Known Issues with Dynamics AX 2009 MOM Pack

Got a tweet from one of my friends regarding MOM Pack ,
http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/scug/archive/2009/06/23/known-issues-with-the-microsoft-dynamics-ax-2009-management-pack-for-systems-center-operations-manager-2007.aspx

Debugging Batch Jobs in Dynamics AX

Here's a well-written post on debugging Dynamics AX Batch jobs, i have yet to try this but thought would share it over here

http://blogs.msdn.com/x/archive/2009/06/25/step-by-step-checklist-for-debugging-batch-jobs-in-dynamics-ax.aspx

Thanks for the step-by-step instructions

Dynamics AX 2009 (Software + Services) model

Today, I got a tweet on this, thought i would share it here and also had an email floating around talking about hosted solutions with AX

http://www.goiwx.com/pressandevents20090615.html

Sunrise Technologies and Hosted Solutions for AX.
http://www.sunriseconsult.com/eprise/main/SiteGen/Sunrise_Consult/Content/Industry_Solution_Microsoft_Dynamics_AX/Hosting_and_Managed_Service_Providers.html
http://www.sunriseconsult.com/Sunrise/Microsoft_Dynamics_AX_Software_as_a_Service.html

Ax v/s Nav

Interesting discussion going on here about trends between AX v/s NAV http://dynamicsuser.net/blogs/admin/archive/2009/06/18/microsoft-is-killing-navision.aspx

Configuring Dynamics AX 2009 MOM Pack for SCOM

Dynamics AX 2009 MOM Pack for SCOM

Introduction

Monitoring Microsoft Dynamics AX with Operations Manager can reduce the cost of managing a distributed Microsoft Dynamics AX system. Administrators can proactively react to changes in the system health, and can adjust the system for optimal performance and reliability.

Pre-Requisites

You must install the following software before you can use the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Management Pack:

• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 SP1
• The Operations Manager agent must be installed on all AOS servers
• System Center Operations Manager 2007 with Service Pack 1

Understanding Management Pack Operations

The Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Management Pack discovers and monitors installed AOS instances without any additional configuration. The Management Pack provides data about system health, user sessions, and batch jobs for all instances of the AOS running on registered computers.

The monitoring scenarios enabled by the Management Pack include the following:

• Detect AOS instances and their states
• View the number of active user sessions on an AOS before bringing the AOS down
• View scheduled batch jobs and tasks
• Receive alerts when an AOS has unexpectedly stopped

· Troubleshoot problems by viewing event messages for monitored AOS instances

Key Monitoring Scenarios

• Alerts – Warnings or errors associated with each monitored AOS, including severity. For example, an alert will be generated if the status of an AOS instance changes to Warning.
• Batch Jobs – Batch jobs scheduled to run on each AOS.
• Batch Tasks – Detailed tasks for each scheduled batch job.
• Computers – The names of all computers that AOS instances are detected on, and the health of those computers.
• Application Object Servers – Configuration and health information for individual AOS instances. An AOS can be started or stopped by using tasks in the Actions menu Note: To avoid generating alerts, we recommend placing AOS instances in maintenance mode during planned outages. In maintenance mode, alerts, notifications, rules, monitors, automatic responses, state changes, and new alerts are suppressed.
• Events – Event Log warnings and errors associated with monitored AOS instances.
• Users – A list of the users authorized to access an AOS instance, including an indication of which users are currently logged on.

Installation/Configuration & Monitoring Steps

Download the management Pack from the following link

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6937a1ed-cd58-4361-bb70-76dafcdcb832&displaylang=en&displaylang=en

Next steps, Install and Import the MOM Pack for Dynamics AX 2009 into SCOM
A. Import Dynamics AX Management Pack
Launch SCOM Console by navigating via the following path –

Go to Authoring tab, and Click on Import Management Pack link. Navigate to the path where you

have kept the Microsoft.Dynamics.AX.Management.Pack.mp file and import it

After importing, It should show the Dynamics AX Pack related objects under the Monitoring tab

as shown here

B. Monitoring Dynamics AX AOS Instances

Once you import the pack, after couple of mins you will be able to track the AOS instances

running on your system

In the above screenshot, it monitors the:

- AOS State, indicating it’s healthy

- If there’s some issue with AOS, it shows the state as Warning

- In Detail View, it lists down the various attributes for the AOS like name, service type, database details, port details etc.

Also, one can start and stop the AOS from Maintenance mode shown

For demo purpose, I will stop the DynamicsAXBase AOS from the MOM Console. When we click on Stop AOS Maintenance mode, it brings the following task screen, Click on Run

Once, the service is stopped, it shows this dialog stating that the task is completed successfully

Now, you can see both in the MOM Console (Warning State for the AOS Stopped) and the

Services windows, it shows that the AOS is stopped

Once the service is stopped, at the same time it generates an alert which is listed in the next

section.

C. Monitoring Dynamics AX Alerts

Continuing from the above section, once the service goes offline or stopped, you can see an alert generated for the same in the Alerts Pane shown below

D. Monitoring Dynamics AX Events

Similar to alerts, we have events which picks up the events generated from Event Viewer

related to Dynamics AX AOS. E.g. taking the above example, you will see an event logged when the AOS Service was stopped

E. Monitoring Dynamics AX Batch Jobs

One can monitor the running batch jobs by going to Batch Jobs pane

You can see in Detail pane above, the batch job name status, start date, company etc

F. Monitoring Dynamics AX Batch Job Tasks

Similarly, you can monitor batch job tasks by navigating to Batch Tasks pane

G. Monitoring Dynamics AX User

This view shows the connected users on each AOS instance

H. Monitoring Dynamics AX AOS Computer

This view shows the summarized info of AOS instances running on the computer

One of the cool options which I came across on the Context menu

Right-Click the AOS Computer and Open the Diagram View.

It will list down a tree structure drilling down from the Computer to the AOS Instances, the

number of users connected, batch jobs which are being run, and further drill down to batch

tasks. Also, in the detail pane, it will list out the different attributes for the node you have

selected i.e. if you select AOS instance, it will list down AOS name, Service name, port,

database name, service status etc.

Coming Next,

a. Reports

b. Security

X++ v/s C# Comparison

Link from MSDN on X++ v/s C#
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc967423.aspx

Troubleshoot Role Center Reporting Errors

Great video by Tariq regarding Troubleshooting Role Center Reporting Errors

Learn how to troubleshoot Role Center report errors. This video shows you how to find the related report and investigate an SSRS/SSAS report using Visual Studio, how to check the query in SQL Server Management Studio, and how to find the related code inside Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/ax/dd797430.aspx

AXADOMD Error while installing Analysis Extensions

Error:
An attempt has been made to use a data extension 'AXADOMD' that is not registered for this report server

Solution:
I was getting this error inspite of having the AMO Pack installed on the system.
Resolved this error by re-installing Dynamics AX 2009 Reporting Extensions

Serializing Axapta Foundation Class instance as XML Streams

Good read...
http://blogs.msdn.com/x/archive/2009/04/28/serializing-axapta-foundation-class-instances-as-xml-streams.aspx

10 MorphX Tricks

Here's a great video from mfp...
http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/mfp/10-MorphX-tricks-in-10-minutes/

How To Create SSRS Chart Report and display it on your Role Center

This video shows you how to create a SSRS report which displays customer transactions in columnar chart format. It takes you to the following stages

- Defining your query

- Creatinng Reporting Project in Visual Studio

- Saving the reprot to AOD

- Deploying the report to Report Server

- Managing the report in your role center