Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Documentation Resource Whitepaper

Microsoft has released a documentation resources whitepapaer for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 which has overview of the resources available for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 at one single location. It is available to download from following link - Download Documentaton Resource Whitepaper

New private ERP cloud offering by Avanade

Avanade Inc has announced Avanade new Private Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning Offering on Microsoft Dynamics AX.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 material is publically available at Microsoft link.

Get the current navigation pane area through program

Getting the current opened navigation pane area for the use through program might be useful where you want to perform an action depending upon in which module user is currently working. For ex: You might want to show the docuref comments depending upon the opened module or navigation pane.
static void GetCurrentNavPaneArea(Args _args)
{
xInfo objxInfo;
xNavPane objxNavPane;
Treenode objTreeNode;
xTaskPane xtask;
Treenode t;
;
objxInfo = new xInfo();
objxNavPane = new xNavPane();
objTreeNode = objxNavPane.getSelectedPlacesNode();
info(objTreeNode.AOTparent().treeNodeName());
}

AIF – Web service Configuration - Troubleshooting

I was working with AIF web services configuration on Win server 2008-r2, AX 2009, and IIS 7.0 machine and faced errors during configuration. I thought it might be useful for everyone to share with:

1. If you get the 404 error while accessing the service URL, then it might be because WCF is not registered. Consider registering Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) with IIS. To register WCF If IIS has installed after .net framework then use below options




1. Open command prompt and set the directory path to WCF directory, which is usually, C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.0\Windows Communication Foundation.
2. Run the following command: ServiceModelReg.exe /i /x Refer tech-net link for more detailed information.


2. If you face the error shown in below image after registering the WCF then check the below points to get rid of the error:

• Check that the windows authentication has enabled for AIF virtual directory.


• Following should be the binding section of web.config file available in virtual directory physical path:

• Enabled providers for virtual directory are NTLM and Negotiate both:
  

I was able to make the web service work after these troubleshooting steps. Hope these might be a help to anyone.

Burn an ISO to bootable media

I was trying to burn the windows server 2008 r2 ISO image into a DVD as bootable. I found a useful tool by our own Microsoft while doing the R&D over internet on various freeware's. This tool is freely available currently at Microsoft Store site and very easy to use. The name of the tool is WINDOWS 7 USB/DVD DOWNLOAD TOOL. It can create write the ISO file into DVD\USB drive and make it bootable. You can download this tool from: http://images2.store.microsoft.com/prod/clustera/framework/w7udt/1.0/en-us/Windows7-USB-DVD-tool.exe

For further information or help on the tool please visit: http://store.microsoft.com/help/ISO-tool

Virtual Box (.vdi) image optimization

About Virtual Box:

Virtual box is a virtualization product developed by sun micro system. You can create a 64 bit guest machine and host it on a 32 bit OS using virtual box. For more information on virtual box visit: http://www.virtualbox.org/

Optimize Image

Below steps explain the required procedure to compact the size of a virtual box image (.vdi).

1. Zero free space in .vdi image:
   

   The first step in the optimization process is to free up the unallocated space from the image. You need to follow below mentioned steps for the same:
   

   1. Start the virtual box image.
      
   2. Download the SDelete tool from http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/SDelete.zip & extract it to a folder say C:\SDelete drive in the image.
      
   3. Run the command prompt and type following command to run the SDelete utility:
      

      sdelete –p 3 –c C:
      

      Note: If you have multiple drives then run the utility for both of the drives. For more information on SDelete utility visit: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897443.aspx
      

   4. Shut down the virtual box image.
      
2. Compact Virtual Box image:
   

   Second & final step in optimization process is to compact the virtual box image size using VBoxManage utility. VBoxManage utility can be found at the installation folder of virtual box usually "C:\Program Files\Sun\VirtualBox".
   

   1. Run the command prompt and run the following command:
      

      C:\Program Files\Sun\VirtualBox\VBoxManage modifyhd "D:\Virtual Box\Server.vdi" –-compact
      

   2. You will get the optimized virtual box image after this step. Notice that you will be able to free up some good amount of space from the imageJ.