Deployment of CRM Portal from one CRM Environment to another Environment

Deployment of CRM Portal from one CRM Environment to another has always been a challenging task for everyone. As I have seen many folks were facing many challenges during CRM Portal deployment and finding for best way to migrate CRM Portal Configuration from Development to Test and Test to Production Environment.

CRM Portal provides two ways for Deployment mentioned below :

Website Copy Tool - I was like WAOOO...when i got to know about this tool and i have started using it first time to migrate my CRM Portal Configuration from Development Organisation to UAT , but it disappoint me when i found that this tool has so much limitations like :

• It does not migrate your Subgrid Entity Forms, so you have to manually recreate it on destination organisation which is very annoying and time consuming.

• Along with Subgrid Entity forms, some other configuration you have to create manually like sometimes it does not map correct values in lookup in Entity Forms and Entity List.

• Incremental Deployment is not possible through this tool. Because it does not migrate data based on GUID, Each time when you run this tool either you will need to delete all configuration that you had migrated earlier or need to create new Portal/Websites to keep the Old configuration copy as it. is. otherwise It will create the duplicate records in destination organisation..

ALM Toolkit -  Although CRM Portal Community recommends to go with this tool for CRM Portal Deployment But for me this tool is damn complex and confusing also its very tough to use, Basically this tool is made for Power Shell Expert guys. So here i will not going to use this tool.

Also this was not free tool till few days back but not sure now whether its available for free use or not. Although i am still learning it how much it is feasible to fulfill my requirement, i will get back once i will have the proper understanding of this tool.

So now the question is what approach or tool we should use for CRM Portal Deployment:

Configuration Migration Tool:

Before going to explain this approach i am assuming that you all guys will be having knowledge of Configuration Migration Tool available in CRM SDK, if not please have a look below link first and then do deployment

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-in/library/dn647422.aspx

Configuration Migration Tool (DataMigrationUtility) is one of best tool available in CRM SDK to migrate CRM Portal Configuration from one Environment to another without any limitation.

This tool works great not only if you are planning for only one time deployment but also for Incremental deployment.

This tool exports CRM data by a given schema  to a zip package. The package could be kept as back up or imported to other CRM instances. PackageDeployer tool from sdk “Tools” folder is  a deployment option as well and gives you a chance to deploy solution and portal together. All you need to use the tool is create an export schema once and update by new needs. 

The beauty of this tool is keeping the same ids (guides) across different environments. so it nullify the chance of duplication.

Steps to Deploy CRM Portal Configuration using Configuration Migration Tool :

Create Schema File for CRM Portal :

This is only one time activity, once you will have your Schema File, you will not be required to create it again unless you need to add some other entities.

1.Run the Configuration Migration Tool (You can find this tool in CRM SDK at location \SDK\Tools\ConfigurationMigration\DataMigrationUtility.exe\

2.Choose Create Schema Option from Opened Window and Continue

3.Enter your Organisation's credential and Click Login, Make sure you have selected "Organisation List" Checkbox if you are having multiple organisation setup on same server.

4.After Successfully Log In -  Select ADX Solutions one by one from Solutions Drop-down and add all CRM Portal Entities and its all respective Fields.

5.Make sure you are selecting only CRM Portal Solutions from DropDown and creating Schema File of only CRM Portal related entities (All entities having prefix adx_).

6.Along with CRM Portal Entities, Don't forget to add Note entity because ADX also use CRM's Note entity to attach your webfile attachments (images, CSS etc)

7.Once you are done with Schema File Creation. Save and Export this File and save at your machine.

Export CRM Portal Configuration From Source Organisation :

Once you have your Schema File, You are ready to Export your CRM Portal Data from Source Organisation.

1.Run the Configuration Migration Tool (You can find this tool in CRM SDK at location \SDK\Tools\ConfigurationMigration\DataMigrationUtility.exe\

2.Choose Export Data Option from Opened Window and Continue

3.Enter your Organisation's credential and Click Login, Make sure you have selected "Organisation List" Checkbox if you are having multiple organisation setup on same server.

4.Select the Schema File that you have created earlier in first Lookup

5.Select your Desktop location where you want to keep the exported data file of source CRM Portal Configuration.

6.Continue to Start Exporting the Data

Import CRM Portal Configuration to Destination Organisation :

Once you have your Data.zip file, You are ready to Import your CRM Portal Data in Destination Organisation.

1.Run the Configuration Migration Tool (You can find this tool in CRM SDK at location \SDK\Tools\ConfigurationMigration\DataMigrationUtility.exe\

2.Choose Import Data Option from Opened Window and Continue

3.Enter your Organisation's credential and Click Login, Make sure you have selected "Organisation List" Checkbox if you are having multiple organisation setup on same server.

4.Select the Data.zip File that you have exported earlier.

5.Continue to Start Importing the Data in destination organisation

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