Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail

Drive growth and foster lasting customer relationships with an end-to-end retail solution that connects people, information, and processes across your organization—reducing complexity from sales to supply. Microsoft Dynamics® AX for Retail can connect critical point-of-sale (POS) and headquarters processes with enterprise resource planning (ERP) and financials right out of the box for a comprehensive solution that delivers value in every area of the organization.

Smart and cost effective with low total cost of ownership (TCO)

Because Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail is built on Microsoft® products and technology, you can maximize your current IT investments for fast return on investment (ROI). You also can innovate by adding functionality at a faster pace and more cost-effectively, enabling you to scale your operations, add locations, and change processes as new retail opportunities arise

Benefits

Accelerate business success with a single, end-to-end solution. Reduce complexity and improve operational efficiency across your retail operation with a single solution that standardizes processes across multiple sites and provides deep insight into business performance. Empower employees to improve customer satisfaction. Help people to connect with customers and suppliers and work fast and smart with access to RoleTailored tools and information specific to sales associates, store managers, buyers, and more Add stores and expand into new retail channels. React quickly to change and expand your business model by adding stores and distribution centers and taking advantage of multichannel retail opportunities. With the capability to build profitable supply chain relationships, you can get ahead of demand and improve margins. Get people up to speed quickly—even with a rapidly changing workforce. Minimize training requirements with a solution that works like and with familiar Microsoft products. The easy-to-use, intuitive user interface makes it easy for people to start working right away.

Functionality and Features

Centralized store management Manage POS terminals centrally, including visual profiles, functional profiles, user interface layouts, and employee permissions. Consistent data model and business rules between store and ERP processes provide accurate, timely, and consistent data. Powerful data replication helps ensure critical updates across the organization: configurable, flexible inventory and financial updates, sales order payments, gift card usage, and issuance and usage of loyalty points. Flexible POS Purpose-built POS components are integrated into Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail. Continue to capture transactions and serve customers even when store connectivity to headquarters is down with fault-tolerant, resilient POS. Optimize the user interface for store roles with graphical “drag and drop” designer for improved productivity and customer service. Powerful POS capabilities include: on account, global voucher, returns management, info codes, returns/voids/markdowns, and inventory receipt/lookup/counts. Powerful merchandising Optimize for profitability with pricing flexibility, including: flexible discounts, group/item/customer discounts, mix and match, and buy-one-get-one scenarios. Optimize purchasing and replenishment: Purchase quantities based on size, color, and style; and use replenishment processes, including cross-docking, to suggest item distribution between stores with immediate updates to transfer journals. Flexible four-level item hierarchy drives valuable reporting insight to improve assortment planning and product mix, including special item groups, location-specific pricing, customer-specific pricing, and promotions. Global reach and scalability Adapt quickly to changing business requirements with POS add-ins and extensible headquarters software that can be tailored to meet specific retail needs. Scale your solution as your business grows and add stores and distribution centers to help you compete—locally and internationally. Easily add users and sites with three-tier architecture and integration with other Microsoft technology such as Microsoft SQL Server® 2008. Easily operate your business across geographies and locations with flexible deployment options and built-in support for 38 countries in 40 language versions. Capitalize on new opportunities with a Web services framework that makes it faster, easier, and more affordable to build expanded, profitable partner relationships. Multichannel enablement Reduce TCO with out-of-the-box support for critical payment integration, including debit and credit through Payment Services for Microsoft Dynamics ERP. Enhance the customer experience by managing payments across channels—including mixing and matching payment providers by channel; buying online and returning to a physical store; and leveraging support for shopping carts. Create and publish catalogs and manage offers across multiple channels. Hardware and payment compliance Support retail industry standards, including OPOS, which enables maximum flexibility in POS hardware and peripherals choice. Manage PCI data security standards compliance and ongoing support. Investment protection Increase the value of Microsoft Dynamics AX throughout the life of the solution with the Business Ready Enhancement Plan, a global maintenance plan with benefits that include product upgrades, predictable pricing, online support through CustomerSource and Knowledge Base, and unlimited e-learning. Extend the value of your solution through tight integration with other Microsoft business applications and technologies, including: Microsoft Office Project Server, Windows® Workflow Foundation, and Microsoft unified communications tools. Enhance security, reliability, and scalability though integration with SQL Server 2008. For example, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 running on SQL Server 2008 and Windows Server® 2008 can compress the database size by 40 to 60 percent, which can lead to lower hardware and data maintenance costs.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is a truly global solution, designed to scale with your business

