AX6 sneak preview - SQL AOD
Today we built the first official build of Dynamics AX ever that does not run on AOD files. Starting today Dynamics AX's model database is stored in a Microsoft SQL Server database.
Seen from within MorphX you hardly notice the difference. Everything works as it used to; there are no new feautures; but yet it feels different. The responsiveness of MorphX has slowly been deteriorating as the number of elements in the model has grown over the last releases. Today the speed is back. Navigating the AOT is suddently a pleasure again. Meta data heavy operations, like searching, completes an order of magnitude faster. For example; searching all methods on forms for any text completes in 2 seconds.
But wait a minute; AOD files were not just a database, they were also a deployment vehicle - what is the replacement? Dynamics AX supports a new file format: axmodel-files. (extension: "axmodel", example: "AxSYS.axmodel"). These are binary files, and provides the same deployment capabilites as AOD files did - and yet they are less than half size. Using a new tool you can import/export axmodel files to/from SQL. You can also import AOD files into SQL.
So far we have aimed at providing 1-to-1 parity with AOD files; but the potential of this is amazing - I hardly know where to start...
- Performance can be further improved as the subsystems querying the meta data store starts levarging the powers of SQL. For example; the ISAM database used for the AOD files (and still used by temp tables) doesn't support joins. Due to this many subsystems are overly chatty when reading meta data as they query row-by-row.
- Solving the element ID problem is now possible, as we can leverage the flexibilty and powers in SQL for modifying and extending the model schema.
- Capabilities... There are so many cool scenarios we can enable - but you'll have to wait for an sneak preview after the next milestone to learn more. But to get you thinking: What deployment capabilties did AOD files lack?
To night we celebrate this major achievement with the team.
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