Published Update Rollups for MS Dynamics CRM 4.0
November 10, 2009 by Marcello TonarelliMicrosoft Dynamics CRM SDK 4.0.10 is available
November 6, 2009 by Marcello TonarelliVersion 4.0.10 of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK is now live on MSDN and on the download center.
This release contains updates relevant to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Update Rollup 7 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Service Update 4.
Check out some of the new and updated topics you’ll find in this release. View the Release History for the complete list:
- Using the Paging Cookie – Fetch and QueryExpression sample code to show you how to implement paging.
- Using Pre-generated XmlSerializers - use these supplemental assemblies to increase performance.
- Visualizations (Charts) – This exciting new charts are available for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online only.
- Walkthrough: Creating and Registering a Custom Workflow Activity – if you are new to custom workflow activities, this walkthrough will get you started.
- Authentication with CRM Online – these samples have been updated to get the organization-specific CrmService Web service URL from the discovery service.
- Using Filters in a Report – new information about enabling data pre-filtering on reports.
- Stylesheet samples – added HTML, CSS, and image files that provide a starting point for creating Web pages that look similar to Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
- Import/Export (Customization File) Schema – updated the customization schemas to be used with the latest releases.
- PluginRegistration tool – includes the latest version of this tool used for plug-ins and custom workflow activities.
- Choosing Between the WSDL and Assemblies – read this new topic to help you choose the best method for your project.
October 2009 Cumulative Update Packages for SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
November 2, 2009 by Marcello TonarelliThe server-packages of October 2009 Cumulative Update for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 are ready for download. October 2009 Cumulative Updates introduce more rules on Pre-Upgrade Checker, which can help customers to prepare the upgrade of their SharePoint farm to SharePoint 2010.
Download Information
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 October 2009 cumulative update package
http://support.microsoft.com/hotfix/KBHotfix.aspx?kbnum=974989
Office SharePoint Server 2007 October 2009 cumulative update package
http://support.microsoft.com/hotfix/KBHotfix.aspx?kbnum=974988
Detail Description
Description of the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 October 2009 cumulative update package
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974989 (link may not be live yet)
Description of the Office SharePoint Server 2007 October 2009 cumulative update package
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974988 (link may not be live yet)
Installation Recommendation for a fresh SharePoint Server
To keep all files in a SharePoint installation up-to-date, the following sequence is recommended.
- Service Pack 2 for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and language packs
- Service Pack 2 for Office SharePoint Server 2007 and language packs
- October 2009 Cumulative Update package for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
- October 2009 Cumulative Update package for Office SharePoint Server 2007
Please note: Start from April 2009 Cumulative Update, the packages will no longer install on a farm without a service pack installed. You must have installed either Service Pack 1 (SP1) or SP2 prior to the installation of the cumulative updates.
After applying the preceding updates, run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard or “psconfig -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -wait” in command line. This needs to be done on every server in the farm with SharePoint installed.
The version of content databases should be 12.0.6520.5000 after successfully applying these updates.
You can also refer to April Cumulative Update post for deployment guides, slipstream how-to links and FAQs.
Disponibili i Cumulative Updates October 2007 per WSS 3.0 e MOSS 2007
November 1, 2009 by Marcello TonarelliSono stati rilasciati gli aggiornamenti comulativi per SharePoint 2007:
-
CU October per WSS 3.0
http://support.microsoft.com/hotfix/KBHotfix.aspx?kbnum=974989 -
CU October per MOSS 2007
http://support.microsoft.com/hotfix/KBHotfix.aspx?kbnum=974988
Per informazioni:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974989
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974988
Domain Certificate Authority Signing InfoPath 2007 Forms
October 28, 2009 by Marcello TonarelliInfoPath forms with custom code and those that have their Security Level set to Full Trust must be signed so that they can be run by the client. That’s fine but who wants to pay for a code signing certificate for internally developed applications? If we string together a couple of facts we can quickly realize that we shouldn’t have to pay for code signing certificate if we are developing code that will only ever be used by internal users.
First, certificates work because there are a set of trusted root certificate authorities. Their responsibility is to issue certificates. The organizations running the trusted root certificate authorities are responsible for only issuing certificates where the certificate matches the organization requesting the certificate. They make no judgment about whether the person is good or bad – only that they are who they say they are. The service that you pay for when you purchase a certificate from a trusted root certificate authority is that they have verified your identity.
