The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 75,000 times in 2015. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 3 days for that many people to see it.
See you next year…
This is almost the end of this year and I want to wish to all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
It is also the time to make a small retrospective of this year. Personally, this year was really great for me, as well as the previous year. I had a lot of very good projects, I started with publishing new magazine (and already got the award for this idea), I traveled a lot of countries and I was speaker on lot of very interesting conferences all around the world (and also in my country). I met a lot of new good friends. We got a new really exciting NAV version… I hope the next year will be the same and maybe even better.
I want to say thanks to all people that supported me. Of course, thanks to all people that do not supported me :-); they are a reason I am trying to be better. I want to all of you to have a year that is better than I already had this year (this is not so easy, but I really wish this for you 🙂 ). I also hope, we will get an awesome new version of NAV (‘Madeira’) next year; I already know some features and I am sure it will be really amazing new version.
And, of course, special thanks to my friends all around the world and especially to my family (my wife, son and dog).
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 is about two month and half here. Currently, you can find a lot of instructions on MSDN and very interesting How Do I videos.
But, you can also find official video courses on DLP and Microsoft IT Academy. Microsoft already published these seven following courses:
I really recommend to see these courses. And you can expect some new courses soon, as well.
Also, you can expect more exams about NAV made by Association of Dynamics Professionals.
Now we have Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 on Azure SQL Server, I’m getting a lot of different questions about this topic. One of them is related with database administration.
If you want to administer Azure SQL Server, you can do it through SQL Server Management Studio. You just need to use your full Azure database name (YourDatabaseName.database.windows.net) and login to database using SQL Server authentication. Of course, previously you have to add your IP address to Azure SQL firewall.
But unfortunately, you cannot use SQL Server Profiler for Azure SQL (maybe in future, but currently not). You can use some other useful tools, for example Index Advisor.
Also, you cannot use SQL Agent on Azure SQL. The most of tools we used to are not available. But, instead SQL Agent we have feature on Azure as Scheduler. To use this, you need to create your new mobile service on Azure for your database. More about this tool, you can find here and here.
Few days ago we got a new Azure Portal general availability. You will open new portal (codename Ibiza) if you use the following URL: https://portal.azure.com/
This portal looks like the following picture and this is now default Azure portal:
Microsoft promises really better performance and usability, but I need to test completely portal longer period before I can give my opinion. On the first sight, we can see some new features, but I’ll write more soon.
If you still want to use old Azure portal, you just need to use the following URL: https://manage.windowsazure.com/
After my session on NAV TechDays about deployment of NAV 2016 on Azure SQL Server, I got a lot of questions about using Development Environment in this situation.
Using Development Environment can be done absolutely normal. If you want to use DE from your local computer, first you have to add your IP address to Azure SQL firewall (SQL Databases > Servers > choose server > Configure). You can do it to allow connection between your computer and Azure SQL server.
After that, open Development Environment and type your full Azure SQL server name to Server Name (xxxxx.database.windows.net), choose Database Server Authentication, your username and password and on the end normally choose your database.
You can work with design, but if you want to open table for example, you have to make some additional configurations. Before it, you have to make connection between your local NAV Windows Client and Azure VM. You need to use certificate and encryption key. After you configure them, everything will be OK.
If you want to use Development Environment directly on Azure VM, you just need to open DE and login to Azure SQL server (I already described), nothing else. In this situation you can work what you want.
You can see it on previous picture. Database is opened from Azure SQL and you can do everything as you used to.
Microsoft has been released new, second Cumulative Update for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 in Saturday. This CU is actually Build 43897. You can download this CU from this link.
We can find a lot of platform hotfixes. If you are one of Android users for Universal Apps and you had some problems, now there are solved. Also, there some important improvements in working with Extensions.
Application hotfixes cover Administration, Finance, Inventory, Jobs, Manufacturing, Prepayments, Purchase, Sales, Service, VAT and Warehouse areas. There are also a lot of local application hotfixes (AT, AU, CH, CZ, DE, ES, FI, FR, IT, NA, NL, NO, RU, UK)
In my last two articles, I’ve showed you how to deploy Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 on Azure using Azure SQL Server. Now, if you already finished it any you want to use NAV Web Client, you have to install Web Server components on VM you configured as service tier and create Endpoint for WebClient on this VM, opening port 8080. Now you have to login with different username (for example, Admin username you already used on your VM). Now, you have to type the following URL: http://<AzureVM_Name>.cloudapp.net:8080/DynamicsNAV90/WebClient/
If you have problem with connecion and get the error message, this is probably because port 8080 is not opened. If you want to open this port, you have to open Remote Desktop Connection to your VM and run the following: Control Panel > Windows Firewall > Advanced Settings > Inbound Rules.
If you can find “Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 Web Client” as rule, you need to add 8080 as Local Port. But if you cannot find it, create a new rule (using the command in the right pane) and add this name and local port.
This topic is in connection with my session “Deploying and Managing Dynamics NAV 2016 with Azure SQL Database” on NAV TechDays 15 and I want to continue my previous article.
Before I start with BACPAC deployment, first I have to make a small correction of my previous article. Last time, I forget one important thing. Before you create BACPAC file, you have to delete all Windows users from your source database.
You can do it in following way. In SQL Server Management Studio, find your source database and collapse it until you find Security > Users. Then check all users (right-click > Properties > General).
You need to check User Type field; if you find Windows User, you need to delete it. Right-click on this these users and choose Delete.
Now, you can continue with all steps I’ve already described in previous article. Now, we can start with deployment.
First, we have to have Azure subscription and create Azure SQL Server. When you open your Microsoft Azure Portal (https://manage.windowsazure.com), choose SQL DATABASES and choose SERVER tab. Click ADD and type your Login Name, Login Password, Region and click on Complete.
You will get some weird name as Azure SQL Server. Click on this SQL Server, go to DASHBOARD tab and copy this SQL Server name. Add .database.windows.net to your SQL Server name; this will be your full SQL Server name. Now, go to CONFIGURE tab and Add Allowed IP address to Azure SQL firewall. This step is necessary if you want to use this SQL Server from your local computer (with this step, you added your computer IP address to Azure). Every time you want to connect from some other computer to your Azure SQL Server, you have to repeat this step.
Now, you need to make connection from your SQL Server Management Studio to your Azure SQL Server. In Server Name, you need to type your full Azure SQL Name and your Login and Password.
When we make connection, we can start with deployment. Go to Database, right-click and choose Import Data-tier Application. You need to choose your BACPAC file, your target Database file and continue until system finish with deployment.
Now we can check result. We can find new database on SQL Server Management Studio on Azure SWL connection. Also, we can see in on Azure Portal; choose DATABASE tab on SQL DATABASES.
In process of deployment, it is possible to have one issue. This is situation if you can only select the obsolete service tiers of Azure SQL Database, Web and Business, with a maximum database size of 150 gigabytes (GB), when you try to set target database. Of course, in this situation, there is no option to select the new service tiers, Basic, Standard and Premium. If you try to upload on obsolete service tiers, you will get the error message.
This issue occurs because SQL Server Management Studio 2014 is not updated to match the current service tier offerings. This issue was first fixed in the Cumulative Update 5 for SQL Server 2014. You just need to install this CU 5 and repeat deployment step.
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