InformationSource: A wealth of Management Reporter Knowledge

I hope everyone is doing great today! I wanted to kick this morning off with a highlight around InformationSource and how it has a wealth of knowledge around Management Reporter 2012!



You can access InformationSource, with your CustomerSource or PartnerSource access, from the following location.: InformationSource.Dynamics.com

As you can see from the image above, there is a number of topics covered around Management reporter. Each with video's, walk through's and more to help you truly get the most out of your Dynamics investment around this area.



Management Reporter 2012 comes with a great new user interface, several updates, including the ability to connect it's output of reports to Microsoft Office SharePoint 2010.



InformationSource truly is becoming a most useful tool for learning, understanding best practices as well as the delivery vehicle for such value added services as the previously covered Data Migration Framework.

InformationSource is still listed as being in beta at this time, however since it's launch, and admitted improved UX I would say the term beta is long over due to be removed from the description of this service. Further, you can see Microsoft is committed to this approach, in that they are adding more and more content topics, including Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, Microsoft Dynamics CRM & Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009.

That's all for this morning's highlight, I hope you find it useful and get some time to learn a little bit more about Management Reporter 2012, as well as other topics, with your morning cup of Joe! Till Next Time!

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AX 2012 – Data Migration Framework: Usability to date

I hope everyone is having a great week thus far! Being head strong into summer and WPC12 behind us all, it’s time to take the biggest year in Microsoft Product history and unleash an unprecedented amount of value on the world. Microsoft Dynamics AX customers will benefit from all the great products, from SQL Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 and Visual Studio 2012. Let us also not forget about the value proposition that Windows 8 will bring for Phone, Tablet, PC and more!

With that said, today I wanted to wrap up my review of the recently released Microsoft Dynamics AX Data Migration Framework. I started this coverage early this week, with the following two post covering the release and step-by-step setup.:

• AX 2012 - Data Migration Framework (Beta) Released
• AX 2012 – Data Migration Framework: Step-by-step setup

With this now understood, I spent some time looking into the current usability of this beta release for the Data Migration Framework.



Lets point out again, that this is the beta release and therefore there will be bugs, issues and it’s not a complete offering. With that, when we start to look at the use of this framework, we must start with the types of sources we can work from. We do this from the Data Migration Framework > Setup > Source Data Formats.



I want to point out that as you open the form, we can see there is a Type field. In looking at this closer however we can’t change this from the type of File. You can see this type in the above referenced screen shot. Further inspection of this form, and it’s table DMFDataSource and we see that the field type does not allow edit. This is shown in the screen shot below.



In looking at the Base Enumeration that this field represents, being that of DMFSourceType, we do find out that there are two other types.



These types are of Ax and ODBC. We can see that there are plans then for allowing both ODBC source types, as well as enabling AX-to-AX, source-to-target usage of this framework. Just not yet! Again this is a beta, which I would think will be getting a refresh pretty soon to enable these other type source types.

Moving along, since this is file based on source types for the Data Migration Framework, out-of-the-box usage for the framework is limited. It’s powerful, and has a lot of great possible value, specifically when the AX and ODBC types are fully added. Further the framework does work well with the file sources, as I’ve tested and imported products via. If your source data is in flat files, or you can export to flat files, then you can start getting a lot of use from the framework now.



Just to show that Microsoft does plan on really helping to enable this framework to have a multitude of sources, you can see proof in the naming of .Net assemblies that come as part of the install. Specifically the below screen shot of the ‘Microsoft.Dynamics.AX.DMF.SSISHelper’ .Net assembly reference.



In looking for how this is currently used in the X++ code that is delivered along with the install of the model file, we find the ‘DMFGenerateSSISPackage’ class. As you can see from the below screen shots however, this is only targeted for file based sources, for now.







With all of this stated, if you have more complex data import needs, or your already well under way with the concept of using services to import data for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 there still is value is the data migration framework for your needs.



If we take the above screen shot, we can see the installed DMFProductEntity table. This is the staging table for products. This table, along with other staging tables, can be targets of such services or import targets for more complex importing scope.



Finally on this topic around value, there is a ‘Create a custom entity for migration’ wizard that can be called to target any out-of-the-box entities or custom ones that you may have. This is shown in the screen shot above. Further the screen shot below shows the Wizard in action with what table should be the target of a custom migration entity.



With everything said, it’s a great start to helping fill a need. As I mentioned before we have been using this approach for over 2+ years now on Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 projects. What this helps with is enabling a true framework, that is repeatable and everyone can build from. Like all things in AX, you can customize this, and for your custom entities you most likely will.

Well that’s all for this post, and my current coverage of the newly release Microsoft Dynamics AX Data Migration Framework. I will come back to this topic, at a later date when Microsoft has updates that are worth sharing around this topic. Further, starting tomorrow I will get back to my regularly scheduled topics around the Cloud, BI, EP Development – and our theme of Creating a System of Engagement with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. Till Next Time!
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AX 2012 – Data Migration Framework: Step-by-step setup

Recently I wrote about the release on InformationSource, of the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Data Migration Framework. In that post, I mentioned that I would continue to cover this release, including walking through the process of setup, configuration and use. In this post I plan to start that coverage as promised, with a step-by-step setup of the Data Migration Framework.



