Steps and Tips to Deploy the new Dynamics AX 7 Environment on Azure

Greetings All!

I'm so excited to share the news that Microsoft has released a public preview of the new Microsoft Dynamics AX aka "AX 7". What a journey and transformation it has been for the product - from the then called Navision Axapta 2.5 version to the New Dynamics AX 7. It's just amazing!

I just finished deploying a brand new Dynamics AX environment and thought to share some tips and hints which I learned on the way.

This wiki site link shows you the steps to deploy a new dynamics ax environment on Azure, so I won't be going through the screenshots. However, I will be listing out the steps and sharing some interesting tips.

Pre-Requisites:

Azure Subscription required (Microsoft offers a free trial for those who don't have an existing subscription). Please check this link - Free Azure Trial

Deployment Steps:

a. Firstly, you will need to login to PartnerSource or CustomerSource and then there's a section on "How to access Dynamics AX"

How to access Microsoft Dynamics AX

The organization administrator should click HERE to obtain the Microsoft Dynamics AX CTP8 offer.  

You will need to click on the "HERE" link which will take you to Office 365 page where you will need to sign-in with a new Office 365 account. I tried with my existing Office 365 account but it doesn't take me in.

b. Next is the Add Users Section . You can ignore it if you are the only one going to access the Dynamics AX 7 environment as an Admin. 

c. Staying in Office 365 portal window, you can click on Dynamics Rainier Preview which will launch the Lifecycle services

d. Once you are in LifeCycle Services, you can now go ahead and deploy Dynamics AX 7 environment, before you that you will need to add a new Azure environment. At this stage, you can use your existing Azure subscription id or your new Azure id. Follow the steps mentioned in the "Deploy Dynamics AX 7 Environments Section"  in the above link.

e. Once you reach Step 4 where you need to upload the management certificate back to Azure portal, make sure you stay in the classic portal https://manage.windowsazure.com/ because that will help you with uploading the management certificates back to Azure portal. The new Azure portal uses service principals concept which will not help us with this deployment.

f. Now once you have added the subscription id and management certificate upload as per the steps, you are ready to deploy Dynamics AX 7 on the cloud. Go ahead and deploy it.

Select the region which is closest to you, In my case I live in Melbourne so I chose Australia South East that is closest Azure Data center to me.

I have gone with the default D3 plan. It took around 4 hours for me to get the new Dynamics AX deployed on Azure.

Once it's deployed, then you will get the details from Lifecycle Services (see the above dashboard), where you can log on to Dynamics AX 7. Also you have an option to download the rdp and log on to the Demo box.

Enjoy!