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is a truly global solution, designed to scale with your business. Simple enough to deploy for a single business unit in a single country, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 will support the unique requirements for business systems in 36 countries—all from a single-instance deployment of the software. Multiple currencies, multiple time zones, multiple languages, and compliance with multiple banking and reporting standards and legislative codes give you the global coverage that you require. And a layered architecture and installable language packs provide the flexibility for future growth to other markets, including options for agile, partner-led localization.

Business software is powerful if it empowers users—increasing their productivity and providing strong insights that help them make better decisions. This is the heart of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, centered on the latest generation of its Microsoft Dynamics RoleTailored user experience.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 provides a role-tailored user home page with configurable dashboards

• The base of the RoleTailored user experience is familiarity—users comfortable with the Windows® operating system and Microsoft® Office are immediately at home in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. The Microsoft Outlook® messaging and collaboration client–styled navigation is enhanced with navigation concepts from Windows 7, the contextual access to relevant functionality from the FluentTM user interface pioneered in Microsoft Office 2010, and the use of Search metaphors to find information throughout Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.
• The familiar experience extends even further to drive productivity—for analysts working with data from Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, interoperability with Microsoft Excel® spreadsheet software and PowerPivot brings that data into those tools that analysts expect, with a native, natural experience enabling rapid, effective access to business system data.
• Workflow automation, built on the .NET Workflow Foundation, brings user tasks to a central task pane, including tasks assigned to an individual, their role, or a specific functional queue. Tasks and input queues of documents are combined in the RoleTailored user experience of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 to help users quickly prioritize the work they should be doing. The system is not just there to record transactions when users finish their work; it is helping them follow consistent processes and focus on their most important tasks.
• The value of a business system is not about putting transactions in; instead it is about turning those transactions into information—into business intelligence (BI)—to help users make faster, better decisions. To do this, business intelligence must be an embedded part of the application, not a separate tool that requires users to take extra steps and switch contexts. Rich, embedded BI is at the core of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 with:
  • More than 30 Role Centers shipped out of the box, to provide the right BI for each user’s job role
  • 11 SQL Analytics Server Cubes behind those Role Centers
  • Key performance indicators tailored to each process and role based on those cubes
  • Over 800 out-of-the-box reports, all delivered through SQL® Server Reporting Services
  • Rich interoperability with Microsoft Excel to surface report output and enable analysis
  • Standards-based data interoperability with PowerPivot for ad hoc slicing and dicing
  • InfoParts providing in-context BI fully embedded throughout the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 user experience

And of course these are all developed using tools that enable extensibility to rapidly add the unique requirements of ISV vertical solutions and individual business customers.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 further innovates to capture business intelligence about workflow and process together with transactional information to enable rich analytics about process effectiveness, with a focus on empowering business process optimization. Strong administrative ERP functionality, combined with industry-operational functionality, a scalable global system, and a familiar, empowering user experience with embedded BI to keep information in context, define Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 as a truly powerful business application.

