Upgrading to CRM 4.0 (Eric Newell)

Eric Newell on the MSCRM Blog has a great list on upgrading to CRM 4.0 from CRM 3.0. Normaly I would just give the link to his blog spot; however, this list is a great starting list for any upgrade and I am going to quote directly from his post.

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I have several customers looking to complete their upgrade from CRM 3.0 to 4.0, and they’re looking for advice on the steps they should follow both before and during the actual upgrade process. First, I suggest running two or more successful test upgrades before running the live upgrade. During this time, customers should write test cases for the critical functions they perform within CRM. After each upgrade, users should run through those test cases to make sure everything is working as expected.

Once customers are ready to upgrade, here are my suggested steps, broken out into work that can be done prior to the upgrade downtime and the work that needs to be done during the downtime for the upgrade. The goal is to minimize your downtime by doing certain tasks ahead of the actual upgrade.

Note: Always back up the existing CRM 3.0 database before adding a customization or moving to a new version of CRM.

1. Upgrade SQL databases to SQL 2005 SP2 (if not already done)

2. Upgrade SQL Reporting Services web sites to SQL 2005 SP2 (if not already done). Upgrade the reporting service database with SP2 script.

3. Verify the rights of the user running the upgrade

a. Must have admin rights on computer, admin rights in SQL Reporting Services and server admin on SQL Server

b. Must be able to create a security group within the OU where the 4 3.0 groups exist

c. Must be in the same domain as the servers where the upgrade is run

d. Must be a member of the system administrator role in CRM

4. Install Server Pre-requisites ahead of time

a. SQL Reporting Services Report Viewer (2.0.50727)

b. XML Core Services (6.0.3883)

c. .NET Framework 3.0 (3.0.4506.30)

d. SQL Native Client (9.0.2047)

e. Microsoft Application Error Reporting Tool

5. Install Email Router ahead of upgrade and start configuration (completed after upgrade)

a. If using forward mailbox, assure that you can access that mailbox via Outlook Web Access

b. Assure that WebDAV is enabled on the Exchange server where the mailbox is located

c. Configure outbound to use SMTP server

d. Once you finish configuring the router, turn the service off until the upgrade is completed

6. Review the following KB article (949256) for CRM 4.0 hotfix information, and download any server hotfix packages and add the installation to your upgrade steps

7. If using AutoUpdate for clients (requires admin rights on clients), create web directory for client patches and store the client patch .exes in that folder

8. Save off backup copy of all custom report .rdl files

9. Delete all CRM 3.0 out of the box reports not being used (you'll get another copy of the report in 4.0)

10. Export all your customizations for reference purposes (cannot be upgraded outside of the server upgrade process)

11. Review all custom entities to make sure the primary entity does not have NULL values. If it does, run a SQL script to update values to ‘’ or some value

12. Download the CRM 4.0 Diag Tool so it's ready to be used in the event of errors received on CRM 4.0

13. If using an Internet Facing Deployment, review KB article 948779 and download IFD Configuration Tool

14. Review the following KB articles prior to upgrade 946590, 947061, 947997

The following steps should be completed within the downtime needed for the upgrade.

1. If running SQL replication, disable SQL replication

2. Turn off IIS on the web servers

3. Back up [CompanyName]_MSCRM and [CompanyName]_METABASE databases

4. Delete the t_update_queueitem trigger on the QueueItemBase table (to be fixed in a forthcoming hotfix - 948172)

5. Launch the upgrade

a. Be sure to connect to the Internet to update installation files. If you don’t have Internet access on that machine, go to KB 948917 and following the links to download the installation files and bring them over to the server.

b. Install Visual C++ runtime

c. Enter your 4.0 server keys

d. Choose a base currency

e. Run the upgrade

6. Restart the web server

7. Complete the registration of the CRM 4.0 product

8. If you have additional web servers, upgrade CRM on those web servers

8. Complete the configuration of the Email Router by choosing the Deployment and testing the configuration

9. Apply all server hotfixes

10. If using AutoUpdate, run configurator tool to publish client hotfixes to clients

11. If Internet Facing Deployment, install the SQL Reporting Services Data Connector

12. If Internet Facing Deployment, run the IFD Configuration Tool

13. In SRS Report Manager, recreate any custom data sources under the 4.0 folder

14. Re-upload all CRM 4.0 reports that contained sub-reports and point the sub-reports to the appropriate parent report

15. Copy over any new customizations made on development 4.0 environments

16. Install the online and offline client (if used) for testing purposes

17. Test all functionality from Outlook and the web client

Once the final upgrade is completed, run through the test cases to make sure everything is working as you expected. If you are using the Desktop/Online Outlook client, you need to upgrade your clients right away after the upgrade of the server so they can access CRM functionality. If you are using the Laptop/Offline Outlook client, your users can remain offline until they are ready to upgrade to CRM 4.0.

Now you’re done and can enjoy the new features of CRM 4.0!

Eric Newell