Introduction

Post the installation of Dynamics CRM 2011 Server, its maintenance, backup, and finally optimization need to be taken care of. The maintenance of Dynamics CRM 2011 requires familiarity with a wide range of servers, networks, mail systems, and so on.

After installation, the best practice is to back up some of the components. The backup would help to restore the server in the case of a failure of one or more components. A comprehensive backup and recovery mechanism should be in place before the Dynamics CRM 2011 solution is rolled out to end users for use.

The following components of the Dynamics CRM 2011 Server infrastructure need to be backed up (as recommended):

  • Database: The configuration database (MSCRM_CONFIG) and the organization databases (OrganizationName_MSCRM) should have full database backups and transaction log backups.

    It is also recommended to back up the other databases, such as master, msdb, ReportServer, and ReportServertempdb.

  • Dynamics CRM 2011 Server: The web.config file should be backed up in case it is modified post installation. The Windows registry subkeys in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSCRM have to be backed up.
  • Exchange Server: Backup for Exchange Server is not required from a Dynamics CRM 2011 recovery standpoint. But the Exchange Server backup policy should be in place, in line with the recommended Exchange Server maintenance practices.
  • Domain controller: A full system state backup of the domain controller should be taken.

Another part of maintenance activities is to enable tracing when the system encounters errors. Dynamics CRM 2011 provides tracing capabilities. Tracing, by default, is disabled when Dynamics CRM 2011 components are installed. In this chapter, we will learn recipes on how to enable them.

We will also delve into the recipes on how to recover from a failure when it occurs. Recovering from a failure is very important, and we will explore how Dynamics CRM 2011 Server and SQL Server for Dynamics CRM 2011 can be recovered from a failure.

The last phase would be to look into the recipes for optimizing Dynamics CRM 2011 Server's performance. Performance optimization is a standard, nonfunctional requirement in any Dynamics CRM 2011 implementation. Though performance optimization greatly depends on the production network and infrastructure, we would explore the standard Dynamics CRM 2011 Server optimization methods.

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