.NET Framework 3.5 install on a Windows 2012 machine

For some applications it's required to have .NET Framework 3.5 installed on your Windows 2012 machine. Some of these applications include SQL 2014 and CRM 2015.

The ususal option is to select the ".NET Framework 3.5 Features" in the "Add Roles and Features Wizard" of the windows server manager. However, in some scenario's this leads to the following error message:

Installation of one or more roles, role services, or features failed.
The source files could not be found. Try installing the roles, role services, or features again in a new Add Roles and Features Wizard session, and on the Confirmation page of the wizard, click "Specify an alternate source path" to specify a valid location of the source files that are required for the installation. The location must be accessible by the computer account of the destination server.

Now if you have the windows 2012 disc at hand, you can follow the next statement.
DISM /Online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:NetFx3 /All /LimitAccess /Source:d:\sources\sxs
If you don't have the windows 2012 disc at hand, you can force the installer to grab .NET Framework 3.5 from the Windows Update. You can do that using the following statement in the command prompt:
DISM /Online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:NetFx3 /All

For more details see Technet: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831809.aspx#BKMK_dism

Error while updating FieldSecurityProfiles

Error Number: 0x8004F502
Error Message: Caller 922a732c-0e44-e411-80bf-aecaab867a05 doesn't have Create privilege for attribute 'new_attribute' of entity 'contact'

Tip: Check if the attribute on the form is read-only, this can cause the error message, even though the user is System Administrator.

Advanced FetchXML SSRS reports for Dynamics CRM

Using the report wizard somebody can create quite useful reports, but as soon as the requirements go just beyond the capabilities of this wizard, one will need to take that report and start modifying the report in SSRS. As the reports are built with FetchXML, this is another topic to think about.

Luckily there are good tutorials online on how to create and author FetchXML based reports. Some of the links that I found particularly interesting are mentioned below. Based on these I have been able to create reports existing out of half a dozen data sets (yes, all FetchXML) and pulling data from each of the datasets to show in the Report Wizard generated report.

Gareth Tucker's "Getting Started with CRM 2011 Online Fetch XML Reporting"

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Blog's "Fetch-Xml based Reports: Bits & Pieces"

As mentioned in the Microsoft blog, you can hook up multiple datasets. Another approach would be to pull data from another data source. Have a look at the Lookup and LookupSet Functions for this. Note, that perfectly combines with the FetchXML aggregation features.

Good luck with the next level of reporting!

Microsoft Online Services Sign-in Assistant: Download failed

When installing the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Reporting Authoring Extension, on the machine where BIDS is installed, 9 out of 10 times the SQL Server, you might be facing a problem around the prerequisites. This software requires the following components:
- Microsoft Application Error Reporting
- Windows Live ID Sign-in Assistant
- Microsoft Online Services Sign-in Assistant

In some occasions it is not possible to get past this screen since the last one of the requirements is showing the status "Download failed". Looking in the BIDSExtensionsSetup log file (C:\Users\administrator.DEV\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\MSCRM\Logs), you will see:

08:48:37|  Error| Microsoft Online Services Sign-in Assistant did not download successfully.  To try again, ensure your internet connection is working, then try again.
08:48:37|  Error|   hr=0xc0040202

This error is pretty easy to fix. After double checking that you are actually online, you can download the Microsoft Online Services Sign-in Assistant directly from the Microsoft Website. Make sure to download the 64 bit version and install this on the BIDS machine.

When running the Report Authoring Extensions Setup again, you'll see that this requirement is not even showing up in the list anymore and you can safely install the other two required components.

Can't remove licenses in Office365 yourself? Yes, you can!

So you've figured out which users are not active in Office365 anymore. You've removed their licenses and deleted the account, so you've got a license available for reassignment to another user. But what if there is no other user and you want to stop paying for the license? Most blogs say that you'll need to create a Microsoft support call, but this actually is not necessary. You can do this yourself by following the next steps:

- Open the office365 administration portal
- In the left navigation go to "Billing"
- The pick "Subscriptions"
- Next is clicking on the link for the subscription where you wish to return licenses for
- Under the text indicating the amount of users, there's a link "Change quantity"
- Pick "Remove licenses" and click "Next"
- Enter the amount of licenses you wish to remain (you can't do this wrong, the system won't let you remove licenses that are still assigned)
- Press "Place Order"

Good luck!

Checking active users in Office365

When an administrator logs in on Office365 a dashboard tells the user that there are x amount of users who haven't logged for more than 30 days. Clicking on this link allows you to view the information in graphs, tables, large graphs, but no way it shows you the names of the inactive users.

Venus Mi has given the answer to this in his forum post, but refers to another page as well for connecting to Office365 via Powershell. Following these instructions will lead you to the following error:
cannot be loaded because the execution of scripts is disabled on this system. Please see "get-
help about_signing" for more details.
Luckily this can be solved as well, thanks to the powershell owners manual. Finally you'll run in the last error which is answered by spiritX:
Access to the registry key 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\M icrosoft\PowerShell\1\ShellIds\Microsoft.PowerShell' is denied

So, how can one find out which office365 users haven't logged in recently?
- start Powershell AS ADMINISTRATOR (right click and "run as administrator")
- Execute the following script:

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
$LiveCred = Get-Credential
$Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://ps.outlook.com/powershell/ -Credential $LiveCred -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection
Import-PSSession $Session
Get-mailbox -resultsize unlimited| Get-MailboxStatistics | select displayname, lastlogontime
Remove-PSSession $Session
This will give you a popup where you should enter your Office365 credentials. After this you'll get a list of all users with their last logon date.

Enjoy!

CRM Blog World Updated

One of the most viewed pages on my blog is still the Blog World. When Dynamics CRM wasn't called Dynamics CRM yet, I have started to gather a list of blogs which targeted this software. Over the years this list has grown and I have just updated the list with the blogs which I have been requested to add. I guess soon I'll need to do a full review of this list as I've noticed that some people have moved on and stopped blogging and new people have stepped in these gaps to fill the missing info.

For now the list is updated and available here:
CRM Blog world