Manage Monitoring for Microsoft Dynamic 365 (CRM)
Info
Take control of your Dynamics 365 (CRM) environment—manage monitoring thresholds and perform secure, audited remote actions on all related artifacts.
Empower your support, maintenance, and business teams to manage and resolve issues in Dynamic 365 (CRM)—all without direct access to the Microsoft Dynamics 365 (CRM) web portal. Nodinite gives you secure, role-based control, reducing risk and minimizing the number of people with high-level access. This approach protects your mission-critical services and streamlines operations.
Understanding Remote Actions
Remote Actions are secure, audited operations you can perform on Dynamics 365 resources directly from the Nodinite [Web Client][]. Unlike accessing the Dynamics 365 portal, Remote Actions provide:
- Targeted access – Grant permissions for specific actions without full admin rights
- Faster resolution – No need to navigate multiple portals or switch contexts
- Complete audit trail – All actions are logged with user, timestamp, and operation details
- Role-based security – Control who can perform which actions on which resources
Why use Remote Actions?
In enterprise environments, granting everyone full Dynamics 365 admin access creates security risks. Remote Actions let you delegate specific troubleshooting and management tasks to support teams while maintaining control. For example:
- Support analysts can view user login history to identify license waste without accessing user data
- Application teams can clear failed workflow history without ability to modify workflow logic
- Finance teams can export audit reports without permissions to change system configuration
| Application Management Team | IT Operations | Business |
|---|---|---|
| Let your AM team stop and start services without IT operations involvement | Stay in control with full access | Give your business data and self-service for Dynamics 365 (CRM) solutions |
Features
The Nodinite Microsoft Dynamic 365 (CRM) Monitoring Agent delivers:
- Management of Monitoring thresholds
- Powerful Remote Actions
- Flexible Remote Configuration
Documentation support is provided by the Repository Model model.
Monitor and manage Dynamics 365 (CRM) artifacts as individual Resources in Monitor Views. Nodinite groups these Resources into the following Dynamics 365 (CRM) Categories:
Filter option for Categories as shown in a Monitor View.
- Audit – Review and manage logon activity
- Resources in use – License usage and optimization
- History – Get a paged, exportable list for categories like Action, Business Process Flow, Business Rule, Processing Step, and Workflow
Audit
The Audit category tracks user logon history and provides actionable reports. Use these insights to optimize license usage and reduce costs.
What is User Logon Auditing?
User logon auditing monitors when users access your Dynamics 365 instance. Nodinite tracks login timestamps and compares them against configurable thresholds to identify inactive users who may be consuming licenses unnecessarily.
Why Use Audit Actions?
- License optimization – Identify users who haven't logged in for 30, 60, or 90+ days to reclaim unused licenses
- Compliance reporting – Generate login reports for security audits and access reviews
- Activity trending – Spot usage patterns to validate license purchases before renewals
- Cost reduction – Average organizations reduce license costs by 15-20% after first audit
When to Use Audit Actions
| Action | Use Case | Frequency | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| List last 7 days | Spot weekly activity trends, validate new user adoption | Weekly | License managers, activity trending |
| List last logon date | Identify dormant accounts for license reclamation | Monthly/Quarterly | Annual license renewals, cost optimization |
Available Audit Remote Actions
The following Remote Actions are available:
Audit actions menu showing available remote actions for user logon monitoring.
List last 7 days
Purpose: View user logon activity for the past 7 days to identify recent access patterns.
When to use:
- Weekly license utilization reviews
- Validating new user onboarding and adoption
- Trending analysis before quarterly business reviews
How to use:
- Navigate to the Monitor View containing your Dynamics 365 Audit resources
- Click the Actions button on the 'User Access' resource
- Select List last 7 days from the menu
- Review the table showing user names, email addresses, and login timestamps
Example of user logon activity report for the last 7 days.
Interpreting results:
- Active users – Multiple logins within 7 days indicate regular usage
- Sporadic users – 1-2 logins may indicate occasional usage (validate with job role)
- No logins – Users with zero activity may be candidates for license reclamation
List last logon date
Purpose: See the most recent logon date for each user to identify long-term inactive accounts.
When to use:
- Monthly license audits before budget planning
- Quarterly access reviews for compliance (SOX, ISO 27001)
- Annual license renewals with vendors
- Offboarding validation (ensure terminated users are removed)
How to use:
- Navigate to the Monitor View containing your Dynamics 365 Audit resources
- Click the Actions button on the 'User Access' resource
- Select List last logon date from the menu
- Review the table sorted by last login date (oldest first)
Example of user login history showing the most recent logon date for license optimization.
Recommended thresholds:
- 30 days – Warning threshold for regular users (follow up with manager)
- 60 days – Error threshold for most roles (strong candidate for license removal)
- 90+ days – Definite inactive user (reclaim license unless on extended leave)
Export Audit Data to CSV
You can export audit reports to CSV for offline analysis, license optimization projects, or compliance documentation.
