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Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Finance | Project Operations, Human Resources, ... / Duplicate PRD environm...
Finance | Project Operations, Human Resources, ...
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Duplicate PRD environment to build DEV environment

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Posted on by M Anas Khan 1,424

Hi there!

I am working for a customer where the AX environments (PRD, TEST, DEV) are not in sync with each other, meaning their kernel and application versions do not match with each other. I am aiming to create a new DEV environment which should be an exact duplicate of PRD. PRD's build number is:

Kernel version: 6.2.2000.14
Application version: 6.2.1000.1437

What I am aiming to do is a fresh installation of AX 2012 R2 CU6 then export modelstore from PRD and import into DEV. Then finally backup and restore databases from PRD to DEV. Please advise if this is best way to clone PRD environment into DEV. Please let me know if you have a better solution. Thanks!

  • Verified answer
    Gunjan Bhattachayya Profile Picture
    Gunjan Bhattachayya 35,421 on at
    RE: Duplicate PRD environment to build DEV environment

    Since you are copying the model database, the application, along with all the application hotfixes, are getting transferred in the same state as Prod. As for the kernel version, the only aim is to have it at the same version as PROD. In your case the version is R2 CU8.

    If you have installation files for CU6, you can install the binary hotfixes only on top of it to get the kernel version to 6.2.2000.14.

  • M Anas Khan Profile Picture
    M Anas Khan 1,424 on at
    RE: Duplicate PRD environment to build DEV environment

    They have applied couple of hot fixes and cumulative update 7 on top of R2 CU6 installation in PRD. Will copying PRD databases to DEV be enough to create a duplicate environment? Please note the fresh installation on DEV will be of R2 CU6.

  • Verified answer
    nmaenpaa Profile Picture
    nmaenpaa 101,158 Moderator on at
    RE: Duplicate PRD environment to build DEV environment

    Copying modelstore doesn't make any sense if you copy both databases anyway. So, just install new system, copy prod databases to it and you're good to go. 

    But, you need to update all environment specific data in the database, such as server configuration, report server settings, Enterprise Portal parameters, AIF ports and such. So, before copying prod databases to dev, document the original settings of dev system. Then you can update them after db restore, by writing a simple SQL script.

    If you use MorphX version control, you need to copy the VCS data from your old dev system to the new one. 

  • Suggested answer
    Gunjan Bhattachayya Profile Picture
    Gunjan Bhattachayya 35,421 on at
    RE: Duplicate PRD environment to build DEV environment

    Hi Mohammed,

    I would start with restoring the DBs from Prod into Dev.

    Next I will install AX 2012 R2 CU8 ( since you mentioned version - 6.2.2000.14) using these databases.

    This way you can save time with the installer creating new databases and your Dev server would an exact copy of PROD

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