Top 10 issues discovered from Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 implementations

Below headers of top 10 and details included on link below

1. Max Degree of Parallelism is not set to 1

2. No Pre-Allocation for Non Continuous Number Sequences with high consumption

3. Insufficient Auto Growth for Data and Log files

4. Processor bottleneck for Dynamics AX batch processing

5. Heavy Application database logging

6. Missing Clustered indexes

7. Wrong Index maintenance

8. Enabled debug in Production

9. Power Management set to Balanced

10. Kernel and Application are outdated and should be patched

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/axinthefield/archive/2013/06/18/top-10-issues-discovered-from-premier-field-engineer-dynamics-ax-health-check.aspx?CommentPosted=true#commentmessage

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and AX 2012 R2 Solution Demos

you can download Demo Data for AX 2012 R2 from this link

https://mbs2.microsoft.com/fileexchange/?fileID=ddcf3aa2-13fe-43f2-84c1-c7722765b81a

Installation instruction from below link

https://mbs.microsoft.com/downloads/customer/AX/AXDemotools/InstallationInstructions.pdf

below link content Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Solution Demos  from partner source

https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/downloads/servicepacks/ax2012demotoolsmaterials.htm?printpage=false&sid=f43n4qi1s315q2yflahu5va1&stext=ax%202012%20r2%20Demo%20data

Manage batch jobs AX 2012

After you create and schedule a batch job, you might want to check its status, review its history, or cancel it. The following sections describe some of the most common management tasks associated with batch jobs.

View and change the batch job status
The Batch Job list form provides a snapshot view of the current state of batch jobs. The list displays the progress and the status of running and completed jobs. It also displays any jobs that are scheduled to start soon.
You can change the status of a batch job by selecting the batch job in the list and then following these steps:
1. Click Functions, and then click Change Status.
2. In the Select New Status dialog box, select a new status for the job. For example, if the status is Waiting, you can temporarily remove the batch job from the waiting list by changing the status to Withhold.

Tip If a job exits with a status of Error/Ended and you want to rerun the job, change its status to Waiting. The job will automatically be picked up by the server for execution.

You can cancel a batch job by changing its status to Canceling. Tasks in the Waiting or Ready state are changed to Not Run; currently executing tasks are interrupted, and their status is changed to Canceled.

Control the maximum retries
If an AOS fails because of an infrastructure failure or a power outage while a batch task is executing, the batch framework has the built-in capability to retry tasks after the AOS is restarted. Any tasks that were left in an executing state, and that have not reached the maximum retry limit, are changed to the Ready state and will run shortly after the failure.

Tip If you create custom tasks and want to enable retries, design the task so that it is idempotent—that is, it can be executed multiple times without unexpected consequences.

You can modify the Maximum Retries attribute for each batch task on the General tab. By default, the value is set to 1; when the Actual Retries field on the Update tab exceeds the maximum number of retries, the batch task fails. When this happens, the recurrence that is set for the batch job is not honored, and the status of the batch job is set to either Success or Error.

Review the batch job history
You can view a history of all batch jobs that have finished running in the Batch Job History form at System Administration > Inquiries > Batch Job History. This form displays detailed information about the status of the jobs, including any messages encountered while the batch job was running.

You can also view the logs for each batch job as follows:
■ To view log information for an entire batch, select a batch job, and then click Log.
■ To view log information for individual tasks, select a batch job, and then click View Tasks. In the Batch History list form, select a task, and then click Log.

Tip In the batch job settings, you can specify when log information is written to the history tables: Always (the default), On Error, or Never. Use On Error or Never to save disk space for batch jobs that run constantly. This option is located on the General tab of the
Batch Job form.

Inside Dynamics AX 2012 Book

Manage batch execution AX 2012

The final step in implementing a batch job is to manage the execution process. Before a batch job can be executed on an AOS instance, you must configure the AOS instance as a batch server and set up the batch groups that tell the system which AOS instance should execute the job.
In addition to these initial configuration tasks, you’ll likely need to manage the batch tasks and jobs: checking status, reviewing history, and sometimes canceling a batch job. You’ll probably also need to debug a batch task at some point.
The following sections describe how to configure an AOS instance as a batch server and set up batch groups, and the next 2 posts will describe manage batch jobs and debug a batch task.
Configure the batch serverYou can configure an AOS instance to be a batch server, including specifying when the batch server is available for processing and how many tasks it can run, by using the Server Configuration form.
The Server Configuration form is located at System Administration > Setup > System > Server Configuration.
Note that the first AOS instance is automatically designated as a batch server, but you can configure additional AOS instances manually as batch servers.

Tip Use multiple batch servers to enable parallel processing and increase processing throughput.
1. In the Server Configuration form, select a server in the left pane.
2. Select the Is Batch Server check box to enable batch processing on the server, as shown in Figure below.

3. On the Batch Server Schedule FastTab, click Add to enter a new schedule. Enter the maximum number of batch tasks that can be run on the AOS instance at one time. The server continues to pick up tasks from the queue until it reaches its maximum.
4. Enter a starting time in Start Time and an ending time in End Time to specify the time window in which the server processes batch jobs. Press Ctrl+N to enter an additional time window.
Tip It’s a good idea to exclude a server from batch processing when it is busy processing regular transactions. You can set server schedules so that each AOS instance is available for user traffic during the day and batch traffic overnight. Keep in mind that if the server
is running a task when its batch processing availability ends, the task continues running to completion. However, the server doesn’t pick up any more tasks from the queue.
Create a batch group
A batch group is a logical categorization of batch tasks that lets a user (typically a system administrator) determine which AOS instance runs the batch task. This section describes how to create a batch group so that it can be assigned to a specific server for execution. The first step is to create batch groups by using the Batch Group form at System Administration > Setup > Batch Group.
To create a batch group, press Ctrl+N in the Batch Group form, and then type a name and description for the batch group. The Batch Group form is shown in below

Note By default, the system contains an empty batch group that can’t be removed. This is a default batch group for tasks that are not explicitly assigned to a group.
After you create batch groups, assign each group to a server as follows:
1. In the Server Configuration form (shown in Figure below), click the Batch Server Groups FastTab.
The Selected Groups list shows the batch groups specified to run on the selected server.
2. In the Remaining Groups list, select a group, and then click the left arrow button to add this group to run on the selected server.

Note  you can assign each group to a server using Batch Servers in Batch Group form
Imparted from Inside Dynamics AX 2012 Book

Create and execute a batch job AX 2012

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 includes numerous batch jobs that perform operations such as generating reports, creating sales invoices, and processing journals. However, in several situations, organizations need to create their own batch jobs. The batch framework provides full flexibility in the types of jobs that you can create. This section walks you through the following steps, which are required for creating, executing, and managing a batch job:
1. Create a batch-executable class.
2. Create a batch job and define the execution schedule.
3. Configure a batch server and create a batch group. (It be will explained in another post)
4. Manage the batch job. (It be will explained in another post)
Create a batch-executable class
The first step in developing a batch job is to define a class that can be executed as a batch task. Many classes included with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 are already enabled for batch processing. You can also design a batch-executable class, as shown in the following example:
public class ExampleBatchTask extends RunBaseBatch

Batch processing in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

Batch processing is a non interactive task-processing technique where users create batch jobs to organize appropriate types of tasks to be processed as a unit. Batch processing has some important advantages: it lets users schedule batch tasks and define the conditions under which they execute, add the tasks to a queue, and set them to run automatically on a batch server.
After execution is complete, the batch server logs any errors and sends alerts.
A batch job might involve printing reports, closing inventory, or performing periodic maintenance. By scheduling a batch job to process these types of resource-intensive tasks in off-peak hours, users can avoid slowing down the system during working hours.
Table below describes how standard batch processing concepts are represented in Microsoft Dynamics AX.

