Can I run NAV 2015 (and earlier) on Docker?

Update 2021/2/10: Microsoft stopped creating images for Docker in the summer of 2020. We now publish artifacts, which can be used to spin up containers and BcContainerHelper has replaced NavContainerHelper. This blog post reflects the old way of using NAV/BC on Docker and references NavContainerHelper, which is outdated.

NAV on Docker is here to stay, and a lot of partners have discovered how NAV on Docker can save a lot of time in their development processes. NAV ships and maintains Docker images for all NAV versions (all CUs, all localizations) since NAV 2016RTM. One of the questions I have been asked a lot is, whether we will ship images for older versions of NAV. Continue reading

Creating workshop machines on Azure

Update 2021/2/10: Microsoft stopped creating images for Docker in the summer of 2020. We now publish artifacts, which can be used to spin up containers and BcContainerHelper has replaced NavContainerHelper. This blog post reflects the old way of using NAV/BC on Docker and references NavContainerHelper, which is outdated.

During Directions US and Directions EMEA, we had to spin up approx. 2000 Azure VMs for our hands on labs.

All of these machines was deployed individually from PowerShell (multiple simultaneous jobs, but still one job=one VM) running on my Developer Machine in Lyngby. The scripts used to create these VMs has been shared with a number of partners with the same need. Continue reading

The 10 command(ment)s of Docker (NAV on Docker #6)

Update 2021/2/10: Microsoft stopped creating images for Docker in the summer of 2020. We now publish artifacts, which can be used to spin up containers and BcContainerHelper has replaced NavContainerHelper. This blog post reflects the old way of using NAV/BC on Docker and references NavContainerHelper, which is outdated.

I recommend that you read this blog post before reading this.

In this blog post I will describe the 10 docker commands I use most frequently and what I use them for. The commands can be executed in a Command Prompt, PowerShell or PowerShell ISE on a machine with Docker installed. In any case, you need to be running as administrator. Continue reading

Multiple ways to run a NAV on Docker image (NAV on Docker #5)

Update 2021/2/10: Microsoft stopped creating images for Docker in the summer of 2020. We now publish artifacts, which can be used to spin up containers and BcContainerHelper has replaced NavContainerHelper. This blog post reflects the old way of using NAV/BC on Docker and references NavContainerHelper, which is outdated.

If you haven’t read this blog post, then please do so before continuing here.

A lot of examples (like the prior blog post) will use docker run to start a NAV on Docker container, but there are actually a lot of different ways to start these containers. Some of these methods will run the container locally, some will spin up the container on Azure.

In the end, what you get is NAV running somewhere and you can connect, demo, use and develop using it. Continue reading

1-800-GETNAV (Nav on Docker #4)

Update 2021/2/10: Microsoft stopped creating images for Docker in the summer of 2020. We now publish artifacts, which can be used to spin up containers and BcContainerHelper has replaced NavContainerHelper. This blog post reflects the old way of using NAV/BC on Docker and references NavContainerHelper, which is outdated.

What a cool phone number to have if you are a NAV partner in the US. Inspired by that and modernized it to the cloud world, it would be:

aka-ms-getnav

So here you are, probably the easiest way to spin up a NAV on Docker environment on Azure for development and test. The mechanism has been used over the last 2 months or so in the NAV Developer preview and in fact, it is the same set of PowerShell scripts that lies behind. Continue reading

1709 and NAV on Docker

Update 2021/2/10: Microsoft stopped creating images for Docker in the summer of 2020. We now publish artifacts, which can be used to spin up containers and BcContainerHelper has replaced NavContainerHelper. This blog post reflects the old way of using NAV/BC on Docker and references NavContainerHelper, which is outdated.

As of yesterday evening Windows Server version 1709 (with and without Containers) is available on Azure:

I thought it would be a good idea to describe how this relates to the NAV on Docker images recently published on the Docker Hub. Continue reading