Training Sandbox Environment Installation Pre-Requisites & more

MS Dynamics CRM Installations for creating Training Sandbox Environments is the next task once architecture assessments and basic performance benchmarkings are completed.

Microsoft offers a thorough list of materials for installation along with lots of preinstall and worksheet documents, within this download location: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=3621

The document CRM2011IG_Installing within the MS downloads includes troubleshooting section for known issues during upgrade and installation.
It also explains installation of MS Dynamics CRM Server 2011 on multiple computers to balance the processing load across several servers to increase performance and availability. This can be a desirable feature if the customer source you are working with will experience very high transaction volumes everyday.

Microsoft Sure Step also offers templates for Installation Pre-Requisites checklist/templates that can be used as your guide to prepare for the MS CRM component installations:

The following blog contains step by step instructions with screenshots for installation of the various components, click here for details.

The following Pre-Requisite chart applies for MS CRM 4.0 but a similar quick chart of reference can be prepared & utilized, keeping in mind that current versions will be more recent versions of all the components utilized for the installation.

Installation Pre-Requisites

Item	Details
Hardware and Operating Systems and Service packs	As per Environment Specification.
Internet Access	All Servers should have Internet access to allow the installer to apply additional pre-requisites: ·         SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services Report Viewer control ·         Microsoft SQL Server Native Client ·         Microsoft Application Error Reporting tool ·         Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library ·         MSXML 6 This is also required for product registration.
Firewall Configuration	No firewalls should be present between the CRM Application and SQL Servers.  If a firewall exists then it is recommended that this initially allows open access from each CRM Server to the SQL Server for the installation process and then is locked down once installation is complete.  Client access to the CRM Servers is required on Ports 80/443.
Windows Updates	Windows Updates should have been applied in accordance with [Customer Name] standards.
CRM Servers – Application Server Role (IIS and ASP.NET)	The Application Server Role (including IIS and ASP.NET) should be enabled on all CRM Servers in all environments.  It is assumed that the default web site on Port 80/443 will be used for the CRM implementation.  Any specific requirements different to this should be provided prior to the installation.
CRM Servers - ASP.Net 3.0 redistributable	ASP .Net redistributable
CRM Servers – Indexing Service	The Indexing Service should be set to automatic start and should be running on all CRM Servers.
CRM Servers – SMTP Service	The SMTP Service should be set to automatic start and should be running on all CRM Servers.
SQL Server 2005 Enterprise x64 SP2	SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition x64 SP2 should be installed and configured with Reporting Services (Default Configuration applied), Integration Services and Analysis Services on all environments.
SQL Servers – SQL Agent	The SQL Agent Service should be running in each environment
SQL Servers – Full text Indexing	The SQL Server Full Text Indexing Service should be running in each environment
SQL Server - Domain	The SQL Server must be in the same domain as the CRM Servers for the environment.
SQL Server Service Account	The service account that SQL Server uses to log on to the network must be either a local system/Network Service account or a domain user account. Installation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server will fail if the SQL Server service account is the local administrator.
SQL Server Network connectivity from CRM Server	Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server Setup requires at least the Named Pipes network library to authenticate using SQL Server. By default, both Named Pipes and TCP/IP network libraries are enabled when you install SQL Server 2005.
Domain Membership	All Components of each environment (i.e. SQL Server and CRM Servers should be in the same domain).  Details to be provided before arrival onsite.
Organization Unit configured in AD for each environment	Each environment should have an Organizational Unit created to store Security Groups related to that environment.  A naming standard of the following is recommended: \MSCRM\MSCRMv4\<EnvironmentName>.  i.e. ·         MSCRM\MSCRMv4\Integration ·         MSCRM\MSCRMv4\UAT ·         MSCRM\MSCRMv4\Production Any constraints around the creation of a new OU or the capability of the application to modify security groups should be provided before arrival onsite.
CRM Service Accounts	A domain CRM Service Account should be created that has local administrator rights to the CRM Servers and SQL Server and full rights to the Organization Unit and all Child objects (for the related environment). Ie. ·         Svc_CRM_Integration ·         Svc_CRM_UAT ·         Svc_CRM_Production Details to be provided before arrival onsite.
Installation Accounts	An Installation Account should be provided that have local administration rights on the CRM Servers, the SQL Server and full access to the related OU and all child objects (for each environment).  The installation account must also have read access in the AD to navigate to the provided OU for each environment.
CRM Installation Media	CRM should be installed from the official media, to be provided by [Customer Name]as this should include the required License key and local copies of some of the pre-requisites.
License keys	Confirm that the installation set includes a license key for each environment.  If you purchased Microsoft Dynamics CRM through a Microsoft Volume Licensing program, the license key is provided in the license.txt file, which is included in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM installation files.
Client Machines	Sample Client machines (As per standard Build) on the correct domains should be available for each environment.  These machines must have network connectivity to each environment (i..e Port 80/443 to CRM Servers and Load Balanced VIPs).  The URL for each environment should be added to the trusted sites and should be enabled for Integration Authentication in this zone. Access to change IE setting may be required to troubleshoot any unexpected issues.
Test Accounts	A selection of at least 5 user test accounts should be created in each test domain to allow access to the CRM implementations in the local domain. Details of these test accounts should be provided to Microsoft to allow them to map these to specific roles and test scenarios.