How to create a deployable package outside of Visual Studio?

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Posted on by Wmyk

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This may be a stupid question, but I saw this Tweet https://twitter.com/jorisdg/status/1199729963668127744 saying not to create them from Visual Studio, but Microsoft's documentation (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/fin-ops-core/dev-itpro/deployment/create-apply-deployable-package) talks about doing it from Visual Studio.

Is he talking about using DevOps somehow to create them or what?

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Sukrut Parab 71,710 Moderator on at

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Yes user devops , build machine to generate deployable packages . Below is the article which talks about it

docs.microsoft.com/.../continuous-build-test-automation

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Satish Panwar 14,671 Moderator on at

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Hi Wmyk,

The Tweet suggest that don't do it from Visual studio, if you read the responses @ Tweets, you will notice that folks are asking to remove the option from Visual studio which MS can't.

The standard link does talk about build server, however the detailed steps are for Visual studio. But as Tweet recommends from Joris, don't do it from Visual studio (you may end up pushing code from VS, that you won't want in your package). This is to save yourself from problems that may arise after deployment + it's not controlled deployment.

How to leverage build server etc, please take a look at link below:

community.dynamics.com/.../how-to-setup-a-build-server-for-dynamics-365-finance-and-operations

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Joris dG 17,775 on at

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Yes, using build automation is what I'm talking about :-)

Are you using source control? If not, that would be a whole other discussion yet. But let's assume that you are.

How do you know everything you made is in source control? How do you *ensure* that? How do you know that your source still compiles and doesn't rely on some code you have sitting on your dev box that you forgot to add or check in? How do you know you don't have some old code sitting on your VM that you forgot to delete, but now it's getting deployed and you didn't even know? What if you now delete that code and deploy again, did you break something users were now depending on?

I've been on production-down situations because someone had some funky DLL in their bin folder and they accidentally packaged that up and deployed it. I've been on production down situations because someone had forgotten to add a DLL in their bin folder and packaged that up and deployed it.

Friends don't let friends create packages from Visual Studio. I'm your friend. I won't let you do it :-)

damianbrady.com.au/.../

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Wmyk 152 on at

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Ah yes, so I completely follow/understand the concept of using a build box to ensure everything is in source control, etc.

I'm newer to D365 without a ton of hands-on yet, so my I suppose my actual question is "how" does the deployable package ultimately get created from the build box? Is there a command line utility, or is there a DevOps "task" that generates the deployable package?

I'm coming from an AX12 + build box mindset, so I may be thinking of it wrong.

Let's say I have a local build VM with the DevOps agent on it. I somehow synchronize against DevOps on the Build VM...the only way I know to create a deployable package at that point is opening VS and going to the Dynamics menu.

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nmaenpaa 101,160 Moderator on at

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The build system runs PowerShell scripts that do everything. If you deploy a Build VM from LCS (or setup it locally), the setup process configures a build pipeline in your ADO. By looking at this pipeline, you can see what scripts on the build VM it executes.

So, DevOps build pipeline is just an orchestrator that calls scripts that do the actual work.

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Wmyk 152 on at

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I had planned to use the latest VHD from LCS for a build machine. Is this what you mean when you say "setup it locally" or are you talking about the local business data (on-prem?) version?

If I do the VHD + install the DevOps local agent on it, can I manually create the same build pipeline that LCS deploys? I am using this setup for my own personal development projects, so I don't quite have the budget to run the Azure machines.

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nmaenpaa 101,160 Moderator on at

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Yes, that's what I mean with a localnew build VM. Check my blog on how to set it up. The setup process creates a build pipeline in ADO.

In Azure it doesn't cost much, either, if you run the VM only an hour a day for your nightly build. Perhaps 20 EUR / month (depending on sizing).

community.dynamics.com/.../setup-a-local-build-vm

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Wmyk 152 on at

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Brilliant info! I may end up doing a build VM in LCS if it's that cheap. I really like the idea of the local setup you've posted though.

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Joris dG 17,775 on at

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Just to clarify and make sure that is understood, a build box is meant to be used for automation. In fact, it is strongly encouraged to never log into the build VM and definitely not use Visual Studio on it.

The term "build box" was adopted to fit into 2012 where there was no automation, but want to make sure the term is used properly again in D365 and not take the "build box" idea from 2012 into D365.

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kehlet 462 on at

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I agree with this. We typically use the MSFT supplied Tier-1 environment for this. It’s worthless in that it doesn’t give you Admin access, but it works beautifully as a build VM.

Use cloud hosted environments for DEV and other Tier-1 TEST boxes.

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