Note that the On-Premise build numbers I list below may be different than what you will find in CRM 2011 Online.  Microsoft continuously adds new updates behind the scenes, thus the likelihood of having a greater build number in comparison to the latest Update Rollup version.

To determine your current build number from the IE web client, simply:

1. Browse to your CRM 2011 website
2. Click on the File tab
3. Navigate to Help
4. Click on “About Microsoft Dynamics CRM”

Earlier in the year, this company had restructured their staff.  During this process they had disabled the user account of a key former employee that was the owner of all the workflows.

What was the lesson learned?  Disabling the Owner user account of a workflow will disable the workflow jobs as well. Workflows require an active user account to process the jobs. When developing workflows for an organization, make sure all of the published workflows are owned by an administrative account, and not an employee.

Dynamics CRM 4.0 does warn you of this fact while disabling a user (see screenshot below).

Disabling a User in Dynamics CRM 4.0

Unfortunately for my client, all of their workflow activity during the downtime could not be recovered, despite having finally re-enabled the workflows.  Again, as a Dynamics CRM Consultant, be sure to educate your clients of this fact.

Link : Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Beta installation files  (microsoft.com)

Here you can find the CRM 2011 Beta installation files pertaining to the On-Premise Server, Outlook Client, SharePoint, Exchange, BIDS for customizing SSRS reports, and language packages.

Below are the packages, with links to the direct download.

Hope you enjoy it… I’d appreciate your feedback!

Drogba, Ivory Coast's number 11, gets a kick out of regular updates to his CRM. (UPDATE: he's injured and will miss the World Cup. Bummer)

Microsoft released the latest Update Rollup 11 for Dynamics CRM today, just in time before the World Cup 2010 tournament.  It’s so obvious now; they did this to make some room in their schedule for watching the live matches.  Indeed, they had already announced that there would be regular updates every 8 weeks… but I see through your game!   ಠ_ಠ

This release shows better Ribbon integration with Outlook 2010.  The CRM buttons don’t appear in the Add-Ins tab anymore.

Make sure you download and review the KB article from the links below.

• Download Update Rollup 11 for Dynamics CRM (Microsoft)
• KB 981328: Release Notes for Update Rollup 11 (Microsoft)

The usual considerations apply regarding backing up and restoring customization XML files.  Make sure to carefully read the release notes before upgrading.

Some notable updates:

• Windows Internet Explorer crashes or stops responding when you use the Advanced Find view on a computer that is running Windows 7.
• After you apply Update Rollup 7 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, you experience slow performance when you open Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Web client.
• When you create a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services (SSRS 2008) report by using the new SSRS 2008 features, you cannot display the report in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.
• You experience slow performance when you add many members, such as 10,000 members, into a marketing list. Additionally, you may receive a time-out error message.
• Assume that you create a report in the Report Wizard. When you run the report, you receive the following error message: An error has occurred during report processing. Query execution failed for data set ‘DSMain’.

A special cheers to all my fellow Dynamics CRM colleagues who will be following the tournament as closely as I will. 

EDIT: Update Rollup 10 is now available!  Download the bits at this link (KB 979347).

From some #MSCRM Twitter buzz, it looks like the latest compilation of hotfixes for Microsoft Dynamics CRM will be released tomorrow, April 8th.  Not to worry; I’ll update this post with the links as soon as it’s available.

'C' is for CRM!

I confirmed with Microsoft Support that this latest Update Rollup will include a hotfix that resolves one particular Outlook sync issue.  A user may get following error when going Offline or Online:

Only items in the default Microsoft Outlook store can be promoted to Microsoft CRM.

Until this hotfix, the workaround for this problem was to disable the Exchange Cached Mode setting to cache shared folder. 

While you’re waiting for the download, check out this ZDNet article on the latest news regarding CRM ’5′.

NOTE: The build list below was updated as of May 2011.

I recently had to check my CRM enviroments to make sure they’re updated to the latest Update Rollup version (currently #9, on Feb 2010). From experience, all I needed to do was:

• Browse to the CRM website.
• Click on the “Help” button on the top right side of the window.
• Click on “About Microsoft Dynamics CRM”
• Get the build number displayed.

Now that I have the build number, I can compare it to the latest list of Update Rollup build numbers. The nice thing about this screen is that it’ll post your CRM Outlook Client build version as well.  See the screenshot below for an example.  I have Update Rollup 9 on the CRM Server, but I have Update Rollup 7 on the Outlook Client.

CRM Help - Build Version

Thanks to David Vidmar at Bite my Bytes blog, I can repost a section of his very useful build version chart below.

For more technical details on the version numbers of the various Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 components, please see the Microsoft KB #946594 Article.

EDIT: Update Rollup 9 is now available at this download link.

I <3 CRM

There’s some buzz lately about Update Rollup 9 being available soon this Thursday, February the 11th.  No details yet on what it may bring, though, so I’ll be patient!  My bet is more bug fixes, nothing too monumental.  Time to plan for it nonetheless. 

As you may already know, Update Rollup 7 was the last major update for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. It brought significant changes to Dynamics CRM 4.0 and the CRM Outlook Client. In addition, it can be considered the “gold standard” for a new CRM deployment going forward.

Make sure all your CRM deployments are at the very least up to speed with Update Rollup 7 for two very good reasons: better performance, and compatibility with future updates.

For a full list of current Update Rollups for Microsoft Dynamics CRM click here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949256

Should you update? "Signs point to yes"

First off, I apologize for not keeping this blog regularly updated.  Balancing projects and the holiday season tends to make one procrastinate. 

After a quick scan of the list of fixes, it appears this release only adds stability improvements on top of what was Update Rollup 7′s big changes.  Update Rollup 7 is not a pre-requisite.  You can install UR8 on any server deployment of CRM 4.0 because it’s a cumulative update.  Easy!  However, you should make sure to to review the import and export customization file notes.

EDIT: The Outlook Client and Data Migration Manager both require Update Rollup 7 to be installed beforehand.

Happy holidays!

Download link:
Update Rollup 6 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 (KB 970148)
KB Article link:
Microsoft Knowledge Base article 970148: Update Rollup 6 is available for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

Things are a little different this time around when it comes to compatibility between versions of XML customization backups. This newest Update Rollup is compatible with customization files from Update Rollups versions 2 through 6. The opposite is also true: you can import an Update Rollup 6 customization into depoyments with Update Rollups 2 through 6.

I believe Microsoft is planning on releasing new Update Rollups every two months, so check back regularly!