Moving Microsoft Azure Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) Subscriptions to Another Tenant
Microsoft Azure has many different features that are continually changing and are almost impossible to memorise in detail. Particularly when it comes to management and administration of your Azure estate, Microsoft provides numerous, handy options that can often avoid the need to raise a support request. One of these options is the ability to straightforwardly migrate Azure Subscriptions to an… Continue Reading The CRM...
Working with Mark-ups/Discounts in Project Service Automation (V3.x)
Project Service Automation (PSA), an add-on solution sitting on top of Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement, is a great solution. If properly configured, it can deliver a lot of value for organisations frequently delivering projects, with a desire to integrate their sales cycle alongside this more tightly. A key challenge I find, though, concerning its adoption, is that a lot of PSA’s available… Continue Reading The CRM...
Getting Started with SQL Server Change Tracking
Being able to track when data is added, modified or removed from a SQL Server database is desirable for several potential business scenarios. Where things start to get tricky is in identifying a solution that runs efficiently and also only takes effect against data that has actually changed. Whereas a decade ago, you would have to configure a complex solution involving tables, functions and… Continue Reading The CRM Chap’s...
September 2019 Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement CSP Licensing Changes
It’s a busy time for licensing changes in the Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (D365CE) space presently, as my post last week on the new API limits touches upon. This week, I heard that effective from Tuesday 1st October, the following D365CE related plans will be no longer available for purchase via the Cloud Solutions Provider (CSP) scheme: Dynamics 365 Enterprise Edition Customer… Continue Reading The CRM Chap’s...
Summarising the New Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement API Request Limits & Allocations
As we began to settle into 2019, we finally saw a cohesive and logical strategy emerge concerning Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (formerly known as Dynamics CRM). The announcement of the Microsoft Power Platform helped in setting a positive direction of travel for the various so-called “business application” products – namely, the Common Data Service, PowerApps and Microsoft Flow…. Continue Reading...
Dealing with “An unexpected failure occurred” Error Message in Azure DevOps DACPAC Deployments
Error messages can come in all shapes and sizes. And, as some of my more recent blog posts have hinted towards, often the best way of overcoming these is to read any presented error message correctly. Attempting to conjure up some grandiose and far-reaching conclusion can often lead to fruitless hours down the rabbit hole, when ultimately the tried and tested IT resolution methods will, more… Continue Reading The CRM...
Evaluating Power BI Desktop Connector Options for Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement
The number of business scenarios I see these days involving Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (D365CE) and Power BI is snowballing. It is pretty easy to understand why. Power BI is an incredibly engaging and intuitive reporting tool that, in some ways, surpasses the options available to us natively within D365CE. However, getting started can be easier said than done, thanks in part to the… Continue Reading The CRM Chap’s...
A Few Observations on Using Custom Pricing Plugins Alongside Project Service Automation
The problem sometimes, when developing a bespoke solution, is that it is impossible to anticipate how it may evolve. Whether it becomes dependent on changed functionality or new systems introduced into the equation, this eventuality is not necessarily down to a scoping or requirements gathering error. Organisations can, and will, drive off into all sorts of unexpected directions over time and,… Continue Reading The CRM...
“A validation error occured” Data Integration Project Error (PowerApps)
Facebook Twitter reddit LinkedIn Some of the new data import options that PowerApps provides us is nice. Perhaps the most significant area of innovation concerns the functionality available within Data integration… Continue Reading The CRM Chap’s Article on their blog “A validation error occured” Data Integration Project Error (PowerApps) Some of the new data import options that PowerApps provides us is nice....
Dealing with “Your Azure credentials have not been set up or have expired” Error Message in a Azure Template Visual Studio Project
I’m not sure if anyone else has this problem, but I always have a bias towards working against what an IT system error message is telling me. Perhaps this is down to the numerous occasions where I’ve been presented with erroneous error messages, resulting in a solution that you could never have reasonably anticipated from the outset. As such, you can sometimes completely overlook when an… Continue Reading The CRM...
