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Microsoft CRM 4.0 Internet Facing Deployment

September 27, 2008

This morning I got the pleasure of using the Microsoft IFD tool to create an Internet facing deployment for one of our clients with a pre-existing CRM 4.0 deployment. After all the hype when CRM 4.0 first came out, I was expecting more trouble than it really took. The IFD tool made it simple.

The IFD tool allows you to set your Microsoft CRM 4.0 site up for access on the Internet.  This will allow you to remotely access CRM without using VPN, making it easier for you and your staff to work remotely. One hassle we commonly run into is that our VPN client doesn’t always function properly from all the sites we work from. The instructions for the tool are pretty straightforward, other than giving your specific directions of how to handle problems such as creating a self signed certificate for using with your site and installing it into IIS.

The first thing you need to understand is that the IFD tool wants you to create an external name based upon the deployment name.  This means that if your deployment has a friendly name of "My Business", then the organization name will be "mybusiness". Which means that the external deployment name will be something like myBusiness.mybiz.com assuming that your domain name on the web is "mybiz.com".  This information is key to the following steps.

     
  1. Download the IFD tool here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948779
     
    2.  
  2. Create an alias or hostname record in your external DNS for the deployment.  In our example that would be "myBusiness.mybiz.com".
     
    3.  
  3. Create a self signed certificate or buy a certificate  Matching the external name. In our example that would be "myBusiness.mybiz.com". If you create a self signed certificate don’t forget to reset the time to make sure that it doesn’t expire in the default of seven days.
     
    4.  
  4. Enable SSL on your CRM website, using port 443.
     
    5.  
  5. Follow the IFD tool setup scenarios document instructions for scenario one. Be sure to substitute your unique organization name in the instructions.  If you have already completed step one above, you have already created your host or alias record.
     

 

The only problem we ran into was that the CRM asynchronous service was not running for some reason, and we got errors when we attempted to log on remotely. Fortunately the troubleshooting section at the end of the setup scenarios document covered that.

Enjoy!

Stephen Noe, MCT

Posted by Steve Noe on 09/27 at 12:08 PM
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