Create Purchase Order via X++

Create Purchase Order via X++

• Sign In
 
• Home
 
• Share
 
• RSS

28 Nov 2014 12:59 AM

void clicked()
{
    PurchTable  purchTable;
    PurchLine   purchLine;
    InventDim   inventDim;
    NumberSeq   numberSeq;

    //add by fanddy
    AxPurchTable    axPurchTable;
    AxPurchLine     axPurchLine;
    PurchFormLetter purchformLetter;
    //END

   //create PO Header
   purchTable.clear();
   purchTable.initFromVendTable(VendTable::find(TECPOGroupHeader.VendAccount));
   purchTable.DefaultDimension = InventTable::find(POGroupLine.ItemId).DefaultDimension;

   axPurchTable = axPurchTable::newPurchTable(purchTable);
   axPurchTable.parmPurchId(NumberSeq::newGetNum(PurchParameters::numRefPurchId()).num());
   axPurchTable.parmPurchaseType(PurchaseType::Purch);
   axPurchTable.parmDocumentStatus(DocumentStatus::PurchaseOrder);
   axPurchTable.parmAccountingDate(systemDateGet());
   axPurchTable.parmDeliveryDate(systemDateGet());
   axPurchTable.parmPurchStatus(PurchStatus::Backorder);
   axPurchTable.save();

   info(strFmt('Create PO %1', Purchtable.PurchId));

   //create PO Line
   purchLine.clear();
   purchLine.initValue();
   purchLine.initFromPurchTable(purchTable);
   purchLine.initFromInventTable(InventTable::find(POGroupLine2.ItemId));
   axPurchLine = AxPurchLine::newPurchLine(purchLine);
   axpurchLine.parmItemId('YOUR ITEMID');
   axPurchLine.parmPurchQty(YOUR QTY);
   axPurchLine.parmPurchPrice(YOUR PRICE);
   axPurchLine.parmInventDimId('YOUR INVENTDIMID');
   axPurchLine.save();

}

Create sales order

Now, the Sales Manager can proceed to create a Sales order.

Go to Accounts receivable > Common Forms > Sales order details. The Sales order form opens.

Create a new line by pressing CTRL + N. The Create sales order form opens.

Create sales order form

Select 1000 in the Customer account field.

If the Prompt for customer information check box is selected (Accounts receivable > Setup > Parameters > General tab > Setup field group > Prompt for customer information check box), the following dialog box appears:

Dialog box: Transfer customer information

Click Yes.

All customer information will be transferred to the Sales order. Note that the Sales order information will be transferred to a sales line when it will be created.

Prior to clicking the OK button in the Create sales order form, let us discuss several fields.

The Delivery date control field is used to define the algorithm of calculating the available receipt date. Delivery date control function is used to primarily give realistic and complete delivery promises to a customer during a sales order entry and shorten the sales order entry time.

For example, the Customer asks to deliver items today. The Sales Manager enters the current date in the Requested receipt date field. As a result, the Available ship and receipt dates form opens. This form contains the information that the entered date is not valid. The form grid contains the information about the available dates.

Available ship and receipt dates form

The Sales Manager informs the Customer that the items can be delivered only on May, 14. If the Customer agrees, the Sales Manager sets the cursor in the 5/14/2010 line and clicks the Transfer to requested button.

Why are the records for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday not available? Axapta has two types of delivery date control – Sales lead time and Available to Promise (ATP). Sales lead time calculates the first available date in the following manner: current date + sales lead time. The following parameters are taken into account: coverage calendar, order entry deadline, customer receipt calendar, transport time, and transport calendar. We will discuss all these parameter later in this training. Our demo data already contains setup for sales lead time: Accounts receivable > Setup > Parameters > Shipments tab > Delivery control field group > Sales lead time field. Sales lead time is 3 days.

For example, the company knows that ALL items for the sales order can be purchased, received into the warehouse, and shipped to the Customer within 3 days. In this case, the Sales Manager enters 3 in the Sales lead time field for the sales order.

