Dynamics 365 Installation – Part 2 – Hardware and Software requirements

In this article I will detail about hardware and software requirements for dynamics 365 installation. In our particular environment with seven different servers, which have following basic information. All the server names and IP addresses are dummy and are supposed for this article.

So, lets start with details of servers in high availability environment

Dynamics 365 Server Hardware Requirements

The following table lists the minimum and recommended hardware requirements for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Server running in a Full Server configuration.

These requirements assume that additional and optional components such as Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, Microsoft SharePoint, or Microsoft Exchange Server are already installed or running on the system.

Note

• Running Microsoft Dynamics 365 on a computer that has less than the recommended requirements may result in inadequate performance.
• Computers with more than 16 GB of RAM will require more disk space for paging, hibernation, and dump files.

The minimum and recommended requirements are based on 320-user load simulation tests.

Licensing

A Microsoft Dynamics 365 deployment operates by using a single product key. Only the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Server edition is licensed for multiple Microsoft Dynamics 365 servers or server roles in a deployment.

You can view and upgrade a license by using the Get-CrmAccessLicense and Set-CrmProductKeyWindows PowerShell commands or in Deployment Manager. Deployment Manager is a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in that system administrators can use to manage organizations, servers, and licenses for deployments of Microsoft Dynamics 365

Microsoft SQL Server hardware requirements

The following table lists the minimum and recommended hardware requirements for Microsoft SQL Server. These requirements assume that additional and optional components such as, Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, SharePoint, or Microsoft Exchange Server are already installed or running on the system.

Note: Maintaining Microsoft Dynamics 365 databases on a computer that has less than the recommended requirements may result in inadequate performance.

The minimum and recommended requirements are based on 320-user load simulation tests.

Software requirements and prerequisites for Dynamics 365 Servers

The front end and back end servers will require the following software for Dynamics 365 (on-premises) deployment.

• Microsoft Windows Server 2016 with all patches including August patch
• Dot Net Framework 4.6
• An Internet Information Services (IIS) website with default roles plus Windows Authentication (remaining will be added by CRM deployment)
• Active Directory infrastructure
• Supported device, Microsoft Dynamics 365 app, or web browser, such as later versions of Internet Explorer or the latest versions of Apple Safari, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox
• Microsoft Office for Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Outlook and other Office integration features
• Claims-based security token service (required for Internet-facing deployments) are only for front end servers
• Microsoft Exchange Server or access to a POP3-compliant email server (required for email tracking)
• SharePoint Server (required for document management)

Further following components also should be installed and running on CRM servers

• Indexing Service
• IIS Admin
• World Wide Web Publishing
• Net TCP Port Sharing Service
• Windows Data Access Components (MDAC)

Microsoft ASP.NET (Must be registered, but does not have to be running.)

Software requirements and prerequisites for SQL DB Servers

The SQL servers will require the following software for Dynamics 365 (on-premises) deployment

• Microsoft Windows Server 2016 with all patches including August patch
• Dot Net Framework 3.5
• SQL Server 2016 Enterprise with SRSS and SMSS (Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is required for reporting features in Microsoft Dynamics 365).
• An Internet Information Services (IIS) website with default roles plus Windows Authentication (remaining will be added by CRM deployment)
• Active Directory infrastructure
• Always (On availability) group with two nodes (This configuration will be done in SQL Server)

Typically, Microsoft Dynamics 365 applications support the latest version and service pack (SP) for all required components, such as Windows Server, Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft Office. However, to fully support the latest version of a required component, you should apply the latest update for Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 conforms to the support policies of all dependent products and technologies, such as Microsoft Office or Microsoft Exchange Server.

Following SQL Server components must also be installed and running on the computer that is running SQL Server before you install Microsoft Dynamics 365 Server:

• SQL word breakers

This is only required for some Microsoft Dynamics 365 language editions.

• SQL Server Agent service

SQL Server full-text indexing

Active directory

The computer that Microsoft Dynamics 365 Server is running on must be a member in a domain that is running in one of the following Active Directory service forest and domain functional levels.

• You must create an Organization Unit like: Org Unit STG CRM groups.

Give proper access rights to service accounts.  Also, the following is to be completed.

For Front End Servers

A user with local administration rights like: Domain\STG ServerAdmins.

For Back-end Server

A user with local administration rights like: Domain\STG ServerAdmins.

For SQL Server

A user with local administration rights like: Domain\STG DBAdmins.

Also, an availability group FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) like: DBSSQL03.GSAD.LOCAL. This will be used as load balancer server for both SQL Servers where CRM databases exists. FQDN of this server will be used as listening server during installation of CRM Server.

Domain Controller

• Create service accounts in group Domain\STG CRMSVC in Active directory on domain controller.
• Create these service accounts in active directory which will be used during installation of CRM Server Setup. GSAD is the domain name. If domain is different for production then use that domain name. Following is the list of service accounts.
  1. Domain\SVC_CRMSSandbox
  2. Domain\SVC_CRMSAsynchron
  3. Domain\SVC_CRMSMonitoring
  4. Domain\SVC_CRMSVSS
  5. Domain\SVC_CRMSWeb
  6. Domain\SVC_CRMSApplication

References:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/unified-operations/fin-and-ops/get-started/system-requirements-on-prem

https://www.inteltech.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Dynamics-365-system-requirements.pdf