Business Central installation. Easy as 1,2,3.

Hello Team!

Updated 21.02.2019: new-navcontainer script, added link to docker images list.

I've tried to create most shortly instruction how to install D365 Business Central using Power Shell only because I hate to do many clicks. For using this script you need local or virtual machine running on Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 (2019) and PowerShell ISE running as administrator. Let's go.

WINDOWS 10

1. Preparing environment (Skip this step if you already run any containers on your machine):

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V, Containers -All

Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))
choco feature enable -n allowGlobalConfirmation
choco install visualstudiocode 
choco install docker-desktop 
Restart-Computer -Force

Answer Yes to all questions except Restarting. It will be done in the end. Here we enable needed windows features and install docker and visual studio code. Chocolatey is a easy to use package manager. After Executing - your PC will be restarted.

2. Container run.

Before script executing be sure that Docker for windows is running (also switch it to Windows mode if it still not). And paste NAV2018 development license file into some simple folder (C:\Temp for example). If you doesn't have dev license - remove -licensefile parameter from script.

Here you could find list of all NAV/BC docker images (many thanks to waldo ). Just change -imageName parameter to needed.

set-executionpolicy remotesigned
install-module navcontainerhelper -force
import-module navcontainerhelper]

new-navcontainer -accept_eula `
                -containername bctest `
                -imageName mcr.microsoft.com/businesscentral/sandbox `
                -licensefile "c:\temp\2018.flf" `
                -includecside `
                -updateHost `
		-auth NavUserPassword `
                -doNotExportObjectsToText 


 

After run - you need to input your windows credentials. If you run this script first time - you can have a cup of coffee. It's not a quick process.

3. Start work and development

After script execution you'll get next info:

All shortcuts for work you'll find on your desktop.

Download *.vsix file, install it to vscode, input Dev server address and instance and you're ready for developing some new cool features.

WINDOWS SERVER 2016 (2019)

1. Preparing environment (Skip this step if you already run any containers on your machine):

Install-Module -Name DockerMsftProvider -Repository PSGallery -Force
Install-Package -Name docker -ProviderName DockerMsftProvider

Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))
choco feature enable -n allowGlobalConfirmation
choco install visualstudiocode

Install-WindowsFeature -Name Hyper-V,Containers  -IncludeManagementTools -Restart

Answer Yes to all questions except Restarting. It will be done in the end. Here we enable needed windows features and install docker and visual studio code. Chocolatey is a easy to use package manager. After Executing - your PC will be restarted.

2. Container run.

Before script executing paste NAV2018 development license file into some simple folder (C:\Temp for example). If you doesn't have dev license - remove -licensefile parameter from script.

Here you could find list of all NAV/BC docker images (many thanks to waldo ). Just change -imageName parameter to needed.

install-module navcontainerhelper -force

new-navcontainer -accept_eula `
                -containername bctest `
                -imageName mcr.microsoft.com/businesscentral/sandbox `
                -licensefile "c:\temp\2018.flf" `
                -includecside `
                -updateHost `
		-auth NavUserPassword `
                -doNotExportObjectsToText

3. Start work and development

After script execution you'll get next info:

All shortcuts for work you'll find on your desktop.

Download *.vsix file, install it to vscode, input Dev server address and instance and you're ready for developing some new cool features.