Overview Dynamics AX 2012 Installation

too many screenshots need to be published. IF you cannot view the pictures, you can go to the link:
http://www.fileserve.com/file/cqg6Msu to download the copy of my installation document. If you need a full detail of the installation document, please wait Microsoft to publish the one for RTM version.
Step 1. Install Microsoft Dynamics AX Components
 Step 2. Install File Location Step
3. Setup Support Files will be installed Step
 4. Choose Custom Installation Step
5. Choose the Components that you want to install ( using the sequence Databases  Application Object Serve r  Client)
Step 6. Installation will validate if the prerequisite software has been installed on the system. Click Error in the result to check what you can do .
Step 7, After fixing all the Error message and investigate the warning message, click Next to continue the installation
Step 8. Create a new Database
Step 9. Choose the Additional Models to install Step
10. Set up AOS and AOS Service account Step
11. Configure AX Client Step
12. Click Next until finish. Step
13. Now, we can continue installing Reporting Extensions and Analysis Extensions. Specify SSAS and SSRS Instance After validating the prerequisite, the installation process can be finished. As I checked the Deploy Reports when I set the SSRS instance, the Installation will deploy the reports directly via PowerShell. Not Like AX 2009, AX 2012 doesn’t need to create a folder and data source in AX first. The Powershell will create one automatically. Step 14. Enterprise Portal Installation Check the Enterprise Portal option to install it directly. Same as AX 2009. The basic AX 2012 installation has been finished. Based on my experience, Dynamics AX 2012 provide much better function than 209. When you get the issue during the installation, you can check the error message that shows you how to troubleshoot the issue.
Enjoy your AX 2012!

Step by Step Guide How to Install Dynamics AX2012 Enterprise Portal

How to Install Dynamics AX2012 Enterprise PortalThis is the second post in the series of installing Dynamics AX2012 Components. You can refer to the first post here - (Installing the base Dynamics AX Components - Databases, AOS, Client, Debugger, Office Addins)

http://daxdilip.blogspot.com/2011/08/step-by-step-guide-how-to-install.html

This post will talk about installing Dynamics AX2012 Enterprise Portal.
The basic pre-requisite for Installing Enterprise Portal is Sharepoint 2010 Foundation/Sharepoint 2010 Server

Since this is sandpit/training box, I would be just installing Sharepoint Foundation 2010.

i. Install the Sharepoint 2010 Pre-Requisites shown below

ii. Pre-Requisites Installed Successfully

iii. Now, start with the Foundation Installation

iv. Run the Sharepoint Configuration Wizard

v. After all the tasks are completed successfully, you are welcomed to the Sharepoint Team site

Tip - If you are planning to Install Sharepoint 2010 on Windows 7, please see the steps here which I posted a while ago - http://daxdilip.blogspot.com/2009/11/how-to-install-and-configure-sharepoint.html

Installing Dynamics AX2012 Enterprise Portal

i. Now, let's go ahead and install Enterprise Portal Component. Run the setup and click Next

ii. Check the Pre-Requisite Validation runs fine and then move next

iii. Enter the .Net BC Connector Information

iv. Configure the website, I just left the defaults as it is and moved next

v. Move next with the installation

vi. Encountered an error at this step

Looked at the error log file which came up, and found the below logs:

Error: Windows cannot find the local profile and is logging you on with a temporary profile. Changes you make to this profile will be lost when you log off.

Installation completed successfully, but Setup could not create the Enterprise Portal website. You can create the website by running Setup and installing Enterprise Portal again. You can also manually create a website using SharePoint Central Administration.

An error occurred during setup of Enterprise Portal (EP).

Registering tracing manifest file "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics AX\60\Server\Common\TraceProviderCrimson.man"

WEvtUtil.exe install-manifest "C:\Users\itadmin.PASPALEY\AppData\Local\Temp\tmpA5A1.tmp

**** Warning: Publisher {8e410b1f-eb34-4417-be16-478a22c98916} is installed on

Troubleshooting:

Didn't spent much time on troubleshooting this one as I have seen this error of logging with temporary profile before, but not with EP. The simplest solution which worked for me was to restart the box , login back and run the Enterprise Portal Setup again and that fixed the issue.

Finally, the Role center page arrives :-)... I can recall my pervious experience with  Dynamics AX 4.0 and 2009 version, never I was able to install MOSS and Enterprise Portal at the first go successfully without too many hiccups.

Additional Tip/Note -

Installation of Sharepoint Foundation 2010 Creates a new SQL Server named instance for e.g. In this case TEST-DEMOAX2012/Sharepoint where all sharepoint related databases can be found

Step by Step Guide How to Install Dynamics AX 2012 - Part 1

How to Install and Configure Dynamics AX 2012 Components
Over the past few weeks, I was involved in installing and configuring Dynamics AX 2012 Components on couple of machines running Server 2008 and Windows 7 Enterprise O/S.

Thought I will share my experience here in a series of posts covering  installation of all major components of AX 2012 - Database, AOS, Client, EP Components, Sharepoint 2010, Reporting Services and Business Intelligence.

Overall Installation Experience/Highlights: (Good)

a. I can say compared to my previous experiences with installation of Dynamics AX 4.0 and 2009, Dynamics AX2012 is less error-prone and satisfactory even though, the number of Pre-Requisites to be installed is quite a significant one in 2012

b. Validate Pre-Requisite Tool is quite handy which helps one to prepare for installation so that one is not taken by surprise when he/she performs the actual installation of components

c. Summary Report which comes up at the end is quite cool and user-friendly.

