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Azure Blob Storage For Storing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Attachments

In my Living In SCRIBE Online Blog I talked about work I did to migrate CRM 4.0 on-premise to Dynamics 365 using SCRIBE Online.  In that blog I mentioned how there are about 80 GB worth of attachments that had to be moved into the cloud.  Well this could quickly get expensive if we stored them directly in CRM.  Also, this client wasn't using SharePoint.  So what option do we have to store this data so end users can access the data?  Why not use Azure Blob Storage?

Microsoft has an app in AppSource to move attachments from CRM to Azure blob storage.  Not only does it all for this, but it also has a web resource in it so you can allow for bulk uploads.  Here is how to set it up:

1) Go To AppSource
2) Install the Attachment Management App by clicking the "Get It Now" button under the image.
3) While its installing go to Azure and setup your blob storage account.
4) For each CRM instance you will need to setup 2 containers in your blob storage.  One is for email attachments and the other is for notes attachments.  So if you have a production instance and sandbox instance you will need to have 4 containers (DevEmails, DevNotes, ProdEmails, ProdNotes).
5) Still in Azure click on "Shared Access Signatures"  Here you will setup your SAS key.  Complete all sections and click on "Generate SAS".
6) Copy the SAS key, we will need it later.
7) Go back to CRM and check to make sure the attachment management app finished installing.
8) In setting -> Customization -> Solutions, click on publish all customization.
9) Refresh your screen.
10) You may not see a link anywhere in the navigation to the azure blob storage entity, so you can either turn it on to appear in the settings area or just use advanced find to get to the entity.  It is called Azure Blob Storage Settings.
11) Add a new record.
      - Name = The name of the blob storage account in Azure
      - SAS Token = Get this from step 6
      - Notes Attachment Container = Name of the container in Azure
      - Email Attachment Container = Name of the container in Azure
12) Save

Your attachments in CRM will now be stored in Azure.  You will still be able to access the notes within CRM with no problem at all, including even downloading them from CRM.  One thing to note about this is it will not move attachments that are already in CRM.  So it is best to install this early on if you are not going to use SharePoint integration.
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Comments

  1. Work 365 AppsDecember 1, 2017 at 3:06 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Work 365 AppsDecember 1, 2017 at 3:07 AM

    Its Very Usefull App..

    ReplyDelete
  3. Matt MoneyApril 27, 2018 at 5:18 AM

    Hello. If you end up in a situation where some attachments are on D365 storage and some are on Azure, will the attachment be retrieved from wherever it is stored? By setting up Azure blob storage, will it make the attachments stored on D365 storage unavailable?

    Thanks

    Matt

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. James StuderApril 27, 2018 at 8:44 AM

      When you setup azure blob storage, if there are attachments in CRM you can choose to move them to azure or keep them in CRM. If you choose to keep them in CRM, then you will still be able to access them. During the setup you can migrate existing attachments to azure blob storage. DO NOT move any attachments for the adx_ entities as these are CRM Portal files and will break your portal. Alos don't move any cd_ files as theese are clickdimensions ones.

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