Could not find GUID for server…

by | Oct 23, 2009

Interesting error today.

All of a sudden our development server stopped working. We got the following error in CRM:
Microsoft CRM Error Report:

Error Details:


Could not find GUID for server: CRMSERVER$


Full Stack:


[ActiveDirectoryObjectNotFoundException: The local computer is not joined to a domain or the domain cannot be contacted.]


at System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory.Domain.GetComputerDomain()


at Microsoft.Crm.BusinessEntities.SecurityUtils.GetGuidFromServerName(String serverName)…
 
It seems that it was caused by the fact the the domain servers DNS was down. I have read of other causes for the same error, but make sure that the DNS service of the domain server is up and running.
 
Gustaf Westerlund
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Chief Architect

Logica
www.logica.com

SharePoint 2010

by | Oct 20, 2009

The NDA of the new version of SharePoint 2010 has been lifted and hence a lot of new functionality is out!

You can read a lot about it on the SharePoint Team Blog here: http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/10/19/sharepoint-2010.aspx

From a CRM perspective, this is very interesting. The new version of CRM is rumored to have a much tighter integration with SharePoint, so from that perspective it is almost essential to learn a bit more about SharePoint.

There are some areas of SharePoint that are of special interest from a CRM perspective:

  • Enhance BI functionality including performance Point server now included in the new SharePoint
  • Business Data Catalog enhanced – an excellent tool to work with in relations to CRM
  • Enhanced Document Management – one of the weaker parts of Dynamics CRM 4 is the built in document management so integration with SharePoint in regards to document management is often used.
  • Enhanced API and development capabilities. When integration with SharePoint development is often required to create the necessary functionality. The SharePoint API is currently ok but compared to the excellent API of Dynamics CRM, it can do with an upgrade. Hopefully to the mark set by Dynamics CRM.

So that is all good news.

However, there is still one major issue from a CRM – SharePoint integration perspective that Microsoft REALLY need to address and that is the licensing issues of SharePoint users working in a very slight way with CRM data by, for instance, looking at data from a data warehouse in SharePoint with drill-down functionality. Today, all users with access to this need to have a full read only CRM license. Similarly, if there is a webpart used in SharePoint to create leads in CRM, but with no other need for access, a full CRM CAL is required for all users of the Intranet since they are employees and hence cannot use the external connector license. This is preposterous! Please Microsoft, we really like CRM, and we want to pay our dues, just make it fair!

Gustaf Westerlund
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Chief Architect

 

Logica
www.logica.com

Strange problem with Country and Country Code

by | Oct 18, 2009

A couple of days ago I had the wierdest error. We have added some fields on Acccount and a new entity called Billing Account so that there is Contry and Country Code in both. The wierd thing was that when I opened the tab with the field, after about 1 second, the country changed to “United States” and the country code to “1”. This even happened to the custom entity.

I was confused. The country code was supposed to be according to the so and so ISO standard, where Sweden is SE. Hence 1 was very incorrect. I started looking if some tired programmer might have added some javascript or similar but found nothing out of the ordinary. Then I though I’d just like to see what happens when I run IE directly from the CRM server, and praise and behold, it didn’t change the field! That narrowed it down. First I thought it was google Toolbar, so I uninstalled it, but the error was still there. Then I tried running IE in InPrivate surfing and then it didn’t change it! So, there must be some plugin in IE that causes it. After some uninstalling and testing I found it, Swedbank has this “e-kort” or e-card program that let’s you generate a one-time VISA number, this was the program that caused this error. It is probably some program this Swedish bank has bought from some american company and it has this weird feature.

Well, that just teaches you, don’t install a lot of crap into IE. 🙂

Gustaf Westerlund
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Chief Architect

Logica
www.logica.com

Create replacement entities

by | Oct 18, 2009

Sometimes, using a standard entity like product or invoice might not be the most optimal choice. Often due to the fact that there is quite a lot of business logic built into these entities. Therefore it is somtimes better to create you own entity instead. However, if you try to create a new entity with the name “Product” you will notice that it cannot be done since there already is an entity with that displayname.

The solution is quite simple, change the displayname of the built in product to “Old product” and remove all rights for all users to it and it will disapear for all normal users. You can then create your new entity with the displayname “Product”.

Gustaf Westerlund
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Architect

Logica
www.logica.com