AX 2012 - What Hotfixes & Models are Installed?

I trust everyone has had a productive and Dynamics filled week! A lot to cover from this week, with a big focus around the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack release. I'm still in the process of disecting the release and parts of it, so expect to have some post soon, right here on the topic.



I did, want to post a nice little nugget of information for you, specifically related to AX 2012 before this work week left us. This nugget of information, is specifically related to how you can quickly tell, what Models have been installed for a specific instance.

When using the terms models, here, this then includes any Functional Models delivered from Microsoft, as well as any cumulative updates, like CU2. Further this is how you can also tell what Hotfixes, which are delivered as model files, have been applied to a specific instance.

You start the process, by launching into an instance of AX 2012, and then clicking on the question mark in the top right hand corner of the AX Rich Client.



In doing this, the help context menu should appear, as seen above, and the next for you, is to click on the 'About Microsoft Dynamics AX' option. In doing this, you should see a screen similar to the one pictured below.



Here we have some information that is specific to the instance of AX 2012 your connected to. The next option you want to click, is the one highlighted above, 'Show Installed Models.' Doing this, should bring you to the following screen.



As you can seen, from the above, we are now able to tell every model that has been installed with the specific instance of AX 2012, including Hotfixes.

I hope this little bit of information helps someone out there, it's handy to understand these specific points, as it helps when addressing issues, and understanding what really is in a specific instance of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

Well that's all for this post, check back soon though as more Cloud, BI, AX 2012, Mobile ERP, and of course coverage of the AX 2012 Feature pack continue on. Till Next Time!

Follow Me @:
    

"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

AX 2012 - Slipstreaming a Cumulative update

Recently I wrote about the release of CU1 for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

This is the first cumulative update to be released, for AX 2012, that includes a number of fixes. Cumulative updates, are packaged hotfixes that are meant to fix a set of specific issues.

With the release of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, a new concept of "Slipstreaming" updates exists. I made brief mention to this new way of applying updates, in my previous article.

Now the Microsoft EMEA Support team blog was recently updated, with exactly how this can be done for CU1: How can I slipstream Cumulative Updates for AX 2012 as part of a new installation

The above link, will talk you directly through the process of taking the contents from the CU1 release, how to correctly create the sub-folder, under the new updates folder for AX 2012, and deploy the content of the update into that folder.

It's worth to note here, that things that Cumulative updates, as well as service packs are going to be released in such a way, that they can be slipstreamed and applied in such a fashion. However hotfixes will continue to have their own manual instructions for applying said updates, that will most likely not be able to be apart of this slipstream process.

Just to be clear, for everyone, on how this works.: Microsoft works the community, be that Customer or Partner and discovers a bug, or they discover it themselves. A hotfix for that specific bug is created. Then after a set amount of hotfixes are generated, a cumulative updates is created. Typically the cumulative updates contain the previous cumulative update hotfixes. This means, that CU2, when released will actually contain CU1 fixes. From here, after a certain time frame, based on product road map, and market feedback / demand, services packs are released, that bring together all previous cumulative updates, and sometimes also have new feature adds.

So in short: Hotfixes -> Cumulative Updates -> Service Packs.

The idea, behind the slipstream process, is to cut down on the amount of setups one would have to run. In the past, if for example you want to deploy AX 2009, Service Pack 1, CU8. Well the process would be to run the RTM setup, then the SP1 setup and finally the CU8 setups.

With the slipstream process, you deploy the install contents from the ISO file for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 to a network share, add to the Updates folder as described in the above mentioned support post, and there is a single setup that has to be executed.

That's all for now, but check back soon as more to come. Till next time!



"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"