The ARM Templates now supports artifacts… (and images)

Update 2021/2/10: BcContainerHelper has replaced NavContainerHelper. This blog post still reference NavContainerHelper, which is outdated.

I know a lot of partners and customers are using the Business Central ARM templates to create an Azure VM, which runs a specific version of Business Central (or NAV). This blog post describes what changed.

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Mounting a database from my online environment using SQL Server on the host

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 This blog post reflects the old way of using NAV/BC on Docker and references NavContainerHelper, which is outdated.

This blog post is really a combination between the last two blog posts, https://freddysblog.com/2019/11/04/using-sql-server-on-the-host/ and https://freddysblog.com/2019/11/12/mounting-a-database-backup-from-my-online-environment-inside-a-container/. As stated in the last blog post, you can only use databases of less than 10Gb in size inside the container due to SQL Express. This blog post will explain how to get past that problem. Continue reading

Mounting a database backup from my online environment inside a container

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 This blog post reflects the old way of using NAV/BC on Docker and references NavContainerHelper, which is outdated.

Just recently, a new functionality was enable in the Dynamics 365 Business Central admin center. The ability to request a backup. It didn’t take long before I got the first question from a partner, who asked whether they could run this locally using Docker. This blog post describes how to do just that. Continue reading

The ARM templates for Dynamics 365 Business Central and Microsoft Dynamics NAV

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 This blog post reflects the old way of using NAV/BC on Docker and references NavContainerHelper, which is outdated.

Moving quickly towards a world, where C/SIDE and C/AL development in Dynamics 365 Business Central is history, I have made some cleanup of the ARM templates and this blog posts describes the purpose of the templates and what they support. Continue reading

AAD authentication, Edit In Excel, Embedded PowerBi and http://aka.ms/GETNAV

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 do not have a count of how many time somebody have asked me, e-mailed me, sent messages asking for the “old” NAVDEMODEPLOY with NAV 2018 or Business Central Sandbox Containers. Continue reading

Enabling Premium Experience in Business Central Sandbox Containers

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.

A few people have discovered that manufacturing, production and other functionality which only is available when using Premium Plan is not available when running a Business Central Sandbox Container. 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

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

NAV and Multi Factor Authentication (MFA)

Over the last weeks I have gotten an increasing number of inquiries around MFA. To be honest, I had never tried to setup MFA before, but that didn’t stop me from answering.

My typical answer would be the following:

NAV itself does not have any knowledge about multi factor authentication, but we do support claims based authentication through authentication providers and if these authentication providers are setup for MFA, then NAV should support MFA through the authentication provider.

Having answered the same thing a number of times, I decided it was time to try it out. Continue reading