Configure and execute the code upgrade service in Lifecycle Services

Overview

The code upgrade tool operates by connecting to Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS), locating your Trunk\Main branch, branching from this to a new branch and performing the code upgrade there. Once the tool is complete you can then synchronize your Dynamics 365 for Operation developer environment to this new branch and resolve conflicts. Once you compile and test your upgraded code then you merge the new branch back into Trunk\Main and the process is complete.

Process

To create a personal access token

In order to connect to a VSTS project, LCS is authenticated using a personal access token. Follow the steps below to create a personal access token in VSTS. If you have already configured your LCS project to connect to your VSTS project, you can skip this section.

1. Log into visualstudio.com and locate your VSTS project.
2. In the top right corner hover over your name, a menu appears, select Security.
3. Click add to create a new personal access token, give it a name and enter the amount of time you want the token to last for. Then click Create Token.
   
4. Copy the token to your clipboard. You cannot find the token details after this step so ensure you have copied it before clicking away from this page.

Configure your Lifecycle Services project to connect to VSTS.

1. In your LCS project go to the Project settings tile, select Visual Studio Team Services and then click the Setup Visual Studio Team Services button. This configuration is needed by many LCS tools, if you have already configured LCS to connect to your VSTS project, you can skip this section.
   
2. Enter the root URL for your VSTS account and the access token created earlier and click Continue.
3. Select the project within your VSTS account that you wish to connect to and click Continue.
   
4. On the Review and save page click Save.

Create an ax7.version file

The code upgrade tile in LCS understand the version of Dynamics 365 for Operations that you are migrating from by reading the ax7.version file under the Main folder in your source control. You must create this file manually, either in Visual Studio or through the VSTS portal as shown below. This file is not needed if you are migrated your code from Dynamics AX 2012 R3 or earlier version.

The version number entered here must be the Application version (not the platform version).

For more information on identifying which application version you have, see Overview of Microsoft Dynamics AX build numbers.

Execute the code upgrade tile

1. In your LCS project click on the Code update tile.
   
2. In the bottom left corner of the screen click Add, then enter a name and description which mean something to you and select the version you are upgrading from as Microsoft Dynamics AX 7, then click Create.
   • If you are upgrading your code from Dynamics AX 2012 R3, select the version you are upgrading from. You will be prompted to upload a zipped version of your Dynamics AX 2012 R3 model store file.
   • The Estimation Only checkbox, when checked, will mean the tool only generates a report and does not check-in or create a new code branch in VSTS for you. You might use this when evaluating the potential size of the work involved in upgrading before you commit to the actual upgrade.

   

3. Click Analyze code in the bottom right corner. The code upgrade process will now start. This typically takes around 40 minutes for a large solution to complete. When complete return to the code upgrade tile in LCS to view the results.
4. The code upgrade service creates a new branch and checks-in the upgraded code to your VSTS project. Once the upgrade process is complete, your code will exist in a new branch under the releases folder. The branch name is suffixed with the date and time of the upgrade.