Reflections on Microsoft Dynamics AX

Project Time sheet entry

2009-12-01T14:35:11Z

Just an FYI as I’ve had a few notes from a few different people about the timesheet entry on the Refresh 2 VM and the PSA Application Disk.

First you need to make sure you have the right period setups to get it to work then there is a random problem where the day fields don’t display on the EP to allow you to enter time correctly. You’ll be able to enter time in the AX form in the client.

Cheers

Lachlan

Original post at http://blogs.msdn.com/lcash/

Arabic Region

2009-12-01T14:03:11Z

I had a note from a Khurram that brought this to my attention. In the Hotfix Rollup 2 package it included localization updates for the Arabic Region. We included this on the Refresh 2 demo VM.

You can see this in the config keys in the demo VM

Now because we have functionality in the higher layers in the demo VM like Project time, payroll, environment dashboard etc you may not see the right tabs show in GL Journals, Project Journals etc. You can merge that functionality into a higher layer.

Cheers

Lachlan

Original post at http://blogs.msdn.com/lcash/

Enabling Terminal Services on the demo VMs

2009-11-24T16:28:49Z

I’ve had a few questions on terminal serving into the demo VMs. I posted a note explaining how to do this by using an external network connection.

http://blogs.msdn.com/lcash/archive/2009/07/21/setting-up-external-networking-on-the-demo-vms.aspx

Now the question is related to the number of connection. We have enabled terminal service on the VM but only for Administrative mode which means you can only have 2 connections to the VM. Something we have on the list to do for the upcoming Refresh 3 is to enable full terminal services.

You can enable this yourself but there is a few problems :

You will be enabling TS after applications are installed so that is not a good thing as applications won’t be configured fully for TS.
Office needs a specific product key to run when full TS is enabled. You can get a key if you have an MSDN Subscription.
You can create a client VM to sit in front of the AX-SRV-01 and enable terminal services on that. You can make that VM a Windows2008 R2 VM so you get the Win7 look and feel of the desktop. e.g.

If you want to go down this path then you can get a Windows 2008 R2 VHD from the VHD Test Drive program. http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization/en/us/solution-appliance-test.aspx

There are quite a few steps to actually get the two connected but I’ll look to provide some notes on this in the future. Here are some basic notes.

Once you get the VHD you will have to get it running, if you are running Windows 2008 R2 then you will have to run it under Hyper-V because of R2 being 64bit.
You will have to join that VM to the domain that is on AX-SRV-01.
Install the AX client and point to the AOS on AX-SRV-01.

I’ve heard from a few partners that these scenarios are of interest so we’ll make some steps in Refresh 3 to better enable the usage of TS or as it is called in Windows 2008 R2 is called Remote Desktop Services.

Cheers

Lachlan

Original post at http://blogs.msdn.com/lcash

External networking and home networks

2009-11-23T16:07:38Z

I had a question from Kerry in Canada about having trouble getting the demo VM setup to use external networking. We did a bit of investigation and this might be a common question for folks wanting to use external networking on the demo VM while connected to some networks, specifically common on home networks.

In the past I’ve posted a note on setting up external networking on the demo VM. See here http://blogs.msdn.com/lcash/archive/2009/07/21/setting-up-external-networking-on-the-demo-vms.aspx

You’ll need the external networking for activating office for example. But if you are running on a home network that is using a network gateway, like a wireless connection point you might have a clash IP addresses on the first network card and the gateway. For example a common IP address with these devices is 192.168.0.1 which is the fixed IP address that we have setup on the demo VM. You can work around this with a few changes on the demo VM. This video will help out.

(double click to view full screen)

Cheers

Lachlan

Original note posted to http://blogs.msdn.com/lcash

Additional Application Disks for Process and Service Industries

2009-11-21T19:09:25Z

It’s been a busy couple of months with EMEA Convergence and other projects. We recently posted a new update for the VM with the PSA Application Disk. You can find that on the partnersource page here :

https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/deployment/documentation/howtoarticles/presalesdemokitmdax2009.htm

This video is posted in the download to help you get the additional application disk up and running :

(Double click to open full screen)

There is also a readme file posted on the partnersouce, make sure you do a save as and change the file type to DOCX when you try to download.

We also posted a Application Disk to the page for Process Industries, you will also find a readme there for the setup.

Cheers

Lachlan

(Original post at http://blogs.msdn.com/lcash)

Additional disks with Refresh 2 and creating your own VMC or VM configuration

2009-10-19T11:02:57Z

When we post the demo VM we include a VMC files because we ship the VM built under VPC2007. In this VMC file it has the setup for the machine i.e disks, network, memory etc. If you create you’re own VMC file or you are using Hyper-V or Windows7 (VPC7) then this post is just a reminder to make sure you include the database VHD file in the disk configuration when you setup AX-SRV-01.

