Windows 8 and the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client Series - Wrap Up

Windows 8 and the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client Series
Wrap Up

This series narrate my personal experiences of installing Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Beta and the Web Client in an unsupported environment. The following installation steps are for testing purposes only and were done on a test box. If you are to test, please make sure your machine is not a production box.

"While it's not supported, it doesn't mean it won't work. It only means we haven't tested it"...
                                                                                                      Microsoft Dynamics GP Support

All good things must come to an end, and unlike many TV series, this one does not have a good ending. Nonetheless, it has been a great deal of learning personally: SSL certificates, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 (oh yes! I also did try to install the Web Client in this environment as well), old DOS-based network shell commands, understanding the Web Client architecture, working with new troubleshooting tools like Fiddler, and much, much more.

As a result of working with the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Beta, I was able to interact firsthand with all the cool technology awaiting us in December. I can say that the product is ~almost~ ready for show time with some kinks still lingering around.

As I mentioned, this experiment - on Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 - did not have a happy ending. While I was able to get both environments to launch the Web Client, authenticate the web user, load the session, authenticate the GP user, and select the company, I could not get pass the Please Wait...Applying Personal Settings... GP window. Both Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 delivered the following application event error:


Other attempts at evaluating Session Central and Session Service services logs did not produce any meaningful information. Procmon traces are extremely extensive and beyond the amount of time I have to spend of troubleshooting this.

Nonetheless, I was not discouraged by any of the results as I have now put my good friends on the Microsoft Dynamics GP development team on notice of this issue, which could only help in getting the product ready for prime time. As I also mentioned before, I learned a great deal about what to do, what to avoid, but primarily how to troubleshoot the issues.

If you missed any of the previous articles in the series, I have compiled them all here for you:

Now that I have mastered a bit more than the basics, I will now move on to configure a supported Windows Server 2008 R2 environment and setup the various Web Client components on different servers. This should be fun as typically, this is how most customers will want to deploy their Web Client environment. I will probably open a new series for this one ;)

In the meantime, I encourage you to work with the Web Client and discover the various deployment options. I promise you will have as much fun as I did working on it over the past days.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/

Comments

Anonymous said…
Mariano,
Did you ever find out the cause behind this crash? I have come up to the same issue and have yet to find a resolution.....

Mike Scott
mscott at associates-solutions dot com
Mariano Gomez said…
Mike,
I have not gotten behind the root cause of this. Clearly, it must be something environmental and related to this specific assembly. I have relayed the issue to MS in the hopes they will be addressing it soon.

For now, back to a "supported" environment.

MG.-
Anonymous said…
Mariano,
Even though Dynamics GP 2013 with the web client is almost here I would like to know your advising on Dynamics GP 2010 R2 in the combination with Windows Server 2012 and SQL Server 2012. We are planning an upgrade with 3 final products as the result of it. Would it have any obstacles or conflicts during the upgrade and thereafter?

Victoria Lozkin
Mariano Gomez said…
Victoria,

Windows Server 2012 is not currently on the list of supported operating systems with Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 R2.

Chances are it will be just fine, but other things like Management Reporter and so on may not be compatible.

Let me find out from MS when, if anything, will compatibility tests be completed and I will post back.

MG.-
Anonymous said…
Thank you Mariano,
We will keep this all in mind and go forth with the testing only yet. It would be really nice to get to know about compatibility tests terms. Would GP have any issue with the web components in the relation to the Windows Server 2012?

Victoria Lozkin
MCTS
Mariano Gomez said…
Victoria,

Thanks for the follow up. I have tested the Web Client deployment on both Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 with success so far. Both operating systems will be announced as compatible with GP 2013 RTM.

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Anonymous said…
Thank you very much Mariano. You inspire us to go forth for it.
Victoria
Mariano Gomez said…
Victoria,

As promised, I did some digging and effectively GP 2010 R2 is compatible with Windows Server 2012. Take a look at the compatibility information here

MG.-
Anonymous said…
Dear Mariano,
It makes a lot of sense for me and gives me a clear idea about all the services and products compatibility. So we are going for it. Thank you very much Mariano for your support and advising.

Victoria

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