Dear Experts,
We are facing a lot of difficulties in migration. Yes, we did follow this articles (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamicsax-2012/appuser-itpro/scenario-perform-in-place-upgrade-to-ax-2012-r2-or-ax-2012-r3) but our challenges are different which I will explain below. First, I would like to give you an overview of our existing system and what we are doing to migrate and followed by some questions.
Currently, we are using (Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 (6.0.947.0)) which mainstream support is ended. This is an ISV product designed by some other company for our type's of business. We have Runtime licenses for ISV, ISP other low-level layers and for CUS layer we have both developer and runtime licences. We can only make code changes in the for USR and CUS layers.
Note: We have 3 tier architecture for this. AX Client, AOS and Database are hosted on three different servers.
Now, we have started to migrate to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 (6.3.164.0). We got 3 servers. We installed all the components similar to our previous system. Now, Basic Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 is working very fine. Happy till now
Base layers and modules of old AX (6.0 version) are SYS (Foundational), SYS (Foundational Labels), SYS (foundational Upgrade), SYP (Update for foundation), SYP (SYP Labels), SYP (Update for foundational upgrade), SYP (Hotfix-KB2786631), FPK (Data import-export framework) and after that ISV (4 modules), ISP (1 module), VAR (3 modules), CUS (2 modules) , USR (1 module).. Total we have 19 modules from SYS To USR.
Base layers and modules of new AX 2012 R3 SYS (Foundational), SYS (Foundational Labels) and USR. Total 3 modules from SYS To USR.
Now, we have exported all the modules from SYS (foundational Upgrade) from the old system because we already have module till SYS (Foundational Labels). BUT, we thought it is not right to import module of version 6.0 on top of a module of 6.3 because it might corrupt the system. So we did try to find similar version modules (6.3) of upgradations and hotfixes but bad luck we didn't get any of those version for AX R3 6.3
So My Question 1: Is it OK to import module of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 6.0 version on top of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 6.3? Would it work?
Then we thought, let's skip all the Microsoft modules and let's start with ISV on top of SYS (Foundational Labels) of R3. So we did import the first ISV module which is basic ISV module. Here is how we did the import.
Importing Module procedure to AX R3:
1. Deleted USR module from R3 using this command - axutil delete /model:USR
2. Didn't do any compilation. Restarted AOS. AX still working fine. Then we have imported ISV Module (basic) using this command (axutil import /file:"E:\Models\AXModel.axmodel" /verbose)
3. Next, we did full AOT compilation using this command (axbuild.exe xppcompileall /s=01 /altbin="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Dynamics AX\60\Client\Bin" /log:"E:\Temp"). After that, We have restarted AOS, oped AX client and gone through hotfixes checklist. Did script check and database sync successfully. AX working fine. Also, we didn't find any compilation errors in a log file.
Now we have SYS (2 modules) ISV (1 module) and USR (1modules - auto-generated by AX after full compilation). Everything is working file till now.
Next, we followed the same procedure for the next ISV model which is about 'security' in AOT. BUT this time we come up with errors. Lot's of compilation errors in log file. About 2000+.
We opened AX client to do script check and Database sync but the application not responding well. Now we came up with few questions below.
Question 2: Did we follow the right method of importing modules? if not, could you please suggest with proper importing and after steps?
Question 3: Any idea why that compilations error comes up? Is there any modules dependency? Like we have 4 modules for ISV, so does it matter in which sequence we import these modules?
We did go into AOT to find one of the errors (we are logged in as USR Layer). To see what exactly it is. So we surprised to see that, the variable showing error in the log file is actually present there. We did check the old AX code and new code it is very much same. Still, there are compilation errors. Following are some of the errors.
Example of some Data Dictionary/Tables Errors
fix compile error:
The enumeration does not exist.
Assignment or comparison loses precision.
Syntax error.
Example of some class errors (including ISV and SYS)
make label
set right constraint type
Check if a name is OK and create a label
This field can be set from external and may lead to unintended information disclosure
The #TableNaturalKey_BudgetPlanningProcess macro does not exist.
Question 4: After we have seen that, some of these errors are not actually erroring anything still appears in compilation errors. So now we doubt that do we need to compile the imported module by going (login) into that particular layer? Like we did import ISV module, so to compile it now, do we need to change AX client configuration setting to ISV model and logged into ISV layer and then full compile AOT? We tried this but it is asking Developer licence code of ISV. We don't have that. We only have a runtime license of ISV. So the main question is, do we really need a Developer license code to import (and compile) module successfully?
Question 5: If we require developer license code then surely our ISV vendor has their own code to unlock their ISV. So suppose if we do get our developer licence code from Microsoft then do we able to unlock this exported ISV? or do need code from our ISV vendor only?
I know, some of these questions might sound stupid. But there is no clear information on the internet about these. We hope the community can help in a much better way.
Question 6: if all module import went good and without any errors. So how to import our business data from our previous database to new database? I know there is a split database of module and business data in R3 version and previous version has only one database. So how we can take business data from old and put into a new database?
Could you please answer these 6 questions in a clear manner so we would clear our doubt and we can decide to go further with migration or not.
Thank You.