Deploying unified development environments for Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations has traditionally been managed through Lifecycle Services (LCS). However, Microsoft is transitioning this process to the Power Platform Admin Center (PPAC) to streamline the installation of all Dynamics 365 applications through a single platform.
In Part 1 of this OneByte article, you’ll learn the steps to deploying unified development environments through PPAC or Windows PowerShell. Part 2 will cover the deployment of tools on the workstation or local environment.
Advantages
There are certain advantages of the new unified development environment over the tier 1 development environment previously deployed through LCS, such as:
- Installation is quicker – 1 hour compared to 4-8 hours.
- There is no need for an Azure subscription as this is capacity-based.
- The customization deployment is quicker.
- There is no need to maintain a separate virtual machine, as Microsoft will take care of this environment.
Prerequisites
1. You will need to have one of the roles assigned to you – Dynamics 365 administrator or Power Platform administrator to start the deployment.
You can check or assign roles from the Microsoft 365 admin center by logging in as a Privileged Role Administrator role.
2. You will need to have a license of either Dynamics 365 Operations Application Partner Sandbox or Dynamics 365 Finance or Dynamics 365 Supply and Management.
You can check/assign the license from Home – Microsoft 365 admin center.
3. You must also have at least 1 GB available of both operations and Dataverse database capacity to provision one or more environment.
You can check the available capacity from Capacity | Power Platform admin center (microsoft.com).
Installation
There are two ways through which you can deploy your unified development environments.
- Power Platform Admin Center (PPAC) Interface Home – Power Platform admin center (microsoft.com)
- Windows PowerShell
Note: PPAC has more steps than Windows PowerShell, but PPAC has an easier to use and understand interface. It is a matter of preference which way you choose to deploy the unified development environments.
Through the PPAC Interface
1. Go to Environments | Power Platform admin center (microsoft.com)
2. Click on New. You will be presented with the below screen. Enter the values in the fields.
- Name: Name of the environment
- Group: Select None
- Region: Region where you want to deploy your environment
- Type: Sandbox
- Add a Dataverse data store: Yes
Note: The next option is only available when the Dataverse data store is set to Yes.
- Pay as you go with Azure: No
3. Click on Next and enter the below values.
- Language: As per your requirements
- Currency: As per your requirements
- Security groups: None
- Enable Dynamics 365 Apps: Yes
- Automatically deploy these apps: None
Note: In the Automatically deploy these apps dropdown, Finance or Supply Chain will not be readily available. These apps will be available once you install the Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations Platform Tools and Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations Provisioning Apps.
4. Click on Save. Your environment will be ready as shown below.
5. The next step is to install the Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations Power tools.
6. Click on the name of your environment (D365SupplyChain). Details like below will appear.
7. Click on Resources -> Dynamics 365 apps
8. Click on Install app.
9. Click on Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations Platform Tools.
10. Click on Next.
11. Click on Install. Installation will start.
12. Click on Install app.
13. You might find multiple apps for Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations Provisioning App. Select one of the Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations Provisioning App and select Next.
14. Upon clicking Next, you will be presented with below screen. Click on OK.
15. On the next screen select the following values below and then click Install.
- Enable Developer tools For Finance and Operations: Yes
- Enable Demo data for Finance and Operations: Yes
- Select the version of the Product: 10.0.40.3 (Select whatever version you want to deploy)
16. Installation will start and then the below screen will appear.
17. Installation will take around 1 hour or so to complete. Once the installation is done, the environment will be available.
18. In case the Finance and Operations URL is not available, go to the environment detail page, click on edit and change the value of purpose field. Click on save. The Finance and Operations URL should now be visible.
Through Windows PowerShell
Another method is to install and deploy the environment through Windows PowerShell.
- Open the Windows PowerShell in Administrator mode.
- Run the following command:
Install-Module -Name Microsoft.PowerApps.Administration.PowerShell
3. Click on Yes in case system asks for the Nuget Provider.
- Click on Yes. Installation of the Nuget package will start.
- Run the command:
Write-Host “Creating a session against the Power Platform API”
- Run the command:
Add-PowerAppsAccount -Endpoint prod
7. Enter the credentials which will be used to deploy the environment.
8. Next create the JSON object and pass values true for DevToolsEnabled and DemoDataEnabled.
# To construct the JSON object to pass in:
$jsonObject= @”
{
“PostProvisioningPackages”:
[
{
“applicationUniqueName”: “msdyn_FinanceAndOperationsProvisioningAppAnchor”,
“parameters”: “DevToolsEnabled=true|DemoDataEnabled=true”
}
]
}
“@ | ConvertFrom-Json
9. The next command will deploy the environment. You need to give the right parameters for Name of the environment, template and location of the environment.
IMPORTANT – The command must be a single line. Then copy and paste the command:
New-AdminPowerAppEnvironment -DisplayName “D365FinanceApplication” -EnvironmentSku Sandbox -Templates “D365_FinOps_Finance” -TemplateMetadata $jsonObject -LocationName “Canada” -ProvisionDatabase
10. This will trigger the environment creation for Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations.
11. After some time, (approximately 1 hour or so) the environment will be available.
Note: Check the Finance and Operations URL in the above screen.
Stay tuned for the next blog covering the installation of development tools for x++ development on a local workstation.
About the expert
 |
Tanuj Goel, D365 F&SC Technical Capability Lead, OnActuate
Tanuj is a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain professional with more than 20 years of experience in development, upgrades, integrations, DevOps, LCS tools and deployment in Dynamics AX and D365 F&SC. He is also experienced with performance testing using JMeter and test automation tools like RSAT and Leapwork. |
The “OneByte” blog series are technical how-to articles by OnActuate’s expert consultants covering Microsoft Business Applications (Microsoft Dynamics, Power Platform) and related technologies. Have a topic you’d like to learn more about? Email us at info@onactuate.com!
