GP 2010 SP1 Installation Package doesn’t apply SP1

Here’s an update to my previous post, as the GP 2010 installation media has been updated to include SP1 for GP 2010.  Installing GP from the media does include SP1, however when you create an installation package from this new release, SP1 does not get applied to the client install as it should.  I’ve confirmed this as a known issue with Microsoft support and it is being worked on.  In the meantime, just manually apply SP1 from the Updates folder within your client install package. 

Creating a GP 2010 installation package

One of the methods I use to make upgrades and new installs more efficient is creating an installation package.  By pre-selecting the products to install, the location of the modified forms and reports dictionaries, and the location of the letter wizard templates and OLE Notes, I can be certain that all of the workstation installs will be the same.  This also saves a lot of time when a user gets a new machine down the road, since I don’t have to remember to select Fixed Assets and Smartlist Builder, or update the dynamics.set and dex.ini files with the correct paths. 

1.  To create the installation package you begin by running setup.exe from the installation media.  If there are prerequisites that need to be installed, you will be notified and they will be updated, then you are presented with the install menu.  Choose Create Installation Package from menu.

2.  Enter a path for the install package – this is where the install package will be created, which you can move at any time after the package has been created.

3.  Choose the correct County/Region

4. Select the feature you want to have installed on every machine installed with the installation package – you won’t be prompted to change these when to run the package, so try to get everything you need selected here.  If you miss something you can always add it through the add/remove programs option in the control panel on the workstation.  Set the Install location to the path where you want GP installed on every machine.  If you’re creating the installation package on a 64-bit machine and you will be installing on 32-bit machines, be sure to remove the (x86) from path. 

5. Enter the name of the SQL Server instance where GP is installed.  A new ODBC data source will be created on the client machines for you, or you can skip that option by marking the box. 

6. Set the path for any modified reports or forms dictionaries.  This will be the path used in the dynamics.set file for the forms and reports dictionaries of all products installed.  It will also update the ReportDictionaryPath and FormDictionaryPath values in the dex.ini file so that any products that are installed later will also use this path.  If you leave the paths set to the Installation Folder option, the path will be set to the default location of the Data subdirectory of the install location folder, which by default is C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics\GP\Data\.

7. Set the path for the OLE Notes and letters locations.  This path sets the Letters Directory and OLEPath values in the dex.ini file. 

8. Click on the Install button to begin building the install package. 

9.  When the package is complete, choose Exit and you’re ready to use the package on your workstations. 

**Additional Installation Package Tip - If creating the installation package fails immediately with the message, “The installation has failed”, copy the folder with your GP 2010 installation media in it to your C drive and creating the installation package again.  This has been confirmed as a bug. 

Error deploying GP 2010 SRS reports on SQL Server 2008

Working on a GP 10 to 2010 upgrade today I ran into an error while deploying the SRS reports, which indicated I needed a secure connection for the attempted operation.  This server was running SQL Server 2008 Express, which I thought might have something to do with the problem, as I’d heard of people having issues with the GP SRS Reports and SQL Express.

As luck would have it this was an upgrade that I had quoted at a fixed amount so I didn’t have a lot of extra time to figure this out.  After some frantic “Binging” I found a newsgroup posting regarding a CRM install with a similar error while deploying SRS reports and it led me down the correct path, which was to edit the rsreportserver.config file, which on this machine was located in C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSRS10.MSSQLSERVER\Reporting Services\ReportServer. 

I changed the SecureConnectionLevel Value from “2” to “0”, re-ran the SQL Server Reporting Services Wizard again, and all reports deployed successfully and appear to be working.

Dynamics GP 2010 Customer Registration Keys delayed

From this post at Inside Microsoft Dynamics GP blog:

Customer Registration Keys:  The process of updating the customer registration keys is taking longer than expected.  They will be mass updated in June.  If you have a critical situation and need keys, you can get them by calling Sales Operations.

Upgrade Paths for Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010

Mariano Gomez has a new post up with the necessary upgrade paths from versions 9 and 10 to GP 2010.  I always seem to run into one of these where a service pack for the current version needs to be installed in order to upgrade successfully, so this will no doubt be a valuable reference.