NAV on Azure SQL on NAVTechDays

Last week we finished one of the best NAV conferences this year. NAV Tech Days this year had about 950 NAV passionate attendees from all around the world. Everything in organization was the amazing; Luc did a great job.

This NAV Tech Days was very special for me, because I was the speaker on this conference for the first time. My topic on NAV Tech Days was “Deploying and Managing Dynamics NAV 2016 with Azure SQL Database”. This is something new in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016. I know, a lot of partners still not use NAV on Azure, but by my opinion this feature can move all of us forward. Azure SQL can save a money and we finally have a good tool for managing our multitenant environment – Management Service Portal.

I gave a word to people on my session that I’ll publish my presentation and PowerShell scripts on my blog. You can find them here:

In few following scripts, I’ll describe all details about using NAV 2016 on Azure SQL Server and give you some answers on additional questions I already got.

Directions NA 2015 has opened

26/10/201527/10/2015 atotovic Conference, Microsoft Dynamics NAV Azure, Directions, Directions NA, Managed, Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, NAV, NAV2016, NAVUG, Orlando, service

Direction NA 2015 has opened yesterday in Orlando (Florida). This is one of the most important NAV conferences in America. There are about 600 attendees. Key note session by Microsoft was a bit different as on Directions EMEA. In the forefront, it was Microsoft Dynamics NAV Managed Service, a really amazing tool for managing your clients on the cloud.

Today we are starting with new sessions. You can find more (agenda, speakers, sponsors…) about this event on this link.

NAV 2016 System Requirements

06/10/201506/10/2015 atotovic Microsoft Dynamics NAV Azure, Client, HW, Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, NAV, NAV2016, NAVUG, OS, requirements, Server, SQL, SW, system, Windows

Since begin of August, I’ve tried to research what are the minimum system requirements for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016. First I’ve published one post about it, but I’ve deleted it. It wasn’t completed. Now, I have the freshest tested information and I hope everything will be fine in the production, as well.

In this process I’ve checked only NAV and Web Server and Windows Client requirements. You can find all my conclusions in following text. But you must to know, there are not officially requirements; these requirements are based only on my testing.

Supported Operating Systems (Server and Windows Client)

First, NAV Sever works only on 64-bit edition of operating systems. I’ve concluded that these OS are completely qualified as base for NAV and Web Server:

Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows Server 2012
Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows Server 2016 (Technical Preview 3)
Windows 7
Windows 8
Windows 8.1
Windows 10

You can see I’ve also checked installation on next Windows Server release – Windows Server 2016 (Technical Preview 3) and everything was working fine.

Older OS as Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 also require some additional software as Windows PowerShell 3.0. You can download Windows PowerShell 3.0 as part of Windows Management Framework 3.0.

Also, all these operating systems require enabled Windows Search. If this is not enabled on your server, you can do it adding new Windows Search role in Server Manager.

If you want to run Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 Windows Client, you can do it on the same operating systems, but you can do it on both of them, 64-bit or 32-bit editions. If you install Windows Client on some of the 64-bit edition OS’s, you will get two Windows Clients (32-bit and 64-bit); 64-bit will be by default, but you can change default client as well. But if you install on 32-bit OS edition, you will get only 32-bit Windows Client. I will explain more about it in new post.

SQL Servers

The same situation is as for OS, SQL Servers also require 64-bit editions only. You can use NAV 2016 on following SQL Servers:

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (SQL Server 2008 R2 is out of mainstream support, but I’ve tested NAV 2016 and in my tests everything was fine; but I think we have to make more tests in any case)
Microsoft SQL Server 2012
Microsoft SQL Server 2014
Microsoft SQL Server 2016 CTP2.2
Azure SQL Server

You can see that I also check installation on next SQL release – Microsoft SQL Server 2016 CTP2.2 and everything was working fine. This will be helpful in the future with information about new Windows Server.

About using NAV 2016 on Azure SQL, I have to say much more. It is a really good news and I will write a new post only about it.

Hardware sizing

All of these configuration I’ve checked, have worked with minimum 1,75GB RAM.

REMARK:

As I already said, these are not officially Microsoft system requirements. These are information based on my personal testing and they will maybe be different in officially release.

