CRM 2011 – Outlook CRM Disconnected – Check the time on the server!

Today I had a very unusual problem, suddenly no one could connect to CRM 2011 using outlook.

The web url to CRM 2011 worked fine

but Outlook couldn’t connect.

Oddly my outlook was the only one in the company who could connect (I don’t see what the problem is guys :-))

I turned on tracing on one of the outlooks and the error file didn’t really help me much.  Googling the problem pulled back lots of entries but nothing that worked for me.

I tried to remove the organisation and add it again and then I got a slightly different error  message

CRM 2011 outlook There is a problem communicating with the microsoft Dynamics CRM server

Communication problem, no kidding, they were giving each other the silent treatment.

googling this error message finally brought me to this kb article

This issue may occur for any of the following causes:

1. The operating system date on the client computer is not set to the correct date.
2. The operating system time on the client computer is not set to the correct time.
3. The operating system time zone on the client computer is not set to the correct time zone.
4. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM server might be unavailable.

What??!?!?  I then got called into a meeting but when I came out one of the salesmen found out the time on the CRM server was 5 minutes slowly than his computer time and when he changed his computer time it worked.

The solution to the problem was to change the time on the CRM server to the correct time, for some reason it had lost 5 minutes.

it took me ages to find the cause of this problem, I can’t really understand why CRM has a such a strict policy about this.

 

Here is the solution from the KB article

For Causes 1, 2, and 3

1. Exit the CRM Configuration Wizard.
2. Change the operating system date and time. To do this, use one of the following methods.

   Method 1: Manually change the operating system time
   

   1. Click Start, click Control Panel, click Clock, Language, and Region, and then click Date and Time.
   2. In the Date and Time dialog box, click Change date and time to change the date and time settings. For example, click a date such as February 1, 2011 from the calendar, and change the time.
   3. Click OK.
   4. Click Change time zone, and then select your time zone.
   5. Click OK.

   Note These steps are for Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 operating systems. To change date and time in Windows XP, please refer to the Windows XP help manual.

   Method 2: Configure the operating system time to synchronize with an Internet time server

   1. Click Start, click Control Panel, click Clock, Language, and Region, and then click Date and Time.
   2. In the Date and Time dialog box, click the Internet Time tab, and then click Change Settings.
   3. Click to select the Synchronize with an Internet Time Server check box, select a time server, click Update Now, and then click OK.

   Method 3: Use a command to sync time with the domain if the computer is a member of a domain

   1. Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then clickRun as Administrator.
   2. At the command prompt, type the following text, and then press Enter:
      net time [{\\ComputerName | /domain[:DomainName] | /rtsdomain[:DomainName]}] [/set]

      If you do not know the ComputerName or the Domain Name, try the following simple command:

      net time /set

      Then, type Y to finish the change.

      Expand this image

      

   For more information about the net time command, visit the following Microsoft website:

   Net Time

   Method 4: Force a synchronization of the NTP client if the computer uses an NTP client to sync with an NTP server
   

For Cause 4

To resolve the issue for Cause 4, you must contact your system administrator to verify the availability of the Dynamics CRM Server. Or, try to run the configuration again.