When trying to configure the CRM 2011 Outlook client I kept getting the error message, "There is a problem communicating with the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server. The server might be unavailable. Try again later. If the problem persists, contact your administrator." However, Fiddler traces showed successful 200 responses from the Microsoft CRM Server and I was able to access the Microsoft CRM Server successfully from Internet Explorer.
This leaves us with the key that hopefully everyone is aware of and in looking at the CRM Client platform trace files. The trick in this case is to enable viewing of the hidden and system files and folders from Windows Explorer. This can be done by going to Tools - Folder Options in the Windows Explorer menu and then choosing View and ensuring that these options are checked or marked ("Show hidden files and folders", "Display the contents of system folders") and uncheck the "Hide extensions for known file types" so that you can see the file extensions. Then click OK to save these options and navigate to the folder structure, c:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\MSCRM\Logs folder where <UserName> should be replaced with the username of the user who is accessing the Outlook client. Note that a shortcut way to open this location is to type this into the Windows Explorer path or to the Start-Run screen “%localappdata%\Microsoft\MSCRM\Logs”
Then open the CRM50Clientconfig.log file in your favorite text editor and go to the end of the file and work your way back up to the top of the file looking for errors.
Voilla! This shows clearly what our problem is that I'm copying below. Don't get scared by the long call stack as it simply shows all the code that gets executed before bubbling up the error message, which in essence is telling us that the client and server times don't match and are off by more than 5 minutes (which will cause a failure in Kerberos authentication)
23:35:22| Error| Exception : The security timestamp is invalid because its creation time ('2013-04-15T21:41:42.949Z') is in the future. Current time is '2013-04-15T21:35:22.110Z' and allowed clock skew is '00:05:00'.
Server stack trace:
at System.ServiceModel.Security.SecurityTimestamp.ValidateFreshness(TimeSpan timeToLive, TimeSpan allowedClockSkew)
at System.ServiceModel.Security.SecurityTimestamp.ValidateRangeAndFreshness(TimeSpan timeToLive, TimeSpan allowedClockSkew)
at System.ServiceModel.Security.ReceiveSecurityHeader.ReadTimestamp(XmlDictionaryReader reader)
at System.ServiceModel.Security.ReceiveSecurityHeader.ExecuteFullPass(XmlDictionaryReader reader)
at System.ServiceModel.Security.StrictModeSecurityHeaderElementInferenceEngine.ExecuteProcessingPasses(ReceiveSecurityHeader securityHeader, XmlDictionaryReader reader)
at System.ServiceModel.Security.ReceiveSecurityHeader.Process(TimeSpan timeout, ChannelBinding channelBinding, ExtendedProtectionPolicy extendedProtectionPolicy)
at System.ServiceModel.Security.MessageSecurityProtocol.ProcessSecurityHeader(ReceiveSecurityHeader securityHeader, Message& message, SecurityToken requiredSigningToken, TimeSpan timeout, SecurityProtocolCorrelationState[] correlationStates)
at System.ServiceModel.Security.SymmetricSecurityProtocol.VerifyIncomingMessageCore(Message& message, String actor, TimeSpan timeout, SecurityProtocolCorrelationState[] correlationStates)
at System.ServiceModel.Security.MessageSecurityProtocol.VerifyIncomingMessage(Message& message, TimeSpan timeout, SecurityProtocolCorrelationState[] correlationStates)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.SecurityChannelFactory`1.SecurityRequestChannel.ProcessReply(Message reply, SecurityProtocolCorrelationState correlationState, TimeSpan timeout)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.SecurityChannelFactory`1.SecurityRequestChannel.Request(Message message, TimeSpan timeout)
at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.RequestChannelBinder.Request(Message message, TimeSpan timeout)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel.Call(String action, Boolean oneway, ProxyOperationRuntime operation, Object[] ins, Object[] outs, TimeSpan timeout)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelProxy.InvokeService(IMethodCallMessage methodCall, ProxyOperationRuntime operation)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelProxy.Invoke(IMessage message)
Exception rethrown at [0]:
at Microsoft.Crm.Application.Outlook.Config.DeploymentsInfo.LoadOrganizations(AuthUIMode uiMode, Form parentWindow)
at Microsoft.Crm.Application.Outlook.Config.ServerForm.LoadOrganizations(Boolean forceUI)
at Microsoft.Crm.Application.Outlook.Config.ServerForm.<InitializeBackgroundWorkers>b__0(Object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
at System.ComponentModel.BackgroundWorker.OnDoWork(DoWorkEventArgs e)
at System.ComponentModel.BackgroundWorker.WorkerThreadStart(Object argument)
In short the solution for this is to navigate to set the client time and server time to a valid time and if they have valid Internet access, that can be done by using the time servers using the command w32tm /resync on the Client machine and the Microsoft CRM Server. You can also use a command with Net Time like this: NET TIME \\TimeSRV /SET /YES where Timesrv is a valid Time server. Once the time was set correctly, I was able to successfully configure the client without issue.