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Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Archived) / Plugins not working un...
Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Archived)

Plugins not working until after server reboot?

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Posted on by ACECORP 1,589

I have a number of CRM 2011 plugins that are doing a bunch of tasks, updating records, searching and pulling down data, etc.…

What started happening is that if and when I update and re-deploy these plugins, they are not actually working until after a reboot is performed on the CRM server.

This was not the behavior when I created my first batch of two or three plugins, but now I have about 10 and this is the strange phenomena I am encountering and its making things a bit inconvenient because I have to do a server reboot after every change to test the change.

I already tried clearing the internet browser’s cache and cookies and after deployment of the modified plugin, I re-published the solution 5x in rapid succession just to try and make the changes “stick” so I don’t have to reboot, but that doesn’t work.

The only thing that fixes it is a reboot. I also have a feeling I could get around the reboot if I restarted all the CRM related services, but that is no different than a reboot where I am concerned. This only started happening once I developed and implemented ~ 10 plugins. Prior to that this didn't happen.

Is this expected behavior? Has anyone seen this before or know what the problem is?

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  • Suggested answer
    J Matlon Profile Picture
    J Matlon 1,465 on at

    An IISRESET doesn't fix your issue?

    It sounds like there are resources that are cached. And you need to release them so the updated versions can take.

    An IISRESET should only take a few seconds compared to the few minutes you're taking to reboot.

  • Suggested answer
    Aiden Kaskela Profile Picture
    Aiden Kaskela 19,696 on at

    Hi Jim,

    Since you're having issues with the plugins, any behavior would be server side and your browser cache wouldn't be an issue. As far as waiting for the changes to take effect, that shouldn't be the case - plugin updates typically take place immediately. One case I've heard that changes don't take effect immediately is if you have plugins registered in the Pre-Validation stage, but that's it. (Note - plugins shouldn't be registered in this stage, should use Pre-Operation.)

    If you do find yourself needing to restart to see the changes, you can reset the two async services and the sandbox service, and the world wide web service. It's still a pain but it'll recover a lot faster than restarting the server.

    Hope this helps! If it does I'd appreciate if you'd mark this as a Verified answer.

    Thanks,

     Aiden

  • Aiden Kaskela Profile Picture
    Aiden Kaskela 19,696 on at

    @Guido - That might be the case with a developer toolkit project, but if you're registering assemblies through the plugin registration tool you don't need to update the assembly version number.

  • ACECORP Profile Picture
    ACECORP 1,589 on at

    Since I am using Visual Studio 2012, I will try changing the assembly version numbers prior to the re-build/re-compile and re-deployment. I have a bunch of plugins to create and test over the next few days, so I will update this post with my findings once I get there. In the mean-time, I can confirm that I was NOT updating the version numbers. However, this only started happening once around 10 plugins were registered and running. The other day, I tried restarting both IIS via an IISRESET and also restarted the Dynamics CRM Async and CRM Sandbox Services, but that didn't work. Then I tried an IISRESET and resetting ALL CRM Services (not just async and sandbox) via services.msc, but that didn't solve the problem either. In fact doing those things actually caused some errors and I was unable to re-deploy the plugin once I did that until after I rebooted the server.

  • ACECORP Profile Picture
    ACECORP 1,589 on at

    Updating the assembly version numbers, then re-building/re-compiling, and re-deploying do NOT solve the problem. Rebooting now, so I can continue working. This is a very interesting problem. I absolutely agree that something cached on the server is not being released or updated until a reboot occurs, so it seems the solution will require me to figure out what specifically on Windows Server or in the CRM Platform is handling this cache, and what server side setting must be changed or updated to alter the behavior of whatever is not releasing or refreshing the server's .dll cache.  

  • ACECORP Profile Picture
    ACECORP 1,589 on at

    Here is an update on what I found so far:

    CRM 2011 has a preload cache.

    The CRM Platform keeps a record of dates and times and other things in the MSCRM_CONFIG database about when to refresh this preload cache.

    The source of my problem is not the fact that I have many plugins.

    Rather, the source of my problem is that I turned my development server ahead by 1 calendar year to test some date specific plugins.

    When I did that, CRM put some entries related to the preload cache into the database that have a 2016 timestamp on them.

    Because of these entries, my preload cache will never refresh until my server date and time appear after those database entries.

    The next step is to figure out how to "properly remove or edit the system generated preload cache date/time entries in the MSCRM_CONFIG database, along with any related debris that may exist elsewhere,  so that CRM 2011's preload cache will resume working properly."

    I'll post an update once I do that, or if anyone has done it and knows exactly what to do, and wants to post, that works also.

    Either way, there will be an update here once I figure out what it is, and implement it.  

  • Aiden Kaskela Profile Picture
    Aiden Kaskela 19,696 on at

    Awesome job hunting down that issue. You can unregister your assembly using the MS Plugin registration util to clear out any older (future) records, then with the dates corrected you should be good.

  • Aiden Kaskela Profile Picture
    Aiden Kaskela 19,696 on at

    I missed the part about updating the config db. Unregistering may do that but I'm not sure. I'd give it a shot before messing with the database at least.

  • ACECORP Profile Picture
    ACECORP 1,589 on at

    Its not just plugins that I have the problem with. When I create new entities, forms, or publish even simple form changes like adding fields, or changing the placement of fields, those changes don't appear until the server is rebooted since the preload cache is not refreshing. I was focused on plugins when the problem started so I didn't realize it impacted everything else too. Now that I can confirm any and all application changes are impacted in the same way,  I am certain once I get the preload cache problem fixed, everything will resume as normal.

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