Navigating the Deployment Process: A Step-by-Step Guide for Dynamics 365 CRM Deployment

Dynamics 365 CRM offers extensive customization options, and its deployment can be tailored to suit your organization's specific requirements. There are various approaches to consider when deploying Dynamics 365 CRM. In this blog post, we will primarily concentrate on the deployment aspect. We will explore methods for deploying the system, delve into the available solution types, discuss the process of creating and importing solutions, and outline best practices in development that can enhance the deployment process. So, let's get started.

Understanding Dynamics 365 CRM Solutions and Their Types:

Solutions are the small units of Software that customizers or developers use to customize or extend the functionality of Dynamics 365 CRM. Solutions are distributed so organizations can install them to extend the business functionality defined by Solution

Every solution has components that can be created by using customization tools, but before we dive into this, we will see what are managed and unmanaged solutions.

There are two types of Solutions, Managed and Unmanaged.

Managed Solutions are completed solution that is intended to be distributed and installed. If you Delete a Managed Solution, then all components related to that component are Deleted.

Unmanaged Solutions, on the contrary, serve as tools for developers and customizers to tailor functionality. They are considered works in progress and are not meant for distribution. Once developers finish their work on Unmanaged Solutions, they are distributed as Managed Solutions. Deleting an Unmanaged Solution removes only the solution itself while leaving its components intact. This is why deploying Unmanaged Solutions in a Production environment is strongly discouraged.

Solution Layering:

Managed and Un-managed Solutions exist at different layering in the Power Platform

1. When you create an environment, there is a system solution or default solution that represents all components of the systems in a solution. This solution defines default application behavior.

2. When you create an environment, then there are some managed solutions installed for the apps that you have access to, like Customer Service or Sales. They are installed at the top of system solutions. Managed Solutions can be installed on top of other Managed Solutions.

3. Unmanaged solutions are the groups of unmanaged customizations. Unmanaged solutions are always layered at the top of all managed solutions as one Active layer. For components that have unmanaged and managed layering, the final result of customization will be always unmanaged layering not managed layering.

Creating Solutions in Dynamics 365 CRM:

• Go to makes.powerapps.com, Navigate to Solutions, and Click on Create Solution

• Provide a Display Name of the Solution and Publishers. Customizers have to create a solution publisher for the solution that provides customization prefixes and option value prefixes.

• The best practice is to create a solution prefix to best identify the customization that is done by you, in this example I am creating a solution prefix with the name of demo and providing the prefix dm, so when I create an entity, fields, or any component in the solution, schema name will be always start from dm_[componentname].

Select the Solution prefix, Provide a Solution name, Create the version, and Create the Solution.

• When your solution is created then Power Platform automatically opens your solution. Here you can add your solution component, for example here we have created an entity named Employees, added some fields, added them in form, and created a new modal-driven app named Employee for this.

• Here you can see our app is available with Name Employee and new table Employee.

These are some common Solution Components you can work with.

Application Ribbons

Entity

Report

Article Template

Field Security Profile

SDK Message Processing Step

Connection Role

Mail Merge Template

Security Role

Contract Template

Option Set

Service Endpoint

Dashboard or Entity Form

Plug-in Assembly

Site Map

Email Template

Process

Web Resource

Managed Properties:

You can set the Managed properties of the component to set whether the component is customizable to what extent. Managed Properties are set in the Unmanaged Solution for every component.

Select your entity, Go to Advanced -> Managed Properties. Here you can see some Properties that can be customized for entity Employees when this solution is deployed as the Managed Solution in another environment. Like new forms can be created, the Display name can be modified.

By default, the managed property settings assume that any kind of solution component is fully customizable and it is good practice to enable the customizations in the unmanaged solutions

Deployment:

To deploy the solution in another environment, Select the Solution and Select Export Solution

A window will appear to Publish all the changes and then click Next

In the next window, you will be asked to export as Managed or UnManaged.

Now in the Production environment, the best practice is to deploy the solution as Managed, we will click on Managed, and click on Export You can change the Version also, if required. By default, the Version is always increased.

In the notification, you can see your solution is exporting. Exporting of the Solution can depend on how many components are in the solution.

When the Solution is exported, then Notification will appear with the Download button. Click on Download and the solution will be downloaded to your local drive. Solutions are exported as zip and Managed Solution as _Managed in the name of the zip.

For Deploying in another environment, you have to import the solution.

Navigate to the environment. Click on Import Solution, Select the file, and Click Next

In the Next window, you can either see the dependency issues and connections windows or if there are no dependency issues then an information window will appear. Click on Import and the Solution will be imported. You can see the same notification when the solution is imported and successfully imported.

Dependency:

The solution framework automatically tracks the dependency of the components to maintain the integrity of the system and prevent operations that would lead to an inconsistent state.

Dependency is tracked in several ways

Deleting the Component: When deleting a component in Dynamics 365 CRM, the system will prevent deletion if that component has dependencies on other components. For example, if you attempt to delete a field that is being used on a table's form, the system will not allow you to delete that field until you remove its usage from the form.

To check for dependencies of any component, follow these steps:

1. Select the Component: Choose the component you want to check for dependencies. In your case, it's the "Employee No" field.

2. Navigate to Advanced: Look for an option to navigate to advanced settings, typically found in the toolbar or context menu.

3. Show Dependencies: Within the advanced settings, find the "Show Dependencies" option and select it.

4. Review Dependencies: The system will then display a list or diagram showing you which other components are dependent on the component you've selected. In the below example, you can see that the "Employee No" field is used in the System Form.

By identifying these dependencies, you can take the necessary actions to either remove the component from its dependencies or handle them appropriately before attempting to delete the component. This ensures that your CRM system remains functional and consistent.

Exporting the Solution: When exporting a solution in Dynamics 365 CRM, the system will provide a warning about missing dependencies if the solution you're exporting contains references to components that are not included in the solution. This warning helps ensure that the solution can be successfully imported and used in another environment without missing or unresolved dependencies.

For example, if you attempt to export a solution that includes a field referenced in a form, but you haven't included that field in the solution, you will receive a warning during the export process. This alert informs you that there are missing components in your solution, and it's essential to address these dependencies to ensure the solution can be imported and function correctly in another CRM environment.

To resolve this issue, you should include all required components in your solution before exporting it. This ensures that the solution package contains everything needed for proper functionality when imported into another Dynamics 365 CRM instance.

Importing the Solution: If a required component does not exist in the target environment when you attempt to import a solution in Dynamics 365 CRM, the import process will fail. In your example, if you are importing a form of an entity that references a field that is not present in the target solution or environment, the import will not be successful. This is because the CRM system needs all dependencies to be available for the solution to function correctly.

Before importing a solution into a new environment, it's crucial to ensure that all necessary components, including any referenced fields, entities, workflows, or other elements, are either already present or included in the solution being imported. This helps guarantee a successful solution deployment without missing dependencies.

Best Practice for Solution Deployment:

There is no right or wrong way of Deployment but following certain rules can have a big impact on the Deployment.

1. Use managed solutions for deploying to production environments. Managed solutions protect your customizations from accidental changes.

2. Use sandbox environments for development and testing to avoid making changes directly in the production environment.

3. Always back up the target environment before deployment.

4. Used the meaningful prefix for customized components to identify all customized components in the environment.

5. Try to limit Solutions to only one Solution per App while customizing.

6. Run the Solution Checker at a certain interval to identify the issues in the components of the Solution.

7. Minimize dependencies on components from unmanaged solutions as much as possible.

8. Maintain documentation for your customizations, including entity relationships, custom fields, workflows, and plugins.

9. Be mindful of the performance impact of your customizations. Avoid inefficient code or complex workflows that could slow down the system.

10. If you need to make updates to a deployed solution, use solution patching. This allows you to create a patch solution containing only the changes you want to deploy, making it easier to maintain and update existing solutions.

11. It is a good practice to allow managed customizations to allow customizations.

In conclusion, successfully deploying Dynamics 365 CRM solutions is a crucial step in optimizing your organization's customer relationship management capabilities. Remember that each deployment is unique, and attention to detail is key.

I hope this guide has provided you with valuable insights and practical knowledge to make your deployment a resounding success.

Stay tuned for another blog!