapta, Great Plains and Navision*3 

Please click this Link for the page.

Best Regards

Kevin Tunstall BSc

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Support Engineer

If you have a minute or two we would appreciate your feedback regarding the usage of the company restore feature, within the NAV classic client.

The background to this is that of looking into the tooling in the classic client, to determine new interfaces, alternatives or improvements in future versions. We are interested in your experience, in any capacity, of the ability to restore a selected company from a NAV .fbk file. Particularly on the SQL platform, this can be a slow and resource consuming task, and we know that alternatives have been made using SQL tooling. If you are running with the native database we also appreciate your input.

Please following this link to provide your feedback: http://dynamicsuser.net/forums/p/24745/132513.aspx#132513

Thank you.

Gerard Conroy
Microsoft Dynamics NAV Support Engineer

The NAV documentation clearly indicates that a primary key is limited to 20 fields and that the number of fields in the primary key together with all the fields in secondary key must not exceed 20. Furthermore, it states that a SumIndexField can have at most 20 SumIndexFields. In fact the limitation is more complicated that this would suggest.

For a primary key a maximum of 20 fields will be permitted across both of the following objects:

Primary key definition
SumIndexField property.

For a secondary key a maximum of 20 fields will be permitted across all three of the following objects:

Primary key definition
Secondary key definition
SumIndexField property.

For example, NAV will behave as follows for a secondary key definition:

10 primary key fields, 5 secondary key fields and 5 SumIndexFields would work
10 primary key fields, 5 secondary key fields and 6 SumIndexFields will cause an error
10 primary key fields, 6 secondary key fields and 5 SumIndexFields will cause an error
11 primary key fields, 5 secondary key fields and 5 SumIndexFields will cause an error

When this limitation is exceeded NAV will generate the following error message when trying to save the table definition:

“The fields in an active key may not exceed 252 bytes. The sizes of the <list of fields> key fields in the <table name> table is <number of bytes> bytes. You must reduce the number or length of the active fields.”

The above message is misleading as the underlying problem does not relate to the number of bytes in the key. The <list of fields> above will be replaced with a list of all secondary key fields and primary key fields but will not show any SumIndexFields. Also the <number of bytes> displayed will not correspond to the number of bytes in the key definition.

Gerard Conroy
Microsoft Dynamics NAV Support Engineer

This is the very anticipated Update 1 for Dynamics NAV 5.0 SP1. Not only does this update resolves various issues but also makes Dynamic NAV 5.0 SP1 client Windows 2008 compatible.

I highly encourage that you install this on any site which already has NAV 5.0 SP1 running. This update solves some critical stability issues with Dynamics NAV Application Server.

You can view the complete list of issues resolved on Partner Source knowledgeBase or Direct Link:

https://mbs.microsoft.com/knowledgebase/KBDisplay.aspx?WTNTZSMNWUKNTMMYXUPYZQPOUXNXSPSYSLPRPNOTWSLYMULPYUVSYVKSXPYWOPUO

Zeeshan Mehdi
Microsoft Dynamics NAV Support Professional
EMEA Customer Support & Services - SMS&P
Microsoft UK Ltd

Release 9.0 Service Pack 4 English has released! 

NOTE: This is the last service pack for 9.0.  Compliance releases will still be available.

Here are the links:

CustomerSource under Downloads & Updates | Service Packs/Product Releases | Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0 Service Packs
https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/support/downloads/servicepacks/MicrosoftDynamicsGP90ServicePacks.htm

PartnerSource under Downloads & Updates | Service Packs | Dynamics GP | Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0 Service Packs
https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/products/greatplains/downloads/servicepack/MicrosoftDynamicsGP90ServicePacks.htm

Here are the direct links if you need to download it now:

Service Pack 4 MSP
https://mbs.microsoft.com/fileexchange/?fileID=ae6b2f2a-bdc0-45db-9b43-ef38626f06cb

Service Pack 4 Install Guide
https://mbs.microsoft.com/fileexchange/?fileID=b13ad3b6-a245-4004-bff3-8e75f2dfedb4

Thanks!

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 5.0 SP1 introduces a new way to handle SIFT. Instead of maintaining totals in separate tables, Dynamics NAV 5.0 SP1 uses a SQL feature called indexed views. Indexed views will automatically be maintained by the SQL Server.

With SQL Server 2000, updating an indexed view can be a time consuming process as the SQL Server 2000 might decide to include a clustered index scan as part of its query plan to update the view. If your Microsoft Dynamics NAV implementation includes tables with many records and is based on Microsoft SQL Server 2000 there is a potential risk for experiencing bad performance.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 5.0 SP1 is optimized for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and you should consider to upgrade to SQL Server 2005 if you are implementing Microsoft Dynamics NAV 5.0 SP1.

The problem described here, only applies to SQL Server 2000. SQL Server 2005 handles the updates of indexed views much more efficiently.

These postings are provided "AS IS" with no warranties and confer no rights. You assume all risk for your use.