Dynamics AX 2009 Demonstration Toolkit Refresh 2

Microsoft has announced that it is now serving an updated version of the Dynamics AX 2009 Demonstration Toolkit. According to the Redmond company, the Refresh 2 of the Demonstration Toolkit for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 was produced by taking into consideration feedback from the field and from company partners. As was the case with the initial release of the toolkit, the Pre-Sales Demonstration Toolkit for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Refresh 2 is only available to Microsoft partners. Qualifying companies can navigate to Partnersource and grab the latest version of the toolkit.

“Minimal services are set to start automatically. For example the web server is set to manual to make sure the start up time for the VM is improved,” revealed Lachlan Cash, Microsoft product manager. “Disk configuration. If you create your own VMC files make sure you [are aware] we have moved the SQL databases onto a second virtual disk so that you can put this onto a second physical disk to improve the database performance. Lean Manufacturing is on a optional download virtual disk.”

At this point in time Microsoft continues to serve both Refresh 1 and Refresh 2 releases of the toolkit side-by-side. Still, customers that will go for the latest iteration will also be able to enjoy an image complete with the new software updates made available by the software giant. The role of the toolkit is to allow partners to not only test drive but also demonstrate Dynamics AX 2009.

In this context, the Dynamics AX 2009 Demonstration Toolkit Refresh 2 brings to the table a variety of resources, including: Lean Manufacturing for Microsoft Dynamics AX2009; Customer Model Visualization Tool; Microsoft Dynamics CRM basic installation with Outlook Client; Microsoft FRX and Forecaster setup and demo reports with Drilldown; Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Intelligent Data Management Framework (Beta); Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step; Rapid Configuration Tool; Hotfix Rollup 2; System Center Operations Manager Management Pack updated to RTM; Microsoft Dynamics Project Time installation; Environment Dashboard updated to RTM; Microsoft Dynamics Mobile “demo” for Mobile Sales setup; Demo data updated to current periods; Demand Planner 2.0 demo data setup; GLS Layer files for Consolidated GLS and EERU on the disk; Performance tweaks and startup with minimal service state to minimize startup time; Additional tools to show web services and office integration; and Demo data change tool for Item names, Customer names and Vendor names.

“Using Hyper-V and VPC7 beta in Win7. If you move to these virtualizations technologies that will cause the machine to think the hardware has changed because of the integration component changes. Make sure you set up the network cards with the fixed IP address as per the VPC config. You will also have to activate some applications like Office because it thinks it has moved to a new machine. If you are downloading the Release Note from Partnersource. Right click, change the type to All Files and add docx to the file name otherwise it will come down as a zip file,” Cash added.