Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 on Windows Azure: Wrap Up



It's been fun trying to get Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Web Client to run on Azure. The bottom line is Windows Azure offers a very compelling deployment case for organizations running their applications (SaaS) and infrastructure (IaaS) in the cloud.

While many Azure platform features are still in Preview mode, I can say unequivocally that what's there works very well - too well, indeed. I had a few hiccups and I had to drop and recreate some VMs a few times, but I attribute that to the fact that I wasn't too aware of some of the feature settings. Also, a great deal had to do with the fact that my environment was running in free trial mode.

I also found that VMs tend to be a bit undersized on Azure. For example, a "Large" VM is 4 cores + 7GB in ram, which leads me to believe that the Azure platform is more geared towards lightweight applications than heavy, user-driven, business applications. Maybe I am making the wrong assumption here, but a decent size Dynamics GP deployment, involving 50+ users, may need up to 4 web servers and 4 session hosts to minimize any performance impact due to high user volume versus provisioned hardware capabilities.

Overall, the installation of Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Web Client wasn't without its head scratching moments. For example, certificates need to be switched to server public DNS names. While I got the Web Client up and running with the private DNS names, making the switch to public DNS for the certificates proved to be a task requiring reinstallation of the Session Service portion of the web client on the session host machine - changing the certificate for the IIS web site proved fairly simple.

Nonetheless, I had a lot of fun working on this "mini-project" so I leave you with a link to each of the articles I wrote on the subject:

Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 on Windows Azure: Subscription Process
Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 on Windows Azure: Provisioning Process
Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 on Windows Azure: The Deployment Process

In closing notes, Azure provides a serious deployment option for middle market organizations looking for a serious infrastructure hosting partner. The deployment procedures for Microsoft Dynamics GP are no different than those for an on-premise or hosted network, however proper security planning goes a long way to ensure your financial data is highly secure. Still, more documentation on the Azure installation process is required, and I know it is being worked on as I type.

A big thank you goes out to Daryl Anderson, Senior Program Manager at Microsoft for all his guidance and assistance troubleshooting some of the difficulties I experienced during this effort. Daryl continues to work tirelessly to document the entire implementation process.

Until next post!

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

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DBMS: 12 Microsoft Dynamics GP: 0 error when updating to Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 R2

Image
Hello all! It's been quite a while since I've actually written anything of remote interest to anyone who follows my blog, but at the same time, you will be pleased to know that I've been quite busy in the consulting front, with upgrades, server migrations, complex multi-instance postings involving 10's of thousands of transactions, wrapping up some Field Service Automation projects, and the list goes on and on. This time around I want to bring to the forefront, an issue I encountered updating  from Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 SP2 to Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 R2 plus the latest service pack. Background My client requested a server migration to a new environment where they wanted to deploy Dynamics GP 2013 R2 web client (plus the latest service pack) and upgrade their relational database management system to Microsoft SQL Server 2014. This is something I'm absolutely comfortable with (for the most part) given also that my client was sitting at Microsoft Dynamics...
Read more

Do I have to use those "Z-" currency IDs in GP?

Image
I know this seems like a trivia question, but recently I have come across a number of clients who have been using Microsoft Dynamics GP for a number of years and have been told by their former partners that they *must* use the predefined currency IDs created after adding the sample company, with no real explanation to support these claims. Case in point, my new client in Saudi Arabia, has been struggling for years to understand why they were told to prefix all currency IDs with the "Z-". So they went ahead and setup "Z-SR" for the Saudi Real. If you are familiar with Microsoft Dynamics GP and the sample company, Fabrikam, you may have noticed by now that after adding the sample company (which is not a requirement by any means), you will get a number of predefined currencies such as Z-US$ (US Dollars), Z-UK (British Pounds), Z-C$ (Canadian Dollars), Z-AUD (Australian Dollars), and so forth, accompanied by a number of exchange rate tables. If you are not familiar wi...
Read more

Microsoft Dynamics GP Scrolling Windows and Line Sequence Numbers

Image
I thought I would write about something meaningless that no one really thinks about. However, I realized that this is a compelling topic since it makes for some interesting discussion around the ability to insert line items withinin most transaction scrolling windows. Let’s take some time to understand where Line Sequence Numbers come from. A Line Sequence Number is auto generated by Dynamics GP and uses a seed value of 16,384 as a basis for the first line. Each subsequent line in the scrolling window is incremented by this number, so line number 2 would have a Line Sequence Number value of 32,768, line number 3 would have Line Sequence Number Value of 49,152, and so on. Since most GP transaction entry scrolling windows allow inserting rows in between line items, the newly inserted Line Sequence Number value is calculated as an average between the previous and the next line item sequences, i.e., if you were to insert an item in between row 1 and row 2 in the scrolling window -- keep in...
Read more