Monday, February 11, 2013

Update - Facing Issue with Dynamics AX 2009 Enterprise Portal deployment

Update:

 Finally, we figured out the issue. All The custom objects were successfully deployed but the role centers fooled us,  meaning we had to manually go to the role center page and Edit the web part zone and then attach the custom web menus

 Thanks again to all of you for your helpful comments. Appreciate it.

Dear Friends,

Greetings!

This time it's not a solution but I'm stuck a problem which I thought to share here and get some responses. Any feedback welcome!

I'm at a customer place where they are on Dynamics AX 2009 SP1 and i'm n the process of building a TEST Instance of EP from a LIVE one.

I have performed the following:

a. Backup of Live AX Database and Restored it to TEST AX
b. Backup of Live AX Application and restored it to TEST AX
c. Setup AOS to point to TEST AX
d. Setup WSS 3.0 SP2
e. Create a new web app and site collection using Dynamics AX Enterprise Portal template
f. Run Dynamics Setup to install Role centers and enterprise portal without creating a new site i.e. by unchecking configure sharepoint and create a new site while going through the setup

All the above works, and later on I used Axupdateportalutility so that all the web customizations get deployed to TEST Instance, but this never happens, Although axupdateportal runs successfully and it writes everything in the log file which is around 300 kb and finally it says success.

But, none of the customized pages or role centers gets deployed to the test instance, The standard EP portal renders fine but the problem we have is with the custom pages. 

Initially we tried on a 64-bit Windows Server 2008 R2 with WSS 3.0 SP2 on it, but I found there are some issues like Manage deployment doesn't work, so we have to use axupdateportal from an elevated command prompt. I have done all the troubleshooting steps mentioned in the below blogs, but still no luck..


Lastly, we tried to replicate our LIVE Environment which is running on Windows 2003 and uses WSS 3.0, by following the steps mentioned above, but still no luck, everything works without any errors and log files seems ok. But. the custom pages and role centers just wont appear. I even tried copying the sharepoint IIS folders from LIVE to TEST (Especially the ones with control templates and layouts) but have hit a wall.

Any help on this matter much appreciated. Thanks for your patience and reading it through. Cheers




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5 comments:

  1. GrahamdFebruary 11, 2013 at 11:51 PM

    Generally I find reinstalling the .NET connector using the AX install wizard cures most EP deployment issues and it is the quickest easiest thing to try 1st with little risk in breaking anything else.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousFebruary 12, 2013 at 1:28 AM

    You should pay attention that C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\layouts is directory which is shared accross your sharepoint instances

    This folder contains all your EP web pages. When you deploy with AxUpdatePortal, web pages files are created in this directory.
    (check the creation date/time)

    I would suggest to work with two directories (one for the test environment, one for the live).

    Take a closer look to the folder specified in the "layouts" virtual path properties.
    This is located in the advanced settings under your EP web site in IIS.

    If you want to have a specific version of a web page in test environment and another in the live environmenet duplicate the folders
    and change the virtual path target folder.

    ReplyDelete
  3. DilipFebruary 12, 2013 at 5:32 AM

    Thanks guys for your comments, Appreciate your time. I have already gone through both the points which you have discussed.

    ReplyDelete
  4. twpica@boun.crFebruary 12, 2013 at 6:33 PM

    Just some thoughts for your reference.
    a. check the config of both client and bc is connect to TEST by config manager
    b. since you backup and restore db from Live to Test, I think you need to check AOS setting in AX is correct or not
    c. compile sysepdeveloment class on deploy site before deployment
    d. check website setting in AX, if it's incorrect then register it and try to deploy again
    e. make sure the windows authentication is enable of website in IIS
    f. use -verbose argument when running AxUpdatePortal utility for getting error message

    Hope this is helpful. Good luck.

    ReplyDelete
  5. tommy.skaueFebruary 12, 2013 at 6:39 PM

    Hi Dilip. Can you try remove the farm solution in test and redeploy it?

    ReplyDelete