Deploy AX 2012 R3 or AX 2012 R3 CU8 demo environments on Azure

Important

This content is archived and is not being updated. For the latest documentation, see Microsoft Dynamics 365 product documentation. For the latest release plans, see Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform release plans.

Prerequisites

Before you complete the procedures in this article, make sure that the following prerequisites are in place.

Category	Prerequisite
Required tasks	Plan AX 2012 R3 deployments on Azure

1. Log on to Lifecycle Services

Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services provides a cloud-based collaborative workspace that customers and partners can use to manage Microsoft Dynamics AX projects. You’ll use this website to deploy AX 2012 R3 on Azure. Lifecycle Services is available to customers and partners as part of their support plans. You can access it with your CustomerSource or PartnerSource credentials. Log on to Lifecycle Services

2. Create a project

After you log in to Lifecycle Services, open an existing project, or create a new project. Projects are the key organizer of your experience in Lifecycle Services. The methodology associated with a project determines which phases and tasks are included in the project by default.

3. Connect the project to your Azure subscription

Connect the Lifecycle Services project to your Azure subscription. This will enable Lifecycle Services to deploy an AX 2012 R3 environment to the subscription. To connect the project to your Azure subscription, complete the following procedure. Keep in mind that a project can be connected to only one Azure subscription. If you have multiple Azure subscriptions, be sure to identify which subscription you want to use before you complete this procedure.

1. Click Cloud-hosted environments. The Cloud-hosted environments page is displayed.

2. The Microsoft Azure setup panel is displayed on the side of the screen. If it is not displayed, click Microsoft Azure settings.

3. Enter your Azure subscription ID. If you need to find your subscription ID, complete the following steps:

   1. Open another instance of your browser.
   2. Log on to the Azure management portal.
   3. In the navigation pane on the left, click Settings. (You may have to scroll to the bottom of the navigation pane to see the Settings link.) The Settings page is displayed.
   4. Copy your subscription ID, and then paste it into the Azure subscription ID field in Lifecycle Services (which is currently displayed in another browser instance).

4. Click Next.

5. Click Download to download a management certificate. This management certificate enables Lifecycle Services to communicate with Azure on your behalf. By default, the management certificate is saved to the Downloads folder on your computer and is named LifecycleServicesDeployment.cer.

6. Upload the management certificate to Azure. To do so, complete the following steps:

   1. Open another instance of your browser. (Or, go to the browser instance that you may have opened in step 3.)
   2. Log on to the Azure management portal.
   3. In the navigation pane on the left, click Settings. The Settings page is displayed.
   4. Click Management certificates.
   5. Click Upload at the bottom of the page.
   6. In the Upload a management certificate window, browse to the management certificate that you downloaded in step 5. Then click the check mark.

7. Go back to the browser that displays the Microsoft Azure setup panel in Lifecycle Services. Click Next.

8. Select the region that is closest to you. The AX 2012 R3 environment will be deployed to a datacenter in this region.

9. Click Connect.

The project is now connected to the Azure subscription that you specified. If you discover that you connected the project to the wrong Azure subscription (that is, assuming you have multiple Azure subscriptions), you’ll need to delete the project, create a new project, and then repeat this procedure to connect the new project to the appropriate Azure subscription.

4. Deploy an AX 2012 R3 or AX 2012 R3 CU8 demo environment on Azure

Complete the following procedure to deploy an AX 2012 R3 or AX 2012 R3 CU8 demo environment on Azure.

1. On the Cloud-hosted environments page, click the Add (+) icon.

2. In the Select environment topology panel, select Demo.

3. Click Demo AX 2012 R3 or Demo AX 2012 R3 CU8.

4. In the Environment name field, enter a name for the environment that will be deployed.

5. Click Advanced settings.

6. To customize virtual machine names, click Customize virtual machine names. In order to support common IT naming guidelines, the ability to name virtual machines is provided through the Advanced settings option on most deployment topologies. In addition to defining the name, a starting index can be selected for each virtual machine type. The index is incremented for each instance of the virtual machine type that is deployed. Virtual machine names must be 13 characters or less. The index is separated from the machine name by a hyphen (-), followed by the index that supports a maximum of 2 digits. Example: ACustomVMName-99 When virtual machine instances are added to an environment after the initial deployment, the deployment service will start incrementing the virtual machine name where it left off. For example, if you deployed four AOS virtual machines with a starting index of 2, then the last AOS instance name will be AOS-6. If you add two more AOS instances, they will be AOS-7 and AOS-8. If one of the virtual machine types in your deployment is customized, then all of the virtual machine names must be customized. This is done to ensure that a long deployment does not occur because a virtual machine name was accidentally missed.

7. One virtual machine will be deployed on Azure. The default size of this virtual machine is D3 (4 cores, 14 GB memory). If you want to change the size, select a different size from the Size list.

   • For sizing and pricing details about virtual machines, see Virtual machines pricing details.
   • For more information about the software installed on the virtual machine, see Plan AX 2012 R3 deployments on Azure.

8. Click Software License Terms to review the licensing terms and conditions. Then select the check box to indicate that you agree to the terms.

9. Click Next.

10. Click Deploy to confirm that you’re ready to deploy the environment. The deployment may take a few hours to complete. When the deployment is done, the Deployment Status column on the Cloud-hosted environments page will display Deployed. (You may need to refresh your browser to see this.) If the deployment fails, you may see an error message right away. If the error occurs later in the deployment process, error details will be displayed in the Details pane on the right side of the page.

5. Open the AX 2012 R3 client

Complete the following procedure to connect to the virtual machine where the AX 2012 R3 client is installed.

1. On the Cloud-hosted environments page, select the demo environment that you just deployed.
2. Scroll to the right side of the page to view details about the environment.
3. Click the DEMO-<GUID> link.
4. At the bottom of the page, click Open to open the .rdp file.
5. When prompted for credentials, enter the user name and password found on the Cloud-hosted environments page for this environment.
6. When the virtual machine’s desktop is displayed, click the Microsoft Dynamics AX icon to open the AX 2012 R3 client.