Working with utcNow within an Azure Logic App Resource Template
An area I’ve been doing a lot of work with so far this year is Azure Resource Manager templates. The primary driver behind this is to ensure our team has fully automated our development/deployment processes within Azure DevOps. The list of recent posts on this blog certainly reflects this fact, as we’ve seen: How to configure streaming units when working with Stream Analytic jobs, Perform… Continue Reading The CRM...
Dealing with “SQL Bulk Copy failed due to received an invalid column length from the bcp client” Errors in Azure Data Factory
As you can probably tell from my recent post history (and from the talks I have had the pleasure of delivering so far this year), I am really into Azure Data Factory (ADF) in a massive way at the moment. It really can provide a lot of benefits for organisations who have a particular focus on DevOps and cost-optimisation and, what’s more, the product is fully compatible with Dynamics 365… Continue Reading The CRM...
Resolving “No IP address is available to hand out to the dial-in client.” VPN Errors (Windows Server Routing and Remote Access)
For those of you out there who are fortunate enough to have a personal lab environment for tinkering about with all things Microsoft, there is a wealth of learning opportunities that this can afford. Typically, this will help to reinforce your knowledge within areas relevant to your current job role, but I often find myself learning about all sorts of weird and wonderful things that I would… Continue Reading The CRM Chap’s...
Utilising the Application Insights API Key with Power BI
I’ve extolled the virtues of Application Insights previously on the blog, as I believe it is a nice solution that can provide valuable intelligence concerning your web applications. Whether you are looking to extend the solution to capture additional properties relating to your users, leverage the in-built availability testing features to receive alerts whenever your application is down or Continue Reading The CRM Chap’s...
Resolving AADSTS50126: Invalid username or password Errors During Azure SQL Database Deployment Task (Azure DevOps Pipelines)
A few weeks ago on the blog, we saw how it was possible to configure Azure Active Directory (AAD) Security Groups as an access mechanism for your Azure SQL Databases. Depending on how this feature is utilised, it has enormous potential to reduce the amount of administrative effort involved when managing access to your databases at scale. Also, the solution can even help to increase security,… Continue Reading The CRM...
Extract New Record GUID from Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Create Web API Request (C#)
Typically, when working with a database/application to programmatically create new records, it is desirable for us to return some information relating to any newly created records; this would typically take the form of a Globally Unique Identifier (GUID), primary key value or something else that uniquely identifies the record in question. Doing this may be useful for several reasons: By… Continue Reading The CRM Chap’s...
Managing Azure SQL SSO with Azure Active Directory Security Groups
Balancing the needs for security and convenience for user accounts within businesses/organisations can be a real challenge. Typically, it is preferred that individuals have separate accounts, each with their own unique and complex passwords, for the various services that they need to access as part of their daily work. In reality, such an approach will almost always lead to poor password… Continue Reading The CRM Chap’s...
Sink Limitations with the Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement/Common Data Service Connector for Azure Data Factory
Regular readers of the blog may have noticed that the past couple of posts has been very Azure Data Factory V2 (ADF) focused, particularly in the context of Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (D365CE) and the Common Data Service (CDS). I’ve provided an on overview of the different connectors available today for both of these applications and also discussed some of the hurdles you may find when… Continue Reading The CRM...
Working with Custom Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Dataset Schemas in Azure Data Factory V2
When contemplating migrating data into Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (D365CE), a necessary task will involve determining the appropriate data field mapping that needs to occur from any existing system you are working with. Whether this means an on-premise version of the application (or its earlier iteration, such as Dynamics CRM), a competitor product or even a SQL Server database instance,… Continue Reading The CRM...
Xrm.Page Object Deprecation: Check your Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement JScript
I must admit, first of all, that I missed the announcement around this at the time. However, after doing some playing around with the new Solution Checker feature within the Common Data Service, after a very informative User Group presentation from MVP extraordinaire Andrew Bibby, I was very quickly brought up to speed and thought this whole topic would be a great subject for this week’s blog… Continue Reading The CRM...
Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Connector Confusion with Azure Data Factory
Version 2 of Azure Data Factory is the product that keeps getting better and better. With a whole range of features available currently which, arguably, places the product at a comparable feature parity to SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), it is worth a look when you have a demanding data integration requirement. And, as we have seen on the blog previously, it is remarkably easy to… Continue Reading The CRM Chap’s...
Validating Azure Resource Templates within an Azure Build Pipeline
A key objective when it comes to implementing a Continuous Integration (CI) strategy is to ensure that there is no general degradation in the quality of code during a development cycle and in providing the earliest possible indication that a change in code has “broken the build”. Also, a lesser concern may be towards identifying the action or individual that has caused such a degradation. When… Continue Reading The...
How to Define Streaming Units for Microsoft.StreamAnalytics/streamingjobs Resource
You can have some…interesting times when experimenting with Azure Templates. Aimed primarily at those managing complex Azure estates or organisations which have a desire to incorporate their Azure development cycles as part of their DevOps processes, they are no doubt a powerful feature for developers to leverage. Even with my very recent and limited exposure to them, I am already at a place… Continue Reading The CRM...
Working with Variables in an Azure DevOps Release Pipeline
In most scenarios, a software release will involve several steps that require consistent completion each time you are pushing out an update to your application. That is why tools such as Azure DevOps can have a significant benefit for organisations if implemented correctly, as they can not only give you the confidence to release updates more frequently but also massively reduce the risk of a… Continue Reading The CRM...
App Service Application Settings and Azure Resource Template Deployments
When your first starting with Microsoft Azure for straightforward projects or proof of concept designs, the Portal is your go-to destination for reviewing, managing, updating and creating resources. Even for larger scale deployments, you will typically find yourself within there most of the time; what may have changed, in this scenario, is the mechanism through which you deploy new resources or… Continue Reading The CRM...
Team Board/Backlog Not Showing Sub-Area Work Items (Azure DevOps)
I’ve been using Azure DevOps (previously known as Visual Studio Team Services/Team Foundation Server) for a long time now and have blogged about it pretty frequently to date: I’ve shown how you can use the product to backup your Azure SQL databases during a deployment. We’ve seen how to get around fiddly issues with PowerShell script tasks during a Build or Release pipeline. When used… Continue Reading The CRM...
Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Web API, Power BI & FetchXML Revisited
Functional consultants or administrators who have been using Dynamics CRM / Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (D365CE) for any considerable length of time will likely have built up a solid collection of FetchXML queries, that are usable for a variety of different scenarios. Such privileged individuals are in the fortunate position of being able to leverage them in the following ways: When… Continue Reading The CRM Chap’s...
Cannot Provision Skype for Business / Microsoft Teams Audio Conferencing License via CSP
The Audio Conferencing add-on for Skype for Business / Microsoft Teams can oft be a requirement if you find yourself needing to schedule frequent online meetings that involve external participants. While most tech-savvy organisations these days will be fully equipped for taking calls via their laptops or other devices, a lot of businesses still do rely on traditional telephone headsets as… Continue Reading The CRM Chap’s...
Ranking Categories within Power BI Datasets (DAX)
I’ve been doing some work with Power BI Online datasets this week. It’s the first time I’ve taken a look at them in any great detail, as I have traditionally preferred to create and deploy any data sources needed for my reports via the Desktop client. Datasets address the needs for users who do not necessarily have the necessary Power Query/DAX language and require a mechanism to quickly hook… Continue Reading...
Exam 70-778 Revision Notes: Report Publishing, On-Premise Gateway & Creating Dashboards
Welcome to my tenth post in a blog series aimed to provide a revision tool for Microsoft Exam 70-778, and for those looking to increase their expertise in Power BI. In last week’s post, we explored the possibilities developers have to leverage Power BI within their applications and how the Power BI API relates to all this. As we now get into the home stretch, this weeks post combines two exam… Continue Reading The CRM...