The sales lead time can be set up under the following path:

• For a sales order: Accounts receivable > Setup > Parameters > Shipments tab > Delivery control field group > Sales lead time field.
• For an individual item: Inventory management > Common Forms > Item details > select necessary item > Setup button > Site specific order settings > Sales order tab > select the Override check box > Sales lead time field.
• For an individual item and a Customer: Inventory management > Common Forms > Item details > select necessary item > Trade agrmt. button > Sales price button > Delivery field group > Lead time field.

Note: When an item is added to the Sales order, the requested receipt date is verified (if verification is not successful, the Available ship and receipt dates form opens).

ATP (Available to promise) is a more interesting method. ATP provides a response to the customer’s order enquiries based on resource availability. It generates available quantities of the requested product and delivery due dates. ATP supports order promising and fulfillment aiming to manage the demand and match it to production plans. This method does not use the Sales lead time and calculates the available date base on the following:

• Issues and receipts (only primary stocking is considered)
• Issues and receipts from the planned orders

Like the Sales lead time method, this one also takes into account the following parameters:

• Coverage calendar
• Order entry deadline
• Transport time
• Transport calendar
• Customer receipt calendar

If we select ATP in the Delivery date control field, the Requested receipt date is changed to the current date. When we click the Simulate delivery dates button, the following information is shown in the Available ship and receipt dates form.

Available ship and receipt dates form. ATP method.

We can see that all dates from today are available. This happens because we have not set the time fence for the ATP calculation. (If we, for example, set the time fence for 10 days, all days remain available because the sales lead time is not used and no sales order line exists.) When we create a first sales order line, the system recalculates the available receipt date based on the item availability. So we will discuss the ATP method a little later when creating a sales order line.

Having returned to the Create sales order form, the Sales Manager selects ATP in the Delivery date control field.

The Delivery address field group contains the Customer address. The Information is transferred from the Customer form.

The Shipping field group contains the information about delivery terms. The Information is transferred from the Customer form as well.

The Administration field group contains the information about the Recipient (is taken from Administration > Users > select current user > User relations button > General tab > Employee field) and the Sales responsible (this employee receives commission for a sale).

The Sales Manager clicks the OK button. A Sales order with no lines is created.

Sales order form

Now, the Sales Manager can proceed to create sales order lines:

1. In the line area, select the Bottle item in the Item number field.
2. Select 0.5 in the Size field.
3. Select Red in the Color field.
4. The Site field is filled in from the sales order with the value 2.
5. The Warehouse field is also filled in from the sales order with the value 21.
6. Fill in 1000 in the Quantity field.
7. Unit price is automatically filled in from the Item form. (Remember that we have set up a sales price for an item in this training).
8. Save the line by pressing CTRL +S.

We may note that the Requested receipt date for the line is the current date + 1. Let’s now analyze how the ATP works.

Available to promise (ATP)

As we said earlier, ATP provides an available receipt date to the customer’s order enquiries based on resource availability.

The following parameters are taken into account:

• ATP time fence – it is the number of days that will be considered. Let’s set the ATP time fence to 10 days. Go to Accounts receivable > Setup > Parameters > Shipments tab > Delivery control field group > ATP time fence field and type 10. Note: The ATP time fence can be set up for an individual item under Inventory management > select necessary item > Setup button > Site specific order settings > Sales order tab > select the Override check box > ATP field group > ATP time fence field.
• Issues and receipts (only primary stocking is considered). Find the primary stocking dimensions for the Bottle items:
  • Go to Inventory management > Common Forms > Item details. The Item form opens.
  • Find the Bottle item and locate its dimension group (Item form > General tab > Groups field group > Dimension group field).
  • It is the CS-WLP dimension group. We have set up this group in this training lesson.
  • Right-click in the Dimension group field and select Go to the Main Table Form. The Inventory dimensions form opens. This form contains the dimension setup. Find the dimensions with the Primary stocking check box selected. These are Size, Color, Site, and Warehouse, so this dimension is a primary stocking.
  Let’s check the issue and receipt.
  1. Go to Inventory management > Common Forms > Item details. The Item form opens.
  2. Find the Bottle item and then click the Transactions button.
  3. In the Transactions form, click the Inventory > Dimension display button, select all dimensions, and then click OK.
  4. Now, among all transactions, find the transactions with primary stocking dimensions same as those of the sales order line dimension. No receipt transaction exists, because in the previous lessons we received the purchased item to warehouse 22. Warehouse 21 doesn’t contain the required item. No issue transaction also exists, because it is our first sale.
  Since there are no items in warehouse 21, we can’t promise any receipt date for the Customer. Check if we have correctly reflected on the issue. Return to the Sales order form, in the line area, go to the Delivery tab and click the Simulate delivery dates button. The following form opens.
  
  

  Available ship and receipt dates form. ATP time fence = 10 days.
  Since the ATP time fence is 10 days, the item can’t be delivered to the Customer during this period because the on-hand values are zero. The Sales Manager can’t promise anything.
  The Sales Manager decides to take the item from warehouse 22. The Sales Manager returns to the Sales order line and fills in 22 in the Warehouse field. Then, the Sales Manager opens the Available ship and receipt dates form again and finds the following results.
  
  

  Available ship and receipt dates form. 22 warehouse.
  Now, the Sales Manager can select any date because the item is available in the warehouse.
• Issues and receipts from the planned orders. This parameter is only taken into account if the ATP incl. planned orders check box is selected
  • Global setup: Accounts receivable > Setup > Parameters > Shipments tab > Delivery control field group > ATP incl. planned orders field.
  • Per item: Inventory management > Common Forms> Item details > select necessary item > Setup button > Site specific order settings > Sales order tab > select the Override check box > ATP incl. planned orders field.
• Coverage calendar is used to specify the dates when a warehouse works i.e. items can be shipped from the warehouse. The coverage calendar for the warehouse is set up under Inventory management > Setup > Inventory breakdown > Warehouses > Master planning tab > Item coverage field group > Calendar field. In the coverage calendar, you can set up open and closed days for the warehouse. If the requested shipping date falls on a closed day, then the next open day is used for the requested shipping date. If you do not set up a coverage calendar, the open and closed days defined in the company shipping calendar are used (Basic > Company information > Other tab > Shipping field group > Shipping calendar field).
  In our case, Coverage calendar = Whse. Let’s look what information is in this calendar: Go to Basic > Calendar > find the Whse calendar > click the Working times button. The Working times form opens.
  
  

  Working times form. Whse calendar.
  Calendar days’ controls are taken from the BaseCtrl base calendar. If we open the Working times form for the BaseCtrl calendar, we can see that on Monday the warehouse works 24 hours from 12:00 AM to 24:00. If we set the cursor to Saturday or Sunday, we can see that the warehouse doesn’t work. i.e. the warehouse works 5 days except Saturday and Sunday. Let’s assume that the warehouse doesn’t work on 5/26/2010. Find this date in the Working times form and select Closed in the Control field.
  
  

  Working times form. 5/26/2010 is closed.
  Now, we will check the result. Return to the Delivery tab of the sales order line and click the Simulate delivery date button.
  
  

  Available ship and receipt dates form. Coverage calendar.
  We can see that there is no 5/26/2010 date in the form.
  Make the 5/26/2010 date available by yourself
• Order entry deadline determines the cut-off time after which orders are shipped one day later. It is possible to set up an individual order entry deadline for a site (a group of sites) and a customer (a group of customers).
  Each customer can be assigned to an order entry deadline group under Accounts receivable > Common Forms > Customer details > Sales order tab > Sales order field group > Order entry deadline group field. A site is assigned to an order entry deadline group under Inventory management > Setup > Inventory breakdown > Sites > General tab > Order entry field group > Order entry deadline group field.
  Let’s assume that in our company the order entry deadline is set to 14.00 for all customers and all sites. Go to Inventory management > Setup > Distribution > Order entry deadlines. The Order entry deadlines form opens.
  
  

  Order entry deadlines form
  As we can see, our demo data already contains the record with required values. I mean the first record which shows that for all sites and all customers the order entry deadline is set to 14.00 during 5 working days.
  Let’s check how it works. Return to the sales order line, go to the Delivery tab, and then click the Simulate delivery dates button. Let’s check the Available ship and receipt dates form more attentively.
  
  

  Available ship and receipt dates form. My time.
  Now, my time is set to 17:22, we set up the order entry deadline to 14:00, but the system allows using the 5/19/2010 date as a receipt date. Why doesn’t the system shift the available receipt and ship date to one date? This happens because that order entry deadline is set up for a warehouse. But, a warehouse can be situated in one place and the Sales Manager in another place. Let’s check if I am the Sales Manager and I sit in Kyiv, Ukraine. My time is 17:22 and the Time zone is GMT +2. Where is the Warehouse situated? Go to Inventory management > Setup > Inventory breakdown > Warehouses > find warehouse 22. This warehouse belongs to  site 2. Go to the site parameters under  Inventory management > Setup > Inventory breakdown > Sites > find  site 2 > General tab > Order entry field group > Time zone field.
  
  

  Sites form. Order entry field group.
  We see that the warehouse is situated in the GMT -05 time zone. Since the order entry deadline is set up for warehouse other than the order entry deadline for the Sales Manager who is located in Kyiv, the time will be calculated as follows 14:00 + (2:00 – (-5:00)) = 21:00. We can find this information in the Available ship and receipt date form (Order entry deadline field group > My time field). The available receipt (ship) date will be one day shifted only if the Sales Manager will find available dates after 21:00. You can check this if you temporarily set the time on your computer to 21:00. I set it and click the Simulate delivery dates button in the sales order line. The following result appears:
  
  

  Available ship and receipt dates form. Order entry deadline.
  It is the expected result. Unfortunately, we can’t click the warning icon and get detailed description about the reason. Let us hope this will be possible the future version…
  Don’t forget to set the right time on your computer 😉
• Transport time. Set up the transport time between a warehouse in your company and a customer address in the Transport form. This form is opened by clicking Inventory management > Setup > Distribution > Transport.
  
  

  Transport form.
  Let’s assume that the transport time between warehouse 22 and the Customer 1000 (Natural Juice) is 3 days by truck. And now, check how the result in the Available ship and receipt date form is changed.
  1. Open the Transport form by clicking Inventory management > Setup > Distribution > Transport.
  2. Fill in 30005 in the ZIP/postal Code field under Filter field group > Receiving point field group (30005 is the Customer’s ZIP/Postal code).
  3. Create a new record by pressing CTRL + N.
  4. Select 22 in the Shipping warehouse field.
  5. Save the line.
  6. Create a new line in the lower part of the form.
  7. Select the Truck mode of delivery (fill in 10 in the Mode of delivery field).
  8. Fill in 3 in the Transport days field.
  9. Save the line.
  Check the result in the Available ship and receipt date form. Go to the line area, click the Delivery tab, and then click the Simulate delivery dates button. The following result shows:
  
  

  Available ship and receipt dates form. Transport days.
  We can see that the available receipt date is changed, because the transport days value is set to 3. Is it interesting to know what happens if the Sales Manager requests available dates after 21:00 (the order entry deadline)? The available date is shifted to one day (to May, 25). You can check this yourself. One note: If a sales order line contains only a site (without a warehouse), the transport time in the Transport form is searched for a fallback warehouse. This is set up under Inventory management > Setup > Distribution > Fallback warehouse for site.
• Transport calendar is used to set up open days for the transport. Transport calendar can be set up per mode of delivery or per mode of delivery in a specific warehouse. Transport calendar is set up under Accounts receivable > Setup > Distribution > Modes of delivery > select Truck mode > Transport calendar button > find warehouse 22. We can find the Transport1 calendar under Basic > Calendar. If we click the Working times button, we can see that 5 working days are open in the transport calendar (see the 24Hours base calendar).
• Customer receipt calendar is used to specify open days for the Customer. If no receipt calendar is specified for the customer, all days are open days for the Customer.You can specify the customer receipt calendar under Accounts receivable > Customer details > Setup tab > Delivery field group > Receipt calendar field.For Customer 1000, the Receipt calendar field contains the Standard value. If we go to Basic > Calendar, we can find that the open days for the customer are from Monday to Friday (see the BaseCtrl calendar since this is a base calendar).