Export audit data and review thresholds.
Resources in use
What is Resources in Use Monitoring?
Resources in use monitoring tracks license consumption against your Dynamics 365 subscription limits. Nodinite compares active users against purchased licenses and alerts you when approaching or exceeding capacity.
Why Monitor Resources in Use?
- Prevent license violations – Get warnings before exceeding purchased license limits
- Budget planning – Validate license needs before renewals with actual usage data
- Capacity planning – Track growth trends to predict future license requirements
- Cost optimization – Identify when you're paying for unused capacity
When to Use Resources in Use Details
| Use Case | When to Check | Action to Take |
|---|---|---|
| Budget Planning | Quarterly, before annual renewals | Compare active users vs. purchased licenses, forecast needs |
| License Optimization | Monthly | Identify gap between purchased and active, downsize if >20% unused |
| Capacity Alerts | Real-time (when alerted) | Review why nearing limit, request additional licenses if legitimate growth |
| Compliance Audits | As required | Export usage reports for vendor audits or internal compliance |
View License Details
View license-related information for your monitored Dynamics 365 instance by clicking the Actions button in the Monitor View and selecting 'Details':
Example of license details for monitored Dynamics 365 instance.
Click the 'Details' menu item to open the modal with information.
Example of Details menu item in the Actions button.
Key metrics displayed:
- Total Licenses Purchased – Your subscription limit
- Active Users – Users who logged in within threshold period (e.g., 30 days)
- Inactive Users – Licensed users who haven't logged in recently
- Utilization Percentage – Active users / Total licenses
You can also review current thresholds set in the Global Configuration.
Recommended actions based on utilization:
- <70% utilization – Consider reducing licenses at next renewal
- 70-85% utilization – Optimal range, monitor for trends
- 85-95% utilization – Plan for growth, budget additional licenses
- >95% utilization – Risk of license violations, purchase additional capacity immediately
History
What is History Management?
History management provides access to execution records for workflows, processing steps, business rules, and other Dynamics 365 artifacts. Nodinite stores execution timestamps, success/failure status, and duration data for troubleshooting and pattern analysis.
Why Use History Actions?
- Root cause analysis – Identify when problems started and how often they occur
- Performance troubleshooting – Find workflows with increasing execution times
- Incident investigation – Correlate failures across multiple artifacts during outages
- Cleanup maintenance – Remove old history records to maintain database performance
- Pattern detection – Spot recurring failures that indicate systemic issues
When to Use History Actions
| Action | Use Case | When to Use | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| View History | Review execution patterns, identify failure frequency | During troubleshooting, post-incident reviews | Root cause analysis |
| Clear | Suppress old errors after fixes deployed | After resolving known issues | Cleaning up alert noise |
| Delete | Remove test data or very old records | Database cleanup, archival | Performance optimization |
| Export to CSV | Share analysis with vendors, document incidents | Compliance, vendor support tickets | Offline analysis |
View Execution History
Click the History menu item in the Actions button to open a paged list for the selected category:
Example of History view for the Processing Step category.
Columns displayed:
- Artifact Name – Workflow or processing step name
- Execution Time – When the execution occurred
- Duration – How long it took to complete
- Status – Success, Warning, Error, or Failed
- Details – Error messages or additional context
Available History Actions
From any row, you can:
- Clear – Set evaluation datetime to now (suppressing old errors)
- Delete – Remove from database
Example of action buttons available on history records.
When to Clear vs. Delete:
| Action | Effect | Use When | Preserves Data? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clear | Resets evaluation datetime to now, suppresses alerts | You've fixed the issue and don't want old errors triggering alerts | Yes (keeps record) |
| Delete | Permanently removes record from database | Cleaning up test data or very old records (>1 year) | No (lost forever) |
Bulk Operations
Below the table, you’ll find more options:
- With Selected:
- Clean – Clear evaluation datetime for multiple records
- Delete – Remove multiple records permanently
- Export to CSV – Download visible records for offline analysis
- Clear all failed on this page – Quick cleanup of all error records
Example of available bulk operations on history records.
Best practices for bulk operations:
- Use filters first – Apply date range or status filters before bulk delete to avoid removing needed data
- Export before delete – Always export to CSV before bulk delete operations
- Clear vs. Delete – Prefer Clear for recent issues (keeps history), Delete for old data (>6 months)
Review Threshold Configuration
Below these operations, you can also view the current thresholds set in the Configuration:
Example of current history thresholds configuration.
Common threshold settings:
- Execution time warning – Workflow takes longer than expected (e.g., >30 seconds)
- Execution time error – Workflow exceeds maximum acceptable duration (e.g., >2 minutes)
- Retention period – How long to keep history records before automatic cleanup (e.g., 90 days)
Release Notes
For details on features and bug fixes, see the Release Notes