Install, upgrade, and deploy Unified Service Desk

 

Applies To: Dynamics 365 (online), Dynamics 365 (on-premises), Dynamics CRM 2013, Dynamics CRM 2015, Dynamics CRM 2016

Before you can install and deploy Unified Service Desk for Microsoft Dynamics 365, you must identify the Microsoft Dynamics 365 instance that you want to build and deploy the configuration on. While you can use a new Dynamics 365 instance, Unified Service Desk works best when the Dynamics 365 customization is mostly complete. Unified Service Desk controls the call center agent’s view of Dynamics 365 by manipulating windows, injecting JavaScript, and so on. If major changes occur to the Dynamics 365 environment after Unified Service Desk is deployed, it might cause your Unified Service Desk configuration to no longer work as required. While the Unified Service Desk configuration often comes later in a Dynamics 365 implementation, having Unified Service Desk in mind when designing your Dynamics 365 environment is beneficial.

Unified Service Desk installation and deployment is done in phases where initially you set up a development environment to configure agent applications using one of the sample Unified Service Desk applications as the base. Next, you test how your configurations appear and work using the the Unified Service Desk client application by connecting to the Dynamics 365 instance where you configured Unified Service Desk. Next, you use the customized Unified Service Desk configuration on to a production instance of Dynamics 365, and the client application. The configuration includes the Customization Files package used to distribute to your agent’s computers any files and assemblies that are required.

Important

You can configure Unified Service Desk to integrate with third-party line-of-business (LOB) applications. However, before deploying an integrated solution (involving Unified Service Desk and LOB applications) in the production environment in your organization, you must thoroughly test your integrated solution to ensure that the performance results are aligned with your expectations. Unified Service Desk might not function appropriately if integrated with LOB applications that demonstrate user interface (UI) blocking, memory leak issues, and slow response times.

Listed below is the sequence that we recommend for installing and deploying Unified Service Desk in your organization. Before installing Unified Service Desk, ensure that you meet the system requirements: Unified Service Desk system requirements.

Step 1: Initial installation and deployment

Identify a Dynamics 365 server where you want to deploy Unified Service Desk and a development computer that will be used for deploying Unified Service Desk packages and then connecting to the packages by using the Unified Service Desk client.

  1. Install the Unified Service Desk client on the development computer. More information:Install or upgrade the Unified Service Desk client

  2. Deploy Unified Service Desk packages to the Dynamics 365 instance. More information:Deploy sample Unified Service Desk applications using Package Deployer

  3. Run the Unified Service Desk client, and connect to the Dynamics 365 instance where you deployed the packages to verify that everything is working correctly. More information:Connect to a Dynamics 365 instance using the Unified Service Desk client

Set up additional development computers

To set up additional development computers for configuring your agent desktop applications using Unified Service Desk, install the Unified Service Desk client on the computer. More information:Install or upgrade the Unified Service Desk client

Step 2: Configure and test your agent application

Use your development environment to configure your agent application by building on one of the available sample applications you deployed, and then test it by connecting to the customized package using the Unified Service Desk client application. More information:MSDN: Use Unified Service Desk to configure your agent application

Step 3: Deploy the customized agent application

After you have customized your agent application through configuration or custom code, you must install the Unified Service Desk client application along with any files required for the custom functionality on your agent’s computers. Consider creating a ClickOnce application or an MSI package installer to bundle all the files together and deploy on the agent computers in your organization. More information: see MSDN: ClickOnce Security and Deployment or MSDN: Windows Installer

You might also want to migrate your Unified Service Desk configuration from a development/test to a production environment. You can use the new Configuration Migration tool to migrate your Unified Service Desk configuration data across Dynamics 365 instance. More information:Migrate your Unified Service Desk configuration to another Dynamics 365 server

In This Section

Unified Service Desk system requirements

Install or upgrade the Unified Service Desk client

Deploy sample Unified Service Desk applications using Package Deployer

Connect to a Dynamics 365 instance using the Unified Service Desk client

See Also

Security in Unified Service Desk
Administer and manage Unified Service Desk
Troubleshoot Unified Service Desk
Unified Service Desk Developer Guide

Unified Service Desk 2.0

© 2016 Microsoft. All rights reserved. Copyright