After NAV 2016, NAV ‘Madeira’ Is Coming

06/10/2015 atotovic Conference, Microsoft Dynamics NAV Azure, Core, deployment, Directions, Directions EMEA, Mannheim, NAV, NAV Madeira, NAV2016, NAVUG, O365, Office 365, Prague, product

Unfortunately because of my backache, I cannot be involved in this year Directions EMEA as I really want. But I try as I can. On other side, I have more time to write.

Yesterday and today we’ve heard a lot of amazing news in NAV 2016. It is one of the best releases and I think we can say that people from Microsoft made awesome product. A lot of functional features and more technical really good things. We will speak about them in few following months. There will be a lot of documents, videos… I hope a new projects…

But what next. For now, we have information where will be the next Directions EMEA. It will be one of the most beautiful cities on the world – Prague, for the second time. And we also know what a code name of next NAV release is. It is NAV ‘Madeira’ and we can start to find it on an open see.

What we can expect in this new release? Currently, we know only few initial priorities, but it looks pretty good:

Office 365: Further enhanced “in” Office 365 experience
Azure: Pre-packaged Azure ML services
Core Product: Developer experience, More service integrations
Deployment: Fast set up, Easy configuration

A now, let’s start to use NAV 2016 and waiting for new features the next year in the same time.

What is a Cloud Sure Step?

12/08/201521/08/2015 atotovic Conference, Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015, Azure, cloud, Conference, Directions, learn, Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, NAV, NAVUG, O365, Office 365, R2R, Sure Step, WPC

Cloud Sure Step is a new Microsoft program. This program should evolve the Road to Repeatability (R2R) program. The main goal of this program is to make an ease transition to the cloud for the most of partners. The NAV team has promoted this new program to WPC 2015 attendees, with the goal of transitioning more partners to cloud-based deployments that focus on fast, repeatable implementations that bring partners’ own IP and vertical specialization to bear.

This is something that we could expect, as second part of Satya Nadella’s mantra “Mobile-first, Cloud-first”. With the newest NAV version, we will get new Azure and O365 integration enhancements, and it is naturally that we can expect more and more cloud based NAV implementations. The most important is that some of these enhancements will decrease cost of NAV deployment on Azure (e.g. using Azure SQL…).

Because of that, you can see that Cloud Sure Step is actually completely strategy, not only some lesson. Microsoft wants to prepare all NAV partners for the future. Because NAV in this new vision uses Azure and O365 as base, Microsoft has prepared Cloud Sure Step in two parts for both of their bases and you can find here more about it for Microsoft Azure and for Office 365. Using these information, you can learn everything from the beginning to the end: what are the Azure and O365, overview of these products and how to grow and optimize your business.

More details about Cloud Sure Step will come at fall partner events. If you are planning to be on Directions EMEA or Directions NA this October, you can find Cloud Sure Step sessions.

My NAV Lectures This Fall

08/08/201507/09/2015 atotovic Conference, Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015, Azure, Conference, Corfu, Directions, EMEA, fall, Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, MVP, NAV, NAV2016, NAVTechDays, NAVUG, Sinergija, SQL, Summit

To the end of this year, there will be a few very interesting NAV Conferences. I will go on most of them, but on few of them I will be a lecturer. Now, I can present schedules of my lectures this fall.

First, I’m starting at Directions EMEA, Mannheim, Germany – October 5-7, 2015

I was on almost all Directions EMEA Conferences, but it will be my first time as lecturer. I still remember Paris 2008, but now it is really huge conference (it will be conference with 1.300+ attendees). Topic will be how you can implement NAV in construction business. I think I have a lot of experiences in this topic and I think it will be very interesting. I still don’t know exact term, but I’ll publish it in a timely manner. I will be there few days earlier. See you there.

In second half of October, I will start with MS Sinergija, Belgrade, Serbia – October 21-23, 2015

MS Sinergija is my favorite Serbian IT Conference. It will be my tenth lecture on this conference. Conference will be at inconvenient times this year because my trip to US, but it will be a jubilee lecture and I cannot miss it. I’m still not sure about topic, but it will be for sure about something new in NAV 2016. I hope it will be interesting for people in my country.

