November 2005 - Posts
Well I finally got CRM 3.0 SBE installed on my VPC test environment. When the initial install finished, it requested a reboot to which I obliged. When I logged back on as the Administrator, it went immediately into the CRM 3.0 configuration wizard which gave me an opportunity to specify the type of business I run, my territories, subjects, locations, competitors, etc. I went through the wizard and at the end I was given the choice of applying the configuration to CRM or saving it to an XML file for later import. It cautioned that you must be an administrator to apply the configuration. Since I was logged in as the Administrator, I (foolishly it turns out) selected apply now. I watched it churn for hours and hours. I figured it may have a lot to do, I could see that it was 'doing' stuff because the idiot lights keep flickering and Task Manager showed a LOT of activity. I finally went to bed. When I checked the next morning, it was STILL going. OK, something was wrong. I aborted out of that. Turns out what they mean by an Administrator is not the Windows or Domain Administrator, but the CRM administrator. To be a CRM administrator, you must have been configured in the Deployment Manager as such first. Strange that the install program would bring up the configuration wizard on first boot, requiring a CRM administrator, before giving one the chance to configure a CRM administrator. Guess you are supposed to KNOW you should use the save to XML option. Too bad they didn't make that the default or something. Now YOU know!
So, I logged back in and the configuarion wizard didn't come up. Cool. I went into Deployment Manager and configured a user as a CRM 'god'. I then tried to log back in as that user. Nope. Couldn't do that. I was not allowed to login interactively to the server. Since this is a VPC on my notebook, I haven't configured an XP client yet to log on 'remotely'. But I needed to logon to the 'server' as this CRM administrator so I could run the configuration wizard and benefit from the wonders it would bestow. Nope couldn't do that. I tried making my user an Administrator. Nope. I tried using Group Polices to give them every kind of logon privileged I thought might make a difference (remember this is a VPC I'm fixin' to blow away so security isn't a big concern - don't do this on a 'real' machine). Finally I figured out that there was a Domain Controller Default Group Policy that had a specific 'Deny log on locally' policy defined. In that policy was the Remote Operators security group. Seems Remote Operators are only allowed to operate remotely. Well, I had created my CRM administrator in SBS as a Power User which put him (it's ME) in the Power Users group. The Power Users are members of the Remote Operators group which can log on to the server remotely by using Terminal Services, but cannot log on to the server locally! I took the Remote Operators out of the Deny log on locally Group Policy and it worked fine. There seems to be some conflict going on here security wise. Perhaps one should configure a CRM administrator account, perhaps even the Administrator although that burns a license, that is NOT a Remote Operator. Hmmm. Administrator should be able to log on to Terminal Services too.
Oh well, for now, I'm leaving it at that. I'll play around with my CRM 3.0 beta for a little while and then blow it away and install CRM 1.2 so I can test the upgrade process. Stand by for that.
Still installing CRM 3.0 SBS. Going on 3 hours. Had a couple of 'hiccups' just now. First an Exchange service did not start. A retry seemed to resolve that. Then it was looking for the client.msi file. Doing this from the downloaded beta, the server install is from the 'server' folder. But it wants the client.msi which is in the 'client' folder. Apparently the install routine isn't smart enough so you have to tell it it's in the 'client' folder. Perhaps it would be smarter if I had the CDs.
Yea! Success!!! Following the instructions detailed by Dana Martens, Microsoft CRM Support, in the microsoft.private.crm3earlyaccess news group, I was able to finally install CRM 3.0 SBE on my test SBS VPC. Well, actually as I write it is still installing. It has been going for almost 2 hours now, without user intervention nor requirement (might be faster on a machine with more RAM allocated and not a VPC).
Basically Dana's cure is removing the 127.0.0.1 address reference from the Default Web Site for both port 80 and port 443, plus following the instructions in Microsoft KB 896861 which was included in Scott Colson's blog. Dana also includes instructions for putting the 127.0.0.1 reference back in. We'll see if I do that or not in this first test scenario. I'm anxious to see how the actual upgrade from 1.2 to 3.0 goes. That will be a lot of work though since I'll have to install 1.2 first, and that can be a whole project in itself.
Today I was reminded that in our ISA with Amy session (goto 50:50) on November 19th, Amy Babinchak had also covered using non-standard ports with SSL. She referenced a script written by Jim Harrison and posted on www.isatools.org. The file to look for is isa_tpr.zip which unloads to isa_tpr.js. The description is ISA Server 200x tunnel port tool for non-standard Web Proxy port connections. This script is much more involved than the one I referenced yesterday and gives more options for adding SSL ports and even removing unneeded SSL ports. Amy gives a great explanation on how to use the script in her webcast.
Thanks Amy and Jim!
