CRM 2011 - Import Solution getting error Unable to load plug-in assembly

Question

Here's my story: I've imported my CRM 4 solution to CRM 2011. Most things look OK, plug-ins mostly work. This import process was done through the CRM Deployment Manager.

Step 2 I wanted to test building a Solution, adding all my customizations to it, export it, and import it to a second organization on the same server.

Its gotten fairly close (its a HUGE improvement over CRM 4). But its failing when it goes to load my plug-in assembly. The CRM Trace and event log aren't providing me any more help than the solution import log file:

Failure 0x80044191 Unable to load plug-in assembly.

My assembly is deployed to disk so its available. I tried unzipping the solution file, and adding my assembly in the solution hierarchy but that didn't help.

Is it because they're CRM 4 plug-ins? Must they be updated to be imported in CRM 5?

Answer 1

Ended up being I was referencing an assembly not in the GAC of the new server. Wasn't related to solutions per-say and I couldn't register directly with the plugin registration tool either (though that gave me more information). So if you see this I recommend trying to register the assembly using the plugin registration tool to get better information.

Answer 2

You should be able to register your old plugins; upgrading plugins isn't required. Have you tried registering the plugin to database instead of disk? Are you able to register this plugin against your 4.0 environment?

See Upgrade Plug-ins and Custom Workflow Activities to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for more info about upgrading if you decide to try that.

Answer 3

Actually when you try to import your solution in new organization of MS CRM2011 it is throwing exception because MS CRM4.0 plug-ins are using a library "microsoft.crm.sdk.dll" which does not exist in the GAC. Here is a workaround for the registration of MS CRM4 Plug-ins in MS CRM2011 http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en/crmdevelopment/thread/d3ce2b89-e8d3-4334-9117-fda2193e03a8

Answer 4

Does your plugin assembly have any dependencies (except the obvious microsoft.crm.*)? If so, try to ILMerge everything into one big DLL and deploy it to the database.