Installing CRM 4.0 on Microsoft SQL Server 2008

July 17, 2009 Leave a comment

For anyone who has tried to install CRM 4.0 on a SQL Server 2008 installation you will probably know there are a few checks in the CRM installer that make this installation quite painful.  It took me a few hours of fiddling and going through the install logs carefully to fix the two issues that occurred.

Setup failed to validate specified Reporting Services Report Server.  Error: The operation you are attempting requires a secure connection (HTTPS)

This error is occuring because SQL Reporting Services on 2008 is expecting an SSL connection.  By editing %ProgramFiles%Microsoft SQL ServerMSRS10.MSCRMRPTReportingServicesReportServerrsreportserver.config and changing this line from <Add Key="SecureConnectionLevel" value="2"/> to <Add Key="SecureConnectionLevel" value="0"/> you will stop this requirement.  I do not know of any adverse effects of doing this, so it should be safe to leave in this state, otherwise you may find issues later on when using Reporting Services within CRM.

Check FullTextRunningValidator : Failure: Service msftesql was not found

This error is occuring because CRM 4.0 thinks it needs the SQL Full Text Search service to be installed at the time of installation, but SQL 2008 does away with this service entirely!  To install we need to trick CRM 4.0 into thinking that the service is available and running, we can do this by just hacking at the registry and renaming another service to be "msftesql".  It really does not matter which service you use for this, as long as it is another service that wont be missed in the mean time, as per a forum post I would recommend using the Filter Daemon Host Launcher (MSSQLFDLauncher).

All of the services can be found at HKLMSystemCurrentControlSetServices, just right click and rename to "msftesql". You may need to reboot before this takes effect and don't forget to start the service! Also remember to rename the service back to its original name after the install is completed, there should be no complications from doing this as long as you install the update rollups.

Both of these issues are also listed on this Microsoft article : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957053/en-us, however the article is a little less than helpful as its solution is installing the CRM Update Rollups that fix the issues.  This turns into a chicken and egg problem as I cannot see any way to install the hotfixes prior to installing CRM, nor have I found how to slipstream the installs to include the update rollups as yet.

And lastly, do not forget to install CRM Update Rollup 5 which was recently released, this rollup contains all the previous updates which address a few of the issues that can be encountered when running CRM on SQL 2008.  Hopefully this posting will help a few people avoid the couple of hours it took me to work around these issues.

Filed under CRM Tagged with , ,

ApplicationHost.config error with IIS7, Dot Net 1.1 and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2

July 3, 2009 4 Comments

We came across a very odd issue today where the following error message would be displayed within IIS.  The error message itself is not terribly helpful as usual, and there are no other error messages records in any event logs or log files.

 IIS7 Error

This was happening whenever any of the configuration options in IIS7, on a site where the application pool was running Dot Net 1.1.   I immediately spent hours poring over applicationHost.config, as well as any web.config files and configuration files on the server.  Over a day later, after rebuilding the server and IIS7 multiple times I was starting to come to the conclusion that it might be something I had installed, so I ran up another server as a controlled test.

I did this in the following order :

  1. Install Windows Server 2008 Web Edition off a media set that I knew was good.
  2. I installed Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2.
  3. I installed any missing Hotfixes as determined by our WSUS Server.
  4. I installed IIS using the Web Platform Installer
  5. I installed Dot Net 1.1 and assorted Dot Net 1.1 Service Packs and hotfixes.
  6. I opened IIS, set the default web site to the "ASP.NET 1.1" application pool.
  7. I opened the Default Web Site configuration in IIS manager and attempted to view Handler Mappings.

At this stage the server was a vanilla install with no code on it and I was able to generate the same error as above, and the problem must be one of the above steps.  As we have other Dot Net 1.1 servers running Windows Server 2008 I quickly had a look at their configuration and only one thing stood out – none of them had Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2.  I immediately uninstalled the Service Pack to see if it would have any effect.  Immediately I was able to browse and modify configuration settings in IIS7!  The question still remains as to what in the Service Pack was causing the problem.  Unfortunately we still have some clients who need to use Dot Net 1.1 and until a resolution or hotfix comes forth, we will not be using Service Pack 2 on any of those servers.

If you come across the error it will only manifest in these conditions and can be resolved quickly by a removal of Service Pack 2.

  • IIS7
  • Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 
  • Dot Net 1.1 installed and application pool of Site set to use Dot Net 1.1
  • Trying to view or modify configuration data for the Site

Hopefully this will help a few people to spend less time butting their head against a wall than I did.

Filed under Web Tagged with ,