Enterprise Portal authentication in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 – Finally something that makes sense!

In AX 2012 there is a new authentication terminology - Pluggable authentication. This type of authentication allows users who are not part of Active Directory access to the AX 2012 Enterprise Portal.

In a nutshell, AX 2012 integrates with SharePoint Pluggable Authentication, which provides authentication to external Enterprise Portal users that are not part of an organization's Active Directory.

Further, Pluggable Authentication provides an administrator three additional forms of authentication in addition to Active Directory:

1.       Active Directory Federated Service: Allows users who are associated with an external Active Directory to access Enterprise Portal.

a.       When an ADFS user is removed from the external Active Directory that user does not have access to Enterprise Portal.

2.       Forms Based Authentication: Allows users to authenticate against a custom database of users.

3.       Live Id: Users can authenticate to Enterprise Portal by using Windows Live Id.

See the following diagram:

For more information on the new Enterprise Portal changes in AX 2012 visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg845087.aspx#BKMKPluggableAuth

In addition, Brandon George has a really good post about the new Security Architecture in his blog, Check it out

http://dynamics-ax.blogspot.com/2011/06/microsoft-dynamics-ax-2012-security.html

Take care!

Helpful AX 2012 links

New Stuff for Developers

What's New in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for Developers [AX 2012]
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg845327.aspx


Architecture

AOS architecture [AX 2012]
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd309593.aspx

Model store architecture [AX 2012]
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd362019.aspx

Help server [AX 2012]
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg866975.aspx

.NET Business Connector architecture [AX 2012]
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd309664.aspx

Enterprise Portal architecture [AX 2012]
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd362005.aspx


.NET Business Connector

.NET Business Connector Overview [AX 2012]
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa659581.aspx


Development

Microsoft Dynamics AX IDE [AX 2012]
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa676506.aspx

Visual Studio Development for Microsoft Dynamics AX [AX 2012]
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg889157.aspx

Visual Studio Integration [AX 2012]
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg889299.aspx


Business Intelligence

Business intelligence components [AX 2012]
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg731794.aspx


Installation & Configuration


Firewall settings for Microsoft Dynamics AX components [AX 2012]
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg731780.aspx

Verify that you have the required permissions for installation [AX 2012]

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa496457.aspx

Developing Extensible Data Security Policies [AX 2012]

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=3110

Create service accounts [AX 2012]

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd362055.aspx

Planning hardware infrastructure [AX 2012]
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd362104.aspx

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Implementation Planning Guide [AX 2012]
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=4007

Moving between Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Environments [AX 2012]
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/axsupport/archive/2011/11/07/moving-between-microsoft-dynamics-ax-2012-environments.aspx


AX 2012 WHITE PAPERS
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=20864

Utilities

AxUpdatePortal Utility [AX 2012]
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd261467.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/solutions/archive/2009/02/04/axupdateportal-utility.aspx

Changes in Reporting tools and Enterprise Portal in AX 2012

Hi there!

Well, I would assume that we are all excited about the new changes around the Reporting and Enterprise Portal tools in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, right?

Well, we should be, as Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 has truly eliminated the need of having to install two different pieces of software to support reporting and EP development.  Currently, in AX 2009 the Reporting and EP tools are required components that we “have” to install in order to integrate AX 2009 and Visual Studio 2008.

 In AX 2012, however, standard Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 tolls can be used to achieve this Reporting and EP Development.  

In AX 2012 most of the basic development and some customization tasks (like creating new pages or adding Web parts to existing pages are all performed directly in SharePoint) related to the Enterprise Portal can be performed using SharePoint Foundation 2010 or SharePoint Server 2010. In addition, AX 2012 allows us to focus on the development of content Web parts in the Enterprise Portal by only using the Enterprise Portal framework and Visual Studio.  In fact, the most sophisticated functionality of Enterprise Portal is created by using Visual Studio.

Personally, I believe, the fact that EP proxies were taken out of the equation is a great step, as this created endless issues when updating EP proxies between AX 2009 and Visual Studio 2008. In fact, it was a suitable nightmare!

Reporting is not that bad in AX 2009, but the fact that we needed to install a piece of software to make it work really bothered me. Instead, AX 2012 provides a model-based approach to develop any type of report. It also provides templates and modeling tools that are part of Visual Studio.  Further, the reporting features provided by AX 2012 are really well integrated with SQL Server Reporting Services, which includes a set of tools for us to define reports in the Visual Studio.

I believe in simplicity, and the less we need to worry about installing several pieces of software to only make “one thing” work, the better.

Take care!

AX 2012 Extended Architecture

AX 2012 Extended Architecture

Besides the common (most simple) AX 2012 architecture, there are several other components of the Microsoft technology stack are used in a typical deployment.

The following is a list of the one that are most commonly deploy with implementations:

1. Reports are delivered by SQL Reporting Services (SSRS). SSRS is a component included in SQL Server.
2. Business Intelligence (BI) components such as Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) use Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) cubes which are delivered by SQL Analysis Services (SSAS). SSAS is a component included in SQL Server as well.
3. The Enterprise Portal and Role Pages are hosted in SharePoint. There are two versions of SharePoint that can be used. Window SharePoint Foundation 2010 is a free download. Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 is a product that can be purchased to provide extended collaboration and content management tools.
4. Integration to other applications or to third party organizations might require integration solutions such as web services.

The following picture describes a high level extended architecture:

Take Care!

[Some of the iinformation in this article has been taken from a Microsoft Training Manuals]

Configuring Kerberos Authentication with Enterprise Portal in AX 2009

Hi,

I remember the first time I had to setup the AX 2009 EP. Oh man, it was painful at the time and I wished I could have had the document I'm about to share/

In a way I feel lucky I had to do it and figure it out on my own as the document really makes sense, and I see now what where the steps I did not followed correctly.

Here is the link!

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=16080

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 System architecture

The following post has been copied from - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd362112(AX.50).aspx

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 - Sytem architecture

Understanding the internal architecture of Microsoft Dynamics AX can help you make decisions when planning, customizing, and deploying a system. This topic provides a high-level overview of the system architecture of Microsoft Dynamics AX.

The diagram below provides a high-level overview of Microsoft Dynamics AX system architecture. This diagram does not depict the system topology or physical infrastructure required for the deployment.

Your infrastructure can consist of many Microsoft Dynamics AX components on a single physical server or on multiple physical servers. For considerations in planning your deployment infrastructure, see Planning system topology.

For details on Microsoft Dynamics AX components, see Component architecture. For up-to-date hardware and software requirements for Microsoft Dynamics AX, see the system requirements Web page.