Chris Reid's Blog

We’ve just completed certification a second product for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The Salentica Advisor Desk product is now Certified. This means it’s been tested and seamlessly integrated with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. It is also used and recommended by other companies.

The solution is profiled here on Microsoft’s site: http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/en/us/solution-finder.aspx?solutionid=c60a3f83-ff0b-4c99-8c95-a729b23647c9

(It could be a few days before the solution starts displaying the Certified for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Logo)

Microsoft had 2 sessions at PDC featuring CRM 5 which gives a glimpse at what’s coming in the next version. You can watch the sessions here:

Managing the Solution Lifecycle for xRM Applications

Developing xRM Solutions Using Windows Azure

Here’s a brief list of some of the what’s new:

Solutions – customizations can be packed as a solution. These solutions include plug-ins,  web resources (images, script, Sliverlight, etc). Solutions can be versioned, and layered with other solutions to form your xRM app.

Option sets – basically pick lists shared between entities.

Developer productivity improvements – .NET 4.0, Flexible web services (WCF, REST, AJAX) , improvements to client side object model

Native dashboards inside the CRM, there’s also charting available.

I had to get a Hyper-V guest attached to a VLAN last night. Here’s a quick summary of what I learned.

This blog post is an excellent place to start: http://blogs.msdn.com/adamfazio/archive/2008/11/14/understanding-hyper-v-vlans.aspx

Changes I made:

Virtual Switch

The virtual switch controls how the host communicates on the network, set the VLAN ID to the VLAN your host usually communicates on.

Virtual Machine

Each Virtual Machine will have to communicate on a VLAN, so we set the VLAN ID on all the guests. In this case I’ve opted for VLAN’s 1 and 8.

Switch Port

The server is connected to a Dell PowerConnect 6248 switch, and we’ll have to make a couple changes.

Change the port VLAN mode from Access to Trunk

VLAN Membership

Now we have to change the U in on the port to a T for each VLAN we want the server to access.