From Refresh 2, for performance reasons, we split off the SQL DB’s and Windows page file on to a second VHD file. So if you don’t attach this disk then the VM will start up ok but any server/application dependant on SQL databases won’t start because it won’t be able to find it’s database.

So if you create you machine config and you find that the AOS service is not starting, check that you included the DB disk in your setup.

We also started posting out additional VHD files which can be used with the demo VM. For example in Refresh 2 one for Lean Manufacturing and recently one for Process Manufacturing (more on this one later).

The reason for using the additional VHD files is that we can post updates that you can use with the VM without having to download a whole new VM. In this past this was done with diff disks. But diff disk are specific to VPC and with the different virtualizations technologies, VPC, Hyper-V, VPC7 we need a method to work across platforms. The other technologies have their version of Diff disks, e.g. snapshots in Hyper-V but that means we would need to post all the different versions.

So using the additions VHD files provides a more flexible way to ship new functionality for the VM. I’ll be calling these additional VHD files “Application Disks”.

Another important reason for starting to create the “Application Disks” is that we can change the base image and allow you to still use the “Application Disks” with the new base. There will be some minor tweaks but more flexible then use posting diff disks. Another advantage is that you can take these disks and you can create your own diff disks to manage the changes to the base VM which means you can manage your own setup the way you want and not so dependant on what we change.

Cheers

Lachlan

Original post at http://blogs.msdn.com/lcash

Password on AX-SRV-03

2009-10-18T23:40:55Z

I had a question from a partner on the password for the AX-SRV-03 VM. So thought I’d re-post a note about passwords on the demo VMs. All the Dynamics AX demo passwords for the VMs are pass@word1 and the domain is CONTOSO.

You will have trouble with passwords if you are using a non US English keyboard or using the language input bar. See the note I posted here

http://blogs.msdn.com/lcash/archive/2009/09/28/passwords-on-the-demo-vms.aspx

Also if you have set the VM up with only 1 Network card or changed the networking on the VMs you may have trouble logging on as they are setup to authenticate from the AD on AX-SRV-01. So if you are using AX-SRV-03 and it can’t talk to AX-SRV-01 then you also may have trouble logging. See these notes on the networking setup on the VMs :

http://blogs.msdn.com/lcash/pages/dynamics-ax-2009-demonstration-toolkit-refresh-2-setup-notes.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/lcash/archive/2009/07/21/setting-up-external-networking-on-the-demo-vms.aspx

Cheers
Lachlan

Original post at http://blogs.msdn.com/lcash

Processing OLAP Cubes and AX Companies

2009-10-14T21:57:18Z

I’ve had this question a few times from partners so thought I’d post a note. To get updated transactional data into the OLAP cubes you will have to process the cubes in SQL Analysis Services. The question I’ve had relates to adding new companies in Dynamics AX.

In the SQL Management Studio there are two places to process cubes on the cube itself and at the database level. If you process at the cube level it doesn’t re-calculate the entire DB and so you won’t get new companies. So make sure you process at the database level. For example on the demo VM

1. Click Start\All Programs\Microsoft SQL Server 2005\SQL Management Studio.

2. When it opens connect to Analysis Services

3. When you expand the tree you will find the databases for example “Dynamics AX” on the demo VMs. if you expand the tree further you will see the cubes. If you right click on the database level of on a cube you will get a Process option on the submenu.

4. Only processing at the database level eg “Dynamics AX” on the demo VMs will update the whole OLAP db and pick up new AX companies you might have created.

It will take a minute or 2 to process depending on the data you have and the machine you are running on.

Cheers
Lachlan

Original post at http://blogs.msdn.com/lcash

Demo VM and Office activation

2009-10-08T20:51:35Z

I’ve had a few questions on the Office activation on the demo VM and I’ve posted a few notes on the topic.

The last note I posted might have confused a few folks thinking they can only get past the activation by putting in a product key. The answer is that you may not have to manually put in a key.

The first thing to try is to connect to the internet and try to activate over the internet. See this note on connecting the VM to the internet.

http://blogs.msdn.com/lcash/archive/2009/07/21/setting-up-external-networking-on-the-demo-vms.aspx

If you can’t get that to work because of the network you a connected to the see this note :

http://blogs.msdn.com/lcash/archive/2009/08/24/activation-of-office-on-the-demo-vms.aspx

99% of the time most people can get past just connecting to the internet and activating.

Cheers

Lachlan

Original post at http://blogs.msdn.com/lcash

10/12/09 Running under Hyper-V ? As an addendum to this post I have a note from Tom who said that running under Hyper-V he’s found it consistent that connecting to the internet and activating doesn’t work for the VM so you will have to try the method suggested in this note

http://blogs.msdn.com/lcash/archive/2009/08/24/activation-of-office-on-the-demo-vms.aspx

Passwords on the demo VMs

2009-09-28T18:14:40Z

I’ve have been working on a few projects so a little slow at posting notes the last couple of months. I’ve had a few questions about passwords for the demos VMs. We keep them the same regular demo password which you will find in the release notes.

