How do I export customizations (in this case custom Entities) from a server onto another in crm 2013

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Before: We had (still working) a couple of CRM 4.0 servers working: A productive one and a test one. We would perform any changes on the test server first and, after testing, replicate them in the productive server. For entities (custom or not) this would mean using the "Export Customizations"/"Import Customizations" functionalities. Pretty straight-forward stuff.

Now: we're testing CRM 2013 and trying to do the same with a couple of servers. We set up our data structure by hand (took some time) including the creation of all our custom entities, which are not few in number.

My question then is: How can I perform a bulk entity export-import in the same manner as it was with 4.0? I've tried selecting saving the entities to a Solution package, export the package from one server and import it onto the other. System entities feature in the target-server's import list but not the custom entities! And they are a part of the original solution packet (both checking it through CRM itself or the package file's XML code directly)

The lack of online help on this may imply that I'm not approaching this in the right way and I presume this is something already standard in CRM 2011.

Can someone give me a hint?

Thanks in advance!

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dynamics-crm-2011dynamics-crmcrm
check this link crmconsultancy.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/solutions-in-crm-2011 – Guido Preite
Thanks. That's pretty much what I've been doing up to now to no avail... The document you mention though fairly thorough does fail to mention any specificities about custom entities. I have even tried messing with choosing which aspects of System Customisation or Configuration to export as XML from the selected Solution (from all to none) combined with Managed and Un-Managed solutions. Still no success... – GCL
there is no difference between standard and custom entities, when you add them to the solution they are exported as the standard one. – Guido Preite
Yes, you are quite right and I would also expect that to be the case. But, as I've mentioned before, they do get exported (they are present in the XML file) But when I do an Import to the other 2013 server and inspect the package, there are none of my custom entities inside. Even ignoring this and Publishing All Customizations does not produce a different outcome. Am I missing some step there in between? – GCL
you are not missing any steps, did you try to export your solution both in managed and unmanaged way? – Guido Preite

1 Answers

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Ok, I have no time to delve into reasons and explanations but things got solved.

I tried to export ONLY the custom entities and their related entities and it ended up working out. Afterwards, trying again to export ALL entities ended up working just fine!

Therefore, i'm still not fully convinced I was not doing anything wrong. Most likely I just missed some essential basic small step or detail no one thought of due to it's "self-evident" nature.

(I guess being too stuck to CRM 4.0's "modus operandi" takes it's toll when updating...)