CRM and TLS 1.0

While performing a routine installation of CRM 2016, I stumbled upon a new error during the system checks at the end of CRM installation wizard. The error was for the SQL Server check and read:

Could not connect to the following SQL Server: 'XXXXXX-SQL02'. Verify that the server is up and running and that you have SQL Server administrative credentials. [DBNETLIB][ConnectionOpen (SECDoClientHandshake()).]SSL Security error.

Having never seen this particular error, I resorted to my friend Google who led me down a wormhole or possible issues and resolutions related to certificates and protocols. Turns out that this was indeed related to a security protocol – TLS 1.0 to be exact. It was disabled on the SQL Server as part of our new security template for new servers. So with the help of one of Cloud Application Engineers, Spencer Ashworth, we enabled TLS 1.0. This is done through a simple registry change.

Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.0\Server\ and locate the DWORD named Enabled. Set the value to 1, close the registry and then reboot the server.

Following the reboot and re-run of the CRM installation wizard, the system checks all passed and CRM was able to be successfully installed. Big thanks to Spencer who was the one that recalled CRM’s requirement of TLS 1.0 and knew the resolution!

CRM Diagnostics Page

When troubleshooting CRM performance issues everyone typically wants to point fingers at the servers – whether it be SQL, CRM, or even SSRS – but a commonly overlooked factor is the network. Not known to everyone is a tool built into CRM called the CRM Diagnostics Page. It is basically a very simple way to check network performance. To access the CRM Diagnostics Page simply go to:

http(s)://<YourCRMServerURL>/tools/diagnostics/diag.aspx

This will land you at a page that looks like the following:

On this page, you can clearly see the series of tests available but what are they?

1. Latency Test

This calculates the average time taken to download a small text file 20 times. The file downloaded from the CRM server is /_static/Tools/Diagnostics/smallfile.txt. CRM is designed to work best with latency under 150 milliseconds. Latency can be a huge factor in performance for offices far away the CRM server’s location.

2. Bandwidth Test

The bandwidth test downloads image files and records the speeds. The recorded speeds are averaged together and provided in the results summary. Bandwidth should ideally be higher than 50 KB/sec. This test, along with the Latency Test, are the most helpful on this page.

3. Browser Info

This is a JavaScript pull of the local browser details such as browser name, version, cookie status, operating system and the user-agent string.

4. IP Address

This is the IP address of the client computer as known to the server. The IP address is server-side dynamic and represents the IP address which was used to contact the server.

5. JavaScript tests

The series of JavaScript tests times loops and returns their execution time. They are essentially just memory/CPU stress tests on the client machine.

6. Organization Info

Provides general server information- organization name, time on server and client and URL.

Bonus! 

This is also a neat little secret: http(s)://<YourCRMServerURL>/home/home_debug.aspx.

It has some of the same information as the diagnostics page - Not overly helpful but can possibly come in handy troubleshooting. I find it just to be a nice, concise page for deployment information to help with documentation.