I talked about building a CRM dev VM running on Windows Azure from scratch here.  However, you might have an existing VM that you’d prefer to run on Windows Azure instead.  Why?  Here are some reasons I can think of which may or may not apply to you:

• You can take advantage of better hardware.
• Even though I have a quad core 16 GB laptop, everything just feels like it runs faster in the Windows Azure VM.  Placebo effect?  Maybe.
• You can access your dev box from just about anywhere with a Windows PC and an internet connection.
• Windows Azure has better bandwidth than you might have.
• Run a speed test to compare…make sure you pick a test server closest to your Azure data center for accurate comparison

I am sure there are others.  Feel free to share in the comments.  To get started, you are going to have to upload your .vhd file to your Windows Azure Storage account.  To do this follow the instructions starting at Step 5 from the Creating and Uploading a Virtual Hard Disk that Contains the Windows Server Operating System right until the Upload the VHD file section.  Use the following command line switches for csupload instead (make you have the June 2012 Azure SDK):

csupload Add-Disk –Destination “<full blob url you want for your vhd>” –Label “<whatever you want>” –LiteralPath “<path to your local .vhd>” –OS Windows

After the upload completes, you should be able to go into the management portal, create a new VM using this vhd file.

@devkeydet

Here’s a little tip that, as I speak with customers/partners, I’m discovering isn’t well known.  I will show you how to leverage features of the import process to the fact that import process allows you to build your entities much faster in Dynamic CRM 2011.  It is one approach, but I would love to hear any you might have.  The basic process is:

• Create entity
• Create option set fields
• Create relationships where necessary
• Import data and create the rest of the fields along the way

To get this to work without prefix side effects, make sure you follow the instructions in my Ensuring you are using your prefix everywhere post first.  Let’s start with a very simple entity model:

I know, bad example, but I wasn’t feeling creative.  To build this out we’re first going to create the Parent and Child entities:

NOTE: As a personal practice, I always clear out everything below the Options for Entity section of the form.  You can always go back and add features later, but you can’t undo things that have the + sign next to them. 

Technically, we could create the entity as part of the import process, but I prefer creating it explicitly because I have full control of the creation options.  For Fields of type Option Set, you should create them in the entity ahead of time.  In this example we are going to create a Blood Type field and create a new reusable option set with the values in the picture: 

Technically, you can create option set fields during the import process, but they won’t be reusable.  Therefore I always create them ahead of time.   For other field types, we’ll create them during import.  Now, let’s go ahead and create a 1:N relationship between the Parent and Child entity:

Technically, we could create the relationship during import, but I prefer creating it explicitly because I have full control of the options.  Next, create two csv files that look like:

Parent.csv

Name,Date Of Birth,Blood Type

Parent1,11/05/2000,O+

Parent2,11/05/2000,A+

Parent3,11/05/2000,B-

Child.csv

Name,Date Of Birth,Blood Type,Parent

Kid1,11/05/2000,O+,Parent1

Kid2,11/05/2000,A+,Parent2

Kid3,11/05/2000,B-,Parent3

Now import Parent.csv:

Browse to the file and accept the defaults until you get to this screen:

As you can see Blood Type is already mapped to the option set we created.  Map the Date Of Birth field:

Keep clicking the Next button until you get to the end and click the Submit button.  The Import Data Wizard will create the remaining field and import the data.  Now let’s get the Child entity set for import.  Go ahead and create the Blood Type option set field for the Child entity like we did for the Parent, but this time reuse the existing option set.  Now import the Child.csv file.  You will have to create a new field for Date Of Birth, but Blood Type and Parent from the input file will have been auto mapped to the corresponding fields in the entity:

That’s it!  I’ve shown a really simple example where we really only automated the creation of one field per entity.  I did that to keep the walkthrough simple.  I also walked through why I choose to still manually create option set fields and relationships.  If you apply this technique to creating entities with say 10+ fields, you really start to appreciate the productivity gains of automating the field creation process.  HTH

@devkeydet

With Dynamics CRM 2011, there are many ways to get the same task done when you are customizing your solution.  However, what prefix is used depends on where you came from.  Let’s take the scenario of creating an entity.  If you are working in the Default Solution, then you probably have a prefix of new_ unless you have already changed the prefix of the Default Publisher:

If you are working in a solution you’ve created, but using the Default Publisher, then you probably still have a new_ prefix.  If you are working in a solution you’ve created, using a publisher you’ve created, and created the new entity in from within that solution, then you will have the prefix of the publisher you created:

However, when you customize anything through the Customize tab in the ribbon:

…you will be brought to the Default Solution, which means your prefix will be whatever is in the Default Publisher.  To get your prefix to show up when you use the Customize tab, you need to update the prefix of the Default publisher to match the prefix of your publisher:

By doing so, your prefix will be the default everywhere you try to customize the system.

@devkeydet

http://dkdt.me/LozNSi

Run, don’t walk, and go grab this CRM dev essential.  A few of my blog posts are irrelevant (or at least much less effort) once you’ve installed this free set of enhancements to Dynamics CRM 2011.  From their website:

Adxstudio Productivity Pack is a suite of customizations for Microsoft Dynamics CRM® 2011, useful across a wide rage of CRM applications. It includes the following enhancements:

• Rich Text Editor (TinyMCE)
• Auto Numbering
• Bing Maps Geolocation Lookup
• Date/Time Parsing
• Boolean Parsing
• General Application Settings

This product is provided to the Adxstudio community at no cost.

@devkeydet