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Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Small and medium business | Business Central, N... / Business Central Serve...
Small and medium business | Business Central, N...
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Business Central Server Administration tool removed with version 21 / wave 2

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Posted on by Catharsis 65

Hi.

I want to open a discusion about why MS likes to make on-prem clients life harder with each new release.

It was very simple and convinient tool for admins. In it's core its nothing more than config editor. Why would they deprecate this? No reason is given in documentation.

BC server instance has A LOT of parameters, we are often running dozen instances and being able to see and change these parameters on one window or compare with other instances is very useful.

Yes, I can use PowerShell, yes I know it's more powerful and flexible than MMC snap-in. But it does not make the tool less useful.

Are there alternatives to MS provided tool?

  • Catharsis Profile Picture
    Catharsis 65 on at

    learn.microsoft.com/.../deprecated-features-platform

    By the way,

    "The Business Central Server Administration tool for configuring the Business Central Server in on-premises installations will be removed in the 2022 release wave 2 (version 21.0). Please use the Windows PowerShell cmdlets that we make available in the Business Central Administration Shell instead." is NOT a answer to "Why?"

  • NAV_with_Narang Profile Picture
    NAV_with_Narang 2,320 Moderator on at

    There is a general trend which is been observed from Microsoft since a very long time. The legacy tools used from NAV days (& now carried forward to BC on-prem) are slowly being replaced with more modern approaches. Take for example deprecating C/SIDE altogether and introducing VS Code as a big shift. Moving things "efficiently" forward with minimalistic design, seems to be Microsoft's wider aim. Something which can be, possibly better, attained by a universal tool like Powershell, having a dedicated application with 1000s of fields/dropdowns/tick boxes may seem like an outdated idea. If Microsoft has a plan to deprecate such a widely accepted tool, maybe it eases up/ramps up its investment in making PowerShell more user-friendly with better UI options for handling BC admin requests

    Seems like someone from Microsoft should be able to clearly respond to your question with bullet-points on the reasons their product team may have thought about. You have highlighted one reason in your original query itself

    Yes, I can use PowerShell, yes I know it's more powerful and flexible than MMC snap-in

  • Inge M. Bruvik Profile Picture
    Inge M. Bruvik 1,165 Moderator on at

    The answer to your question is a very simple one. Microsoft wants their Business Central users to move to the cloud.

    There will still be an on-prem offering for a long time but expect it to be less functional when it comes to how you can interact with it and integrate with it.

    They are simply investing more in the cloud then in on-prem. And i think that is a smart thing to do from Microsofts side.

    You can see them same when it comes to the universal code initiative.

    So move to the cloud, it is better, easier and cheaper in the long run.

  • YUN ZHU Profile Picture
    YUN ZHU 99,086 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

    Hi, I have briefly discussed this topic before.

    You can also use the external tool Service Tier Administration Tool v3.4.0 to manage instances of BC21.

    More details:

    Business Central Server Administration tool is removed with Business Central 2022 release wave 2

    https://yzhums.com/30502/

    Thanks

    ZHU

  • Catharsis Profile Picture
    Catharsis 65 on at

    Thanks, already found this tool through your blog.

    Are there any obvious drawbacks/risks to using this tool to manage instances?

  • Catharsis Profile Picture
    Catharsis 65 on at

    Yes that is an obvious conclusion. But these tactics are increasingly predatory, by forcing our hands consantly, it rather motivates giving competitors a chance even out of spite.

    There are a lot of valid reasons running servers on-prem which is another topic in itself. Cloud is also by no means cheaper if you already own the hardware it runs on.

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