Dynamics Ax Live

Best practices: Autogrowth of the database, what not to forget

2012-01-23T21:43:00.000-08:00

Some system administrators are happy already when Dynamics Ax is fully installed and up-and-running. But there is more. Ask yourself: Is everything set at its best? Did you do everything to ensure stability in the future as well? An often overlooked setting here is the growth of your Ax SQL database, a forgotten setup which may come back to haunt you later as a performance issue. When

Different ways of getting the current date: Which one should you pick?

2012-01-04T11:45:00.000-08:00

There are a number of ways in Dynamics Ax to get the current date. Maybe you've tried some of them, and most likely they all returned the same result. Albeit that's actually depending on your installation and setup. What's the difference? Which method should you use when writing code to get the current date? A short overview: today The today function uses the date of the machine. This method

DateSeparator: What's missing in the documentation of date2Str

2011-12-31T08:00:00.000-08:00

The function date2Str provides a good way to convert a date to a string in Dynamics Ax. The string output can be controlled, you can specify the notation with different parameters. It goes something like this: str date2Str( date date, int sequence, int day, int separator1, int month, int separator2, int year [, int flags = DateFlags::None]) In an example: static void

Happy New Year!

2011-12-26T05:43:00.000-08:00

Thanx for reading my blog, now and in the future. Wishing you all the best for 2012. Best wishes for 2012 A big thank you for the nice comments as well!

Dynamics Ax and the cloud - Part 2

2011-12-26T02:09:00.000-08:00

In the last blog post we talked about Dynamics Ax and the cloud. And the fact that Microsoft's latest release of Dynamics Ax, Ax 2012, is not the cloud version (some hoped for). Is it a sign? Should we be unhappy about that? Microsoft already has some cloud solutions up and running, focussed on business users. With Office 365, CRM 2011 for example. With varying degrees of success, on

Did Dynamics Ax already make it to the cloud?

2011-12-10T02:00:00.000-08:00

SAP is the latest to jump on the cloud bandwagon with their aquisition of SuccessFactors, an established player in cloud offerings. First weekend of December 2011 it was announced that the deal was worth $3.4 billion, not a minor expense. Last October we saw this other big ERP player Oracle buy RightNow for $ 1.5 billion. Earlier in October, Oracle unveiled Oracle Public Cloud. That's when

Error: Cannot create another system semaphore

2011-11-29T10:52:00.000-08:00

When trying to start the Dynamics Ax AOS service, the attempt fails. You may receive following error message: Error: Cannot create another system semaphore When you check the Windows event log, you may come across following error: Fatal SQL condition during login. Probable causes: The SQL Server service is down, verify this first. The account that has been setup to start the AOS service,

What's wrong with the audience?

2011-11-28T10:38:00.000-08:00

When doing development/debugging/troubleshooting, you come across the strangest things. Error messages that don't give you the slightest idea on what's happening, or just funny ones. Like this message from the Windows event log I found amusing: Failed to compile audience. Compile the audience, a whole new approach for your presentations. The message is from SharePoint server by the way.

A touch of Dynamics Ax

2011-11-25T12:28:00.000-08:00

One of the more interesting features of the latest version of Dynamics Ax, where I had high expectations, were the touch enabled features in the production area. During last week's Technical Conference in Nice, we saw a nice build up towards the demo of Manufacturing Execution, the new name of the Shop Floor module. During one of the keynotes the unique position of Microsoft was highlighted.

myAx - a mini version of Dynamics Ax

2011-11-21T04:40:00.000-08:00

At the end of keynote 3 at the Dynamics Ax Technical Conference 2011 in Nice, some time was reserved for Q & A. Interesting question popped up: Q Is there a mini Ax version planned, for smaller companies? I consider this question very relevant. With each major release of Dynamics Ax, we see an increase in functionality, an increase in complexity. Despite all the effort that goes into

Cumulative update 2 for Dynamics Ax 2012 released

2011-11-19T00:00:00.000-08:00

Even with launch events still going on all over the world, Microsoft already released cumulative update number 2 for Dynamics Ax 2012. 70+ fixes are included in the update. RapidStart issues, performance issues with the GAB, workflow, client crashes, ... Something for everyone it seems. This update of course includes the fixes included in update 1, that's why they call it cumulative :-) More

NUMB3RS

2011-11-18T06:20:00.000-08:00

The Dynamics Ax Technical Conference 2011 was all about Dynamics Ax 2012, internal version number 6.0. Microsoft is finishing up work on the next version being 6.1, to be released Q1 of 2012. This will include the Retail offering. And the people of Redmond talk vividly about 6.2 or V-Next already, to be expected in 2013. And then there's version 7.0 on the roadmap as well...

Nice was nice

2011-11-16T17:56:00.000-08:00

The last slide of the last PowerPoint presentation has been shown. The banners can be stored for a future event. The Dynamics Ax Technical Conference 2011 has come to an end. Lots of things learnt, exciting stuff happening, a lot to share. Expect some bits and pieces over the next few days over on this blog. (and lots of other blogs I imagine) Very trivial, but one of my observations to

Are you crazy or ...?