Troubleshoot the reporting framework [AX 2012]

The report server cannot be validatedIf you cannot validate the report server, do the following:
■ Click the Create button in the Reporting Servers form, which is located at Tools > Business Intelligence Tools > Reporting Servers, and make sure that a report folder and data source have been created on the report server. Click the Validate button.
■ Ensure that firewall settings are configured appropriately on the computer that is running the
report server.
■ Ensure that both the report manager and report server URLs are correct.
■ Ensure that the Microsoft Dynamics AX user has permissions on the computer that is running
the report server.

Create a new number sequence in ax 2012

Number Sequence Creation:
Here I want to design a form named FirstForm with DataSource FirstTable
I want to create sequence  like "AX00001---------AX99999".
Step 1
Create an EDT - String Type
So, I created an EDT named "AXSeqEDT" with label "AX Seq"
Drag into Table(FirstTable)àFields
Step 2
Now create a new Number Sequence
Path for creating num Sequence is
"Module:: Organization administration.......Common.........Number sequences......Number sequences"
Click on New(Number Sequence)

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Development Cookbook

Overview

• Develop powerful, successful Dynamics AX projects with efficient X++ code with this book and eBook
• Proven recipes that can be reused in numerous successful Dynamics AX projects
• Covers general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, project modules and general functionality of Dynamics AX
• Step-by-step instructions and useful screenshots for easy learning
• Numerous development tips and tricks for daily usage
• This book is an update to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Development Cookbook

Table of Contents

What makes a good Dynamics AX Project Manager?

The success and failure of Dynamics AX project is directly related to the quality of the project manager leading it. A recent survey of PWC showed that over 85% of dynamics ax project failed to achieve their core objectives – poor project management was one of the root causes.

to complete the post kindly click this link

Walkthrough: Defining KPIs for a Cube [AX 2012]

Prerequisites

---

To complete this walkthrough, you will need:

• Microsoft Dynamics AX with sample data
• The MyCustomers cube from  Creating Cubes [AX 2012] Post.
• SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) or SQL Server Data Tools
• Configure Analysis Services by running the Microsoft Dynamics AX Setup wizard

Defining a KPI for Inventory Quantity

---

To display your KPI in a Business Overview web part on a role center, you must define value, goal, status, and trend expressions for the KPI. If you exclude one of the expressions, the KPI will not display properly.

To create a KPI for Inventory Quantity

1. In BIDS, open the Analysis Services project that contains the Sales analysis cube, and then double-click MyCustomers .cube.
2. Click the KPIs tab.
3. On the toolbar for the KPIs tab, click New KPI. A form displays that allows you to define the KPI.
4. For the Name field, type Customer sales.
5. For the Value Expression field, type the following expression.

[Measures].[Total customer sales Count]

This expression retrieves the quantity in inventory units.

Note

You can drag measures from the Metadata tab of the Calculation Tools pane to help you create expressions.

6. For the Goal Expression field, type the following expression.

7500

This expression identifies the goal for the inventory quantity.

7. For the Status indicator field, select Gauge from the drop-down list.
8. For the Status expression field, type the following expression.

Case
    When
        [Measures].[Total customer sales Count] >= 7500
    Then 1
    When
        [Measures].[Total customer sales Count] < 7500
    AND
        [Measures].[Total customer sales Count] > 6500
    Then 0
    Else-1
End

 

This expression provides a basis to evaluate progress toward meeting the goal. The graphic that displays for status of the KPI depends on what value this expression evaluates to.

9. For the Trend indicator field, select Standard arrow from the drop-down list.
   
10. For the Trend expression field, type the following expression.

Case
    When
        [Measures].[Total customer sales Count] >= 3000
    Then 1
    When
        [Measures].[Total customer sales Count] < 3000
    
    Then -1
End

This expression provides a basis to evaluate the status in some historical context. The graphic that displays for the trend of the KPI depends on what value this expression evaluates to. Typically, the trend expression would evaluate the current status relative to a previous status.

To view the KPI

1. On the Build menu, click Deploy Dynamics AX MyCustomers .

Note: The name of the database may vary.

2. On the toolbar for the KPIs tab, click Browser View. The KPI displays in the list.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for Developers [AX 2012]

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for Developers [AX 2012]

Getting Started with Microsoft Dynamics AX

Help System Development

Microsoft Dynamics AX IDE

Database for Microsoft Dynamics AX

Application Object Server (AOS)

Client

Implementing Workflow for Microsoft Dynamics AX

Reporting in Microsoft Dynamics AX

Analytics in Microsoft Dynamics AX

Visual Studio Integration

Microsoft Dynamics AX Retail

Enterprise Portal for Microsoft Dynamics AX

Services and Application Integration Framework (AIF)

Integration with Microsoft Dynamics AX

Security for Microsoft Dynamics AX

X++ Language Programming Guide

Upgrading to a New Version of Microsoft Dynamics AX

Data Upgrade Scripts for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

Reference

Debugging in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

User Experience Guidelines for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

Best Practices for Microsoft Dynamics AX Development

Using the Microsoft Dynamics AX glossary

30 database entity relationship diagrams (ERDs) for tables of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2

Announcing the AxERD site: Database Entity Relationship Diagrams (ERDs) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012
The new "AxERD" website is now online! This site contains about 30 ERDs for the most-used tables in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. The AxErd site has all the foreign key information sorted and gathered together in one place. For any table, you can retrieve a list of the child or parent tables with one click. Visit the AxERD site today and let us know what you think: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?linkid=296623.

Dynamics AX 2012 - Developing Secure Mobile Apps

Updated Version of "Developing Secure Mobile Apps" White Paper Now Available
This white paper describes how to develop mobile client apps to communicate with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 from phone or tablet platforms. Mobile apps can enable a wide variety of business processes, such as submitting expense reports and timesheets, to be conducted from anywhere. This document provides a walkthrough of a sample app for employee expense capture.

Dynamics ax performance tuning

http://dynamicsaxforum.blogspot.com/2013/07/dynamics-ax-performance-tuning.html

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 System Requirements

Microsoft supports the following system recommendations for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009. Before installing Microsoft Dynamics AX, be sure that the system you are working with meets or exceeds the minimum hardware and software requirements.
Network requirements
The following table lists the minimum network requirements for the connection between the client and the Application Object Server (AOS) and the connection between the AOS and the database in a Microsoft Dynamics AX system.

