How to install Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

In this post I will demonstrate how to install D365 Business Central (BC) on premises. In this how-to I will perform an installation from scratch, the only thing installed is the OS Windows Server 2019, SQL Server 2017 (on a dedicated VM) and SQL Server Management Studio.

Download the Product DVD ‘Download Microsoft Dynamics Business Central on premises‘ on ParnerSource.

In this post I’ve installed the Dutch version, CU (Cumulative Update) 1. The steps below are identical for the W1 version or other languages.

Extract the download to C:\Install\BC for example.

Now start the setup by running Setup.exe from the C:\Install\BC folder and Click Next.

Now please accept the software license terms (SLT) by clicking ‘I accept‘.

Choose Advanced installation options to get Business Central installed on your server.

Click ‘Choose an installation option’, because ‘Install Demo’ will install SQL Server Express and everything else would be automated which means: no control. Please also mind the memory, CPU and database size limit that apply to SQL Server Express.

Now select Custom to install only some essential components we need right now:

Select AL Development Environment, Server Administration Tool, Server (partly), SQL Server Database Components, Web Server Components (Webclient), Dynamics NAV Client (Windows Client) and click Next.

Note: this customized installation is only performed for internal testing and research and this is ofcourse an all-in-one environment. In a serious production environment the options may differ depending on the needs and technical infrastructure and design!

Last part of the page:

Now specify the parameters like folder location, instance name etc. If you need to install BC a couple of times with the same parameters you could press the Save button to save the setup parameters to an XML file. This way you can import this saved file during setup on another machine so you don’t need to specify all the choices and parameters (again).

The parameters in the screenshot below are specific for my scenario and may be different for your scenario.

Setup will now install the software.

When it’s completed you will see the following message. Now click ‘Close‘ to end the installation.

After installation you will have the following shortcuts in your Start Menu: