The Dynamics GP Blogster

Series Wrap Up It's been a couple of exciting weeks reviewing the position, procedures, and tools available for troubleshooting the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Web Client and I hope that you walked away with an idea of where to turn and what it takes to resolve your issues. Troubleshooting may not be glamorous or exciting and frankly a lot of folks down right don't like it, but I personally find it to be a challenge. I like when stuff breaks - figuratively speaking - knowing that you (and a handful of others) are the only one capable of fixing it. Also, it is awesome when you can showcase your Angus MacGyver (yes, his first name was Angus!) ingenuity by using resources and tools that have been in the public domain for a while, "common knowledge" if you will, and can now be applied in the context of GP. I want to synthetize the series by providing a link to all the articles covered, below: Part 1: Microsoft Dynamics GP Support Team's Posture Part 2: Res...

Part 7 - Tools for Troubleshooting Web Client issues: Command Line Tools Parts 5 and Part 6 of this series, both look at some nice GUI-based tools to analyze web and network traffic. The good thing about these tools is that they allow you to analyze things from the comfort of an application window. However, one needs not to discard some powerful command line base tools that have been around since the early days of  DOS - and that's Disk Operating System, not DOS as in Dos Equis (XX) . Today, I will talk about NETSH and NET NETSH COMMAND Netsh (Network Shell) is a command-line scripting utility that allows you to, either locally or remotely, display or modify the network configuration of a computer that is currently running. Netsh also provides a scripting feature that allows you to run a group of commands in batch mode against a specified computer. Netsh can also save a configuration script in a text file for archival purposes or to help you configure other se...

Part 6 - Tools for Troubleshooting Web Client issues: Other Tools In Part 5 we looked at Fiddler , a proxy web debugger application and how it is able to break down HTTP and HTTPS traffic between a client app and a Web Server. Today, I will look at 2 tools that go down right to the wire - literally! Wireshark Wireshark is a free and open-source packet analyzer. It is used for network troubleshooting, analysis, software and communications protocol development, and education. Originally named Ethereal, in May 2006 the project was renamed Wireshark due to trademark issues. Wireshark is cross-platform, using the GTK+ widget toolkit to implement its user interface, and using pcap to capture packets; it runs on various Unix-like operating systems including Linux, OS X, BSD, and Solaris, and on Microsoft Windows. There is also a terminal-based (non-GUI) version called TShark. Wireshark, and the other programs distributed with it such as TShark, are free software, released...

Part 5 - Tools for Troubleshooting Web Client issues: Fiddler In Part 4  of the series, we visited the Microsoft Fix It! solution which allows you to collect myriad of information about your Web Client environment configuration during a support case. Continuing with the series, I will look into Fiddler , which I briefly referenced in my article "Unable to access SnapIn config data Store" accessing Web Management Console when I was having problems with the Web Management Console application. Fiddler is a free HTTP debugging proxy server application written by Eric Lawrence , formerly a Program Manager on the Internet Explorer team at Microsoft. Fiddler captures HTTP(S) traffic and creates trace files that can be used to analyze web traffic. It can also be used to "fiddle" with HTTP traffic as it is being sent. By default, HTTP(S) traffic, captured via the Microsoft's Windows Internet ( WinINet ) API,  is automatically directed to the proxy at runtime, but...

Part 4 - Tools for Troubleshooting Web Client issues: the Web Client Diagnostic tool In Part 2 and  Part 3 of this series, I talked about resolving Web Client implementation (installation if you will) and functional issues, respectively, along with some specific information that must be compiled to aid in the troubleshooting process. No troubleshooting process would be complete should we not have the appropriate set of tools to aid in capturing some of this data. Let's start with the one tool you are most likely to use when opening a support case with Microsoft: the Web Client Diagnostic tool - in reality, is more like a set of diagnostics than _a_ diagnostic in particular. The Web Client Diagnostic tool can be accessed once you create a support case and after the creation of an MS Solve case (also known as a Microsoft Fix It center case). The tool must be executed on both web server(s) and session host(s). The tool will collect important data that wi...

Part 3 - Resolving Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Web Client Functional Issues Last week, Part 2 of this series dealt with resolving Web Client implementation issues. The key to remember is any exception condition prior to the Microsoft Dynamics GP login window is treated as an implementation issue and as noted back in Part 2, there are two major processes - steps, if you will - in compiling information that will lead to resolving Web Client exceptions. Just like with the implementation issues, you must compile information related to all application exceptions. Let's see what type of information can be compiled: If the problem involves product functionality, it's always a good idea to record the steps to reproduce the problem. It's also possible that the issues are UI related, i.e., a window does not display correctly (though these issues are less frequent, but certainly possible). Printing and data export issues. In this case, you will want to determine whether th...

Part 2 - Resolving Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Web Client Implementation Issues Yesterday, in Part 1 of this series, I addressed the Microsoft Dynamics GP Support Team's posture when addressing Web Client support cases, by cataloging each reported issue as either implementation- or functional-related. In this opportunity, I will look at the major processes involved in driving your implementation-related support case to a rapid and successful closure. In the process of troubleshooting your Web Client implementation issue, there are two categories of data that need to be compiled to close a support case: installation information and application related exceptions. Compiling the installation information typically involves gathering the following information: Type of installation (Intranet/Extranet/both) Information about certificates Firewall and Ports information Number of servers supporting the installation (Web Servers/Session Hosts/SQL Servers) Information...

Part 1 - Microsoft Dynamics GP Support Team's Posture With the introduction of the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Web Client, system administrators now face additional challenges when troubleshooting errors produced while accessing the Web Client all the way to using the Microsoft Dynamics GP application itself over the browser. To understand the troubleshooting process, it's best to explain the Microsoft Dynamics GP Support team's posture when addressing a support case: any error event that occur before the Microsoft Dynamics GP login window is presented to the end-user will be treated as a Web Client implementation support issue. Issues in this category involve everything from the deployment planning of the Web Client up to the point where you obtain the Microsoft Dynamics GP Login window. Items such as issues during the installation of the Web Client, network configuration, certificates, routers, firewall configuration, DNS resolution issues, issues preventing acces...