AX2012 R2 hotfix available to improve compile speed

As you probably know, we've been working on providing a hotfix to cut the overhead in compile time experienced between AX2012 RTM and R2. For some of the systems where the issue was reported, the fix improved performance by as much as 50% - quite visible when comparing to previous compile times achieved with AX 2012. Not all installations will benefit equally from this tuning due to vast differences in performance characteristics as covered in earlier blog post.

At the time of blogging this, the hotfix is so hot off the press and freshly published that the KB information isn't fully available yet, however the testing is completed, the hotfix is final and can be downloaded/requested from the following link:

https://support.microsoft.com/hotfix/KBHotfix.aspx?kbnum=2844240

Like all the other hotfixes to the product binaries, it's a full service roll up of hotfixes to all the binaries.

The core of the fix is in the Model Store schema managed by axutil and, if you don't rely on SQL replication for your model store, you can get a very similar effect by deleting the Primary Key index defined for the table ModelSecurityPermission (DISCLAIMER: This requires tinkering directly with the SQL schema, so it's only advised for experimental use. For all production scenarios, please apply the hotfix in completeness.) The hotfix is different and a little bit more involved since it redefines a PK for the table, to ensure that replication is still possible, while maintaining the best possible query plan. The hotfix will be part of the upcoming CU6 release for AX2012 R2.

Note: when you've applied the hotfix, you need to run "axutil schema" against the model stores you want updated.

With this fix, we're addressing the loss in compile speed that surfaced with the R2 release, relative to AX2012 RTM. With that one done, we're continuing the pursuit of other improvements. Stay tuned...

Comments

• Anonymous
  April 30, 2013
  CU6 release for AX2012 R2.are us sure..........
• Anonymous
  April 30, 2013
  From the Build number of Hotfix (6.2.1000.1013) and unpacking folder structure of the fix, this appears to be a AX 2012R2 Post CU1 kernel only hotfix.
• Anonymous
  April 30, 2013
  I might be going completely mad. But after the AOS fails in the upgrade, it seems like the update program has changed the user account than runs the AOS service, from what I had before. It's changed to axaos from administrator on the demo image.
• Anonymous
  May 01, 2013
  @Palle: I've forwarded your experience to our patching team. Definitely not the expected behavior. I assume resetting this issue is straight forward by changing the account back.
• Anonymous
  May 01, 2013
  Upcoming CU6 for AX2012 R2? - I think not! :) Let's get CU2 first...
• Anonymous
  May 01, 2013
  Duh! I should know better than to reference CU numbers... Let's keep it simple... you all know how CUs work and that the hotfix will be in the next! :)
• Anonymous
  May 02, 2013
  @PalleThe behaviour you describe where AOS service credentials get "Reset" is an old issue from AX 2009 Days.It is because AX installer caches username and password credentials you said to use for AOS during install of AOS.Each subsequent hotfix rollup will "reset" the credentials back for the AOS service as part of the hotfix install (suspect its to do with how MSI and MSP files work).The only prevention is to set the AOS Service credentials correctly at time of AOS install so that future rollups will not overwrite your credential changes as you haven't made any.The workaround if you have changed crednetials since AOS install is to manually update the Windows service login credentials after each rollup is applied which is a pain.
• Anonymous
  May 15, 2013
  Does this hotfix contain all the hotfixes released in CU1 for AX2012R2?We need to install CU1 and also this one, so should we install CU1 and then compile hotfix or is it enough to install just the "compile" one.
• Anonymous
  May 17, 2013
  @Sebastian: The binary hotfixes are accumulative, so you will get all previous binary hotfixes.
• Anonymous
  May 30, 2013
  I experienced 35-40% performance gain after updating the schema. Well done - and thank you! :-)
• Anonymous
  July 01, 2013
  Martin,CU6 is the next release for R2.  MS will be skippling CU2-5 in an effort to make the CUs more consistent across the AX 2012 platform.  See:Cumulative update 6 is the second cumulative update for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2. As of cumulative update 6, we are changing the numbering scheme for cumulative updates to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2. We will release cumulative updates with the same release number for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 and the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and Feature Pack versions. The version-specific cumulative updates may not be released simultaneously, and cumulative updates for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 will be released first.Important There will be no cumulative updates numbered 2, 3, 4, or 5 for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2.mbs2.microsoft.com/.../KbDisplay.aspx