Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Upgrade Dynamics AX 4.0/2009 to AX 2012 R2 with AX Rehost Solution

Hi ALL

For the Customers with many Dynamics AX personalizations, upgrade process could take long time and to be very expensive.

For this reason, we have create a .NET Solution that move the Entire AX 4.0/2009 Application ( Entire AOT ) to AX 2012 R2.

Customer scenario and needs

- Customer is using AX4/AX2009
- AX4 SP2 exited mainstream support since 11/10/2011
- Current AX4/AX2009 implementation are complex
- Many customizations and interfaces
- AX4/AX2009 implementation are multi country
- Customer wants/needs upgrade to AX 2012 R2 (instead of buying AX4/AX2009 extended support)
- «Big bang» upgrade to AX 2012 approach is unrealistic
- Customer needs a quick and cost effective solution to decouple the Technical upgrade from the Application upgrade
   - To adopt a «big bang» approach for the Technical upgrade
   - To adopt a «phased» approach for the Application upgrade
   - Upgrade companies in separate steps. Customize Intercompany between AX 2012 to AX 4/2009 and viceversa.

Value proposition

- Decoupling the Technical upgrade from the Application upgrade
- Quick and cost effective AX4/AX2009 rehosting solution using :
    - AX4/AX2009 Application
    - AX 2012 R2 Kernel
- Ability to upgrade the application in phases
- Ability to use AX 2012 R2 technical features
      64bit Kernel, Support for SQL 2012, Windows Server 2012, Windows 8, SQL Reporting, SQL Analysis, Workflow, WEB Services, Excel Add-In, etc.

AX4/2009Rehost – Technical details

AX4/2009 Rehost solution is sold as a service and uses a series of proprietary .NET tools that execute the following functions:
      - Export AX4/2009 AOT objects (all layers including SYS) and rename objects using a prefix
      - Conversion of AX4/2009 AOT objects syntax to AX 2012 R2 and remap the objects to use the new AX 2012 kernel interfaces
      - Import of the converted AX4/2009 AOT objects into AX 2012 R2 in the VAR Layer (Model AX Rehost)
      - Import of AX4/2009 Data tables with specific conversions (i.e. TableId and FiledId)
      - Manual steps must be performed to redefine the menu structure and to test the new environment



Enjoy !

 

8 comments:

Jan B. Kjeldsen said...

By "AX 4.0 objects" do you mean "AX 4.0 classes"?

What kind of transformations do your tool do?

Will you open source the tool?

Denis Macchinetti said...

Ciao Jan

With AX 4.0 Objects i mean Entire AOT without Kernel objects because i use AX 2012 objects.

The Tool at the end rename all AX 4.0\2009 Objects adding a prefix, for example A4 or A2009.
So, in AX 2012 you find all previous Objects with a prefix to avoid a overwrite with the Standard.

The Tool is not open. If you are interest, we can have a call to understand better all aspect.

Regards
Denis


Anonymous said...

Hi Denis,

Which layers are covered by your solution?

Regards,
Remi

Denis Macchinetti said...

Hi Remi

All Layers.

If you want we can schedule a call about that.

Regards
Denis

BlueGrass said...

Hi Denis,

Can we schedule sometime to go over your Rehost Solution?

Thanks,
AQ

Denis Macchinetti said...

Hi BlueGrass

Yes, for sure

Let me know if you want organize a call.

Regards

Anonymous said...

Denis, please send me more information about this tool.

dbaesso@margirius.com.br

Tks!

Denis Baesso

Marry Davis said...

Awesome content! this is really a great blogpost which is really helpful for Dynamics AX upgrade I hope you will post more such blogs in future for us. Thank you so much for sharing this with us.