I was working on a long project that required to install some 3rd party plug-ins, one of the things that make me field uncomfortable was that the application main screen was based on plug-ins making custom web service calls to get the main information, one of the initial issues I received after installation with the plug-ins and web services calls was that the application was taking a lot of time and then stopped without showing any information on the main screen, long story short I find out that all that was related to 2 main settings on the servers
Main issues with plug-ins and web service calls that I was not aware:
1- Need to extend the application timeout for running the plug-ins that make several web services calls
2- Optimizing the Performance of the windows server
These 2 issues were easily resolved with a couple of registry settings on the local servers, let’s see what was needed:
Extending the Application Timeout
The timeout solution required modifications to the registry and modifications to the we.config file
Registry settings, (you can copy and paste to a text file)
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSCRM]
"OLEDbTimeout"=dword:00015180
"ExtendedTimeout"=dword:000f4240
OLEDBTimeout
Note: According to the requirement of the computer that is running SQL server and the number of customization files, the value can be larger than 86400.
The value of 86400 is equivalent to 24 hours. (Hex value 0x00015180 = 86400)
ExtendedTimeout
Note: Valid range value could be larger than 1,000,000 and not grater than 2,147,483,647
Value 1,000,000 = Hex 0x000f4240; 2,147,483,647 = Hex 0x7FFFFFFF)
Web.Config changes
<httpRuntime executionTimeout="300" maxRequestLength="8192"/>
change to
<httpRuntime executionTimeout="1000" maxRequestLength="8192"/>
Resources:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918609
I found that the documentation for optimizing and maintenance have a lot of tips and resources that initially I didn’t understand, but working with other administrators with more experience they pointed to good things on the documentation, this one help me to resolve the issues related to allow the application to perform a lot better whit heavy load of users and been more responsive when loading the plug-ins and web services calls.
Registry settings, (you can copy and paste to a text file)
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters]
"MaxUserPort"=dword:000061A8
"TCPTimeWaitDelay"=dword:00000078
Resources:
Optimizing and Maintaining Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ba826cee-eddf-4d6e-842d-27fd654ed893&displaylang=en
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Performance and Scalability White Papers
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=5852B14A-394C-4898-8374-CAF5E6479EB0&displaylang=en
Abe Saldaña
CrmBuzz.net
Everything here, though, is my personal opinion and is not read nor approved before being posted. No warranties or other guarantees will be offered as to the quality of the opinions or anything else offered here.