Kamal Sharma Published Thursday, January 29, 2009 9:53 AM
List Web Part for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 supports Internet Facing Deployment (IFD) and On Premise configuration for Dynamics CRM and SharePoint.
This article briefly describes the steps necessary for configuring List Web Part determined by the deployment scenarios of Dynamics CRM and SharePoint Server.
NOTE: Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server allows IFD + On Premise Authentication mechanism to be configured for Internet Facing deployments. User’s IP address determines the authentication mechanism used to access Dynamics CRM Server (On Premise or IFD). In contrast, SharePoint's Internet Facing website is based on the URL used to access it.
The List Web Part for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is supported on following versions of Microsoft CRM and SharePoint:
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.
- Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1 or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP1 must be installed.
The different scenarios are represented by a matrix below:
SharePoint
CRM
On Premise
Internet-Facing
On Premise
· Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server and SharePoint Server present in the same Intranet and List Web Part User is always in the same intranet: Supported [ Scenario 1 ]
· Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server and SharePoint Server present in the same Intranet and List Web Part User is accessing via Extranet: Not Supported as Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server should directly be accessed by List Web Part User.
On Premise + IFD
· Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server and SharePoint Server present in the same Intranet and List Web Part User is always in the same intranet: Supported [ Scenario 1 ]
· Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server and SharePoint Server present in different zones and List Web Part User is in the same zone as SharePoint Server: Supported
[ Scenario 4 ]
· Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server and SharePoint Server present in the same Intranet and List Web Part User is in the same Intranet or is accessing via Extranet: Supported [ Scenario 2]
· Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server and SharePoint Server present in different zones and List Web Part User is in the same intranet or Extranet with respect to Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server : Supported [ Scenario 3 ]
· Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server and SharePoint Server present in different zones and List Web Part User is in the same intranet or Extranet with respect to SharePoint Server: Supported
[ Scenario 4 ]
Scenarios
In this section, we describe the various scenarios for List Web Part.
1. Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server and SharePoint Server present in the same Intranet and List Web Part User is always On Premise
In this case, we typically assume an organization where the users have access to Dynamics CRM and SharePoint Servers while they are in the intranet of the company. Figure 1 shows the following setup.
Figure 1. Intranet Setup
Prerequisites:
1. Dynamics CRM 4.0 and SharePoint Servers configured as On Premise.
2. List Web Part User through his IE browser can access SharePoint and Dynamics CRM 4.0 Servers from the Intranet.
3. Ensure that Trust for Delegation is set between SharePoint Server and Dynamics CRM Servers.
Troubleshooting: User is unable to configure List Web Part to access On Premise Dynamics CRM Server, instead User's IFD Credential Screen is popped up by List Web Part as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. List Web Part IFD Login pane
Resolution:
In this case, the SharePoint server does not receive a valid CRM ticket from Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server and thus displays an IFD Authenticate page. This happens when Trust for Delegation is not setup between the SharePoint Server and Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server. Consequently, the Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server denies the Authentication request as it does not receive valid Active Directory Credentials from SharePoint.
For resolving this issue, Please setup Trust for Delegation between Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server and SharePoint Server as mentioned in the following blog:
http://blogs.msdn.com/crm/archive/2009/01/14/trust-for-delegation-in-list-web-part-for-microsoft-dynamics-crm-4-0.aspx
2. Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server and SharePoint Server present in the same Intranet and List Web Part User is either On Premise or is accessing via Extranet.
In this particular scenario, the List Web Part User is a traveling person who tries to access data from within the Intranet zone as well as from Extranet. The Dynamics CRM 4.0 and SharePoint Server are hosted within the organization. Figure 3 demonstrates this functionality.
Figure 3. List Web Part User accessing remotely as well as in intranet.
Prerequisites:
1. Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server configured as IFD for SharePoint Server. This is necessary because SharePoint Server has no way to determine the List Web Part user's AD credentials when he/she is in the extranet zone.
