Improve client startup times by configuring clients to use roaming profiles
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.
Applies To: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3
This topic describes how to configure the Microsoft Dynamics AX client for roaming user profiles in a Remote Desktop Services farm. A roaming user profile can improve client startup times.
About roaming user profiles and Microsoft Dynamics AX
When a user logs onto a Windows-based computer, the system creates a directory with the user’s name or alias and stores data about that user’s session in the directory. This directory and the stored data are called a user profile. The first time a user logs onto a computer the system can take 30 seconds or more to create the user profile. If a user connects to computers or RemoteApp applications in a Windows Desktop Services farm, the system will create a new user profile for each server the user connects to in the farm unless the administrator configures roaming user profiles.
A roaming user profile is a copy of the local user profile that is stored on a server share. When a user logs onto a computer in the Remote Desktop Services farm, the system does not have to create a new profile. Instead, the system downloads the roaming profile from the share and uses it for the current session. Changes made to a roaming user profile are synchronized with the server copy when the user logs off.
When a user first opens the Microsoft Dynamics AX client, the system creates a .auc file and stores it in the user profile. The .auc file caches AOT information and user-specific details. When a user exits and restarts their Microsoft Dynamics AX client, the system reads the details in the .auc file and restores some aspects of the user’s session.
Users in a Remote Desktop Services farm can wait longer than 30 seconds if the system must create a new user profile and a new .auc file when a user first logs onto a server. If you configure the server farm for roaming user profiles, and then create a Microsoft Dynamics AX client configuration that has roaming user profiles enabled, users can experience much shorter wait times when they first connect to the server farm.
Important
Administrators can configure Remote Desktop Services farms to clean out user profiles on logout. This configuration preserves disk space, but it can create slower startup times in environments with poor network infrastructure because the shared profile and all stored data for that profile must be sent across the network each time the user logs on. Before you configure roaming profiles, verify that your network infrastructure can quickly download the necessary amount of data (typically multiple megabytes) from a shared user profile. If the network cannot handle this traffic, users might experience better startup times if the system recreates the user profile during each logon.
Before you begin
Before you create a client configuration that enables roaming user profiles in Microsoft Dynamics AX, you must deploy a Remote Desktop Services farm and then configure roaming user profiles in the server farm. For more information, see Deploy Roaming User Profiles [Windows Server 2012] or User Profiles on Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Services.
Create a roaming user profile client configuration
Use the following procedure to create a roaming user profile client configuration by using the Microsoft Dynamics AX client configuration utility.
Note
You can also start a Microsoft Dynamics AX client session with roaming user profiles enabled by using the Ax32.exe –roamingprofile command. For more information about this command, see Client configuration commands. For more information about how to execute commands, see Execute configuration commands.
Open the configuration utility. Click Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Configuration.
In the Configuration target list, select Local client.
Click Manage, and then click Create configuration.
In the Create configuration dialog box, in the Name box, type a name.
You can copy settings from either the active configuration or the original configuration, which is the default configuration. Select the configuration that you want to copy settings from, and then click OK.
Note
You cannot delete or rename the original configuration. You can only rename or delete configurations that you create.
Click the Connection tab, and then click Use roaming user profiles.
Save your changes and then deploy the new configuration as a new shared configuration file. For more information about how to deploy a shared configuration file, see Configure clients to use a shared configuration.