Thursday 3 October 2013

Native boot Dynamics AX 2012 V3 VM

The latest version of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is 3 (release Aug, 2013). The VM is made with Windows 2012 Server. After many tries, I discovered the native booting process has actually been simplified by Microsoft. It is just a very simplified process this time. The same restrictions apply that you need to have Windows 7 professional or above and later OS in order to boot the machine with a VM. Lets begin the journey.
  1. Download and extract the VM on your hard drive.
    Partnersource (https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/downloads/servicepacks/AX2012DemoToolsMaterials.htm)
  2. Right Click My computer and click Manage.
     
     

  3. Computer Management window will pop up. Click on Disk Management in the right hand navigation. Under Action Menu click Attach VHD.
                                     
  4. A dialog box will appear to browse the VM file.
                                 
  5. Once the VM is attached, it will appear in the lower left section of the window.
  6. Just make a note of the drive letter. For assumptions I will use J: as my VM drive.
  7. Open DOS prompt with Admin privileges
  8. Type ‘bcdboot J:\windows

That will add Windows 2012 Server as an option to your boot loaded and would enable you to boot with Windows 2012 VM.

Thursday 29 August 2013

Error "Account number for transaction type Purchase, receipt does not exist"

This error occurs when the item group of an item has not got a receipt account specified and this error appears when posting the invoice for the purchase order containing the item without the receipt account specified in the item group. Procedure to fix it is:

Solution:
Go to the item and check its item group. Under the tab Purchase Ledger, there's a field ''Receipt" for which we need to provide the account number. 



Sunday 2 June 2013

Modules of Dynamics AX 2009 and AX 2012 R2

There is many of Dynamics AX 2009 users who will soon be transiting to AX 2012 R2 upgrades. After thousands of hours of analysis, Microsoft has simplified the modules and also has relocated many of the options within the modules to their more pertinent areas. The change has also occurred in module names and some modules have been further broken down 2 or 3 modules. Also, as before, this is an inter-related system where the forms of one module can still be accessed from the other module provided the permissions are granted. The below table give a brief overview of the naming and placement changes that Microsoft has brought in with AX 2012 R2 release:

MODULES IN Dynamics AX 2009
MODULES IN Dynamics AX 2012 R2
 Inventory Management
·       Inventory Management
·       Product Information Management
Accounts Payable
·       Procurement and Sourcing
·       Accounts Payable
Accounts Receivable
·       Sales and Marketing
·       Accounts Receivable
General Ledger
·       General Ledger
·       Budgeting
·       Fixed Assets
·       Compliance and Internal controls
Cost Accounting
·       Cost Accounting
Bank
·       Cash and Bank Management
CRM
·       Moved to Sales and Marketing module
Master Planning
·       Master Planning
Production
·       Production control
Product Builder
·       Moved to Product Information Management
Shop floor Control
In 2012 R2, this modules has been splitted into three modules and is accessible through Home, Production Control and HR modules.
·       Time and Attendance  (HR)
·       Clock In and Out (Home)
·       Manufacturing execution (PC) 
Human Resource
·       Human Resources
Questionnaire
·       Moved to Home
Expense Management
·       Travel and Expense
Projects
·       Project Management and Accounting (PSA)
Service
·       Service Management
Basic
·       Organizational Administration
Administration
·       System Administration

Wednesday 17 April 2013

Delete ALL the transactional data in a company

It is interesting that there are times when we keep a TEST company even in production environments. This is a useful procedure but with ever increasing test transactions, the size of database becomes increasingly bigger. There is an in built class 'SysDatabaseTransDelete'. Just follow the steps below to actually delete all the company related transactions in the database.

  1. In the AOT expand Classes node
  2. Find the class 'SysDatabaseTransDelete' .
  3. There is a Main method defined for this class so when you right click and select Open, a message box will appear to ask confirmation. Select Yes.
  4. Depending on the volume of data, an info box will appear once the transactions are deleted.


Note: This only deletes the transactions related to the company selected under AOT. 

Thursday 4 April 2013

Labels in Version Control Environment | Dynamics AX 2012

In general understanding, label files are generally kept identical within a same layer but in reality they can contain different values even within the same layer. Came across a useful article to understand how label files behave when a version control mechanism is on. This can be read here.

Sunday 17 March 2013

Boot your computer with Windows 2008 R2 Virtual Machine (VM)

Note: To use this trick, you have to have windows 7 or later(other than student version) or Windows 2008 R2 (or later) installed natively on your computer.

I understand that most of us have had the difficulty in using the virtual machines because of the computer's resources not fully available to the VM. The computer usually slows down and both the host and the guest machines start dying. I discovered a convenient way of running the Windows 2008 R2 VM with all the power that your computer posses.

In this tutorial, I will explain how the VM that contains Windows 2008 Server R2 with Dynamics AX 2012 installed can be used to actually boot the computer so that the VM will consume the whole power of your computer. I will be using a Windows 7 Ultimate Edition of windows natively installed.

Required Softwares:

  1. EasyBCD (http://neosmart.net/EasyBCD): It is a free for personal use software and enables to update the boot record of the computer to make it boot with the VM.
  2. Virtual Box (http://www.virtualbox.com): This is a virtual machine platform that enables the user to run virtual machines.
  3. Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 VM (Trial: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2021579 or from Microsoft Partnersource)

VirtualBox Configuration
Steps to follow:

  1. Install both EasyBCD and Virtual Box on your machine.
  2. Configure and run the Windows 2008 VM using Virtual Box as per below screen captures.



  3. Once the machine is created, start it until the login screen appears.
  4. Once the login screen appears, it is save to properly turn the machine off using the close button.

The reason for above set of steps is to ensure that the VM understands your computer and somewhat learns the hardware configuration. Now we configure the boot configuration records to actually make the computer dual boot.

Updating the Boot Configuration Data (BCD)

  1. Open EasyBCD and on the left panel click 'Add New Entry'.
  2. In the highlighed area, provide the information of the VM.
  3. Once done, press 'Add Entry' and press 'Edit Boot Menu'. You should see the screen like below:

Once you're done with both the sets of procedures, you can restart your computer. Select 'Windows 2008 R2' option. Based on your computer's power, Windows will take some time for the first time to initialize the hardware and software configuration.