Exam 70-778 Revision Notes: Managing Custom Reporting Solutions
Welcome to post number nine in my series designed to provide a revision tool for Microsoft Exam 70-778, and for those looking to increase their expertise in Power BI. The topics we have covered so far in the series have all involved Power BI Desktop primarily, and we now move away from this as we evaluate how to Manage Custom Reporting Solutions with Power BI. This focus area for the exam… Continue Reading The CRM Chap’s...
Exam 70-778 Revision Notes: Create and Format Interactive Visualizations
Happy New Year! As 2019 dawns upon us, Microsoft Business Application professionals start in the right place, as the concept of the Power Platform starts to take hold. Through this, it is pleasing to observe more consistency across these range of products, with regular releases, increased integration and better learning tools, provided directly from Microsoft. I’ve mentioned this previously on… Continue Reading The CRM...
Exam 70-778 Revision Notes: Creating Hierarchies
The New Year is almost upon us, meaning its time to put in place some resolutions for the year ahead. I can think of no better commitment then to learn more about Power BI in 2019, which is hopefully the reason why you are reading this right now . Welcome to the eighth post in my series concerning Microsoft Exam 70-778, where I hope to provide a learning/revision tool for anyone who is taking… Continue Reading The CRM...
Exam 70-778 Revision Notes: Utilising KPIs with Gauge Visualisations
As we move into the festive period, now is the time to put your feet up, relax, take stock for the year ahead…or, if you are reading this over Christmas, grab the opportunity to learn more about Power BI . In the seventh post in my series concerning Microsoft Exam 70-778, we move away from the suitably large subject area of DAX into a topic much more visually focused and accessible – Measure… Continue Reading The CRM...
Exam 70-778 Revision Notes: Using DAX for Calculated Columns
Welcome to post number 6 in my series concerning Microsoft Exam 70-778. The series aims to provide a revision tool for those who are looking at taking the exam and to also provide an introduction into some of the fundamental concepts around Power BI. As alluded to previously on the blog, Power BI is increasingly a topic that Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement professionals need to grapple with,… Continue Reading The CRM...
WP GDPR Compliance Plugin Vulnerability: Check your WordPress Site NOW!!
I don’t typically stray too far from Microsoft technology areas as part of this blog, but having experienced this particular issue at the coalface and, being acutely aware of the popularity of the WordPress platform for many bloggers, I thought I’d do a specific post to help spread awareness. For those who are in a hurry… TL;DR VERSION: IF YOU ARE USING THE WP GDPR COMPLIANCE PLUGIN ON YOUR… Continue Reading...
My thoughts on Exam 70-779: Analyzing and Visualizing Data with Microsoft Excel
The life of a Dynamics CRM/Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement (CRM/D365CE) professional is one of continual learning across many different technology areas within the core “stack” of the Business Applications platform. Microsoft has clarified this in no uncertain terms recently via the launch of the Power Platform offering, making it clear that cross-skilling across the various services… Continue Reading The CRM...
Configuring PIN-less Entry for Skype for Business Online Audio Conferencing
The whole concept of audio conferencing – the ability for a diverse range of participants to dial into a central location for a meeting – is hardly a new concept for the 21st century. Its prevalence, however, has undoubtedly grown sharply in the last 15-20 years; to the point now where, to use an analogy, it very much feels like a DVD when compared to full video conferencing, à la Blu-Ray…. Continue Reading The CRM...
ERROR_FILE_IN_USE when Deploying .NET Core App to Azure App Service (VSTS/Azure DevOps)
Towards the back end of last year, I discovered the joys and simplicity of Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS)/Azure DevOps. Regardless of what type of development workload that you face, the service provides a whole range of features that can speed up development, automate important build/release tasks and also assist with any testing workloads that you may have. Microsoft has devoted a lot… Continue Reading The CRM Chap’s...
Solution Import Errors on Marketing List Entity (Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Version 9.0+)
The importance of segregated deployment environments for any IT application cannot be understated. Even if this only comprises of a single test/User Acceptance Testing (UAT) environment, there are a plethora of benefits involved, which should easily outweigh any administrative or time effort involved: They provide a safe “sandbox” for any functionality or developmental changes to be carried… Continue Reading The CRM...