Microsoft Windows has a list of trusted root certificate authorities – but when a computer is in a domain, it automatically trusts the Enterprise Certificate Authority for the domain. The Enterprise certificate authority is an instance of certificate services which comes with Windows Server operating systems. It allows an administrator to issue certificates. There are several templates for the kinds of certificates to be issued. The most common one is for a web server – an SSL certificate – but there are others as well.
Certificate Services has a template for code signing certificates. If you put everything together you realize that when all of your computers are a member of a domain you can request and get granted a code signing certificate that’s valid for anyone using the certificate in the domain.
Here’s how to do it…
Install Certificate Services
If you don’t have an Enterprise Certificate Authority in your domain, go to a server and …
1) Click Start- Control Panel-Add/Remove Programs
2) Click Windows Components
3) Click the checkmark to the left of Certificate Services
4) Click Next
5) Follow the wizard to create an Enterprise Certificate Authority.
Note: There are special precautions for protecting enterprise certificate authorities including creating sub-authorities, and taking the certificate authority offline. If your organization is large, you should review the risks and guidelines for creating certificate authorities and manage security appropriately. In smaller organizations it’s generally acceptable to create an enterprise CA and issue certificates from it.
Create a Copy of the Code Signing Template
The default out of box code signing certificate doesn’t allow the certificate’s private key to be exported. This means that only the user to which the certificate is issued can use it. Generally you don’t want to have developers to have enough permission to request the certificate themselves. If you want to be able to move the certificate from user to another you’ll need to make a copy of the Code Signing certificate and change it so it can have exportable keys. We’re going to show you how to do this. If you follow these steps choose your duplicated code signing certificate in the following steps.
1) Click Start-Run and enter certtmpl.msc.
2) Right click the Code Signing template and select Duplicate.
3) Enter a name for the new Template. For instance, add your organization name in front.
4) Click the Request Handling tab.
5) Click the Allow private key to be exported.
6) Click OK.
You now have your own code signing template that can be exported.
Enable the Code Signing Template
By default the code signing certificate template isn’t available to be issued from your certificate authority. To do that you need to enable the template which you can do by following these steps…
1) Click Start-Administrative Tools-Certification Authority
2) Expand the server that you installed certificate services on
3) Click the Certificate Templates folder.
4) Right click the Certificate Templates folder, select New, Certificate Template to Issue.
5) Click Code Signing and click the OK button.
Now you can issue Code Signing Certificates
Issue the Certificate
Now that everything is in place you can issue the certificate. Follow these steps to do that…
1) Open a web browser and navigate to http://server/certsrv where server is the name of the server which you installed certificate services.
2) Click the Request a certificate link
3) Click the advanced certificate request link
4) Click the Create and submit a request to this CA link
5) In the certificate template drop down box select Code Signing.
6) Enter a friendly name for the certificate in the friendly name textbox at the end of the page.
7) Click Submit. You may be prompted that the web site is requesting a certificate, click Yes.
8) Click the Install Certificate link. Again you may be warned that you’re getting a certificate, click Yes.
You now have a certificate in your certificates store. If you’ve not been doing this as the developer (and you probably haven’t), you’ll need to export the certificate and import it into the developer’s account. You’ll only be able to do this if you created your own code signing template.
Exporting the Certificate
Here’s what you need to do to export the certificate:
1) Click Start-Run enter certmgr.msc
2) Expand the Personal Folder
3) Expand the Certificates folder
4) Locate the certificate that indicates that its intended purposes is Code Signing.
5) Right click on that item and select All Tasks-Export
6) Click Next
7) Click Yes, export the private key.
8) Click Next.
9) Click Next
10) Enter a password and confirm password.
11) Click Next
12) Enter a file name for the exported file
13) Click Next
14) Click Finish
You’ve exported the certificate.
Importing the Certificate
If you’ve exported the certificate you can move that over to the user or machine that will be signing the code and follow these steps to import the certificate.
1) Double click the file to start the Certificate Import Wizard.
2) Click Next
3) Click Next
4) Enter the password you entered when you exported the file.
5) Click Mark the key as exportable.
6) Click Next
7) Click Next
8) Click Finish
9) Click OK.
You’ve now imported the certificate file.
Configure InfoPath to Use the Certificate
The final step in this journey is to tell InfoPath to use the certificate. Do that by following these steps…
1) Open an InfoPath form in design view.
2) Click Tools-Form Options
3) In the category pane, click Security and Trust
4) Click Sign this form template
5) Click the Select Certificate button
6) Select the certificate that you just issued.