Value	Client to AOS	AOS to database
Bandwidth (b)	100 megabits per second (Mbps)	100 Mbps
Latency (l)	Less than 5 milliseconds	Less than 5 milliseconds

The total response time for running a task in Microsoft Dynamics AX can be expressed by the following formula:
Response time = (Number of calls to and from the server * l) + Number of bytes sent/b
We recommend that you consider the following types of connections when planning your system:
· For a system that uses a local area network (LAN), connect directly through a Microsoft Dynamics AX client.
· For a system that uses a wide area network (WAN), connect using Windows Server Terminal Services or another remote connection product. For more information about using Terminal Services, see the Terminal Services site on Microsoft TechNet.

Test Data Transfer Tool for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

Reference: technet.microsoft.com and other sources

Microsoft has released the beta version of Test Data Transfer Tool for Dynamics AX 2012. Which is applies to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack and Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

This tool is a command-line tool that exports data from a Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 transaction database in a production or non-production environment. The tool also imports data into a Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 business database in a non-production environment. The non-production environment can be either a development or test environment. Microsoft strongly recommends not use this tool to import data into a production environment.

The Test Data Transfer Tool (beta) is a powerful tool for importing and exporting data. The test data transfer tool is useful when we required to import large set of data into other environment (Non production), move data in different environments with similar customization's and when data version is required. You must run the tool directly from the system that is hosting the database during import.

---

To use this tool you should have prior knowledge on SQL databases. To perform the activity using this tool you should be a database administrator or a developer who has experience and also have permission to read from or write directly to the Microsoft Dynamics AX database that you are working with, and to execute applications directly on the computer that is hosting the database. Before performing this activity you need to take the backup of source and destination databases.

Each and every operation that works with data has risks and also make sure that you understand which conditions are logged as errors during import. For example, you might try to import data for a table or column that does not exist in the target database. This attempt is not treated as an error by the tool, because the tool is designed to work seamlessly when the source and target databases have a different set of tables.

The Test Data Transfer Tool (beta) is available from the InformationSource Services download page.

Benefits:

The Test Data Transfer Tool (beta) uses the Microsoft SQL Server bulk copy tool (bcp). The Test Data Transfer Tool provides the following key benefits that other methods for importing and exporting Microsoft Dynamics AX data do not provide:

• You can export or import data when an AOS instance is not running.
• You can export or import Microsoft Dynamics AX data more quickly compared to other methods.
• Only minimal changes are made to the data that you import. This feature helps guarantee that the data is stable over time. For example, the tool never renumbers RecIDs.
• The data file format is text-based. Therefore, the data can be compared with earlier versions and stored in a version control system.
• The data file format is a standard format that is produced by bcp.

The Test Data Transfer Tool (beta) adds the following features that work with bcp. These features make bcp an appropriate tool for managing data for Microsoft Dynamics AX.

• Exported data can be filtered. Therefore, specified tables, columns, or rows can be easily excluded from the export.
• Differences between builds of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 are found and corrected. These differences often occur during development. Because of this feature, data can often be imported without user intervention, even when the table definitions have changed. For example, tables or fields that have been renamed do not prevent import.
• Entity IDs, such as table IDs, class IDs, and extended data type IDs, are updated to match the IDs of the target system.
• The tool reads and correctly updates the SYSTEMSEQUENCES table.

Limitations:

• The Test Data Transfer Tool (beta) does not make sure that data that you export is complete or coherent. However, the tool does export any data that you ask it to export.
• The tool does not make sure that data that you import produces a complete or coherent database. However, the tool does import any data that you ask it to import.

The Test Data Transfer Tool (beta) imports and exports the data as-is. In some cases, you might exclude tables or records from either import or export. Nevertheless, the tool does not make sure that the data is complete or coherent when other tables contain references to excluded tables or records. Therefore, after import and export, you must make sure that the data that you are importing or exporting is coherent.

Microsoft Releases New Dynamics AX App for iPhone

Microsoft has released a new Dynamics AX iPhone app for use with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2.
Features:
This application enables you to capture your expense transactions and receipt information. This application also allows you to create and submit timesheets. The information captured with this application will be available when you enter or update an expense report and/or timesheets in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2. If your organization uses Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 and has enabled these features, you will be notified by your system administrator.
You can download Dynamics AX from the App Store for free.
Read More

Source

Ax 2012 R2 Hotfix for Compile Time needs Schema Update

Just a quick note on the hotfix that was released quite a while ago to improve compile times on R2. Many blogs including the official Microsoft one linked directly to the hotfix, and many people have installed it immediately with no result. What many people don't seem to know (and honestly in my own haste to try it out I did the same thing at first) is that you need to update your model store schema to benefit from the improvements which included new indexes in the model store.
So, if you have installed the hotfix (KB2844240), make sure to run "axutil schema" on the model store to actually make the changes take effect!

Source Joris dG

Microsoft Dynamics AX Demo -- Business Intelligence Video

Microsoft Dynamics AX Demo -- Business Intelligence Features (Part 1 of 3)

Microsoft Dynamics AX Demo -- Business Intelligence Features (Part 2 of 3)

Microsoft Dynamics AX Demo -- Business Intelligence Features (Part 3 of 3)

Build a KPI Dashboard in 5 minutes

 

Top 10 issues discovered from Dynamics AX Health Check

A very informative blog post by Bertrand Caillet covering important points for Dynamics AX best practices for health check, and it contains a sub links under main points. I am glade to share it over my page.

1. Max Degree of Parallelism is not set to 1

2. No Pre-Allocation for Non Continuous Number Sequences with high consumption

3. Insufficient Auto Growth for Data and Log files

4. Processor bottleneck for Dynamics AX batch processing

5. Heavy Application database logging

6. Missing Clustered indexes

7. Wrong Index maintenance

8. Enabled debug in Production

9. Power Management set to Balanced

10. Kernel and Application are outdated and should be patched

The Premier Field Engineer team has been running several hundred of Dynamics AX Health Check worldwide and I thought it would be interested to share the most common issues discovered during onsite. Some of the following issues might look trivial but the reality is that despite all the literature that exists today on the solution Dynamics AX, we can still see same repeated patterns, especially when default settings are used in production. Please note there is no logical order in this list.

1. Max Degree of Parallelism is not set to 1

The default setting from SQL Server installation is zero. If OLAP applications are running on the same SQL Server instance, the risk is that all CPUs are consumed (% Processor Time) and therefore impact performance of the OLTP application. To prevent this, we recommend to set MAXDOP to 1. Please note that in some situation when SQL Server batches or queries are run, using some degree of query parallelism can be beneficial. In this case setting Max degree of parallelism to 2 or 4 is probably a better value to take into account both types of queries.

2. No Pre-Allocation for Non Continuous Number Sequences with high consumption

This is a crucial setting in the Dynamics AX application that needs to be reviewed every few months on production to match the usage of the number sequences. Basically, number sequences can be Continuous or Non Continuous. When they are non-continuous, you can allow pre allocation per ID and therefore reduce the database calls and improve performance. When consumption is high, like several ID per seconds, we have noticed Lock Escalation events on the table NumberSequenceTable. This is especially true when Dynamics AX batch are running and generate thousands of records for Journals Lines creation or Sales Order Invoicing. Please read this blog post to better estimate this consumption.

