Hotfixes/Cumulative Update 1 for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

Cumulative Update 1 contains hotfixes for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 that were fixed since the release of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

Note This build of this cumulative update package is also known as build 6.0.947.61.

Read more about the news over here - http://news.softpedia.com/news/Dynamics-AX-2012-Cumulative-Update-1-Available-215169.shtml
You need to Login to PartnerSource to download this fix
https://mbs2.microsoft.com/Knowledgebase/KBDisplay.aspx?scid=kb$en-us$2579565&wa=wsignin1.0

Availability of SCOM System Center Monitoring Pack for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

Introduction/Background

The Monitoring Pack for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 provides an end to end monitoring solution for Dynamics AX 2012. The Management pack automatically discovers the entire AX envioronment.



Background (SCOM with Dynamics AX 2009)

In my previous implementations with Dynamics AX 2009, I had used SCOM and had shared a blog post here couple of years back
http://daxdilip.blogspot.com/2009/06/configuring-dynamics-ax-2009-mom-pack.html



Features (SCOM Pack for Dynamics AX 2012)

Visual representation of the entire Dynamics AX 2012 environment with health rollup

Monitors for Database, AOS, Enterprise portal servers, Reporting servers and framework components

AOS clusters and AOS Servers monitored

Events view for AOS and Enterprise Portal Events

SCOM Tasks for most common AX administrative actions

Download Link

SCOM Pack for Dynamics AX 2012 is avaialble to download from the below link:
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26934

CommaTextIO Class How to Export data to .csv file via X++

I'm sure many of you out there might have already used this API within AX.

I had a requirement to spit out a .csv file from AX, Looping through Iventory Pricing and On-Hand Data.
And this code snippet from MSDN was handy for the purpose

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa624902(v=ax.50).aspx

Below sample shows example of how to output the data from CustTable.

#File
CommaTextIo commaTextIo;
FileIOPermission permission;
CustTable custTable;
str fileName = @"C:\test.csv";
;
permission = new FileIOPermission(fileName,#io_write);
permission.assert();
commaTextIo = new CommaTextIo(fileName,#io_write);
while select custTable
{
    commaTextIo.write(custTable.AccountNum,custTable.Name);
}
CodeAccessPermission::revertAssert();

SQL Server Collations Explained

Couple of weeks back, I was working on SQL Collations (Troubleshooting Chinese Characters in AX) and had collected some notes on the way. Thought, will post it over here.

Overview

The physical storage of character strings in Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 is controlled by collations. A collation specifies the bit patterns that represent each character and the rules by which characters are sorted and compared

Read more here -

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa214408(v=sql.80).aspx

A collation encodes the rules governing the proper use of characters for either a language, such as Greek or Polish, or an alphabet, such as Latin1_General (the Latin alphabet used by western European languages).

The sort order to use for Unicode data types (nchar, nvarchar, and ntext). A sort order defines the sequence in which characters are sorted, and the way characters are evaluated in comparison operations.

The code page used to store non-Unicode character data.http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa174903(v=sql.80).aspx

SQL Server collations can be specified at many levels.

• Define Collation at Instance Level
• Collation at Database Level (Defaulted to Instance)
• At Column Levels (Defaulted to database)

List of SQL Server Collations

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms144250.aspx

Storage and Performance Effects of Unicode
Note - It's very important to understand how Unicode/non-Unicode  storage affects the performance and size of the database, In the below para, I have highlighted especially languages e.g. Thai uses 2 times the space than Chinese chars.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189617.aspx

SQL Server stores Unicode data by using the UCS-2 encoding scheme. Under this mechanism, all Unicode characters are stored by using 2 bytes

The difference in storing character data between Unicode and non-Unicode depends on whether non-Unicode data is stored by using double-byte character sets. All non-East Asian languages and the Thai language store non-Unicode characters in single bytes. Therefore, storing these languages as Unicode uses two times the space that is used specifying a non-Unicode code page. On the other hand, the non-Unicode code pages of many other Asian languages specify character storage in double-byte character sets (DBCS). Therefore, for these languages, there is almost no difference in storage between non-Unicode and Unicode

The following table shows the non-Unicode code pages that specify character data storage in double-byte character sets.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/qingsongyao/archive/2009/04/10/sql-server-and-utf-8-encoding-1-true-or-false.aspx?PageIndex=4#comments

   

Choosing the correct collation while installing SQL Server 2008
Note - It's very important to choose a proper collation for your instance during the installation time, as later on going and changing it can prove costly

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/nickmac/archive/2008/07/21/choosing-the-correct-collation-on-sql-server-2008.aspx

 

Change Collation at server level or database level

http://www.db-staff.com/index.php/microsoft-sql-server/69-change-collation

http://sql-articles.com/articles/dba/how-to-change-server-collation-in-sql-server-2008/

Windows Collation sorting style
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143515.aspx

Check constraint Collation Dependency

Note - There are some action items for Microsoft to make it easy with respect to changing collations, Check Constraint Dependency with collations in their future releases of SQL

https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/384157/check-constraint-collation-dependency

Make it easy to change Collation on Database

https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/358320/make-it-easy-to-change-collation-on-a-database

Dynamics AX 2012 is now on the market!!

Thought to share this news about Dynamics AX 2012 GA (General Availability)..Also, check the last link to download the RTM image, if you have access to PartnerSource or CustomerSource

https://community.dynamics.com/b/theedge/archive/2011/08/01/drum-roll-please-microsoft-dynamics-ax-2012-is-now-on-the-market.aspx

http://redmondmag.com/articles/2011/08/01/global-release-of-dynamics-ax-2012.aspx

Dynamics AX RTM Download Link