This evening my wife posed a problem to me. She is a teacher with a school district and needs to access a web site through their system requires SSL access on port 11000! (Don't ask!) Whenever she tried to access it from her menu on the main teacher site, she would get the error:
* Error Code: 502 Proxy Error. The specified Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) port is not allowed. ISA Server is not configured to allow SSL requests from this port. Most Web browsers use port 443 for SSL requests. (12204)
I did a Google search on it but it didn't particularly help. Then I posted my question to the SBS List (SBS2k@yahoogroups.com). Merv Porter was kind enough to respond and point me to http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;283284. Here I found a VB Script which I ran on my ISA 2004 server. I then had to restart ISA. Once done, my wife was finally able to access the desired web site.
What this script does is add the required port to the range of ports that are 'tunneled through' to establish an SSL session. Be sure to change the values in the script for the ports you need.
Well, up bright and early (alright it's raining and it is Saturday morning, give me a break) and tried using the procedures that
Scott Colson described in his blog for resolving the problem of installing CRM with ISA 2004 installed. Tried everything he outlined but still no joy. Now I've got some head scratching to do. Where did I put that drawing board?
Didn't think I'd be back so quick, but I found another rabbit trail to chase. After I got stopped by the Systems Requirments, I decided to back track and see what would happen if I selected Custom install instead of Standard. Doing this I am offered to opportunity to create a web site for CRM. This includes the opportunity to use SSL for SQL Server Reporting Services. Let's not for now. I am able to move forward and get to the Exchange configuration portion. It asks for the incoming Exchange server and I gave it the name of the SBS server. Then I'm asked for the name of the Rouer Mailbox. I choose the default, domain\CRMmail. It doesn't like this because I don't have a mailbox by that name. I kinda expected it would maybe create it. Silly me. Being lazy, I decide to simply use the Administrator mailbox. It doesn't like this as this is the account being used to set up CRM. So, I change it to the one user mailbox I've set up, mine. It likes that. But then I end up right back where I was when I ran into my first roadblock in Part II. It's late, so I may put this to bed for the night and have another look tomorrow after tacos.
OK, so now I'm installing the SBE beta on a clean SBS 2003. It first asks for a license key. If you are using the EAP (Early Access Program) bits, the license keys are located in the readme.htm in the 'server' folder.
My first alert is that a couple of items are missing from my current configuration: Microsoft Application Error Reporting and MSXML 4.0 Hotfix. It gives me the option to install these. This goes well and then, after a little churning, I'm asked whether to do a Standard installation for Windows SBS or a Custom installation. I chose Standard. Then comes the Organization Name. If you are installaing the beta with the keys from the Readme, use 'Microsoft CRM'.
Up comes the Systems Requirements screen. It starts verifying the existing environment. Mine passes all except the MS SQL Server Reporting Services and 'The Web site for installing SQL Server Reporting Services was not found. Setup requires the presence fo the Web site configured to run at port 80 with an empty Host Header'. There is a 'Details' button which to me should offer additional information about the problem. It merely repeats the error message. However, it appears that the two errors are related. There is no 'Details' option with I click on the MS SQL Server Reporting Services 'error', and the error count is only 1. Clicking on Help provides some (hopefully) helpful hints. It says to verify that a default Web site exists. It does and is running. Then is says to verify that IF the default Web site requires SSL... well, mine has a certificate but does NOT require SSL. Back to the drawing board to see where to go next. See you in Part III.
There has been a lot of buzz about the difficulties in loading the new RTM of MS CRM 3.0 Small Business Edition on SBS 2003 SP1. Thank you to
Scott Colson [CRM MVP] for detailing the steps he's been taking to track down and resolve the issues encountered. I figured experience is the best teacher, and trying things out in a test environment is a good thing to do before leaping into production. So I'm kind of following Scott's lead and trying things on my own. I've built a VPC with a real (MAPS, evals don't work for this) copy of SBS 2003, with SP1 including SQL SP4 and ISA 2004 and all pathches since. I'm going to use VPC Undo Disks so I can roll back to my base SBS setup as I work through various scenarios. My eventual goal is going to be to see how upgrading from CRM 1.2, in a configuration similar to my production configuration, goes. To do that, I'll have to load and configure CRM 1.2 and then do the upgrade to 3.0 SBE and see how it goes. However, being a bit lazy, I think I'll start out just seeing how CRM 3.0 CRM loads on a relatively clean SBS 2003 SP1 install. Stay tuned to see how it all goes.