3. Insufficient Auto Growth for Data and Log files

The default Auto growth is By 1 MB for Data and By 10% for Log files. If the initial size is too small, you will notice frequent auto growth events, resulting in negative performance impact. In the SQL trace, you can monitor such event with ID and see the duration of each auto growth event. The goal is to set an appropriate Auto Growth value on the Dynamics AX and TempDB Data and Log files to prevent frequent auto growth events during daytime. You can monitor such events and their duration in milliseconds in the SQL Trace with ID 92 and 93. One recommendation is to set the Auto Growth with a greater value, from 200MB to 500MB.

4. Processor bottleneck for Dynamics AX batch processing

Most of the customer running Dynamics AX are enabling only one AOS instance for the batch processing and several AOS dedicated for rich clients load which therefore limit the number of batch thread to the number of logical processor available on that single AOS instance. Also the setting on the AOS batch is often the default one with 8 maximum batch thread and 24 hours a day schedule . A good ratio to calculate the number of thread is to multiply the number of cores by 2, but this depends on the processes running and should be validated in testing. To overcome this limitation, you can set different batch thread for different time of the day and enable more AOS for Batch processing at night. For example, you can dedicate one AOS for Rich client load from 8 am to 6 pm and leverage it for batch processing at night. You can read this blog post to learn how to tune the number of thread required for faster batch execution.

5. Heavy Application database logging

This is another important setting in the Dynamics AX application that often has negative impact when over utilized. This feature allows to track all CRUD operations (including Rename primary key) on any field and any table of the database. This information will be stored in the table SYSDATABASELOG. You should not use this feature to track automated transactions run in batch jobs. You can monitor the table growth of SYSDATABASELOG and estimate the most expensive table set up with database logging. Please also notice that enabling the logging on field like CreatedDateTime or ModifiedDateTime will change the default behavior of InsertRecordSet from a single round trip to the database to a record-by-record operation. The three recommendations are:

• Define a retention policy to only keep the latest 3 months for example so that size of table SYSDATABASELOG remains small. You can find the clean-up form under Administration | Inquiries | Database log | Clean up log.
• Avoid heavy logging for transactional tables processed during the batch and prioritize activity that is absolutely necessary either for legal compliance or to meet other business requirements.
• Avoid logging the columns CreatedDateTime or ModifiedDateTime of any table.

6. Missing Clustered indexes

This might not be the most common issues but it is definitively one of the most impacting one. All tables in an OLTP database should have clustered indexes, and you should investigate them by looking at the highly active tables, tables frequently involved in blocking or deadlock situations, tables that frequently incur the overhead of forwarded rows. Because the database model is changing during the lifecycle of the application with new customization and because indexes are managed from the Application Object Tree, it is important to periodically check the missing indexes from SQL Server Statistics. You can use the query “4-Analyze_SQL_Indexes.sql” from Dynamicsperf version 1.1.6 to find all missing indexes.

7. Wrong Index maintenance

Following the Missing clustered indexes issue mentioned above, the index maintenance is clearly one of the unhealthiest issue for Dynamics AX. Having a bad index maintenance or no index maintenance at all will have the same consequences: when statistics are outdated, Query Plan will use SCAN instead of SEEK operations and their performance will be badly impacted. The level of fragmentation is not that critical as such for performance, but it should be part of the weekly maintenance. The following is a recommended example:

• Reorganize indexes that are larger than 1000 pages and are between 10% and 30% fragmented.
• Rebuild indexes that are larger than 1000 pages and more than 30% fragmented using a fill factor between 85% and 95% depending on the frequency of the job execution.

It is also strongly recommended to run Update Statistics regularly with FULL SCAN, or with at least a 50% sample, as well as having Auto_Create_Stats and Auto_Update_Stats enabled. If you are running SQL 2008 R2 SP1 or greater, you can also enable Trace Flag 2371.

8. Enabled debug in Production

In the Dynamics AX Server Configuration Utility, you should always disable the two settings that allow user breakpoint and global breakpoint to debug X++ code. Even though you delete all breakpoints in the Application Object Tree, you will still suffer from a clear performance degradation around 10%.

9. Power Management set to Balanced

This is an easy one but almost never implemented in production since the default power management is set to balance. Changing it to High performance is highly recommended for all Windows Server 2008 used in Production. You can see this setting from Control Panel – hardware – Power Options or with the following command: “powercfg –getactivescheme”.

10. Kernel and Application are outdated and should be patched

Last but not least, maintain your Dynamics AX solution as much updated as possible. For example, you can notice that latest Rollup for Dynamics AX 2009 SP1 is RU8 and is already one year old. Several hundred of Hot Fixes have been released since and it is a best practice to apply those to leverage the latest fixes from the Product Group. The two recommendations are:

• Patch the Binaries with the latest Kernel available. You can see the latest KB on the AX Support Blog. As of today, the latest one for Dynamics AX 2009 SP1 is build 5.0.1600.1824 from June 2013.
• For the Application, you should upgrade to latest RU available, but you can also proactively check the list of individual Hot Fixes relevant to your business logic.

As you can see this list is not exhaustive and we could elaborate hundred of issues discovered from existing Dynamics AX live instance, but I do hope it can help you remediate some of the current issues you may experience. I will also encourage you to read the great article written by Arvind Shyamsundar on MSPFE blog regarding the 10 top SQL Server Issues uncovered by the SQL Server Risk Assessment Program.

Finally, please contact your Microsoft Premier Technical Account Manager if you will like to receive guidance from the Premier Field Engineering.

Source: Dynamics AX in the Filed

Create display Method in Dynamics AX Table

Let is say you have value you want to display in Ax report or Form, and this value not available in your table for example

We have salesTable in AX have salesStatus field and you want to display sales order status in your report or form, to achieve that you want to create display method in SalesLine Table to display sales order status in required form and report.

Display salesStatus getSalesStatus()

{

SalesTable         _salesTable;

;

select salesStatus from _salesTable where _salesTable.salesId == this.salesId;

return _salesTable.salesStatus ;

