Reflections on Microsoft Dynamics AX

No mouse with Win2008 RTM under Hyper-V

2010-03-11T17:31:27Z

I had a question about this form Peter in the UK and I’ve run into this a few times so thought I’d write it down. If you have a VM that is Windows 2008 RTM and you convert or build a new one under Hyper-V you can loose the mouse because it doesn’t detect the virtual hardware properly. So inside the VM. Go Start. Administrative Tools. Click System Configuration. Change to the Boot tab. Now because you don’t have mouse on the keyboard hold CTRL and use the up and down buttons to change tabs. Press...(read more)

Updating dates in the demo data

2010-02-15T04:30:45Z

I’ve had a few questions lately about updating the dates in the demo data so that the Role Centers show current data. In the Refresh 2 VM we included sample code in the form of a tool to allow you to update the dates in the demo data. On Friday we posted an update to the SQL script to include a few tweaks and improvements. You can find that on the Partnersource page for the VM. https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/deployment/documentation/howtoarticles/presalesdemokitmdax2009.htm This video will...(read more)

Quick update on videos being migrated to Microsoft Azure storage

2010-02-10T12:06:15Z

Just a quick update as I posted last week on the display of videos on the blog. I’ve had a lot of emails on getting access to the videos. I guess when something is not available you notice the need. So the videos are being migrated to Microsoft Azure. What does that mean to you ? Nothing really for the end user of the content. But a few people have ask me in the past and I posted a note on how I was doing the videos. So if you are interested here is a series of articles that explains how you can...(read more)

Notes on the updated VM posted to Partnersource

2010-02-05T00:16:01Z

I just wanted to provide some notes about an update of the Demo VM we have recently posted to Partnersource. In January we had to apply a patch for Microsoft Word 2007 to any new downloads of the VM. Unfortunately we are restricted from distributing a version of the VM without this patch to Word 2007. This means that the VM which is called Refresh 2 is now version 2. This means that is it different from the version we posted in June/July 2009. You can find the updated VM on the regular demo page...(read more)

Videos on the blog

2010-02-01T22:49:28Z

I had a couple of pings from folks that they can’t access the videos on the blog. There is change in storage/technology that I have to move to and I’ll get them back. In the mean time you can access them as downloads from the Partnersource page. https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/deployment/documentation/howtoarticles/presalesdemokitmdax2009.htm Scroll down that page and there is a video tips and tricks section. Cheers Lachlan (Original post at http://blogs.msdn.com/lcash )...(read more)

Short hold

2010-01-15T12:06:45Z

I’ve had a few folks trying to access the demo VM from the partnersource page. There is a short hold on new downloads of the image. We have some maintenance to do and it will be available again in a few days. Cheers Lachlan...(read more)

Hyper-V VM starts going to “Paused-Critical” status

2010-01-14T18:28:58Z

As folks are starting to move to use Hyper-V there will be some new messages and things that you will pick up. I got an email from Toni in Spain that suddenly the VM is showing as “Paused-Critical” status in the Hyper-V manager. Ordinarily the VM should run happily and the status is “Running” But I’ve had this as well, if over time, the disk space is used on the machine that you are running on then Hyper-V will stop the VM to avoid damage. So it will pause the machine. So if you see you VM...(read more)

Hebrew language

2010-01-07T18:04:16Z

I had a question about the Hebrew language on the demo VM. In Hotfix Rollup 3 the Hebrew language was enabled. You can apply HF RU3 on your demo VM but will have an issue because the VPC license needs to be updated. We plan on including the HF RU3 on Refresh 3 VM which we are going to get out early in February. Cheers Lachlan (Original post at http://blogs.msdn.com/lcash/ )...(read more)

Questions about BitLocker

2010-01-07T17:58:37Z

I have a few questions from a few field folks because in Microsoft we are rolling out the usage of BitLocker internally. BitLocker is a great technology feature that encrypts your hard drive and enables you to protect your machine’s data getting in the wrong hands in case your machine goes missing. You can read more about it here http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/features/bitlocker The reason for the post is in relation to the DemoVM. Generally you will be fine using BitLocker...(read more)

Project Time Sheets Period Code

2009-12-14T16:40:19Z

I’ve had a few questions on this and posted a few notes on using Project Time Sheet on the demo VM. Scott and Kathy from the dev team helped and pointed out the issue with the period codes that we have setup in the demo data. The issue is inconsistency in showing up the day data entry fields on the Enterprise Portal on the demo VM. The fix is to create a new period code and associate that with the user you are working with. For example in the demo data Prakash who is the project manager you’ll intermittently...(read more)

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/...(read more)

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...(read more)

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...(read more)

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...(read more)

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,...(read more)

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...(read more)

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...(read more)

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...(read more)

Demo VM and Office activation

2009-10-08T17:51:35Z

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...(read more)

Passwords on the demo VMs

2009-09-28T15:14:40Z

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...(read more)

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

2009-09-10T16:44:36Z

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...(read more)

unzipping the VM files, external disks not formatted for NTFS

2009-09-04T05:44:16Z

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...(read more)

Lean Manufacturing demo scripts

2009-08-31T22:04:50Z

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...(read more)

Using workflow on the R2 demo VM

2009-08-31T04:55:02Z

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...(read more)

Activation of Office on the demo VMs

2009-08-24T14:58:34Z

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...(read more)