7) Click OK.
8) Click OK.
OK, you’re done. That’s all you need to do in order to get a code signing certificate that will sign InfoPath forms that the users of the organization will recognize.
How to Fix Project Server Events Service and Queue Service
October 28, 2009 by Marcello TonarelliThis is a great post to How to Fix Project Server Events Service and Queue Service Event ID: 7000 Error (Graphical Step-by-Step)
http://rperreaux.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!5D7BD18D324CBEEF!529.entry
Manually load Microsoft Certificate Revocation lists
October 27, 2009 by Marcello TonarelliWhen starting a .NET application, the .NET Framework will attempt to download the Certificate Revocation list (CRL) for any signed assembly. If your system does not have direct access to the Internet, or is restricted from accessing the Microsoft.com domain, this may delay startup of BizTalk Server (Non solo). To avoid this delay at application startup, you can use the following steps to manually download and install the code signing Certificate Revocation Lists on your system.
1. Download the latest CRL updates from:
http://crl.microsoft.com/pki/crl/products/CodeSignPCA.crl
or
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=117794
and
http://crl.microsoft.com/pki/crl/products/CodeSignPCA2.crl
or
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=117795.
2. Move the CodeSignPCA.crl and CodeSignPCA2.crl files to the isolated system.
3. From a command prompt, enter the following command to use the certutil utility to update the local certificate store with the CRL downloaded in step 1:
certutil -addstore CA c:\CodeSignPCA.crl
certutil -addstore CA c:\ CodeSignPCA2.crl
The CRL files are updated regularly, so you should consider setting a reoccurring task of downloading and installing the CRL updates. To view the next update time, double-click the .crl file and view the value of the Next Update field.
Trato da:
General Guidelines for Improving Operating System Performance:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee377075(BTS.10).aspx
E’ fondamentale riavviare il server dopo avere eseguito i comandi.
Update Rollup 7 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
October 26, 2009 by Marcello TonarelliThe Microsoft Dynamics CRM Sustained Engineering team will release Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Update Rollup 7 on Thursday, October 22, 2009.
Once the release is available the links below will take you to the necessary information about Update Rollup 7.
- Microsoft Download Center: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=a4893988-7804-4e23-ab58-740441cc696e
- Microsoft Knowledge Base Article: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=971782
Il queue services e l’event services di Project Server 2007 non partono piu’ dopo l’installazione della SP1!
October 23, 2009 by Marcello TonarelliLa settimana scorsa ho fatto una “migrazione” di una installazione di test di Project Server 2007 verso una farm di produzione. In altre parole ho preso i dati che c’erano sull ambiente di test e li ho portati sui server di produzione.
Visto che c’eravamo abbiamo installato la SP1 di WSS seguita dalla SP1 di Project Server 2007.
Tutto bene, salvo che i servizi queue e event non partivano piu’.
Spulciando la rete mi sono imbattuto in un thread che parlava del problema (http://www.eggheadcafe.com/software/aspnet/31389210/after-sp1-project-server.aspx).
Pare che dopo l’installazione della SP1 i suddetti servizi abbiano bisogno di accedere alla revocation list dei certificati di Microsoft ed in particolare ad un file che si chiama http://crl.microsoft.com/pki/crl/products/CodeSignPCA.crl . Peccato che l’account usato dai sopracitati servizi non aveva accesso a Internet ne si poteva sperare di ottenerlo in tempi brevi.
Interessante la soluzione proposta sul thread indicato sopra, di scaricare e pubblicare internamente la revocation list.
Portal Integration and Partner Relationship Management accelerators have been released!
October 22, 2009 by Marcello TonarelliMicrosoft have released two new accelerators.
Portal Integration and Partner Relationship Management.
The Portal Integration Accelerator easily connects Microsoft Dynamics CRM to an organization’s Web experience. With this added capability, a business analyst can use point-and-click configuration — as opposed to Web development — to rapidly extend to the Internet any business process and drive costs out of everyday business interactions.
The Partner Relationship Management (PRM) Accelerator allows businesses to use Microsoft Dynamics CRM to distribute sales leads and centrally manage sales opportunities across channel partners. It provides pre-built extensions to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM sales force automation functionality, including new data entities, workflow and reports. Using the PRM Accelerator, companies can jointly manage sales processes with their channel partners through a centralized Web portal, as well as extend this integration to automate additional business processes.
You can download them here