}

Dynamics AX Performance Optimization Guide

Imparted from Here

Book Review - Dynamics AX Performance Optimization Guide

"Dynamics AX Performance Optimization Guide" - This book lives up to it's name and I would recommend it as an excellent resource and a handy guide to troubleshoot performance related issues to Dynamics AX and SQL. This book is targeted towards the technical audience.
Along with Dynamics AX, this book covers advanced troubleshooting tips with SQL Server which many of us might have not known before.
This book spans approx. 200 pages and it's divided into 8 chapters:
1. Understanding Dynamics AX - covering Dynamics AX Architecture, Sessions, Concurrency Control
2. Monitoring Hardware, Database and Dynamics AX - Touches on the key areas like Hardware Monitoring, Database Monitoring, Database I/O, Monitoring Dynamics AX
3. Setup and Configuration - This chapter extensively covers from a SQL Server perspective like Recovery models, Files and File Groups, SQL Server configuration, Database options
4. Common Dynamics AX performance problem - Disk I/O Bottlenecks, Memory Bottlenecks, Extensive Logging, Deadlocking
5. Optimizing Dynamics AX SQL Statement - Index Hints, Trace flags, Best Development Practices, Buffer and Caching mechanisms are covered in this chapter
6. SQL Server Performance and Compilation Optimizations for Dynamics AX - Resource Management, Auditing and Compliance, Performance Monitoring , Query Optimizations and Hardware Optimizations
7. Database Maintenance - Managing Indexes and Locking
8. Infrastructure and Hyper - V virtualization - Hardware Sizing, Sizing guidelines for Dynamics AX 2012 and 2009, Dynamics AX Server Virtualization benefits, Hyper-V best practices
As you might have already seen by now, this book covers extensively SQL Troubleshooting which i think is very critical to understand while dealing with performance issues. I think every technical person developing in Dynamics AX should have a good understanding of SQL Server from an administrative point of view and this book exactly does that. Whether you are a newbie in AX Development or an experienced developer, there's a lot to learn from this book.
I really appreciate Martin and Daniel for the effort they have put behind this book and I would recommend every technical person to grab a copy of the book if they could. Good job guys!
If you like to order a copy of this book, kindly go to this link http://www.amazon.com/Dynamics-Performance-Optimization-Guide-Microsoft/product-reviews/1481100750

Temporary Tables In Dynamics AX

In Microsoft Dynamics AX, a table typically maps to a corresponding table in the database. Temporary tables enable to you define table objects that are not persisted to the database. Define a table as a temporary table by doing one of the following:

• Set the table's Temporary property to Yes at design time.

  –or–

• Call the setTmp method in X++ code.

A temporary table is held in memory until its size reaches 128 KB. The dataset is then written to a disk file. The disk file for a temporary table has the naming convention $tmp<nnnnnnnn>.$$$.

A temporary table is located in the Application Object Tree (AOT) under the Data Dictionary\Tables node, just like a persisted table. If a table is defined as temporary, you can use it just as you would a static table. All X++ DML statements can be run against a temporary table.

Note: It is a best practice to infix temporary table names with Tmp. This improves readability in code.

Scope      A temporary table exists only while a record buffer variable that references the table exists. No memory is allocated to the temporary table until the first record is inserted. At that point, memory is allocated. Disk space is allocated, if it is needed. As soon as the record buffer goes out of scope, the memory is de-allocated and the disk file is deleted.

A temporary table resides on the tier where the first record is inserted. If a record is inserted on the server tier, memory for the temporary table is allocated on the server tier. If the temporary table exceeds 128 KB, a disk file is created on the server.

Adding data to temp table

To add data to a temporary table, you must define the record buffer and call the insert method. The following is a code example that uses the TmpCustLedger table.

static void TableTmpInsertRecord(Args _args)
{
    TmpCustLedger custTmpLedger;
    ;
    custTmpLedger.AccountNum = '1000';
    custTmpLedger.Name = 'NameValue';
    custTmpLedger.Balance01 = 2345000;
    custTmpLedger.insert();
}

To free the memory and delete the file for the temporary table, set the record buffer variable to null, as follows.

custTmpLedger = null;

To populate a temporary table with data from a persisted table, use the setTmp method. The following code example copies all customers in Toronto to the temporary table.

static void CopyPersistedTableToTemp(Args _args)
{
    CustTable custTable;
    CustTable custTmpLedger;
    ;
    custTmpLedger.setTmp();
    custTable.recordLevelSecurity(true);

    while select custTable where custTable.City == 'Toronto'
    {
        custTmpLedger.data(custTable.data());
        custTmpLedger.doInsert();
     }
}

Indexes

Indexes can be defined on a temporary table just as you would a persisted table. If a temporary table is created by copying a persisted table, the indexes are also copied to the temporary table. Indexes are very useful for retrieving data in temporary tables especially if the temporary table data is in a disk file.

Temporary table vs. Container 

Microsoft Dynamics AX supports a special data type called a container. This data type can be used just as you would use a temporary table.

• Data in containers are stored and retrieved sequentially, but a temporary table enables you to define indexes to speed up data retrieval.
  
• Containers provide slower data access if you are working with many records. However, if you are working with only a few records, use a container.
  
• Another important difference between temporary tables and containers is how they are used in method calls. When you pass a temporary table into a method call, it is passed by reference. Containers are passed by value. When a variable is passed by reference, only a pointer to the object is passed into the method. When a variable is passed by value, a new copy of the variable is passed into the method. If the computer has a limited amount of memory, it might start swapping memory to disk, slowing down application execution. When you pass a variable into a method, a temporary table may provide better performance than a container.

Integrate Microsoft Dynamics AX analytic components with external data sources

Data warehouses are a popular solution for providing analytic capabilities to users. Until recently, data warehouses were the only reasonable solution for building robust analytic capability. However, as applications become easily interoperable and as technologies such as in-memory databases and OLAP become cost-effective and simpler to use, building a data warehouse is not the only solution to meet analytic requirements.
Table below presents several architecture options for integrating external data with the prebuilt
analytic solution; a data warehouse is just one of the options. The columns represent architecture options, whereas the rows represent the benefits and cost implications of each option.

When most data is in Microsoft Dynamics AX (assuming that Microsoft Dynamics AX is the
predominant  source of data in the organization), you have two options.

The data mash-up option is best suited to an environment where capable users author and publish analyses for the use of others. This option relies on client tools such as Excel PowerPivot. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 enables Microsoft Dynamics AX queries to be published to data mash-up tools through OData feeds, or as data exports to Excel.

You can bring external data into Microsoft Dynamics AX either through services (data services consumed by means of inbound ports) or as batch jobs that are executed periodically to import data into tables. With this approach, external data is represented as read-only data within Microsoft Dynamics AX. The benefit to this approach is that external data appears as native Microsoft Dynamics AX data to Microsoft Dynamics AX tools. You can create analytics, reports, and inquiry forms that use the combined data.

A more complex approach involves integrating external data directly into the prebuilt BI solution.
With this option, a BI developer adds another data source to the prebuilt BI solution by using Business Intelligence Development Studio. Additional data tables are brought into the DSV by using the new data connection. It is possible to create dimensions and measures by using the new tables in the DSV.

The traditional ETL-based data warehouse option is suited to scenarios that require complex
transformations or large volumes of data. Although this option is more flexible in terms of capabilities, it is also the most expensive to implement and manage.

You might want to build a data warehouse to implement the following scenarios:

■ Integrate external data sources with Microsoft Dynamics AX data In this approach, the Microsoft Dynamics AX implementation serves as one of many corporate applications.
Although Microsoft Dynamics AX contains some of the corporate data, other systems contain
a considerable portion of the data. To make decisions, data must be combined across systems, and the data warehouse serves that need.
■ Incorporate legacy data into Microsoft Dynamics AX analytics Most organizations
migrate recent data when implementing Microsoft Dynamics AX. Legacy data is still
maintained in read-only instances of legacy applications. Although legacy data is no longer
used for operational purposes, it is required for historical trend analysis. A data warehouse
serves as the repository where legacy data is combined with current data.

Although Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 does not directly support the creation of a data warehouse schema, the following artifacts generated in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 can be used to build a data warehouse:

■ The DSV generated as part of the prebuilt analytic solution can be used within SQL Server
Integration Services when an ETL package is developed to extract data from Microsoft
Dynamics AX.
■ Microsoft Dynamics AX document services can be consumed as data sources based on Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP).
■ Microsoft Dynamics AX queries can be exposed as OData feeds.

