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Connect to a CRM instance using the Unified Service Desk client

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The Unified Service Desk client is the agent application that you can use to connect to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM instance where you have deployed your Unified Service Desk entities and configuration data. On signing in through the client application, it reads the Unified Service Desk configuration on the CRM instance, and accordingly exposes the controls and functionality in the application.

In This Topic

Sign in to Unified Service Desk

Configure sign-in information

Troubleshoot sign-in issues

Sign in to Unified Service Desk

If you want to configure the sign-in experience, such as pre-populate values in the sign-in dialog box or automatically sign in users without displaying the sign-in dialog box, see Configure sign-in information.

  1. Start the Unified Service Desk client by double-clicking the application shortcut on your desktop.

  2. In the Unified Service Desk sign-in dialog box, provide authentication details to connect to your CRM server. If you have multiple organizations, and want to select the organization where Unified Service Desk is deployed, select the Display list of available organizations check box. Click Login.

    Unified Service Desk Sign-In page

  3. If you have multiple organizations, select the organization that you want to connect to.

  4. The Unified Service Desk splash screen appears. The screen displays the information about the configuration data being read by the client in the background. Next, the main window appears that prompts you to enter your CRM server credentials. Type in your credentials, and then sign in to the Unified Service Desk client application.

Any time you start the Unified Service Desk client to sign-in again, you don’t have to provide your connection information again. Your credentials are stored securely in the Windows Credential Manager and other connection information is stored in the Default_USD.config file at c:\Users\<USER_NAME>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\USD, and used for subsequent sign in activities.

If you want to change your connection information to sign in, click Change Credentials in the splash screen. You’ll be taken to the initial sign-in screen where you can add different credentials.

Sign in screen after initial sign in

Configure sign-in information

If required, Administrators can configure the sign-in experience for Unified Service Desk where they can pre-populate the values in the sign-in dialog box (except user name and password) so that users can connect to the specified CRM instance, or can configure to automatically sign in users to an on-premises CRM instance based on their Active Directory credentials without even displaying the sign-in dialog box.

Note

You can’t add or remove the fields that appear in the Unified Service Desk sign-in dialog box. You can only specify the values that will appear in the fields when a user tries to sign in. However, users can change the pre-populated values in the Unified Service Desk sign-in dialog box before signing in.

To configure sign-in information, use the UnifiedServiceDesk.exe.config file that is available in the client installation directory (typically c:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics CRM USD\USD).

  1. Run Notepad as an administrator.

  2. In Notepad, open the UnifiedServiceDesk.exe.config file from the client installation directory (typically c:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics CRM USD\USD).

  3. Add the following keys under the <appSettings> node in the UnifiedServiceDesk.exe.config file.

    <add key="CrmDeploymentType" value="<DEPLOYMENT_TYPE>" />
<add key="CrmUseSSL" value="<VALUE>" />
<add key="CrmOrg" value="<ORG_NAME>" />
<add key="CrmPort" value="<PORT_NUMBER>" />
<add key="CrmServerName" value="<CRM_SERVER_NAME>" />
<add key="UseDefaultCreds" value="<VALUE>" />
<add key="CacheCredentials" value="<VALUE>" />
<add key="CrmOnlineRegion" value="<CRM_ONLINE_REGION>" />
<add key="AuthHomeRealm" value="<VALUE>" />
<add key="AskForOrg" value="<VALUE>" />
<add key="CrmDomain" value="<DOMAIN_NAME>" />

  4. Provide an appropriate value for each of the keys as required. Each key maps to an individual field in the sign-in dialog box. The following table shows valid key values.

    Key Value

    CrmDeploymentType

    Prem, O365, or Online

    Prem must be used if you’re connecting to an on-premises or Internet-facing deployment (IFD) of CRM; O365 must be used if you’re connecting to CRM Online.

    Online option is deprecated.

    CrmUseSSL

    True or False

    CrmOrg

    Specify the CRM organization name

    CrmPort

    Specify the CRM port number

    CrmServerName

    Specify the CRM server name

    UseDefaultCreds

    True or False

    Note

    For on-premises CRM installation (<add key="CrmDeploymentType" value="Prem" />) and Active Directory authentication (<add key="AuthHomeRealm" value="Active Directory" />), set the value of this key to True to directly sign in users to the specified CRM serveror organization without even displaying the sign-in dialog box.

    CacheCredentials

    True or False

    Note

    To force the connection dialog box to be displayed every time the Unified Service Desk client is launched, set the value of this key to False. By default, the client caches the last connection information, and uses it next time to establish a connection to the CRM server unless the user cancels, and specifies a different connection.

    CrmOnlineRegion

    NorthAmerica, EMEA, APAC, SouthAmerica, Oceania, JPN, or NorthAmerica2

    If you don’t know the online region, leave the value empty: value=""

    This key is applicable only if you specified O365 or Online in the CrmDeploymentType key.

    AuthHomeRealm

    Active Directory or Internet-facing deployment(IFD).

    This key is applicable only if you specified Prem in the CrmDeploymentType key.

    AskForOrg

    True or False

    Indicates whether the Display list of available organizations check box is selected in the sign-in dialog box.

    CrmDomain

    Name of the Windows domain.

  5. Save the UnifiedServiceDesk.exe.config file.

  6. Do the following on each user’s computer where you want to configure the sign-in information:

    1. Copy UnifiedServiceDesk.exe.config file that you just modified to the client installation directory (typically c:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics CRM USD\USD) to replace the existing file.

    2. Remove the Unified Service Desk sign-in information from the roaming user profiles on the user’s computer. If the user has signed in to Unified Service Desk from his computer at least once, the following files are created in the c:\Users\<USER_NAME>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\USD directory: Default_USD.config and Default_USD. You must delete both these files for the configuration settings in the UnifiedServiceDesk.exe.config to take effect.

When a user starts the Unified Service Desk application on his computer:

  • The sign-in dialog box displays the values specified in the UnifiedServiceDesk.exe.config file, and also creates the Default_USD.config file in the c:\Users\<USER_NAME>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\USD directory to store the connection information (except user name and password; this is stored in Windows Credential Manager). Thereafter, the client application uses the Default_USD.config file to display the sign-in information or to automatically sign in to Unified Service Desk.

  • For an on-premises CRM installation with Active Directory authentication, if you have configured to automatically sign in the user without displaying the sign-in dialog box (<add key="UseDefaultCreds" value="True" />), the sign-in dialog box is not displayed, but the Default_USD.config file is created in the c:\Users\<USER_NAME>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\USD directory to store the connection information (except username and password). Thereafter, the client application uses the Default_USD.config file to to automatically sign in to Unified Service Desk.

If you need to modify the default sign-in information, you must repeat steps 1-6 mentioned in this section.

Troubleshoot sign-in issues

Unified Service Desk provides logging support to log errors that can occur while signing in to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM. A log file, Login_ErrorLog.log, is created at c:\Users\<USER_NAME>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\UnifiedServiceDesk\<Version> the first time you encounter any sign-in issues in the client application. Thereafter, the log file is used to record information about subsequent sign-in issues. This information can be helpful for troubleshooting issues related to signing in to Microsoft Dynamics CRM from the client application.

Note

Unified Service Desk also creates another log file, UnifiedServiceDesk.log, at the same location to log operational errors in the client application. The log file is created the first time you encounter any issues in the client application. More information: Configure diagnostic logging in Unified Service Desk

See Also

Concepts

Security in Unified Service Desk

Other Resources

Administer and manage Unified Service Desk
Learn to use Unified Service Desk
Unified Service Desk Configuration Walkthroughs

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