Step-by-step guide to setup a Dynamics CRM 2011 development environment on Windows Azure – Part 3

Vincent Zhong, 22 August 2012

This is part 3 of this series.  Hopefully after you come back from your coffee break, the status of your virtual machine should say “Running”. I will show you how to connect to it and install Dynamics CRM 2011 in it.

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If you logged in your Windows Azure Portal, apart from your virtual machine is up and running, you will also notice there is another item under the “ALL ITEMS” section, which is a Storage Account. It is the default storage Azure created for you.

Now you can just click the virtual machine, you will come to a new page and see some statistic data, like CPU Percentage, Data Usage etc.

Then you can just click the “CONNECT” button at the bottom of the page, and you will be prompted to download a rdp (Remote Desktop Protocol) file. If you run run rdp file, you will be prompted to login, enter the password you set up for the virtual machine, and you should be able to log in and see the following window:

Before we install Dynamics CRM, we will set up Active Directory first. To do that, open your Windows Command Prompt, run “dcpromo”:

After couple of minutes, the “Active Directory Domain Services Installation Wizard” will pop up:

You just need to follow the on-screen steps to install Active Directory. First we will create a new forest:

Then give it a name, like crm2011.local:

Then set the Functional Level:

Then set a password for this AD:

That’s all you need to do for installing Active Directory. Before we move forward to install Dynamics CRM 2011, one last thing we need to do, which is create a new Organizational Unit in AD, if you are not sure how to do that, check out this article.

Finally the next step is to install Dynamics CRM 2011. First we will download the installation file from here. There is also a 90-day trial keys on the download page, so you can just try out Dynamics CRM 2011 without purchasing the licence key first.

You can just run the installation file once you downloaded it.

And I suggest you check for updates before you run the installation file:

The next step is to enter the product key:

The installation file will check for any missing components, just install them if there is any:

Then select the installation location, just leave it as default will do:

Next select Server Roles, here I just selected all of them:

Then specify Deployment Options. You can just type in your Virtual Machine name here is the dropdown list is empty.

Next select the Organizational Unit you created in AD before you start installing Dynamics CRM:

Next step is to set up the Service Accounts. Here I just use NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE for all Services. It’s not the best approach, but since this just a dev machines, so I will just do that anyway.

Next select the Web Site, I just leave it as default.

Next is the Email Router Settings. An Email Router is not required to install Dynamics CRM, so I will skip this step.

Next is the Organization Settings. I gave a name to my Organization and set up the correct Currency:

Next step is to specify Reporting Services Server, just leave it all default here:

Then select the Microsoft Update Preference. It’s up to you if you want to enable Microsoft Update.

Next Dynamics CRM will do a final System Check, but it will fail on Reporting Services:

The way to fix it is to open Reporting Services Configuration Manager, which is under “Microsoft SQL Server 2012 -> Configuration Tools”:

Then go to Service Account, use Domain Admin to login instead of the default built-in account:

If you are not sure about the Domain Admin login, you can run Active Directory Users and Computer, then go to Users, and double click “Administrator”, under Account tab, you can find out the Domain name. 

After you set up the Service Account, you also need click the “Apply” button in both “Web Service URL” and “Report Manager URL” tab, to refresh the service:

Now if you re-run the Dynamics CRM 2011 installation file, it should pass the System Checks, just click to go to the next step:

Next you should see this summary page, where you can double check all the settings. Just click “Install” if everything looks ok for you.

Finally you will see Dynamics CRM 2011 is being installed.

Depends on the setting of your Virtual Machine, my one will take about 20 minutes to install CRM 2011. On my next blog post I will show you how to install Report Extension for SSRS and how to verify the installation.

*Image: http://wallpapers.free-review.net/23__Windows_Azure.htm