Extend cubes [AX 2012]

you can customize the prebuilt analysis project relatively easily by using the SQL Server Analysis Services Project Wizard. But in some cases, you may want to make
deeper customizations. For example, you might want to:
■ Create a rich hierarchy, such as a parent/child hierarchy to model organizational units.
■ Add new KPIs.
■ Bring external data into the analysis project and create a custom dimension.
You can use Business Intelligence Development Studio to make these types of changes.

Because the prebuilt BI components are included in the AOT as an SSAS project, you can modify the project. To modify the prebuilt Analysis Services project, do the following:
1. In the AOT, expand the Visual Studio\Analysis Services Projects node.
2. Right-click the project that you want to modify, and then click Edit.
An Infolog message appears, stating that a copy of the SSAS project has been created and saved, as shown in Figure below

 

If SQL Server Business Intelligence Studio is installed, it will start and open the copy of the project.
Changes that you make to the project are not automatically saved to the AOT. You need to save the project and import it back into the AOT.

DSV
The DSV contains the table and view definitions that are used by analytic artifacts. Notice that the OLAP framework has implemented several query definition patterns in the DSV:
■ Financial dimensions that the wizard has added appear as custom query definitions in the DSV.
■ The OLAP framework has created query definitions corresponding to Microsoft Dynamics AX views.
■ The OLAP framework has added a reference relationship to resolve virtual companies, if your Microsoft Dynamics AX installation has virtual company definitions.
■ The OLAP framework has created views that make Microsoft Dynamics AX enumerations accessible

in all of the languages that have been added to the project.
Avoid modifying any of the framework-generated objects in the DSV. Any changes that you make to these objects are overwritten without warning the next time you update the project.
You may add your own objects to the DSV (for example, new query definitions. The Project Update  option will preserve these objects.
In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2, do not implement any partition-specific logic in any of the query definitions. Otherwise, when the project is deployed to multiple partitions, the system may
generate processing errors. (Because the framework adds partition-specific logic to the DSV at deployment time, it may not apply the changes accurately to your query definitions.)

Data source
A data source has been created that points to the Microsoft Dynamics AX OLTP database.

Dimensions, measures, and measure groups

In Figure below , notice the dimensions that are included with the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 prebuilt BI solution, as well as the measures and measure groups.
For a list of measures and dimensions, see “Cube and KPI reference for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012” at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh781074.aspx.

KPIs and calculations
The SSAS project contains prebuilt KPIs and calculations. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 does not provide the capability to model KPIs and calculations in the AOT. You can modify these definitions or
add new ones directly in Business Intelligence Development Studio.

Customize cubes [AX 2012]

This post related to this post [Customizing the prebuilt BI solution]

Figure below shows the process for updating a cube. This post walk through each step in detail.

Choose the project to update

The first step is selecting the project to modify. You can select an SSAS project in the AOT or a project maintained on disk. The wizard performs basic validation of the selected project before you can proceed.
The update process is designed to ensure that you end up with a project that you can
deploy and process without any errors. If the selected project does not build (the most basic measure of validity), the wizard will not let you proceed to the next step.

Select metadata
Next, you select the Microsoft Dynamics AX metadata that you want to include or exclude, as shown in Figure below. The metadata that is defined in the Perspectives node in the AOT is the source of metadata for the prebuilt BI solution. By including or excluding metadata definitions, you can include (or exclude) measures, dimensions, and even cubes

For example, if you remove the Accounts Receivable perspective from the selection, the Accounts Receivable cube will be removed from the project that you are updating. If you model a new perspective in the AOT and include it in the project, the corresponding measures and dimensions will be created and added to the SSAS project.

For a description of metadata definitions and the resulting analytic artifacts, see “Defining Cubes in Microsoft Dynamics AX” at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc615265.aspx. Metadata will be covered later in post with title “Creating cubes”.

Select financial dimensions
On the next wizard page, you are prompted to select the Microsoft Dynamics AX financial dimensions to include in the project, as shown in Figure below

Each financial dimension that you select is added as an OLAP dimension with the same name.
If a dimension by that name already exists within the SSAS project, the system will disambiguate the newly added dimension by adding a suffix.

Select calendars
Next, the wizard prompts you to select the calendars to include as date dimensions, as shown in Figure below. If you have defined any additional calendars, you can include them in the project at this point.

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, the prebuilt analysis project included two date dimensions: a
Gregorian calendar–based dimension called DATE and a fiscal calendar–based dimension called FISCALPERIODDATEDIMENSION. If you wanted to include additional date dimensions, you would have had to customize the prebuilt project by using Business Intelligence Development Studio.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 includes a utility called Date Dimensions that lets  you define custom calendars for analysis purposes. A default calendar, Date, is included with the product, and you can define additional calendars by using Date Dimensions.

For each calendar that you add on this wizard page, the system creates a date dimension in the SSAS project. For example, if you added a new calendar called Sales Calendar, the system will add a date dimension called Sales Calendar. In addition, the system will create role-playing date dimensions that correspond to each of the dates that are present in cubes. You can’t remove the prebuilt date dimension from the project.

You can start Date Dimensions directly from the SQL Server Analysis Services Project Wizard, or from the System Administration area page.

You can define a calendar by selecting the beginning of the year and the first day of the week.
For example, for the Sales calendar, the year starts on April 1 and ends on March 31, and the week starts on Sunday. You can enter a date range to specify the calendar records that you want the system to populate in advance. You can also select the hierarchies that will be created for each calendar.

When you close the form, if you added or modified calendars, the system will populate dates
according to the new parameters that you defined. In addition, the system will add the required
translations. As you will notice later, the system adds a rich set of attributes for each calendar defined here. You can use any of these attributes to slice the data contained in cubes.

In addition, Date Dimensions adds a NULL date record (1/1/1900) and a DATEMAX date record
(31/12/2154) to each calendar, so that fact records that contain a NULL date or the DATEMAX date will be linked to these extra records, preventing an “unknown member” error from occurring during cube processing.

Select languages

The prebuilt SSAS project uses EN-US as the default language. However, you might have sites in other countries/regions and want the users there to be able to view measure and dimension names in their own languages.

The project can include additional languages through a feature in SSAS called Translations. The
Translations feature enables dimensions, measures, many other kinds of metadata, and data to be translated to other languages by letting you add companion text in other languages.

For example, if you add German translations to the project, when a German user views data in a cube by using, for example, Microsoft Excel, data labels are displayed in German.

The prebuilt SSAS project does not include translated strings. However, translated labels are
already available in the system. The SQL Server Analysis Services Project Wizard lets you add any of the required languages to the project by using existing translations from within Microsoft Dynamics AX, as shown in Figure below.

It is recommended that you add only the translations that you need. Each translation adds strings to your project, and the size of the project increases by a few megabytes each time you add a language. In addition, processing gets a bit slower and the size of the backup increases.

If you have the Standard edition of SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2008, you could not add
additional translations (for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009). You had to buy the Enterprise edition of SQL Server in order to add translations to cubes. This restriction has been removed in SQL Server 2008 R2 and later versions.

