Database Maintenance Strategies with Microsoft Dynamics AX AX utilizes SQL Indexes in order to speed up queries to the database. It is important that any index created is analyzed for its usage pattern; for example, will the query only be made once per day, or thousands of times in a loop? It might...

[Updated for SQL Server 2012 and SharePoint 2013] When reviewing the Dynamics AX environment on customer site, we are often been asked question such as: “Do you know if this version of the product is officially supported by Microsoft”? This is quite natural because Microsoft products...

I've been questioned several times recently about AOS load balancing in Dynamics AX, and there seems to be quite a bit of confusion about how to properly configure AX for AOS load balancing, as well as high availability. Here are a few clarifications that apply to Dynamics AX version 4.0, AX 2009 and...

If you've read some of my latest posts , you already know what we look for in Premier Field Engineers, and you even know the questions you'll get asked and how to answer them. (OK - we might have to change up the questions a little bit. If I notice you reading off the answers during the interview, I...

A.K.A. Scrum Meetings for Services Groups Since it's a Friday and my team's Scrum meeting is coming up in a few minutes I thought this would be a good time to talk about how we do Scrum meetings in Services ... As I've mentioned in earlier articles, we require a team approach to deliver on any of...

Please read part 1 first to see what we're looking for in candidates. Here's a list of some questions that I ask candidates who are interested in Question Intent Tell me a little about yourself Get a background on the candidate - always interesting to...

What does it take to learn Dynamics AX? It's not for the faint of heart - the product takes years to master and there's still no one I've met who knows every inch of it backward and forward. First, you have to start by finding the right candidate, so you have to know what you're looking for. Let's...

My name is Eric Newell and I manage the Premier Field Engineering team for Microsoft Dynamics AX. We've been bringing you many great technical articles over the past year, and I wanted to broaden the scope of the blog site a little by highlighting some key non-technical concepts that are important to...

Ok, I guess this three part series just got extended to four. I just have a few last things on the AX 4.0 / 2009 Trace Parser tool that you might find useful. Soon we'll all be using the AX 2012 version right? Anyway, here it goes... Most of the time Trace Parser works the way it should, but from...

In part 1 of the series I discussed the basic prerequisites for capturing an AX trace. In part 2 , I discussed how to collect a trace. In this post I’ll walk you through the process of importing a trace into Trace Parser and show you a few different things I look for when I start analyzing a trace...

Back in November 2010 I talked about four SQL Server trace flags that I found to be helpful in improving performance for Dynamics AX. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/axinthefield/archive/2010/11/04/sql-server-trace-flags-for-dynamics-ax.aspx . One of the trace flags I mentioned was 1224. This is the one...

Please find the Year-end closing process below: Step 1: Create a new fiscal year Path: Dynamics Ax > General Ledger > Setup > Periods > Periods Click button 'Create new fiscal year' Click 'OK' 12 monthly lines get created with open status. ...

Compliance Requirements and Microsoft Dynamics AX 1. Standard Operating Procedures A Standard Operating Procedure is typically instituted within a business to help ensure that efficient, consistent actions are carried out, and it is also used as a tool to assist in the training of new people executing...

Using the standard cost model in AX 2009, all receipts and issues are valued at the active cost. Costs are maintained in the item price form, which is available using the Price button from the item form. A few things to note when looking at the new price/cost form: 1. Price type - 3 price types...

Knowledge Base article 923022 explains when the penny difference account is used in Dynamics AX. I was recently asked how this works in connection with the maximum penny difference setting in GL Parameters. In this post, I have used the example provided in the mentioned article to illustrate how the...

I was recently working with a Dynamics AX 2009 customer who had Enterprise Portal and SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services installed on the same server – a fairly common configuration. Everything worked great except that they were encountering a barrage of logon dialog boxes each time they launched...

Thanks to the big crowd who attended Michael DeVoe's Convergence Session on Tuesday on Leveraging Microsoft SQL Server Data Compression & Transparent Data Encryption with Microsoft Dynamics Products . Yes, the title barely fit on the opening slide :). The audience asked some great questions and Michael...

Thanks to everyone who attended Rod Hansen's session on the Performance Analyzer for Microsoft Dynamics at Convergence. We had a great turnout and great interaction within the session. They are still compiling the survey results, but as of last night, Rod's session was the #1 rated session with more...

When trying to diagnose performance issues in Dynamics AX, two of the key tools that we use are the Performance Analyzer (for SQL activity), and the Event Trace Parser for Microsoft Dynamics ® AX (aka Trace Parser). Trace Parser is a user interface and data analyzer built on top of the Event Tracing...

We are podcast crazy this week on the Premier Field Engineering for Dynamics team. The PFE team will have a podcast a day going this week to get everyone jazzed up for Convergence next week. Our Dynamics AX focused podcast centers around using the compression capability available in Microsoft SQL Server...

We can generate intercompany financial statements, invoice accounts reports (ledger), payment account reports (ledger), and bank account (ledger) reports in standard Ax 2009. It really depends on the design of Chart of Accounts. Please find the following details of navigation and overview of information...

Are you pushing a lot of transactions through the AX batch framework? Are you wondering if you've optimized the system for your workload? We recently did some testing in our lab to illustrate some of the performance and concurrency characteristics of the AX 2009 batch framework. Our goal was to show...

In part 1 of this series, we covered the basic prerequisites of taking a trace. In this post I'm going to cover some best practices around capturing trace data and how to troubleshoot some common issues that may prevent trace files from being created. The steps below apply to both Dynamics AX 2009 and...

Recently a fellow PFE compiled a list of the AX Event IDs with their description and a possible action. This post is intended to give end users a better idea of the messages generated by the AOS service within the Application Event Log within the Windows Event Viewer. If you are receiving messages...

Performance Analyzer 1.0 for Microsoft Dynamics is the tool used by Microsoft Dynamics support, Premier Field Engineers, and product team members to diagnose performance issues with Dynamics products. The following is a step-by-step guide to installing this toolset on your SQL Server environment. ...