Considerations:

a. Requires more computing power in terms of RAM (As per System Requirements Guide it says 4 GB is the minimum). And from my personal experience, I have seen that AOS service (AX32serv.exe at it's peak, especially when you start the service and bring up the AX Client first time, it goes up close to 1 GB).

b. I also tried the fully loaded image from PartnerSource  on a machine which had overall 6GB RAM, allocated 4GB to the VM, but still it was crawling. It took me ages to bring up the AOS Service.

c. Since now the AOD is no longer file based and the models reside in SQL Server, you also need to plan ahead for the disk capacity for your SQL boxes. Standard AX database (Application) along with the model database (AOD) bulks up to 3 GB approx and if you want Contoso DB (Demo Data loaded) you should free up atleast 10 GB.

Ok, Now I will jump start the installation process starting with installation of Database, AOS and Client Components. I had captured the screenshots along the way as this will help me and my peers when we setup DEV, Test, Pre-Prod and Prod Environments.

Initial Setup Screen

Pre-Requisite Validation Utility

Note - Here, I'm just installing the components which are checked below: Database, AOS, Client Components, Debugger (My favorite ;-) and Management Utilities

Tip - I would suggest from my personal experience of installing AX, even though Single-Computer Installation sounds easy and quick but we don't get the proper control here, so I prefer Custom Installation and choose my components, easy to troubleshoot and learn as we go

This screen shows you the list of validation errors which means you need to install the base pre-requisites software before you proceed.

The first error shown below is about the SQL Server Full Text Search is not installed or the service is not running

Launch SQL Server Setup and Install Full-Text Search component

Next, comes the Report Viewer Control. You need to download it from here http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=6442

  

Some other pre-requisites which needs to be configured and installed are as follows:

• .Net Framework 4.0 http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=17718 
• Hotfix for .Net Fx 4.0 http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/KB2390372/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=4917 (Select the correct hotfix based on your OS 32-bit or 64-bit)
• Open XML SDK for Microsoft Office http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=5124 
• (Tip - Install OpenXMLSDKv2.msi first and then OpenXMLSDKTool.msi, otherwise it spits out error) 
• SQL Server Analysis Management Objects http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=130655

• VC++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable (x86) http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=5582 
• VC++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable (x64) http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx? 
• VSTO http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=158918

Please Note, as per the Operating System whether it's Server 2008 or Win 7, it might ask you for some other pre-requisites as well, so I would suggest you run the pre-requisite validator and please don't go by the assumption that the above  links are the ONLY pre-requisites required.

.

Once the Pre-Requisites are installed successfully, you can kick start the Installation

Tip - You can change the location here

Select the Components you want to install, based on your implementation topology you might want to install different components on different boxes. As I'm setting up a Sandbox at the moment, I just installed everything in one box

Didn't thought of much experimenting with Themes so left it as it is.

You can change the database names at this step below if you want to.

Key in the ports for AOS and Services

Note - For demo or training purposes, it's ok to go with network service but when you are setting up for pre-prod or production environments, you should choose a proper service account for AOS Account

This is kinda cool as you have the option below to choose the installation type as Developer, Administrator or Business and accordingly it will bring up the workspace for you after the install. At this moment, I'm wearing the administrator hat :-)

All set and ready to go...

You can take a break now ;-) and come back as this step took me good 15-20 mins time!

I love this :-)

And this too.. The Summary Report comes up quite good (This is a new installation feature in 2012 which is a brief summary of the components installed )

Next, you can go ahead with the Compile Checklist.. One other small nice feature which I like is "Processing..." pop up below, it's quite interactive unlike previous versions, where you don't know what's happening and everything looks stuck

  

Next, I will be posting my experience on other big components of AX2012 starting with Configuring EP, Sharepoint 2010, SSRS and Business Intelligence. Keep looking at this space!! Till then Happy Dax'ing...

Step by Step Guide How to Install Dynamics AX 2012 SSRS and Analysis Extensions

This is the 3rd part in the series - Step by Step Installation of Dynamics AX 2012 Components:

Part 1 - Basic Dynamics AX 2012 Installation http://daxdilip.blogspot.com/2011/08/step-by-step-guide-how-to-install.html

Part 2 - Dynamics AX 2012 Enterprise Portal Installation http://daxdilip.blogspot.com/2011/08/how-to-install-dynamics-ax2012.html


INSTALL REPORTING EXTENSIONS
Run Pre-Requisite Validation

Go to the Link below and Download Cumulative Update 3 for SQL Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=2261464









Troubleshooting Tip (SSRS Errors)

Error during Install of AX 2012 SSRS Extensions

Microsoft.ReportingServices.WmiProvider.WMIProviderException: The profile for the user is a temporary profile. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80090024)   at Microsoft.ReportingServices.WmiProvider.RSWmiAdmin.ThrowOnError(ManagementBaseObject mo)

   at Microsoft.ReportingServices.WmiProvider.RSWmiAdmin.ReencryptSecureInformation()

   at ReportServicesConfigUI.WMIProvider.RSReportServerAdmin.ReencryptSecureInformation()

An error occurred during setup of Reporting Services extensions.

Reason: Unable to restore the SQL Server Reporting Services encryption key. The operation failed with error code 2148073508

Solution

a. Restart the box

b. In SQL Server 2008, SSRS Reporting Configuration Manager, Under Encryption Keys, Restore the key

c. Generate Backup encryption key for the service account

d. Check you are able to browse Report Server and Report Manager URL

e. Now, Install SSRS Extensions again, it should work

Deploy Reports (Powershell)



Wait for a few mins to populate the variable, it will return back to the PS Prompt
TIP - You can also output to a file by appending out-file as shown


803 SSRS reports out of the box
Publishing reports
Note – takes around 45 mins to deploy (with some warnings which can be ignored I guess)

INSTALL/CONFIGURE ANALYSIS SERVICES

1. Install SQL Server Analysis
2. Restart Server