The Implementation Guide that has been made available from Microsoft contains comprehensive information about how to plan, install, and maintain Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.  This guide has some very helpful information. Microsoft overview is:

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Implementation Guide consists of the following three documents:

• Planning Guide: This guide gives you the information and tools that help you get your organization ready for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. It includes two main aspects of planning for a customer relationship management (CRM) system:
  • Technical: These topics focus on such areas as the supported topologies, system requirements, and technical considerations to address before you install.
  • Implementation methodology: These topics cover the business management, CRM requirements, and project management aspects that are needed when you deploy a CRM system. Additionally, there are several documents included that you can use as tools to plan the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. These tools are in the planningtools folder where the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Implementation Guide is located.
• Installing Guide: This guide provides the information that you need to install Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, such as step-by-step instructions for running Setup, command-line installation instructions for silent installations, and guidance about how to remove Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.
• Operating and Maintaining Guide: This guide gives you information about how to back up, restore, and provide data recovery for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. Additionally, this guide provides troubleshooting steps for known issues.

(Overview can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1CEB5E01-DE9F-48C0-8CE2-51633EBF4714&displaylang=en )

So ... to download the Implementation guide (1.1MB) head to this link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1CEB5E01-DE9F-48C0-8CE2-51633EBF4714&displaylang=en

You will download a file of Microsoft_Dynamics_CRM4_IG.exe

Once you have this file locally, extract the exe to find the following files as follows:

The three Microsoft documents listed above are really handy to have printed and beside you when developing, using or administrating CRM 4.0.  There is a lot of pages so consider printing and sharing it around.
If you read these and worked with CRM in the past i'm guaranteed you will agree that they are very useful.

There is also another compressed file inside the Microsoft_Dynamics_CRM4_IG.exe file called PlanningTools.zip.  I was quite happy to see the information in the Configuration_and_Customization_Planning_Tools folder for the default values.  This type of information is very handy when planning out customer/client customisation's to CRM to suit their requirements. Open the Excel documents for more info.

This PlanningTooks.zip contains the following folders:

Here is a breakdown of each folder and their files respectively:

Business_Management_Planning_Tools

Configuration_and_Customization_Planning_Tools

Project_Management_Tools

Service_Scheduling_Tools

Looks pretty good?

Here is that download link again for the Implementation guide (1.1MB): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1CEB5E01-DE9F-48C0-8CE2-51633EBF4714&displaylang=en

Enjoy!

Greg Olsen
Yellow Duck Guy

This has been advertised since December 2007 and I thought I would advertise it on my blog as well since I have registered to go along to the event on February 4th here in Auckland, New Zealand.

With the new gear being launched in 2008 of Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 allows developers and IT professionals to get a first look (or another look) at these great products from Microsoft.

Chris Auld and Jeremy Boyd - are touring the country showing off all this new gear.

"The session itself will be a 2 hour presentation where the guys will design the infrastructure, including virtualization layer, data structure, web site, IIS implementation and then build and deploy the entire solution over the period of the session explaining what they are doing as they go"
(2007, http://blogs.msdn.com/darrylburling/)

These are the dates and locations you can register at (get in quick!!):

· Auckland – Feb 4
· Tauranga – Feb 5
· Hamilton – Feb 7
· New Plymouth – Feb 8
· Hawkes Bay – Feb 11
· Palmerston North – Feb 12
· Wellington – Feb 13
· Nelson – Feb 14
· Christchurch – Feb 15
· Dunedin – Feb 18
· Invercargill - Feb 19

Register here: http://www.dot.net.nz/Default.aspx?tabid=113 for any location.  There are some prizes to be given away as well including the new Microsoft Windows Home Server.

Yellow Duck Guy
Greg Olsen

Good posting on Microsoft forum regarding untidy domains affecting the CRM 4.0 installs. This could mean that an old domain controller which was "removed" could still cause you issues.

If you ever get the error of domain name is either invalid or unreachable like below then you might want to read on:

Microsoft.Crm.Setup.Server.InstallConfigDatabaseAction failed. ---> Microsoft.Crm.CrmArgumentException: Invalid domain name. Domain name is either invalid or unreachable. ---> System.ArgumentException: Invalid domain name. Domain name is either invalid or unreachable.

Forum Posting here: http://forums.microsoft.com/Dynamics/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2585429&SiteID=27

On this posting there is some code to help you list the domains active from the machine you wish to install CRM 4.0 on.  I created this inside a .vbs file and ran it using cscript from the system32 folder and it listed mine correctly - so it works! yay!.  You will need to list them to see if any old ones are lying around.

Here is the code (I could've re-written this in C# but thought there was no real gain) to find the current domains from your CRM 4.0 machine:

On Error Resume Next

Const ADS_SCOPE_SUBTREE = 2

Set objRootDSE = GetObject("LDAP://RootDSE")
strConfigurationNC = objRootDSE.Get("configurationNamingContext")

Set objConnection = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
Set objCommand =  CreateObject("ADODB.Command")
objConnection.Provider = "ADsDSOObject"
objConnection.Open "Active Directory Provider"
Set objCommand.ActiveConnection = objConnection

objCommand.Properties("Page Size") = 1000
objCommand.Properties("Searchscope") = ADS_SCOPE_SUBTREE
objCommand.CommandText = "SELECT ADsPath FROM 'LDAP://" & strConfigurationNC & "' WHERE objectClass='nTDSDSA'" 

Set objRecordSet = objCommand.Execute

objRecordSet.MoveFirst
Do Until objRecordSet.EOF
    Set objParent = GetObject(GetObject(objRecordset.Fields("ADsPath")).Parent)
    WScript.Echo objParent.CN
    objRecordSet.MoveNext
Loop

If you would like to download this as a .vbs file to save the manual preparation, then you can have a copy of mine from here: http://www.box.net/shared/dh4ual3ww8

Once you have run this file and identified any unwanted domain controllers then I suggest you remove them or get them removed from the authorised domain admin's.  For support on removing unwanted domain controllers and keeping your domain tidy, then read this Microsoft Support page:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;216498

Hope this helps any of those unusual failing installs!

Greg Olsen
Yellow Duck Guy