Summary

We have studied how available dates are calculated.

All these parameters are taken into account by the system. The only thing that the Sales Manager must do is to enter a sales order line, click the Simulate delivery dates button, select the first available date, click the Transfer to requested button, and then tell the available date to the Customer.

The Sales Manager performs all these steps and as a result, the Requested receipt date field contains 5/24/2010 the Requested ship date 5/19/2010.

Sales order form. Delivery tab.

The Sales Manager enters another sales line for 200 items Can Standard Black. And, also provides the Customer with the information about the receipt date. Create a sales line yourself.

In the next training lesson, we will study the shipment process.

Deploy the client by using Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 [AX 2012]

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 is a comprehensive solution that is used to assess, deploy, and update servers, clients, and devices across physical, virtual, distributed, and mobile environments. This topic describes how to use Configuration Manager to deploy Microsoft Dynamics AX clients in a medium to large organization.

This topic does not provide information about how to set up the network infrastructure, such as the Active Directory directory service, Microsoft SQL Server, and System Center Configuration Manager.

For more information about how to set up and use Configuration Manager, see the Configuration Manager 2007 Documentation Library on TechNet.

Overview of the deployment process

To deploy Microsoft Dynamics AX clients by using Configuration Manager, you must create and define the following objects:

• Collections – A collection is a group of resources, such as users, user groups, or computers. A collection defines the target of a software deployment.
  For more information about collections, see Collections Overview in the Configuration Manager documentation.
• Packages – A package is the set of installation source files that Configuration Manager manages and distributes for a software deployment. Packages include distribution points and the programs that are used to deploy the software.
  For more information about packages, see About Packages in the Configuration Manager documentation.
• Programs – Programs contain command-line switches and additional parameters that are used by designated source files in packages, such as Setup.exe.
  For more information about programs, see About Programs in the Configuration Manager documentation.
• Distribution points – Distribution points are site systems for Configuration Manager that store packages that can be deployed to Configuration Manager clients. When the client receives and processes an advertisement, the client contacts a distribution point to download the package and start the installation process.
  For more information about distribution points, see About Distribution Points in the Configuration Manager documentation.
• Advertisements – Advertisements let administrators target a software deployment to collections of computers or users. An advertisement specifies a package, a program, and the collection to which the advertisement is sent and deployed.
  For more information about advertisements, see About Advertisements in the Configuration Manager documentation.

Example: Deploy Microsoft Dynamics AX clients by using Configuration Manager

This section provides an example of a network environment for the Configuration Manager infrastructure. This section also describes how Configuration Manager is used to deploy Microsoft Dynamics AX clients in this environment.

You can use this example as a guide when you use Configuration Manager to deploy Microsoft Dynamics AX clients in your implementation.

Network environment

The following illustration shows an example of a network environment.

All the computers are members of the Contoso.com domain.

Servers A, B, and C run Windows Server 2008. The applications and roles on each computer are as follows:

• A – The domain controller that runs Active Directory, the Domain Name System (DNS) Server role, and the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Server role
• B – The database server that runs Microsoft SQL Server 2008
• C – The management point and distribution point that runs System Center Configuration Manager
• D – The client computer that runs Windows 7 Professional and the System Center Configuration Manager client