This may lead to some challenges in countries where the keyboard is a different layout or you have the Windows language bar turned on for different language input, other than US English.

The problem is with the @ symbol that is in the password. So if you have having trouble logging onto the CONTOSO domain with the pass@word1 password. Then open notepad on your machine. eg Click Start, Run, type in notepad.exe

Type in the password there to see how it is being input. If it is not being entered correctly then you will have some issues logging onto the VM. So change you keyboard or language bar settings to enter till you find the right combination to get the @ symbol to allow you to log on.

Also if you decide to change the password for the Administrator you will have to change the password in a lot of places in the setup, so best to work out the right key combination on your keyboard to get the input.

I’d be interested to hear how many people have trouble with this. As a percentage of the people using the VM I’ve only heard a few questions. But if it’s a bigger problem then we’ll consider making changes.

Cheers

Lachlan

Original post at http://blogs.msdn.com/lcash

For the techies Peter and Gustavo’s discussion on Channel9 covering X++ to MSIL

2009-09-10T19:44:36Z

For the developer types among you Peter Villadsen and Gustavo Plancarte from the dev team posted a great video on Channel9 discussing the X++ language and the work that they are doing around MSIL.

http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Charles/Peter-Villadsen-and-Gustavo-Plancarte-Inside-Ax-Translator-X-to-MSIL/

Really interesting video on the background of the language in Dynamics AX and a glimpse on where things are going.

Cheers

Lachlan

Original post at http://blogs.msdn.com/lcash

unzipping the VM files, external disks not formatted for NTFS

2009-09-04T08:44:16Z

There are a few things that can go wrong when unzipping the files for the demo VM. This is one I’ve run into a few times with new external disks.

If you can an error when uncompressing to an external disk that says something like “Probably the disk is full” and you know that there is space. It is likely that the disk is formatted with FAT32 and not NTFS that really supports large files sizes like the size of the VHD files that exist with the demo VM.

You can convert the disk format to NTFS. Close any files you might have open on the disk.

Click Start Run. Type in CMD to go to the command prompt. When are at the command prompt “convert H: /FS:NTFS” replace H: with the drive letter that your drive is attached as. It will look something like this.

Run that it will take a minute or two to convert. Then try the unzip again.

Cheers
Lachlan

Original post at http://blogs.msdn.com/lcash

Lean Manufacturing demo scripts

2009-09-01T01:04:50Z

I had a question from a partner looking for demo scripts for Lean Manufacturing. You can find ones that the dev team prepared for use with the data set that on Refresh 2 of the demo VM. You can find the scripts here

https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/partneressentials/partnerreadiness/resourcing/mdaxleanmanufacturing.htm?printpage=false&stext=Lean

If you are looking for instructions on using the Lean disk for the demo VM’s this note will help you out.

http://blogs.msdn.com/lcash/pages/dynamics-ax-2009-demonstration-toolkit-refresh-2-setup-notes.aspx

Cheers

Lachlan

Original post at http://blogs.msdn.com/lcash

Using workflow on the R2 demo VM

2009-08-31T07:55:02Z

So I had a question that prompted me to remind people about the setup for Workflow. The workflow in AX runs under the Windows Workflow foundation which is hosted, in AX2009, under IIS. This engine and the AOS communicate together to execute the workflow.

So if you have running the demos VMs and the workflows are in the queue but you they are not running for you then make sure you have the Webserver running on the demo VM.

To do this click Start\Control Panel\Administrative Tools\Services. Scroll down to “World Wide Web Publishing Service” and start this service.

Cheers
Lachlan

Original post at http://blogs.msdn.com/lcash

Activation of Office on the demo VMs

2009-08-24T17:58:34Z

So this is probably a good sign that the VMs that we ship are used a lot. It seems if you try to register Office on the demo VMs it might start telling you that it has been activated too many times.

So as a partner you will have access to a NFR copy of Office or if you have an MSDN subscription you can get a product key/Id from there to use.

If you are having trouble finding one then get a 60day Eval key from the Office website

http://us20.trymicrosoftoffice.com/product.aspx?sku=3203819&culture=en-US

Until you can find one that you have more permanent usage of.

8/25 Just adding and addendum as I got a email from Carl. This link maybe useful for some of you have have the office activation issue and you want to use your MSDN license. http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/01/12/how-to-reset-or-change-microsoft-office-2007-product-license-key-or-volume-license-key-vlk/

Cheers

Lachlan

Original post at http://blogs.msdn.com/lcash