Labels associated with Microsoft Dynamics AX tables and views are carried through to the
corresponding dimensions and measures. It is also possible to add specific labels to dimensions and measures by defining the labels in perspectives.

If you manually add translations to the project in Business Intelligence Development Studio,
the wizard overwrites the labels every time you run the Update function, by sourcing labels from
Microsoft Dynamics AX. To add your own translations, either define a new label and associate it with the object or change the translation in Microsoft Dynamics AX by using Microsoft Dynamics AX Label Editor.

Add support for currency conversion
The prebuilt SSAS project contains the logic to convert measures that are based on the Microsoft Dynamics AX extended data type (EDT), AmountMST, to other Microsoft Dynamics AX currencies. For example, if the amount was recorded in USD, you can display the value of the amount in GBP or EUR by using the analysis currency dimension to slice the amount.
If you want to, you can exclude currency conversions by clearing the check box on the wizard page shown in Figure below

Note Removing support for currency conversion not only removes this feature but might
also cause prebuilt reports to fail, because they rely on the currency conversion option to
be displayed in Role Centers.

Confirm your changes
When you click Next on the Add Currency Conversion page, the wizard goes to work, performing the following tasks:
■ Generates a new project based on the perspectives and other options that you have chosen.
■ Compares the newly generated project with the project you wanted to update.
■ Displays the differences between the new project (that is, the changes you want to apply)
and the old project, as shown in Figure below

In the wizard, it is assumed that you want to confirm all changes; therefore, all changes are
selected by default. If you want the wizard to apply all changes, click Next, and then the wizard will create a project that includes the changes that you selected.

However, if you are an experienced BI developer and want more granular control of the Update
option, you can examine the updates in detail and accept or reject the changes.
Be aware, however, that making changes to the wizard at a granular level may result in
inconsistencies within the analysis project. If such inconsistencies result in a project that does not build, the wizard displays a message to inform you.

Here are some examples of when you might want to evaluate changes individually:

■ You might have removed some perspectives from the generation process (for example, you
have not implemented Project Accounting functionality in Microsoft Dynamics AX and are
therefore not interested in the Project Accounting cube). Ordinarily, the system would remove
the resulting analytic artifacts, including a dimension. However, you may want to use that
dimension in analysis, even if the Project Accounting cube is not used. Therefore, you reject
the deletion of that dimension.
■ You have added extra attributes to the customer dimension by using Business Intelligence
Development Studio. The system would ordinarily delete these extra attributes, because they
are not associated with Microsoft Dynamics AX metadata. However, you may want to reject
the deletion and keep these extra attributes intact.

Save the updated project
Next, the wizard applies the changes you specified in the previous step. If you simply clicked Next (that is, you did not make any changes to the options selected by the wizard), the wizard would save the resulting project.
If you made changes and the wizard encountered inconsistencies (that is, the project is in an error state and does not build), it displays a warning asking whether you want to save the project or go back to the confirmation step and reconsider the changes.
If you choose to save the project in an inconsistent state (if you are an experienced BI developer, you might choose this approach), you must fix the project by using Business Intelligence Development Studio; otherwise, subsequent deployment steps will be unsuccessful.

Deploy and process cubes
Next, you can deploy the cubes to an SSAS server and, optionally, process the cubes. As discussed in the ”Deploy cubes” in another post before “ Customizing the prebuilt BI solution”, in a multiple-partition environment in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2, the system will deploy the project to multiple SSAS databases.

Customizing the prebuilt BI solution

As you have seen in the previous post, it’s relatively easy to implement the prebuilt BI solution in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. But regardless of how good the prebuilt BI solution is, you may want to change the functionality to suit your needs.
These changes can be divided into three broad categories:■ Configuration Although the prebuilt BI solution is designed to cover all of the functionality in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, you may have implemented only certain modules. Even within those modules, you may have chosen to disable certain functionality. In Microsoft Dynamics AX, license codes and configuration keys govern the availability of modules and functionality, respectively. (For more information, see Chapter 11, “Security, licensing, and configuration.”) Configuration keys correspond to functionality within modules. They can be enabled or
disabled.
If you do not activate certain license codes or if you disable certain configuration keys, the Microsoft Dynamics AX user interface configures itself by removing content that is associated with those elements. In this case, you may need to remove the corresponding analytic content. (However, because the prebuilt BI solution draws data from across Microsoft Dynamics AX, this content will not be hydrated with data in any case.) You can use the SQL
Server Analysis Services Project Wizard to remove the corresponding content from the prebuilt cubes, so that you do not have to remove the irrelevant content manually yourself.
■ Customization You might want to add additional calendars and financial dimensions, and also new attributes and measures, to the prebuilt cubes. The SQL Server Analysis Services Project Wizard lets you perform the most frequent customizations with a step-by-step approach, without requiring BI development skills.
■ Extension At some point, you may want to develop extensions to prebuilt cubes by using the SQL Server BI development tools. Table below lists categories of customizations, summarizes the types of changes that you can make, and lists the skill level, time, and tools required to make those types of changes.

Configure analytic contentAs previously explained, you can configure the predefined analytic content to reflect configuration changes in Microsoft Dynamics AX in a matter of minutes by using the SQL Server Analysis Services Project Wizard. In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, this process had to be performed manually. This process required BI development skills and a day or two of spare time. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 dramatically simplifies this process by introducing the following three improvements:
■ Static schema Historically, Microsoft Dynamics AX has had a schema whose shape changed depending on licenses and configuration keys. That is, when a configuration key was turned off, the database synchronization process dropped tables and data that were deemed invalid.
This caused prebuilt cubes (that rely on a static schema in the underlying database) to break at processing time. Unlike its predecessor, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 has a static schema.
So, when configuration keys are disabled, the database schema no longer changes. This means that prebuilt cubes can continue to be processed without generating errors. (They will, for example, contain empty measures, because the corresponding tables have no data).
■ Improved modeling capabilities in the AOT The Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 OLAP framework did not allow advanced modeling of constructs in the AOT. As a result, developers had to implement any functionality that was lacking directly in an SSAS project. In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, a larger portion of analytic content is modeled in the AOT. Therefore, configuring the content can be done much more easily by the framework.
■ Wizard-driven user interface The six different forms that were necessary in Microsoft Dynamics
AX 2009 have been replaced by a single step-by-step wizard that guides you through various activities.
To configure the prebuilt BI project, you must have developer privileges in Microsoft Dynamics AX.
This step modifies the project so that irrelevant measures, dimensions, and entire cubes are removed
after the process is completed. The modified project will be saved in the AOT in your own layer.
To configure the project, start the SQL Server Analysis Services Project Wizard, and then select the Configure option. You then need to select the project to configure. Select the Dynamics AX project to configure the prebuilt project, and step through the wizard. For step-by-step instructions, see the “How to: Configure an Existing SQL Server Analysis Services Project” at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg724140.aspx.
If you also deploy and process the project, you should notice the following changes:
■ Cube content (such as measures and dimension attributes that source data from tables that are affected by disabled configuration keys) is deleted from the project. You may see that entire cubes have been removed if the corresponding content has become invalid.
■ KPIs and calculated measures have been removed in cubes that depend on disabled measures and dimension attributes.
■ OLAP reports in Role Centers that source data from cubes that have been removed no longer appear on the Role Center page. If a user intentionally adds such a report to the Role Center, the report displays a warning message and will execute.
■ KPIs and measures that were removed no longer appear in the Business Overview web part.

