Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 : Infrastructure Design Considerations - Windows SharePoint Integration

11/20/2012 5:55:15 PM

Windows SharePoint Services is primarily used to provide document management for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. SharePoint document management capabilities are far superior to the ones in CRM, and therefore it is suggested to integrate the two technologies when working with or considering document management requirements that exceed the out-of-the-box functions of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. These requirements may include the following:

Full text searching
Document archiving
Document versioning

There are two different versions of Windows SharePoint:

Windows SharePoint Services v3 (WSS)
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS)

Windows SharePoint Services v3

Windows SharePoint Service v3 (WSS) differs from Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) as follows:

Windows SharePoint Services
- Collaboration sites
- Wiki and blogs
- Simple search engine
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
- All the services from WSS
- Published portals
- My Sites
- Enterprise search for external content
- Business intelligence

Finally, WSS is a free component (part of Windows Server).

Install Windows SharePoint Services

If installing this on a farm, you need to follow these steps on all servers.

1.	Run setup on the first server.
2.	Locate the installation files and run WSSv3.exe.
3.	Accept the terms of agreement on the Read the Microsoft Software License Terms screen.
4.	Click Continue.
5.	On the Choose the Installation screen, select Advanced.
6.	On the Server Type tab, select Web Front End.
7.	Review the selections, and click Install Now.
8.	When setup is complete, run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard to configure the service. If you are installing this on additional servers, install the Windows SharePoint Services before configuring the service.

To add servers to the farm, follow these steps:

1.	Locate the installation files and run WSSv3.exe.
2.	Select the agreement terms on the Read the Microsoft Software License Terms screen.
3.	On the Choose the Installation screen, select Advanced.
4.	On the Server Type tab, Select Web Front End.
5.	Review the selections, and click Install Now.
6.	When setup is complete, run SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard to configure the service.

To configure Windows SharePoint Services, follow these steps:

1.	On the Welcome to SharePoint Products and Technologies screen, click Next.
2.	Select Yes in the dialog box confirming that some services might need to be restarted during the configuration.
3.	On the Connect to a Server Farm screen, if this is the first server in the farm, select No, I Want to Create a New Server Farm.
4.	Click Next.
5.	Enter the database server name on the Specify Configuration Database Settings screen.
6.	Enter the appropriate database name to host the configuration database. The default name is SharePoint_Config.
7.	In the User Name and Password box, enter the username and password that will run the SharePoint Services.
8.	Click Next.
9.	On the Configure SharePoint Central Administration Web Application screen, you can specify the port number if you want, and then select the appropriate option and enter the port number. Otherwise, you can let the system generate a random port.
10.	On the Configure SharePoint Central Administration Web Application screen, select the authentication method, as chosen from the earlier section.
11.	Click Next and finish the wizard.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

Integrating Microsoft Dynamics CRM with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) gives you the same document management features. As explained previously, MOSS provides the following additional features:

Enterprise portal
Enterprise content management
Business process forms
Business intelligence
Enterprise search

We demonstrate how to use the following services with CRM:

Enterprise content management
Business process forms
Business intelligence
Enterprise search

Note

Unlike WSS, MOSS is a separately licensed server application. Be sure to check your licensing requirements when considering a deployment.

To install MOSS, follow these steps:

1.	Locate the installation files and run setup.
2.	Enter the product key in the dialog box.
3.	Click Continue.
4.	On the Read the Microsoft Software License Terms screen, review the terms and conditions and accept the terms.
5.	Click Continue.
6.	On the Choose the Installation You Want screen, select Advanced.
7.	On the Server Type tab, select either Application Server or Web Server and an Application Server, based on the role the server will host.
8.	Click Install Now.

To run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard, follow these steps:

1.	On the Welcome to SharePoint Products and Technologies screen, click Next.
2.	Select Yes in the dialog box confirming that some services might need to be restarted during the configuration.
3.	On the Connect to a Server Farm screen, if this is the first server in the farm, select No, I Want to Create a New Server Farm.
4.	Click Next.
5.	Enter the database server name on the Specify Configuration Database Settings screen.
6.	Enter the appropriate database name to host the configuration database. The default name is SharePoint_Config.
7.	In the User Name and Password box, enter the username and password that will run the SharePoint Services.
8.	Click Next.
9.	On the Configure SharePoint Central Administration Web Application screen, you can specify a port number if you want, and then select the appropriate option and enter the port number. Otherwise, you can let the system generate a random port.
10.	On the Configure SharePoint Central Administration Web Application screen, select the authentication method, as chosen from the earlier section.

Configure 2007 Office SharePoint Server Services

To take advantage of the search and indexing servers, you first need to start and configure the Office SharePoint Server Search service on at least one of your front-end servers. This service will query and display the content indexed by the indexing services.

To start and configure the Search service, follow these steps:

1.	Launch the SharePoint Central Administration home page.
2.	Click the Operations tab.
3.	Click Servers in Farm.
4.	Select the server on which you want to configure the Search service on.
5.	Select Start next to Office SharePoint Server Search.
6.	On the Office SharePoint Server Search Settings page, do the following: a. In the Query and Indexing section, verify that this server is listed for Use This Server for Indexing Content and ensure that the Use This Server for Serving Search Queries is selected. b. In the Default Catalog Location section, enter the path to a physical folder to store the index files. c. In the Contact E-Mail Address section, specify a valid email address to send any administration emails to. d. In the Service Account section, enter the username and password for the service account to run the farm.
7.	In the Web Front End and Crawling section, do one of the following: a. If the Search service is on the same server as the web server and the server is responsible for rendering web content, select No Dedicated Web Front-End Computer for Crawling. b. If the Search service is on a server that is a standalone search server, which does not provide web services and render web content, select Use a Dedicated Web Front-End Computer for Crawling, and then in the Select a Web Front End Computer section, select the server you want to use for crawling.
8.	Click Start.

Install and Configure Excel Calculation Services

To integrate SharePoint, PerformancePoint, and Microsoft CRM, you need to enable Excel Calculation Services, as follows:

1.	Launch the SharePoint Central Administration home page.
2.	Click the Administrative Tasks link.
3.	Click Add Excel Services Trusted Locations.
4.	Click Add Trusted File Location.
5.	Enter the location in Address field. It is recommended that the trusted file locations be stored in a SharePoint site.
6.	Click Windows SharePoint Services.
7.	Select Allow External Data, and select the trust level for external data sources that you want to enable by doing one of the following: a. Click None to prevent Excel Calculation Services from processing connections to any external data connection. b. Click Trusted Data Connection Libraries Only to prevent Excel Calculation Services from processing connections to external data sources that are embedded within workbooks. c. Click Trusted Data Connection Libraries and Embedded to permit Excel Calculation Services to process direct connections to external data sources that are embedded within workbooks.