VEM Deployment Options

This page is intended to give simple advice on deployment options for VEM depending on your existing or proposed Dynamics CRM environment. For specific advice not covered below you should contact us direct.

CRM v4.0

This release brought in multi-tenancy but third-party addons were obliged to use their own installer and utilise the /ISV folder inside the CRM Web Application. In this environment VEM is restricted to onpremise installations, with or without Internet Facing Deployment (IFD). The VEM4 Installer copies required files to the /ISV folder, communicates with CRM webservices to perform the integration and sets up a local VEM Monitor Site, which interacts with email recipients' and hosts images for use in email templates.

CRM 2011

This release deprecated usage of the /ISV folder and brought in sandboxed plugins and solutions. It was now possible to install sophisticated third-party addons by importing managed solutions. A lot of (re-written)VEM functionality could now be easily installed into all CRM environments whether onpremise, IFD or online, whilst relying on a separate VEM Web (or Azure) Component to interact with email recipients.

VEM4 uses a standard Windows Installer package. It is available for installation on x86 or x64 servers hosting the primary CRM Web Application roles. In the case where the primary roles of CRM are split it may be necessary to install VEM on more than one server.

A common division of roles is to host the MSSQL and SSRS role on a different server. It is not required to install VEM on the MSSQL server.

VEM4 Monitoring Site

By default, the VEM4 installer sets up an IIS website on the local server to act as the VEM monitoring site that is triggered by, and interacts with email recipients. If VEM needs to be installed on more than one server then all but one of these websites should be de-activated after installation.

Post-install, it is relatively easy to re-locate this monitoring site to another server, typically in a DMZ (non-domain de-militarized zone) by using appropriate network credentials in the site's web.config. NOTE: We advise customers to use the provided tool to encrypt this file for extra security.

Pre-requisites for the monitoring site are that:

1. firewall ports are opened to allow interaction with email recipients on the chosen port, and also to allow the monitor site to communicate with the internal CRM webservices.
2. external DNS is set up to map a chosen domain/sub-domain (e.g. vem.acme.com) to an externally accessible IP that is directed for HTTP protocol toward the monitor site server.

Notes:

1. In order to provide the maximum protection for your recipients data we recommend that the monitor site is configured with a SSL connection using a suitable certificate.
2. In order to provide maximum compatibility with different recipient email clients and diverse firewall environments we recommend that you use a standard HTTP port, either port 80 or 443.

VEM - Other Components

To complement VEM we also include

• an email router addin that enhances the presentation of emails routed through specified router profiles and offers functions besides
• a 'keepalive' service that can be configured to peridocally poll the monitor site, and indeed native CRM views in order to greatly reduce the 'just-in-time' compilation lag that users experience when an IIS website has not been accessed for some time

VEM2011 Installation

VEM2011 installation is in two parts, importing the managed solution and deploying the web component (monitoring site) - the order in which these are performed is not important. Pre-requisites and notes for VEM4 are generally applicable, see above. 

Managed Solution Import

This a a standard CRM2011 procedure. The VEM2011 solution imports easily into CRM online. If you have a problem importing into an onpremise installation it is likely the CRM setup already has issues. Particularly check:

1. Custom reports run without problem - you can create a very simple report using the native new report wizard. If this cannot be viewed then you will have a problem importing VEM2011. Usually this problem is due to discrepancies in CRM url with that configured, firewall blocking between CRM and SQL servers or Kerberos issues.
2. Language compatibility - ensure US English (1033) is included in the loaded languages and that your primary language is supported by VEM2011.

VEM2011 Web Component

There is available an x64 (only) Windows Installer package available to facilitate deployment of the web component. This may be run on any convenient internet-facing server. The web component requires that .NET 4.0 and the Windows Identity Foundation (WIF) are installed and will download and install these if necessary. During the course of installation your entered discovery url, credentials and thereby communication with XrmServices are verified in order to proceed.

VEM2011 Azure Component

As an alternative to the web component we offer an Azure package that may be uploaded into a WebRole to perform the same function. If like the Azure option but don’t wish to manage this yourself we can organize this for you – obviously in this case there would be a volume-related service charge although this would be generally a lot less expensive than setting up your own server etc.