CRM 2013 to 2015 Upgrade

CRM 2013 to 2015 Upgrade

Here I will discuss about important things need to know. I.e. what is changing, what is important and what Microsoft is Recommending

Supported Software

·        Windows Server 2012/2012 R2

·        SQL Server - 2012

·        Windows Client - Windows7 and Windows 8

·        Browsers -- IE 10/11

·        Exchange Server - 2010/2013

·        Outlook - 2010/2013

Discontinuing support

·        Window server 2008/2008R2

·        SQL Server 2008/2008R2

·        Windows Vista

·        Internet Explorer 8/9 (It was used to take to mobile forms but now CRM continues to open normally and features stop working in older versions)

·        Exchange and Office 2007

Server Upgrade Process        

Upgrade is a one-way process CRM 2015 cannot be uninstalled

Two methods to upgrade

·        Install media on current server

·        Migration upgrade (Recommended) deploying another CRM instance with a separate database and it is most efficient way

Upgrade must start from CRM 2013 6.1(Service Pack 1) and Server must be on CRM 2013 SP1 or higher

Upgrade Process

While upgrading process, CRM applies check to determine if it's SAFE to upgrade organization and it provides to link to an article it there is an issue

The issues which will be taken care by the product are informed as part of warnings

Important things to be considered from upgrading CRM 2013 to CRM 2015

According to CRM 2013 architecture there was change in core database structure

·        Collapsed a series of tables to optimize frequency

·        Allowed customers to run in temporary "expanded state"

·        For 2015, the merge process is mandatory for upgrade. The base and extension merge process.

Base and Extension Table merge

All extension tables merged by default during upgrade process as Merge is mandatory for CRM 2015. If database cannot be merged, the upgrade will process will cease and the owner notified

Solutions Framework Updates (Move custom from one to another)

·        CRM 2013 solution could not be imported in CRM 2011

·        CRM 2013 SP1 could not be imported in CRM 2013

With CRM 2013 SP1, CRM Product came with ability to export to a specific version of CRM. CRM 2015 solution will work CRM 2015 deployments and will not imported to CRM 2013. The reason behind this that there is a change in fundamental structure of CRM.

Upgrading Forms form 2011 and 2013

There is change in the forms design in CRM 2013 and it also allowed to retain 2011 forms. Moving forward in CRM 2015 continues the same. CRM capabilities are added to the new forms (2013).

·        CRM 2011 forms are all called with name Information.

·        CRM 2013 forms are called with Entity Name (Account, Lead, Case etc...)

We can activate and deactivate forms.

On CRM 2013 form, you will find a button called Merge forms, that button is only activated on 2013 forms, that allows to choose 2011 and it merges 2011 form to 2013.

You will find more information in Implementation Guide of CRM 2015 SDK.

 

--
Happy CRM'ing

Gopinath