AX 2012 - Security Development Tool (Beta)

Well I hope everyone's week is off to a great and productive start. I wanted to inform everyone of a brand new tool that is currently released in beta form on InformationSource.



This new tool is called the Security Development Tool for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. You can find a direct link to this tool, on InformationSource from the following location: Link to Download the Security Development Tool.



Keep in mind, that in order to access this and other such information from InformationSource, you will have to have CustomerSource or PartnerSource Access. With that understood, this latest add-on releases just a few days ago, is Microsoft answering the call from the AX 2012 customer & partner base, for help in modeling security.

From the site:
"The Security Development Tool for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is intended to simplify the creation and maintenance of security artifacts such as roles, duties and privileges. It displays entry point permissions for a given role, duty or privilege and allows you to create new security artifacts on the basis of access through various entry points. The tool allows you to test newly created or modified security rol, duty or privilege from the same interface without using a different test user account. In addition, the tool also allows you to record business process flows and identify the entry points used."



There are a few resources that can help you with the install and use of this new tool. First off, there is a 6+ min video that goes over the use of the security tool, to a decent level actually. This is just to the right of the download itself, on that same page referenced above.

Next we have the following source on MSDN: Security Development Tool User Guide [AX 2012]. This page is the home that can take you to the above listed download as well as the Install and Execution of the Security Development Tool.

The Security model in AX 2012 has undergone a vast improvement, with great new features that enable a number of new concepts, from a business point of view. This includes topics like segregation of duty, and enabling the ability to model security, and getting rid of the need for custom code approaches to achieve certain goals. With this set of improvements, and flexibility the scope and therefore surface area for Security has increased. This is why such a tool was created by Microsoft, to help in that said modeling.

I have wrote a lot about security concepts in AX 2012 already, and the following is a compiled list to help you with this topic:

• [Date: March 7th 2011] - Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and the use of Claims Based Security
• [Date: June 2nd 2011] - Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 - Security Architecture Overview
• [Date: Sept 15th 2011] - AX 2012 and the use of the new Extensible Data Security Framework
• [Date: Nov 16th 2011] - AX 2012 - Security Model Design Considerations
• [Date: Oct 11th 2011] - Ax 2012 and the impact of Design with the new Security Model
• [Date: Dec 12th 2011] - AX 2012 - Hiding a form control withut code
• [Date: Jan 25th 2012] - AX 2012 - Security Tools Review

The above, as you can tell are listed in chronological order, and all relate to the topic of Security Modeling in AX 2012. With these resources in hand, as well as this new tool, the ability to modeling security for a specific instance of AX 2012 should become a much easier task. I still want to stress with this post, that security is NOT just something a technical resource needs to be concerned with. This should have a heavy focus from the functional / business user point-of-view.

Well that's all for today, I hope this helps you in your quest to slay those security dragons, and enables you to further yourself along the quest of a Dynamics AX victory. Till Next Time!



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