Symptom: You choose to run a workflow but nothing seems to happen and the new workflow doesn’t appear in the workflow tab.
Theory: If my CRM exam studyage served me right, the Microsoft Dynamics CRM is composed of 3 parts. The application layer producing the business logic, the data layer interfacing with SQL and the async service layer doing stuff like workflows on the background (a bit like SQL agent). If the first 2 break, you won’t get your CRM site at all. When the async service layer breaks, it’s a bit more subtle like in this case.
Diagnosis: The most important part is to intercept at least some form of error output and determine what’s wrong with the system. You need to turn on your tracing function for CRM as described here. The look at your web log and your async log, typically at C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics CRM\Trace.
Possible Causes:
- First, be sure to update your CRM software. At the time of the writing, the Update Rollup 11 is the newest
- Check your IIS web.config file. Make sure critical parts required for the async service are there. Make sure for instance that the <System.Workflow.ComponentModel.WorkflowCompiler> section is there to allow the workflow compiler to use basic CLI classes like String and Object etc.
- If your CRM site is initially installed in port 5555, changing it after in IIS Manager won’t affect the async service. Therefore, if you change it to port 80 or do anything else to change the URL for accessing your CRM site, you won’t be able to access the async service. Check your trace to confirm your initial setting.