Incoming Emails Not Synchronizing in Dynamics CRM/Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement
Earlier this month, a colleague escalated an issue to me involving Dynamics CRM/365 Customer Engagement (CRM/D365CE), specifically relating to email tracking. This feature is by far one of the most useful and unwieldy within the application, if not configured correctly. In days of yore, the setup steps involved could be tedious to implement, mainly if you were operating within the confines of… Continue Reading The CRM...
Managing Azure Data Factory Triggers During an Azure DevOps Deployment
The introduction of Azure Data Factory V2 represents the most opportune moment for data integration specialists to start investing their time in the product. Version 1 (V1) of the tool, which I started taking a look at last year, missed a lot of critical functionality that – in most typical circumstances – I could do in a matter of minutes via a SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) DTSX… Continue Reading The CRM...
The September 2018 General Availability Release for the Azure Information Protection Client
The very nature of how businesses or organisations operate means that the sheer volume of sensitive or confidential data that can grow over time presents a genuine challenge from a management and security point of view. Tools and applications like cloud storage, email and other information storage services can do great things; but on occasions where these are abused, such as when an employee… Continue Reading The CRM...
Handling British Summer Time/Daylight Savings Time in Azure SQL
Is it just me or is British Summer Time (BST) AKA Daylight Saving Time (DST) an utterly pointless endeavour these days? Admittedly, on its introduction in 1916, it fulfilled a sensible objective – to provide more daylight hours during the summer. For agricultural, construction or other services that are reliant on sufficient light to carry out their work, this was a godsend. In today’s modern… Continue Reading The...
A Beginner’s Guide to using FOR JSON in SQL Server
When it comes to handling large datasets in a formal, structured and highly scalable manner, nothing beats SQL Server. Having worked with the product for almost six years, I always look forward to the opportunity of putting together some SQL queries or to build out a new database. I think of it as a nice little treat, a reward amongst the midst of other, sometimes tedious, tasks that I have to… Continue Reading The CRM...
The Mystery of the Missing Workflow Sitemap Area Revisited (Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement)
I’ve gone on record previously saying how highly I rate the Dynamics CRM/Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (CRM/D365CE) community. Out of all the groups I have been a part of in the past, you couldn’t ask for a more diverse, highly passionate and – most importantly of all – helpful community. There are a lot of talented individuals out there which put a metric tonne of effort into providing the… Continue...
‘Access to the path…is denied’ Build Definition Error (Visual Studio Team Foundation Server/Team Services)
A vital part of any DevOps automation activity is to facilitate automatic builds of code projects on regular cycles. In larger teams, this becomes particularly desirable for a multitude of reasons: Provides a means of ensuring that builds do not contain any glaring code errors that prevent a successful compile from taking place. Enables builds to be triggered in a central, “master” location,… Continue Reading The CRM...
Some Thoughts on the Cyber Essentials Scheme
Cybersecurity should be an ongoing concern for any organisation, regardless of its size and complexity. This is chiefly for two essential business reasons: A cybersecurity incident or breach could, depending on its severity, result in significant reputational or financial damage if not adequately safeguarded against or handled correctly. When judging whether to award a contract to a business… Continue Reading The CRM...
The Mystery of the Missing Workflow Sitemap Area (Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement)
UPDATE 02/09/2018: It turns out that there is a far better way of fixing this problem. Please click here to find out more. I thought I was losing my mind the other day. This feeling can be a general occurrence in the world of IT, when something completely random and unexplainable happens – emphasised even more so when you have a vivid recollection of something behaving in a particular way. In… Continue Reading The CRM...
‘Could not create a managed connection manager’ Error Message on SSISDB .dtsx Package Execution
SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) package execution can always throw up a few spanners, particularly when it comes to the task of deploying packages out to a SQL Server SSISDB catalog – principally, a specialised database for the storage of .dtsx packages, execution settings and other handy profile info to assist with automation. Problems can generally start creeping if you decide to… Continue Reading The CRM...