CRM 2011: ADFS error 317
While deploying a new CRM 2011 environment at a client site, I got errors with my ADFS setup:
- We used a wildcard certificate for all servers (on the same domain), purchased from RapidSSL
- ADFS is on a separate server
- CRM 2011 is on its own server
- DNS internal entries were made and could resolve correctly to both servers
The problem occurred right after enabling claims in CRM 2011 Deployment Manager: the internal CRM address specified in the deployment manager could not be resolved and a couple of 317 & 364 errors were logged on the ADFS server.
I tried creating SPNs for both servers, remove and import the certificates again on both server, recreate the relying party for CRM, etc. but with no correct results.
Since the SSL certificates were created with lowercase characters for the domain, I changed the CRM web addresses to lowercase as well, which made the ADFS authentication form appear!
But I could still not get passed the 317 error after logging in with valid credentials…
Then I found this post were a PowerShell command was shown:
Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Adfs.PowerShell
Set-ADFSRelyingPartyTrust -TargetName RPNameInADFS -EncryptionCertificateRevocationCheck None
Reset IIS on the ADFS server and voilà, it worked for me!
CRM 2011: Q4 Service Update
OK, now that you have installed Update Rollup 5 for Microsoft CRM 2011, you can import the Activity Feeds solution provided by Microsoft and available here.
This new solution will provide new functionalities that are related to “social networking” (a description of the new functionalities can be found here and here).
CRM 2011: Q4 Service Update and localhost
If, like me, you get consistent ‘Access denied’ error while browsing the “What’s New” activity feed screen, this is because you are using the following Web address: http://localhost/YOUR_ORG
Instead, try using the computer’s Netbios name, for example: http://yourserver/YOUR_ORG it should work!
CRM 2011: Update Rollup 5 with Q4 Service Update available through direct download
More information here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2567454/en-us
Link to the individual downloads: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=27820
This update will be available through Windows Update from the November 8, 2011.
CRM 2011: Update Rollup 4 available through direct download
More information here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2556167/en-us
Link to the download: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=27554
This update will be available through Windows Update from the 27th of September
CRM 2011: Thunderbird compatibility
Well, this one is a recurring question: is Microsoft CRM compatible with other email clients such as Thunderbird?
Well, the simple answer is “No sir”, but I’ve found myself thinking about creating a free plugin that will give the ability to convert emails in Thunderbird to CRM emails and to synchronize contacts (at least from the Thunderbird address book to CRM).
It is a very much anticipated development but I already have the skeleton, and thanks to Microsoft CRM 2011 REST feature, I think I might end-up getting things to work.
What do you think, would such a plugin be useful to you? Feel free to comment and give me advices 
How-to: Use SQL CTE with custom reports in CRM
One of my client asked me the other day to produce a report containing all the cases (incidents) in the system… OK, this is pretty easy and it already exists somewhere 
But the hardest part was the filtering of this report: he wanted to be able to put a parent subject in the filter and the report should take care of getting all the child under this subject!
Interesting article: Microsoft CRM 2011 Multiple Forms basics
I’ve just found out this very nice post on multiple forms basics in Microsoft CRM 2011, so I wanted to share it with you all…
Microsoft CRM 2011: Multiple Forms basics.
How-to series: Send SMS messages from CRM 2011 (part 3)
Finally! This is the final part of my how-to series on how to send and track SMS messages in Microsoft CRM 2011.
The first post explained how to prepare the solution.
The second post talked about the Web front-end customization.
This last post will explain how to communicate with Clickatell’s gateway to send your SMS messages.
CRM 2011: Update Rollup 2 available through direct download
More information here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2466086/en-us
Link to the download: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=a5a088be-c19e-43b5-87fb-219c2a2bc280&displaylang=en
This update will be available through Windows Update from the 28th of June.
