Step By Step Guide to Dynamics 365 & Azure Integration

Fusing Dynamics 365 and Azure into one platform expands the capabilities of your cloud ERP and CRM solutions. Azure is a cloud service platform that provides data storage along with Software-as-a-Service, Infrastructure-as-a-Service, and Platform-as-a-Service models. Leveraging that power alongside Dynamics 365 applications helps mid-market companies build better customer relationships. The combo also empowers workers by making it easier to collaborate on projects designed to move company objectives forward.

Getting Started with Dynamics 365 Azure Integration

Before setting up your Azure integration with Dynamics 365, you must establish a Microsoft Azure account containing the credentials and license necessary to set up your Service Bus entities. A Service Bus is a managed enterprise message broker with publish-subscribe topics for a namespace and message queues.

A Service Bus helps you enable Dynamics 365 applications and services to function independently of each other. That helps you:

• Helps with load balancing across competing workers
• Route and transfer data safely across application borders
• Coordinate transactional work requiring high reliability

You might want a Service Bus in place when you need to move business data contained within sales and purchase orders. You might also need to get a message for one queue, post processing results to multiple queues, and move an input message back to an original queue.

An Azure Service Bus functions similarly to Apache ActiveMQ. However, because it’s one of Azure’s PaaS offerings, there’s no need for organizations to worry about issues like:

• Hardware failures
• Managing disk space
• Placing logs
• Dealing with backups
• Patching operating systems or products

Setting Up Dynamics 365 Service Bus Integration

Once you have your Azure subscription, you can set up a Service Bus namespace through the Azure portal.

1. Log in to the Azure portal, then navigate to Create a resource. Select Integration, then Service Bus.
2. Go to the Create namespace page, then go to the Basics tag.
3. In the Subscription area, select an Azure subscription.
4. In the Resource group area, create a new resource group or select an existing one.
5. Enter a name for your new Service Bus namespace.
6. In the Region area, select a region for your namespace.
7. In the Pricing tier, select Basic, Standard, or Premium.
8. Click Review + create.
9. Review all settings on the Create page before clicking Create.
10. Choose Go to resource from the deployment page to view the home page for your new service bus namespace.

Setting up a new Service Bus namespace automatically generates a Shared Access Signature Policy (SAS) containing primary and secondary keys. You also receive primary and secondary connection strings granting complete control over the Azure Service Bus namespace.

1. Go to your Service Bus Namespace, then choose Shared access policies from the left side menu.
2. Select RootmanageSharedAccessKey.
3. Go to the Policy:RootManageSharedAccessKey window and click the copy button next to Primary Connection String. Paste the data into Notepad or another temporary storage location.

Finally, you need to set up Queues for your Azure Service Bus Dynamics 365 Integration.

1. Go to the Service Bus Namespace page, then select Queues from the left menu.
2. Select Queue from the toolbar.
3. Type in a name for the new queue, then click Create.

Now that you’ve completed the above, you’re ready to set up Azure Service Bus Integration with Dynamics CRM.

Setting Up Dynamics 365 Service Bus Integration for CRM

1. Log into the Dynamics 365 Admin panel for Azure CRM.
2. Run the Plug-in Registration Tool.
3. Click on Register, then select Register New Service Endpoint.
4. Look for a radio button that asks you to add your Azure Service Bus connection string.
5. Paste in your primary connection string you copied from the SAS policy for your Service Bus.
6. Click next to get redirected to Service Endpoint Registration.
7. Complete all the fields in the form, then click Save.
8. You should see your new service endpoint appear in your Registration Plug-ins & Custom Workflow Activities list.

Define Events to Post Messages to Azure Service Bus

1. Right-click on your Service Endpoint from Dynamics 365, then add a new step.
2. Enter the trigger event you wish to set up into the Message box. Examples include create or delete.
3. Enter a primary entity on which to perform the action.
4. Mark the execution node for the event as asynchronous.

Test the endpoint for your Dynamics 365 Azure Service Bus integration by going into your Dynamics 365 CRM and creating a new case. See if you can trigger an action on your recent service endpoint. Verify the queued message by going into Queues à Overview to view any messages.

Setting Up Dynamics 365 Azure DevOps Integration

Make sure you configure an Azure DevOps subscription through Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services (LCS). That allows developers to set up build, test, and deployment virtual machines (VMs). Once you set up your Azure DevOps plan, create a personal access token to use with your LCS background actions. Next, configure your LCS for your project. Once your LCS project is ready, you can link it to Azure DevOps.

1. Go to your LCS portal and connect to Azure DevOps.
2. Select the project you wish to work with.
3. Choose the Project Settings tile, pick Azure DevOps, then the Azure DevOps URL for the location of your source code.
4. Pick the correct Azure DevOps link, authorize it, then select Choose default project.

Once you’re done, you can set up the configuration for your build environments through the Advanced settings panel. From there, you can test out your builds, start using the Build VM environment, and deploy our build, test, and deploy environments as needed.

Get Help Configuring Your Azure Dynamics 365 Setup

If you’re new to working combining the potential of Azure and Dynamics 365, it helps to have professionals on hand who understand both solutions. Internet eBusiness Solutions guides organizations through the intricacies of configuring Azure Integration with Dynamics 365. Contact us today if you need help with Dynamics 365 Azure integration.