2011-11-14T12:44:00.000-08:00

A beautiful city in the south of France, at the Côte d'Azur Relaxing temperatures, a ray of sunlight through the palm trees And 800 people locked inside an auditorium with all the windows blinded There must be a tech convention going on... It's the Dynamics Ax Technical Conference 2011 at the Acropolis in Nice! Some excellent conditions to make this a great success. But the Demo Gods are not

What about 'The command-line parameter -compressionminsize=1024 is invalid.' error message?

2011-10-12T21:30:00.000-07:00

When starting the Ax client by clicking an Ax configuration file (.AXC), you may receive following error message: The command-line parameter -compressionminsize=1024 is invalid. Check the spelling and start Microsoft Dynamics AX again. Possible cause, and a solution: You are using an Ax configuration file to start Ax. But instead of using a configuration file created for an Ax client, you

What not to forget when using the changecompany keyword

2011-10-10T11:43:00.000-07:00

When debugging some Ax code the other day, I stumbled upon some good looking but not working code. What at first sight looked OK, missed a small but vital detail. The code involved the use of the changecompany keyword. It's an easy approach for reading records from different company accounts within one Ax database. The syntax is pretty straightforward: changecompany('id') { //

Microsoft opening up the vault of KB articles

2011-09-28T20:34:00.000-07:00

Up until now, access to Knowledge Base articles for Dynamics Ax was limited to people with access to either CustomerSource or PartnerSource. This also means access to people with a valid Service Plan for Ax. Microsoft decided a while ago to align it's policy regarding KB's for Dynamics Ax with other MS products. This means that all KB articles are now publicly available, no restraints. Which

Switcher

2011-09-19T22:37:00.000-07:00

Microsoft is gaining market share with the Dynamics suite, but only marginally. Today it still is not a real threat to number one, SAP. In fact, they are profiling Dynamics Ax as an addendum to SAP, king of the Tier 1 throne. With Dynamics Ax for subsidaries, branch offices. But with the introduction of Dynamics Ax, they really do target a competitor. And that competitor is Lawson, with is

Electronic concrete

2011-09-08T10:45:00.000-07:00

Virtual Launch event of Microsoft Dynamics Ax 2012 today. Can't miss it! Microsoft really pulled out the big guns. Steve Ballmer, Kyril Tatarinov, Hal Howard, ... A one hour event, with a nice mix of promotional talk, some demo's, user experiences. The message is clear: Ax 2012 is released soon on a computer near you in better shape then ever... More to come. Oh and the title of

Dynamics Ax 2012 is compatible with Windows 7 - Did you expect otherwise?

2011-08-03T01:33:00.000-07:00

It looks like a formality, but still they have to go through the proces. After Dynamics Ax 2009 already got a green light (see here and here), and since Windows XP is no longer supported for Ax 2012 (see here), it was now time to put Dynamics Ax 2012 to the test. The results of the jury (we didn't expect anything else): Microsoft Dynamics Ax 2012 is compatible with Windows 7. Now it's official

Microsoft Dynamics Ax Technical Conference 2011 in Europe

2011-08-01T02:46:00.000-07:00

Good news! After holding a technical conference earlier this year in Seattle (US) and after announcing a virtual lauch event for Dynamics Ax 2012, it's now time for a Technical Conference here in Europe. This will take place November 14-16, 2011. Just to be clear: This is not a virtual event, it's the real deal. The event will take place in Nice, France. And that's an extra reason to attend

How to retrieve the port number of the AOS within a session

2011-07-04T08:18:00.000-07:00

The port number used by an AOS server instance is of course set in the server configuration utility. But what if you need to retrieve this information from within a session? Or what if you connect to a load balanced cluster and you need to know the currently used port number? For these kind of questions, the Session class has an answer. With the method getAOSPort. See following example: static

Dynamics Ax 2012 Global Virtual Launch Event set for September 8 2011

2011-06-30T23:28:00.000-07:00

Microsoft is increasing his marketing efforts for the next release of Dynamics Ax. It has scheduled a Dynamics Ax 2012 Global Virtual Launch Event on September 8, 2011. So watch out for more information to come. The Ax 2012 info on Microsoft.com, the launch page available to the public, is up for some time already. PartnerSource, the site for Microsoft Dynamics Ax partners, got updated

What can you do if your AOS service is in the stopping state?

2011-06-28T10:16:00.000-07:00

For a routine maintenance job you want to bring the AOS server down. So you stop the service and then... things go terribly wrong. The Windows service does not stop and remains in the stopping state. So now what? You cannot stop the service, you cannot start it. Is a server reboot an option? If there is only one AOS instance installed on your server, it's easy. By using the taskmanager in

Prediction: Version market share of Dynamics Ax 2012 will not reach 40% before 2013.

2011-06-23T22:39:00.000-07:00

Yes it is true: I've used my crystal ball and took a look at the future. Even though it was a bit cloudy (more clouds packing together year after year), it was pretty clear to see. So here's my prediction: Ax version market share for Dynamics Ax 2012 will not reach 40% before January 1st 2013. Why do I say that? Beacuse it makes senses. I've done two small surveys in the recent past (thank you