Q:

MS CRM 2011 deployment Automation tool

I am looking to automate the deployment process for CRM between different Environments eg.Development Env, Test Env and UAT.
I am wondering if there is existing tools(s) available on market to automate the deployment for me?
If NO, Is it possible to automate the CRM deployment between different environments and what is the best practics for doing that?
Thanks

A:

Where I work we are currently working with the exact same issue. I spend quite some time initially looking for of-the-shelves products that could help us, but I have not found anything promising. Therefore we have undertaken the task ourselves.
Some guys from Microsoft made a short "whitepaper" on the subject which I found quite helpful. It can be found here at Deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and CRM Online Solutions from Development through Test and Production Environments.
I will not claim that we are using "best" practices, but we have chosen to try and script everything in PowerShell or through .net based CmdLets in our own PS-module. CRM server comes with a PowerShell snap-in that sports some basic functionality for creating/removing organizations, but you are more or less on your own when it comes to actually "deploying" CRM-customization, configuration data, users etc.
It would be interesting to know, which approach you choose (if any)? And if you have any specific question, please don't hesitate to ask!