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The idea with this post, is to walk you through the screens, points of interest, through the full compile and finally to the point of configuration. At that point, we will continue later with a new post on the configuration and use of the Data Migration Framework.

Now that we understand the purpose, and scope of this post, lets get started. First off, of course you need to download the Data Migration Framework from InformationSource. After having downloaded the Data Migration Framework, the next step is to extract the contents of the Zip file.

At this point you will want to launch the Setup for the Data Migration Framework.



Moving from here a decision must be made on what is to be installed.



Since I’m making the choice to install both Server and Client on a development instance of AX 2012 I will leave both checked. It’s worth to note the message contained within the first dialog box, around the fact that the server part must be installed on an AOS.

Moving along we must select the path in which the setup will install the application files to.



After this, you should reach the final screen, indicating that the setup program has completed it’s task.



When clicking on the finish button, the installation log file opens up for you. It’s worth scanning through to see if there are any errors.



Now that we have completed the install, we need to double check that we have the Data Migration Framework bits ready for our use. Do this by browsing to the location in which you had chosen previously. In doing so, you should see a folder with similar contents as shown below.



Now that we have verified that install completed successfully, lets move towards a point in the install documentation on TechNet.



Specifically there is a warning, that states: “Because the staging environment is highly normalized and may require significant processing bandwidth, we recommend that you increase the Maximum buffer size setting for your environment while you migrate data. Use the Server configuration utility to set the value.” Lets take the advice of Microsoft and do just that.

This means you need to launch the server configuration utility, go to the database tuning tab, and change the buffer size from 24, to say 48.







You will notice that in making such a change Microsoft warns of doing so. Since we are doing this on purpose, we can ignore this warning. However it’s valid to point out that after your done with the data migration framework, it’s best to change this setting back to 24. Further, you might find that 48 is still not big enough and you will need to increase further.

After doing this, and clicking apply you should take the option of allowing the configuration utility to restart the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 AOS instance.



Now we have to move to importing the model file that came as part of the install bits for this offering. We perform this install either by using the PowerShell command console, or the AXUtil application. I’ve made the choice of using the AXUtil application.



Finally after a successful install of the model file, to your target instance of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, you should launch AX. In doing so, it will detect a new model as been installed, and ask how you wish proceed. For this, we want to make the choice of ‘Compile and synchronize’ and then click ok.



After the successful completion of the full compile and synchronization of the database, next action to take is a full CIL compile. This should take roughly 15 +/- minutes to complete. After completing this step, your instance of AX 2012 has the newly released Data Migration Framework deployed and setup. You should see the something similar to the following when done.



Now that we have the Data Migration Framework deployed and setup, the next steps goes towards configuration. This is where creating entity maps, and understanding source through to target needs great focus, clarity and I can stress enough human workflow.

Well that’s all for this post. I hope you find it useful and helpful in speeding up your adoption and use of the Microsoft Dynamics AX Data Migration Framework. Keep in mind that this is still in beta, and there will be issues. So keep a watch on InformationSource and further this blog for updates. Till Next Time!


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AX 2012 - Data Migration Framework (Beta) Released

I hope everyone is doing great this fine Dynamics Day! I thought I would warm back up the writing presses, if you will, with some exciting news. Microsoft has released to InformationSource the Beta release of the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Data Migration Framework



The above is from the Data Migration User's guide, which you can find at the following location.: Data Migration Framework User Guide [AX 2012]

Further you can download the beta release for this new framework, located at InformationSource from the following link: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Data Migration Framework (Beta) Download. Keep in mind that you do need PartnerSource or CustomerSource access for this download. Further please keep in mind this is Beta.

The approach that this data migration framework is something that we at IDB Solutions have been using for now two years working with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. The basics are simple, you de-normalize the datasets that make up the Data model in AX 2012 with targeted staging tables. Then you have X++ code that work against the staging tables, to fill the normalized, and sometimes super normalized, datasets of AX 2012.



The configuration aspect, or process for this framework is spelled out below. This was also taking from the above referenced user's guide.:

• 1) Determine entities in source system
• 2) Define the source data format
• 3)Identify entities to place in processing group
• 4) Define the processing group
• 5) Source to Staging (Entity Map)
• 6) Staging to Target (Entity Map)

Further there is also a Model file that needs to be installed into your target instance of AX 2012. You can do this, with the following example - based on the AXUtil application.: 'axutil import /file: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Data Migration Framework (CTP)\DataMigrationFramework.axmodel"'. You can find this as part of the above referenced user guide, in the install section.

I'm in the process of downloading this now for use on my clients AX 2012 projects. I plan on having a follow up post on my thoughts of the framework, ease of use, extending it and more.

That's all for this kick off post, and check back soon as I continue to cover this new framework, as well as more cloud stories, a continue focus on EP and of course BI on the brain!Till Next Time!
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