MS CRM 2011 deployment Automation tool

Question

I am looking to automate the deployment process for CRM between different Environments eg.Development Env, Test Env and UAT. I am wondering if there is existing tools(s) available on market to automate the deployment for me? If NO, Is it possible to automate the CRM deployment between different environments and what is the best practics for doing that?

Thanks

Answer 1

PowerShell and the XRMCI framework will serve you well for solution deployments, the downside being that for Standing or configuration data that cant be added to a solution (or for solution items that are currently buggy in CRM 2015 e.g. Case Creation Rules, SLA Items etc.). In this case, my client and I have created powershell C# CmdLets that use the SDK and API to create standing data such as Users, Teams, Memberships, Queue's, Case Creation Rules (although its unsupported, the API does allow it), and to configure mailboxes etc.

So in combination, the XRMCI framework, C#, and PowerShell can be used to automate a deployment of one environment to the next. The key is to take it slow, manually execute the scripts to begin with and build trust in the process, tweak and add more elements. Once that trust is achieved, move onto integrating it with TFS in as a CI/CD process.

As for best practice, my own research suggests that this is still a "he/she who dares" area with no real "best practice", in time the players such as Chef, Puppet, Octopus and Microsoft (with DSC) will contribute, but for now....

Answer 2

How about this?

The xRM CI Framework is a set of tools that allows you to quickly and easily implement Continuous Integration for your Dynamics CRM solutions.

Answer 3

Where I work we are currently working with the exact same issue. I spend quite some time initially looking for of-the-shelves products that could help us, but I have not found anything promising. Therefore we have undertaken the task ourselves.

Some guys from Microsoft made a short "whitepaper" on the subject which I found quite helpful. It can be found here at Deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and CRM Online Solutions from Development through Test and Production Environments.

I will not claim that we are using "best" practices, but we have chosen to try and script everything in PowerShell or through .net based CmdLets in our own PS-module. CRM server comes with a PowerShell snap-in that sports some basic functionality for creating/removing organizations, but you are more or less on your own when it comes to actually "deploying" CRM-customization, configuration data, users etc.

It would be interesting to know, which approach you choose (if any)? And if you have any specific question, please don't hesitate to ask!