For configuring this setup, specify the subnet mask to use as 255.255.255.255 in the CRM 4.0 IFD Configuration Tool when Dynamics CRM is configured as IFD + On Premise as shown in Figure 4. For more details, please look at the Additional Configuration steps when SharePoint and Microsoft Dynamics CRM are both IFD Section of List Web Part Readme Documentation.
Figure 4. IFD Configuration Tool
2. SharePoint server setup in IFD mode. ( Expect a blog soon on this topic )
3. User must configure List Web Part using Dynamics CRM IFD URL from within the intranet and externally.
4. List Web Part User can access SharePoint Server and Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server directly from his IE browser.
Troubleshooting: Users are unable to connect to Dynamics CRM 4.0 IFD Server from List Web Part. In this case, users would see the following message being popped up on their screen shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5. Dynamics CRM Connection Error Dialog
Resolution: For resolving this issue in the scenario, please check if one can access Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server from the SharePoint Machine through an IE browser. The Dynamics CRM Server should be asking user credentials as opposed to using Active Directory Credentials to log in.
For a connection issue, please make sure that an appropriate hosts entry or DNS Setting is made.
Host entry can be made by editing the hosts file in %windir%\system32\drivers\etc and adding the Dynamics CRM IP Address and Hostname. For e.g.
2. Users are unable to see icons displayed in the List Web Part on IE Browser. Screenshot in Figure 6 shows this behaviour.
Figure 6. Images incorrectly rendered
Resolution: This issue arises when the List Web Part User is unable to access the Dynamics CRM 4.0 IFD Server Machine from his own machine. For verifying this, just try accessing the Dynamics CRM Server from IE browser directly. Also, ensure that appropriate hosts entry or DNS Settings are made from the computer which is connecting to the Dynamics CRM Machine. In order to add the hosts entry, see the details in the above step.
3. Users not able to connect to SharePoint Internet Facing site.
Resolution: The cause of this problem is most likely a connection issue to SharePoint. Please check if there is a hosts entry for SharePoint Server on the Users machine.
3. Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server and SharePoint Server present in different zones and List Web Part User is either On Premise or Extranet with respect to Dynamics CRM Server.
Here, the Dynamics CRM Server and the List Web Part User are part of the same organization. The List Web Part User is a travelling person who tries to access List Web Part internally as well as externally. SharePoint is hosted as an external server. Figure 7 outlines this scenario. This is similar to the scenario 2, however, here the users may move in and out of the Dynamics CRM Server Intranet.
Figure 7. List Web Part User in same organization as Dynamics CRM Server
Prerequisites:
1. Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server and SharePoint Server configured in IFD mode.
2. List Web Part User can access SharePoint Server and Dynamics CRM Server directly from his IE browser.
3. User configures the List Web Part using Dynamics CRM IFD URL from within the domain and externally.
Troubleshooting: User is unable to connect through List Web Part when he/she is with the intranet domain of Dynamics CRM.
Resolution:
Please ensure that one is using Dynamics CRM IFD URL during configuration and not the usual On Premise URL. This is due to the fact that Dynamics CRM Server always appear as IFD to SharePoint Machine where List Web Part is installed.
Please look at Troubleshooting steps of Scenario 2, for other problems.
4. Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server and SharePoint Server present in different zones and List Web Part User is either On Premise or Extranet with respect to SharePoint Server.
Figure 8 shows the illustration of this scenario. The List Web Part User is a travelling person which belongs to the same organization as the SharePoint Server. Dynamics CRM Server is hosted externally to the organization.
Figure 8. List Web Part User in same intranet as the SharePoint Server
Prerequisites:
1. Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server and SharePoint Server configured in IFD mode.
2. List Web Part User can access SharePoint Server and Dynamics CRM Server directly from his IE browser.
3. User configures the List Web Part using Dynamics CRM IFD URL.
For other issues and resolution, please check out the Troubleshooting steps mentioned in Scenario 2.
Useful Links
a) Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 IFD Tool Download, http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=69089514-6e5a-47e1-928b-4e4d4a8541c0&displaylang=en
b) Using Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 IFD Tool, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948779
c) Host File Troubleshooting, http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727005.aspx
Cheers,
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