Only one day after Sinergija I will fly to US on Directions NA, Orlando, USA – October 25-28, 2015

This will be my first time on Directions NA and I hope not the last J. I expect to meet a lot of good people there. On this Conference, I will have the same session as on Directions EMEA – How to implement NAV in construction business. This lecture is part of MVP Best Practices Track and it is already scheduled as session BP 450 on 1:15 PM – 2:15 PM, Tuesday, October 27. This year, I will stay in USA two weeks. After this conference, I will be few days in San Francisco and in Seattle on MVP Summit after that, as well.

And on the end, as my the last conference this year, I’ve planned NAV TechDays, Antwerp, Belgium – November 19-20, 2015

Last year, I was on this conference for the first time and I just fell in love. I will have one session this year: Deploying and Managing Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 with Azure SQL Database. It will be completely technical session and I hope you will recognize it as interesting topic. It is an honor to be with these great people on this conference. This session is already scheduled at 11:00 – 12:30, Friday, November 20.

I hope I’ll see and meet a lot of good people on all these conferences. In meantime, I will also be on MVP Summit in Redmond, US – November 2-5, 2015. See you there.

Unfortunately, I will not be on NAVUG Summit, Microsoft Business Summit Asia and on Convergence EMEA because of my tight schedule on the end of year. But I hope, maybe next year.

New NAV Roadmap (NAV2016)

20/07/2015 atotovic Microsoft Dynamics NAV Azure, Corfu, CRM, DMS, E-services, Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, NAV, NAV 2015, NAV2016, NAVUG, O365, OCR, Office 365, PartnerSource, roadmap, UX, workflow

Microsoft has officially published new Microsoft Dynamics NAV roadmap. You can download it form PartnerSource using the following link: //aka.ms/navroadmap

Before NAV 2016, roadmap was as following:

Now, Microsoft adds new version and what we can expect in the future:

If you want to see everything news in NAV 2016, you can use the following picture:

There are only basics on previous picture. The completely news are really excited and I cannot wait to tell you more about them, but we still need to wait some time.

Deploying NAV 2016 on Azure SQL on NAVTechDays

17/07/2015 atotovic Conference, Microsoft Dynamics NAV Antwerp, Azure, Conference, deployment, Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, NAV, NAV2016, NAVTechDays, NAVUG, SQL, WPC

I have already wrote about NAV TechDays 2015. By my opinion, this is the best global NAV technical conference. I didn’t introduce you in my session, because in this moment this topic was still by NDA. But now, we heard about it on WPC in Atlanta this week.

Now I can introduce you in my session about Deploying and Managing Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 with Azure SQL Server. You can learn a lot about this awesome feature. I have already introduced in this topic with small article on my blog, but on this session I will present full concept with lot of demos. You can find more about this session here.

But beside my session, there will be a lot of good sessions by other lecturers and you can find all of them here. I think all these sessions will be good reason to register for this conference in Antwerp.

See you there…

NAV 2016 on Azure SQL Server

14/07/2015 atotovic Microsoft Dynamics NAV Antwerp, Azure, cloud, Conference, deployment, Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, NAV, NAV2016, NAVTechDays, NAVUG, SQL, WPC

NAV 2016 database can be deployed on Azure SQL Server. Until yesterday, this news was a secret. I wanted to write about it, but it was by the NDA. Now, this news was published at WPC in Atlanta and we can discuss about it. But, the most of this is still by NDA and I cannot speak everything about this topic.

This feature will enable the better experience of NAV on Azure and better possibility for migration of NAV implementation to cloud.

Regarding that, I will have session with this topic on NAV Tech Days 2015 in Antwerp, Belgium. If you want to know how to deploy and configure NAV 2016 database on Azure SQL Server, come on this awesome conference and be patient J.

NAV ‘Corfu’ is now NAV 2016

13/07/201513/07/2015 atotovic Microsoft Dynamics NAV Azure, BI, CRM, In/On, Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, NAV, NAV2016, NAVUG, O365, OCR, Office 365, phone, Power BI, workflow, WPC

Today at WPC in Orlando, Microsoft have published official name of new NAV. Now, it is Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016. New NAV will be released in few following months with really lot of news. Some of them are: Phone Client, better In/On, works natively with Power BI and CRM Online, e-Everything, Posting Preview, OCR, Workflow,…

These information are official and you could see them on WPC. But, you can expect more details very soon (after NDA).