Organizing Dynamics CRM customizations and update test environment

Question

We are actually reorganizing our CRM customizations. Till now we had one main solution which was containing all the customizations and now we would like to split it by technical matters.

So now on our development instance, we have 4 unmanaged solutions that we would like to publish on tests instance which has the old managed solution.

We plan to do the following:

-> Export the 4 solutions to managed

-> Import them to test instance

-> Uninstall the old solution from test instance

I have a doubt concerning that procedure. Will it break something?

At some point we'll have the same customizations from different solutions. What do you think ?

Answer 1

I'm also curious about this exercise. If this is another sandbox to play-around by only disrupting the QA team (without any concern to Prod instance) - I will go with the listed steps to see if it goes through. We can wipe out this Test Org with the Restore from Prod anytime later if it didn't go through all the way.

Or else spin a new sandbox copy of exact Test replica for dry run.

At some point we'll have the same customizations from different solutions.

True, but uninstalling the existing Managed solution will remove the components though they are part of another Managed solution, if I'm not wrong.

Answer 2

I tested your steps on a trial environment with a couple Solutions and although when I began I believed (as Arun answered) that uninstalling a managed solution would delete all objects regardless of usage by other solutions, when I actually tested it, it's not deleting them. Data was also kept.

So the steps:

-> Export the 4 solutions to managed

-> Import them to test instance

-> Uninstall the old solution from test instance

Might work with no issues.

I would recommend that you make sure to checklist all elements so nothing is left behind.

If you have an available instance I would also say that you first restore a backup and test that everything goes as planned, but from my test it worked out.

Answer 3

This is a common approach. We also have split our customizations into several solutions. (e.g. one for Plugins, Security Roles, Web Ressources...)

You can split your customization work into as many solutions as you like, but don't overdo it.