In order to resolve issues sending e-mail to certain domains (like AOL), I have been utilizing a Smart Host to send e-mail from my Exchange server rather than using DNS to send directly from my server to the recepient. This puts the burden on the Smart Host (my ISP). It has a few disadvantages but in general is a good solution, especially with all the spam filtering going on these days. However, tonight my ISP started having all its outgoing e-mail blocked by their spam filter, SORBS. Whenever I try to send an e-mail, it get a bounce saying it was rejected because I do not have permission to send to whatever address I'm trying to send to. I called my ISP and they said they were swamped with calls like mine and were 'working' on it. So, I decide to reconfigure my Exchange server to only use a Smart Host for those domains I KNOW require it, like AOL.
Having your Smart Host only forward messages for certain domains is accomplished by creating a second SMTP Connector in Exchange System Manager (ESM). In ESM right click on Connectors. Then select New -> SMTP Connector. Give it a name and fill out the appropriate info. The unique configuration that makes this work is the Address Space. Here enter the domain names for only your problem domains, like AOL. Since this is not an Exchange tutorial, I'll leave it to you to fill in the rest. Continue to use your 'regular' SMTP Connector with Address Space of *. In Small Business Server, the default SMTP Connector is 'SmallBusiness SMTP Connector'.
Now, while my ISP is STILL having problems, I can at least send e-mail again to everyone not in the Address Space of my (not so) Smart Host.
One of the things that Amy demonstrated in this morning's webcast to the Alamo PC study group was running the ISA Server Manager from your workstation. Saves having to RDP into your server all the time. I tried doing that here and ran into some 'issues' before I finally figured it out. We're talking Small Business Server, not the stand alone product. At this point, you probably have Service Pack 1 for SBS 2003 as do I. You need to use CD 3 where ISA 2004 is located (don't try using the SBS 2003 Premium Technologies CD unless is already contains SP1). I tried loading it on my workstation from the SP1 CD3 using the autorun. However, this told me I was running the wrong operating system and that it would only load on SBS 2003 SP1 (my workstation is XP). Then I tried running it from the ISASETUP folder directly from the CD instead of the autorun. Same result. Finally, after a little nudge from Steve Moffat on the newsgroups, I drilled down a bit and went to the ISA2004 folder. Therein I found an executable called ISAAUTORUN.exe. Running THAT allowed me to install ISA on my notebook. It appears to be working too! Woo hoo.
As Susan Bradley stated it, Amy Rocks! This morning Amy Babinchak, ISA diva, presented to our Alamo PC MCSE Advanced study group. We have been studying ISA for almost a year (we don't break any speed records in our group) but Amy wowed us with some great stuff. She geared her presentation to the SBS environment in which the group is most interested. Included in her presentation was a list of things you should do to ISA on SBS after you've run all the wizards. Among the things to do are changing the Client Connection Limits, configuring the cache size, and setting up intrusion detection. She also reminded us that with ISA 2004, we can monitor and administer ISA from a workstation. I'm going to set that up on my workstaton so I won't have to RDP to my server when I want to check on stuff.
The presentation was accomplished via Live Meeting which was arranged for by Susan Bradley. Amy's blog and web sites are:
Client Blog: http://smalltechnotes.blogspot.com/
Tech Blog:
http://isainsbs.blogspot.com/
Website:
http://www.harborcomputerservices.net/
The recorded Live Meeting is available here.
Thank you Amy and Susan!
While you are waiting for the Microsoft CRM 3.0 RTM to be available to registered partners (it is apparently available to MSDN subscribers already), you might want to check to see whether your current CRM 1.2 installation is ready for the upgrade, or if you will have some work to do first. Download the CRM 3.0 Upgrade Advisor from
here and run it on your CRM 1.2 server. (I tried it from a client workstation and it didn't do anything.) There was good news and bad news when I ran it on my server. The good news is that there were no problem identified. Everything seems to be hokay dokay. The bad news is that since there were no problems, I can't give a better report of what it did or what it found. Darn! :-) Give it a go on your server while you're waiting for the RTM.
Today I received the beta of Aspire's QuoteWerks 4.0 beta for CRM 1.2. I have long used QuoteWerks with GoldMine and have relied upon it to prepare client quotes, and purchase orders for those quotes my clients approved of. I've been using Microsoft CRM 1.2 for the past year and have found the quotation feature to be somewhat lackng. I'm excited about being able to use QuoteWerks with CRM instead of having to fall back to GoldMine to prepare quotes. I'll report more later as I work through the normal issues of migrating to a new platform, with a beta.
You can learn more about QuoteWerks at www.QuoteWerks.com.
I just finished watching an EXCELLENT video (about 1 hour!) on the MS CRM 3.0 Outlook client. The presenter was extremely knowledgable. It was a well spent hour watching this presentation. This was just one of many presentations on CRM 3.0. The different topics are available in both CRM Features Video, which is in depth, and a Business Value Overview which is much shorter.
If you are interested in learning about CRM 3.0, I'd recommend you go to https://microsoft.order-7.com/CRMPartnerBeta/resources.asp and check it out.
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