Implementing the prebuilt BI solution [AX 2012]

Traditionally, BI solutions are implemented during the second or third phase of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation project. Needless to say, project fatigue sets in (and the budget gets exhausted), and subsequent phases are postponed or delayed. BI implementation is complex and involves the integration of many components. Also, the skill set required to implement a BI solution is distinctly different from the skill set required to implement an ERP system. Often, implementation of the BI solution involves engaging a different partner or consultants. All of these factors contribute to postponing the BI implementation.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 simplifies the implementation of a BI solution, so that all Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 partners and customers (regardless of whether they have access to BI specialists) can implement the prebuilt BI solution when they implement the ERP functionality.

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, the default SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) project is a
first- class citizen of the Application Object Tree (AOT), as are other SSAS projects that you create in the AOT. This means that SSAS projects derive all of the benefits of being residents of AOT.
■ SSAS projects respect the layering concept. This means that an independent software vendor (ISV) or partner can distribute a customized version of an SSAS project that adds additional analytic components to the solution that is included in the SYS layer.
■ You can import and export SSAS projects to and from different environments as part of a model (by using models or .xpo files).
■ SSAS projects respect the version control capabilities offered by AOT-based artifacts.

When you deploy a project by using the SQL Server Analysis Services Project Wizard, which is new in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, the wizard selects the project in the highest layer for deployment.

If you examine the Visual Studio Projects node in the AOT, will see the default SSAS project that is included with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, as shown in Figure below. If you have any customizations at higher levels, they are also displayed.

Implementing the prebuilt BI solution consists of the following steps:
1. Implement the prerequisites.
2. Configure an SSAS server.
3. Deploy the cubes.
4. Process the cubes.
5. Provision users so that they can access the analytic data.

The following sections describe each step in further detail.

1- Implement the prerequisites
Before you implement the analytic components in the prebuilt BI solution, the following Microsoft Dynamics AX core components should be in place:
■ At least one AOS instance must be implemented.
■ The Microsoft Dynamics AX Windows client must be implemented, and the initialization checklist must be completed.
■ The Enterprise Portal web client must be configured.

If you are implementing the analytic components on a development or test instance, you might not implement a scale-out architecture. However, if you are implementing these components in a
production system, you may want to implement a redundancy or load balancing infrastructure. You need to configure the clustering or Network Load Balancing (NLB) solution before you implement the
analytic components.

2- Configure an SSAS server
This step configures a given SSAS server for the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 analytic components.

To do so, run the Configure Analysis Extensions step in the Microsoft Dynamics AX Setup wizard on the SSAS server that hosts Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 cubes.
Running the configuration step should take you a few minutes. This function does the following:
■ Ensures that the SSAS server has all of the necessary prerequisites to host Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 cubes.
■ Adds the Business Connector (BC) proxy user as an administrator of the SSAS server. This step is required to enable AXADOMD data extensions to operate without the use of Kerberos
constrained delegation.
■ Allows you to add a read-only user account to the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 database for processing cubes (you should specify a domain account whose password does not expire).

 

3- Deploy cubes
When you deploy cubes, Microsoft Dynamics AX generates and processes an OLAP database by using the metadata definition contained within the Analysis Services
project that is included with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. The result is an OLAP database that contains
Microsoft Dynamics AX cubes that are referenced by analytic reports and Role Centers.
In a Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 environment where there is only a single partition, the deployment step generates a single OLAP database that sources data from the Microsoft Dynamics
AX OLTP database. In a multiple-partition environment, the deployment step generates multiple OLAP databases that correspond to each partition. Figure below shows the deployment process both
in a single-partition and multiple-partition environment.

You use the SQL Server Analysis Services Project Wizard in the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 client to deploy, process, and in some instances, update cubes. To deploy the cubes, you must have the
right to deploy projects to the SSAS server. If you are also processing the cubes, you must have the right to read the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 OLTP database.

To start the SQL Server Analysis Services Project Wizard and deploy cubes, do the following:
1. In the Development Workspace, on the Tools menu, click Business Intelligence (BI) Tools > SQL Server Analysis Services Project Wizard.
2. On the Welcome page, click Next, and then select the Deploy option on the next page, as shown in Figure below

3. On the next page, you select an SSAS project to deploy—in this case the Dynamics AX project.
You can select a project in the AOT, as shown in Figure below, or you can select a project that is saved on a disk.

4. Next, you specify the SSAS server to deploy the project to, the SSAS database you want to use, and whether you want the project to be processed after deployment .
By default, the wizard uses the SSAS server that you configured earlier, but you can select any server to deploy the project to.

Deploy cubes in an environment with multiple partitions
As mentioned earlier, in a Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 environment with multiple partitions, the SQL Server Analysis Services Project Wizard generates an OLAP database for each partition. You can
use the wizard to select the partitions for which OLAP databases are created, as shown in Figure below

In this case, the SQL Server Analysis Services Project Wizard deploys the SSAS project to multiple OLAP databases. In each database, <partitionkey> is added as a suffix to the name of the OLAP
database.
Also, within each OLAP database, the data source view (DSV) is modified so that a partition filter is applied to all queries. Figure 10-8 shows the architecture of an environment with multiple partitions.
In all cases, the SSAS project in the AOT is partition-unaware, whereas the OLAP databases that are deployed are partition-specific. The SQL Server Analysis Services Project Wizard handles the step of
making sure that each OLAP database is wired to read data only from the corresponding partition in Microsoft Dynamics AX. This is a departure from the behavior of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. You
need to be aware of the following implications:
■ If you deploy Microsoft Dynamics AX SSAS projects by using Analysis Services tools, such as the Deployment Wizard or Business Intelligence Development Studio, the resulting OLAP
database is not partition-aware. In other words, cubes will aggregate data across partitions.
■ If you want to extend an SSAS project, always check out and modify the project in the AOT.
Do not customize a project associated with a specific partition by importing the project directly in Business Intelligence Development Studio. The Deploy function in the wizard will overwrite any partition-specific customizations that you have made directly on the server.
■ If you add custom query definitions in the DSV, the wizard adds where clauses to each select statement that restrict rows from other partitions.

4- Process cubes
The SQL Server Analysis Services Project Wizard lets you process deployed cubes directly. However, before processing, the wizard also runs through several prerequisite checks to ensure that cube
processing will not fail later. If you are using demo data, you can ignore these preprocessing warnings and have the wizard process the cubes.

While the project is being processed, the wizard displays a progress page. When processing is complete, click Next, and the wizard will show the completion screen.

 

5- Provision users in Microsoft Dynamics AX
After you deploy and process Microsoft Dynamics AX cubes, you must grant users permissions to access them. Provisioning users involves two activities:
■ Associate an appropriate user profile with each Microsoft Dynamics AX user.
■ Provide Microsoft Dynamics AX users with access to the OLAP database.