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Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Microsoft Dynamics SL (Archived) / Dynamics SL Networking...
Microsoft Dynamics SL (Archived)

Dynamics SL Networking requirement

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Posted on by Community Member

Hello!

We've recently upgraded to SL 2015 and I had a question come up regarding networking requirements for this new version.  In talking to our SL representatives, they stated that Microsoft does not support Dynamics SL installations that have the Dynamics server on a different local network than the clients interacting with it.  I can't seem to find this peculiar requirement in any documentation from Microsoft.

We have a 2 sites that have a site to site VPN between them, allowing for local internet traffic to flow between the two sites.  As far as the hosts are concerned, all of the computers are on a local LAN, just one destination takes a bit more time.  We'd like for client machines from one site to connect to the SL server that is sitting at the other site, but according to our representatives, this is not supported and Microsoft will not offer support if this is installed this way.  We've been told to set up a terminal server at the remote site for users to login to and use.

I was wondering if anyone else has heard of this.  I'm thinking it's one of those hidden requirements that no one knows about, but figured I'd post a question to the forum to see if anyone else has run into this issue.

Thank you in advance!

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I have the same question (0)
  • NameBrands Profile Picture
    NameBrands 52 on at

    As long as you can 'map a drive' to the Dynamics SL Shared folder on the server, you should be able to do that.  S:  is mapped to \\<DynamicsServer>\<DynamicsApplicaitonFolder>\

    Microsoft will call that 'unsupported', which means if you have problems you have to figure them out.

    'Unsupported' doesn't always mean won't work.

    Terminal Server IS the preferred solution in that scenario and fully supported, iirc.

  • Erich Strelow F Profile Picture
    Erich Strelow F 16 on at

    The requirements for Dynamics SL 2015 can be found here (credentials may be needed): https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/northamerica/SL/learning/documentation/system-requirements/SL2015_SystemRequirements 

    As you already guessed, there's no real mention of a network requirement. IMHO when MS partners talk about network requirements I think what they have in mind is the Dynamics AX requirement that has a lot of catchy terms like latency, bandwith, milliseconds and all. It can be found here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=11094   

    Having said that, the two concerns are:

    1. At some point, your user experience may suck performance-wise and the reason will have nothing to do with the network. You will call your SL vendor and they will say "told you so" without even looking.
    2. Every large MS software piece at some place will expect something like \\my-unqualified-named-server\shared-folder to work as if this was still the nineties. If it doesn't they will say "it worked before you broke it".

    Please consider some tips:

    • You say the remote destination takes a bit more. How much more? Take a quick test with psping (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/psping.aspx) . Perform a test from the local site and then from the remote office and compare the two latency curves. Anything below 100ms will be ok. Below 250ms is acceptable. A private WAN should be mostly below 2ms. A good internet access should score around 20ms. A domestic cheap internet connection goes around 40ms. All this assuming the sites are geographically close. The more separated the curves are, the more your remote users will feel like lesser employees. 1433 is the SQL server port, you may use another that works. This will allow you to stop talking about VPN and turn the conversation into hard data. 
      • psping -n 100 -h remotemachine:1433
psping -n 100 -h localmachine:1433


    • How stable is your VPN setup? Some VPN and tunnels might recycle themselves from time to time to re-exchange certificates and keys. This doesn't affect high level protocols like email and internet surfing, but many client-server application will hang.
    • Please do consider the terminal server approach. It has many advantages. Since Windows Server 2008, you can setup a remote app that seamlessly opens in the user's desktop with no additional cost. Most of my users are setup this way and many will swear they have SL installed locally.

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