Starting with Dynamics NAV 4.0 SP3 build 24080, all builds of NAV (SQL option) have a prerequisite that SQL  Server trace flag 4616 must be turned on. This was initially required when running NAV with SQL Server 2005 but subsequently was also required for SQL Server 2008 when that became a supported database platform.

Why did we need this trace flag? SQL Server 2005 introduced increased security protection for database metadata which means that visibility is restricted by default for users in such a way that they can no longer see connection details for other logins unless the user is granted “VIEW SERVER STATE” permissions. However, Dynamics NAV licensing functionality and the client feature for displaying database sessions both required that users must have visibility to all active connection details. SQL Server trace flag 4616 causes SQL Server 2005 and 2008 to behave in the same way as SQL Server 2000 with respect to metadata visibility. Therefore, when support for SQL Server 2005 was added to the Dynamics NAV product the requirement to turn on trace flag 4616 was also introduced.

Why do we no longer need this trace flag? With the release of Dynamics NAV 2009 SP1, trace flag 4616 is no longer required. The product now uses “VIEW SERVER STATE” permissions to enable visibility to the required connection information for each user.

For customers who have been using SQL Server trace flag 4616 for older versions of Dynamics NAV Microsoft recommends disabling this trace flag after upgrading to Dynamics NAV 2009 SP1 if there are no other applications which require it. Most environments will have this trace flag added to the startup parameters for SQL Server so the following steps can be used to remove it as required:

1. Go to Start-> Run and select the "Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008" program group, select the "Configuration Tools" folder and then the "SQL Server Configuration Manager" tool.

2. Double-click on the SQL Server service.

3. Select the "Advanced" tab

4. In the list of values double-click on the one called "Startup Parameters"

5. In the list of values for this parameter (normally near the end), remove the following: ';-T4616'

6. Click OK to save the change.

7. Restart the SQL Server service

In some rare cases the trace flag may be enabled on SQL Server using some other means (e.g. DBCC TRACEON command). Consult your SQL Server database administrator for advice in these scenarios.

Best regards,

Gerard Conroy

Microsoft Dynamics NAV Support, UK.

Popup are shown cut-off if the CRM window is maximised and the popup is near the edge of the window.

This was resolved in the following Updates for Internet Explorer 8
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974455

To fix this issue install the update by going to Windows Update:

Windows Update is included in Control Panel.

Click the Start button, click All Programs, and then click Windows Update.

Once you have installed the update, reboot the machine. The change is behind a Feature-control-key, which means, that you have to set an additional registry-key in order to enable the fixed functionality:

On the Client machine, log on with a user with local admin privileges. Browse to the below registry path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl
Create a new Key, and name it as follows:
FEATURE_FORCE_POPUPS_ONTO_MONITOR_KB974537
Within this key, point to New , and then click DWORD Value
Type iexplore.exe for the name of the key
Right-click iexplore.exe , click Modify and then type 1 in the Value data field

After setting this registry-key the behaviour is changed and the text does no more go out of the monitor.

Regards
Jibran Ali
CRM Support Escalation Engineer
CRM Supports UK Team

The Import organization process is failing with the following error message:

Platform Error

=====================================

19:03:33| Error| Import Organization (Name=<OrgName>, Id=<OrgID>) failed with Exception:
System.InvalidOperationException: ExecuteNonQuery requires an open and available Connection. The connection's current state is closed.
at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.GetOpenConnection(String method)
at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.ValidateConnectionForExecute(String method, SqlCommand command)
at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ValidateCommand(String method, Boolean async)
at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.InternalExecuteNonQuery(DbAsyncResult result, String methodName, Boolean sendToPipe)
at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteNonQuery()
at Microsoft.Crm.CrmDbConnection.InternalExecuteNonQuery(IDbCommand command)
at Microsoft.Crm.CrmDbConnection.ExecuteNonQuery(IDbCommand command, Boolean impersonate)
at Microsoft.Crm.CrmDbConnection.SetTransactionIsolationLevel(IsolationLevel il)
at Microsoft.Crm.CrmDbConnection.Dispose(Boolean disposing)
at Microsoft.Crm.SqlExecutionContext.Dispose(Boolean disposing)
at Microsoft.Crm.SqlExecutionContext.Dispose()
at Microsoft.Crm.Tools.Admin.ImportOrganizationInstaller.Import(Guid organizationId, String organizationUniqueName, String organizationFriendlyName, String sqlServerName, String databaseName, Uri reportServerUrl, String privilegedUserGroupName, String sqlAccessGroupName, String userGroupName, String reportingGroupName, String privilegedReportingGroupName, ICollection`1 users, MultipleTenancy multipleTenancy)

This is likely caused by a Microsoft.Net Framework 2.0 issue.  If your System.data.ni.dll file is less than 2.0.50727.1813, then you need to update the Microsoft.Net Framework version on at least your Microsoft CRM server and also your Microsoft SQL Server.  You can get the update in KB article, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948815 .  The problem is described in the KB article, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948868 .

Jibran Ali
CRM Support Escalation Engineer

We have seen a couple of errors such as:

"The specified Active Directory user already exists as a CRM user"

"You are attempting to create a user with a domain logon that is already used by another user. Select another domain logon and try again."

When the user which you are trying to add is not an existing CRM user, or not an existing CRM user in the Organization you are trying to add to.

If you see this type of error, please log a case with the Support team and we will be looking at the following stored procedure and database tables to rectify the issue.

N.B. Please do not make direct database modifications, as this is unsupported.

The stored procedure explained:

There are 3 tables that the stored procedure p_GetCrmUserId checks to authenticate the user from the Domain\LoginName provided.

We will assume that the Admin user is logged in to CRM and adding a new user.

p_GetCrmUserId

set ANSI_NULLS ON

set QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON

go

ALTER procedure [dbo].[p_GetCrmUserId] (@OrganizationId uniqueidentifier, @AuthInfo nvarchar(128)) as

The parameters passed are the OrganizationId(of the database the Admin user is currently logged into) and the AuthInfo(the ObjectSID from AD of the user you are trying to add W:S-x-x-xx-xxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxx-xxx)

begin

set nocount on

select suo.CrmUserId as CrmUserId

from SystemUserOrganizations suo

join SystemUserAuthentication sua on (suo.UserId = sua.UserId)

From the MSCRM_CONFIG database a join is made on the UserId column:
SystemUserAuthentication table UserId column
SystemUserOrganization table UserId column

where sua.AuthInfo = @AuthInfo and suo.OrganizationId = @OrganizationId

The ObjectSID is matched with the value in the AuthInfo column in SystemUserAuthentication table and the OrganizationId of the organization the Admin User is logged in to is matched with the value in the OrganizationId column of the SystemUserOrganization table.

and suo.IsDeleted = 0

and sua.IsDeleted = 0

Confirm the IsDeleted value is not ‘1’ (or ‘True’)in either SystemUserAuthentication or SystemUserOrganization table.

end

A graphical representation of how the 3 tables correspond to one another, AD and CRM:

AD Explorer:

MSCRM_CONFIG

SystemUserAuthentication

There will only ever be one row in this table for a user.

SystemUserOrganizations

There will be one row in this table for EACH Organization the user belongs to

ORG_MSCRM

SystemUserBase

There will be one row in this table in EACH ORG_MSCRM database for each Organization the user belongs to.

Note the DomainName\Login from the above table corresponds to the user we are trying to add in CRM:

Despina Kitsantonis

Senior Support Engineer

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