AX 2012 - Run Reports without hitting the Production DB

Hi there!

My fellow Sunriser, Brandon George,  has written an amazing article about running reports without hitting the Production Database.

Form the article:

"Since the default .Net Business Connector configuration for SSRS is pointing back to the same AX instance, when the SSRS instance is executing the reporting and firing the Data Extensions to get to the correct Query object and therefore data, then in this standard approach, we are hitting the production database for your instance of AX..."

"The critical keys that enable this concept are, (1) having the production instance of your AOS and Reporting Server setup, pointing to your SSRS server role within AX. (2) Changing what AOS the SSRS server hits for processing data, by deploying a custom configuration file. (3) Log Shipping is enabled at on the AX Production database, so that the AX Reporting Database is kept up to date with live data."

"...That is code promotion, or change management. Why does this matter? Well simply put, it's because the model store that represents the application now lives as a part of the production database. This then gets replicated when any changes take place."

Brandon George is a Senior Technical Architect at Sunrise Technologies and I personally believe he is one of the few people in the world that has truly master AX. I strongly suggest to follow his blog as it contains valuable, innovative, and critical information about AX.

You can access his blog (and the article) from here.

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]

Ax 2009 SSRS Videos

While looking for some information related to AX 2009 SSRS I found a bunch of videos related to SSRS and AX 2009.

Here is the link:

http://youtu.be/ZIoEZWaiBXI