Upgrade the Dynamics AX platform to the August 2016 release

The Microsoft Dynamics AX platform consists of the following components:

• Dynamics AX platform binaries such as Application Object Server (AOS), the data management framework, the reporting and business intelligence (BI) framework, development tools, and analytics services
• The following Application Object Tree (AOT) packages:
  • Application Platform
  • Application Foundation
  • Directory
  • TestEssentials

If you want to update the Dynamics AX platform to a new release, your Dynamics AX implementation should not have any customizations (over-layering) of any of the AOT packages that belong to the platform.

If you do customize platform packages (that is, if your solution contains models that belong to one or more of the platform packages), complete the workaround that is described at the end of this topic, and the overall process that is illustrated and described for Dynamics AX implementations that have customized platform packages.

The instructions in this topic depend on the platform upgrade package that is released by Microsoft.

Overall flow

The following illustrations show the overall process for upgrading the Dynamics AX platform to the latest update.

Dynamics AX implementations that have no customization of the platform

Dynamics AX implementations that have customized platform packages

Apply the platform update package on your development/test instance

Install the deployable package

1. Copy the platform update package that is released by Microsoft (AXPlatformUpdate.zip) to your virtual machine.
2. Unzip the contents to a local directory.
3. Depending on the type of environment that you’re upgrading, open the PlatformUpdatePackages.Config file under \AOSService\Scripts, and change the MetaPackage value:
   • If you’re upgrading a development or demo environment that contains source code, change the MetaPackage value to dynamicsax-meta-platform-development.
   • If you’re upgrading a runtime environment, such as a Tier-2 sandbox or other environment that doesn’t contain source code, the default value, dynamicsax-meta-platform-runtime, is correct.
4. Follow the standard instructions for installing a deployable package. See Install a deployable package in Microsoft Dynamics AX.
5. If you’re working in a development environment, rebuild your application’s code.

Because you must rebuild your code and re-create custom AOT deployable packages, don’t apply this update in a runtime environment unless you first try it in a development environment.

Example for a one-box (development or demo) environment

AXUpdateInstaller.exe generate -runbookid="OneBoxDev" -topologyfile="DefaultTopologyData.xml" -servicemodelfile="DefaultServiceModelData.xml" -runbookfile="OneBoxDev-runbook.xml"

AXUpdateInstaller.exe import -runbookfile=OneBoxDev-runbook.xml

AXUpdateInstaller.exe execute -runbookid=OneBoxDev

Install the Visual Studio development tools

Update the Microsoft Visual Studio development tools as described in Updating the Dynamics AX Visual Studio development tools.

Regenerate form adaptor models

Form adaptor models are required for test automation. Regenerate the platform form adaptor models, based on the newly updated platform models. Use the xppfagen.exe tool to generate the form adaptor models. This tool is located in the package’s bin folder (typically, j:\AosService\PackagesLocalDirectory\bin).

Here is a list of the platform form adaptor models:

• ApplicationPlatformFormAdaptor
• ApplicationFoundationFormAdaptor
• DirectoryFormAdaptor

The following examples show how to generate the form adaptor models.

xppfagen.exe -metadata=j:\AosService\PackagesLocalDirectory -model="ApplicationPlatformFormAdaptor" -xmllog="c:\temp\log1.xml"

xppfagen.exe -metadata=j:\AosService\PackagesLocalDirectory -model="ApplicationFoundationFormAdaptor" -xmllog="c:\temp\log2.xml"

xppfagen.exe -metadata=j:\AosService\PackagesLocalDirectory -model="DirectoryFormAdaptor" -xmllog="c:\temp\log3.xml"

Install the new Data Management service

After the deployable package is installed, follow these instructions to install the new Data Management service.

Open a Command Prompt window as an administrator, and run the following commands from the .\DIXFService\Scripts folder.

msiExec.exe /uninstall {5C74B12A-8583-4B4F-B5F5-8E526507A3E0} /passive /qn /quiet

If you’re connected to a Microsoft Azure SQL database or a Microsoft SQL Server 2016 database, run the following command.

msiexec /i "DIXF_Service_x64.msi" ISSQLSERVERVERSION="Bin" SERVICEACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\NetworkService" /qb /lv DIXF_log.txt

If you’re connected to an earlier release of Microsoft SQL Server, run the following command.

msiexec /i "DIXF_Service_x64.msi" ISSQLSERVERVERSION="Bin\2012" SERVICEACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\NetworkService" /qb /lv DIXF_log.txt

Features that aren’t supported

The Update 2 platform of Dynamics AX includes the following features:

• The new Entity Store feature
• Microsoft Power BI with DirectQuery
• Microsoft Cortana Analytics for Retail

However, an instance of Dynamics AX that was originally deployed by using the February 2016 release won’t have these features if you update by using the process that is described in this topic. To enable these features, you will require new Update 1 or Update 2 deployments.

Optional: If your application overlays platform models

Before you apply the platform update package on your development instance, follow these steps if your solution contains models that belong to one of the following packages:

• Application Platform
• Application Foundation
• Directory
• TestEssentials

1. In Visual Studio, check in all pending changes to your Microsoft Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) version control project.
2. Exit Visual Studio.
3. Apply the platform update deployable package as described earlier in this topic.
4. Start Visual Studio.
5. Resolve potential conflicts in your models that overlay platform models.
   Tip: You can use the Create project from conflicts add-in to create a project from all conflicts in a model.
6. Build and validate your application.
7. Create a custom deployable package from your customized platform package. This package should be applied to your sandbox/pre-production environment for validation.