Dynamics CRM Instance Adapter

So Microsoft talked me into signing up for their Cloud Partnership. So I decided to move my Dynamics CRM 2011 on-premise installation to online. Why? Well I only get 5 users with my local version and I get 25 users in the Online version. Also it seems like everything I want to integrate with it is made for Online and not On-Premise. Also I can free up a server to try out goofy tech things.

So now how do I get my stuff “In The Cloud?” I found plenty of results for moving to On-Premise. I also found many results of companies that will do it for me. Well Microsoft doesn’t really have a direct solution. But they do have the Connector for Microsoft Dynamics and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Instance Adapter.

The Connector for Microsoft Dynamics is made to integrate GP, AX, SL, etc. I was confused on which one to download because there was no one specific to CRM and there was not a generic one. From what I’ve read online, it doesn’t matter. I downloaded and installed the one for GP. Also, this does not have to be installed on the server hosting CRM. You can install it on your desktop.

Once the Connector is installed, you basically extract the contents of the Instance Adapter Zip file into the Connector install folder. Be sure to read the instructions.

Now when you open the Connector it will ask you about your CRM source and destination. The this JoeCRM guy at powerobjects.com wrote this great tutorial. http://www.powerobjects.com/blog/2012/10/26/configure-microsoft-dynamics-crm-2011-instance-adapter/

This is not Magic Pixie Dust. You still have to do some work.

If you haven’t imported your customization yet into CRM Online, this post will help you.

I’m not going to re-write instructions because right now I’d rather be playing Far Cry 3. Again thank you JoeCRM http://www.powerobjects.com/blog/2012/10/26/generating-maps-dynamic-crm-instance-adapter-integration/

Basically you are mapping each Component. Reports to Reports, Accounts to Accounts, Contacts to Contacts. The Connector synchronizes each one. As far as I can tell it just does it in alphabetical order by component. So it does take some time and planning. It will not be perfect and you will have to fix something. This is kind of like the Chicken and the Egg problem.

I started with basic components that were not dependent to other components.

• Options Sets
• Web Resourced
• Products Entitity

Since everything is linked to Contacts and Accounts I tried to get everything I needed for them. Then I synced the Accounts and waited. Then synced the Contacts and waited. I hope you get my point.

I did lose all my primary contacts on the Accounts. But I had to weight what was more important. If I synced the contacts first then none of the Contacts would have been associated with the Accounts. Seems like less work to add the Primary Contacts back.

You can leave the Connector running and it will sync every 5 minutes. So if you have other people working in CRM you will get the stuff they added.