Is your Business Process Modeler updated?
I see a lot of MS Dynamics 365 implementations where the BPM in Lifecycle Services (LCS) is not used. They are running fine (at least that is what the clients are telling me). But in general, their implementation partner did not tell them all the benefits LCS has in store for them. Why should a partner bother to mention all the benefits Improvements on testing and user help experience does not result in more billable hours? So is your Business Process Modeler updated?
Using the BPM in combination with DevOps supports more streamlined and efficient implementation projects. By defining the processes in the BPM library; there is a generic structure for tracking the project requirements / user stories / tasks. The BPM hierarchy can be synchronized with DevOps – as a result the DevOps backlog and boards are populated with structured work items ready to be used by the project team.
In addition to tracking the progress of a project, the BPM and DevOps processes and work items can be used for automated testing (RSAT) and user documentation (online help recordings). Read more on these topics in our other blogs!
When defining the processes and work items it is important to understand how LCS and DevOps share the information. There are various approaches one can take regarding the level of detail to track in BPM vs DevOps.
Business Process Modeler
The BPM is a necessary evil – I must admit, it is a strange thing. Currently it is the only way to bring business processes, task recordings, automatic testing, and user documentation of Dynamics 365 together and re-use the information between the different areas. At the same time, it is not extremely user friendly when compared to for example DevOps.
recommendations
- The model name must be short, the name is reused everywhere later-on in DevOps, I always call it simply BPM, so later the titles of my epics, features and tasks start with [BPM]
- The existing BPM models from MS are too big and complex, no key user will ever be able to put the task recording on the correct place.
- Create your own BPM
- 2 layers
- The 3 layer is in additional point for adding the task recording. A BPM could be like below picture, the customer has 2 tasks recording on how to create a customer
The BPM can then be synchronized with DevOps – the above hierarchy will generate DevOps work items with type “Epic” and/or “Feature” based on the synchronization parameters.
Once the epics and features have been synchronized, it is possible to add Requirements per process node via the button “Add requirement” – the work item type of a requirement in DevOps is also defined in the synchronization settings of LCS and depend on the DevOps project process template.
All links to DevOps are visible in LCM on the BPM nodes, including the test cases. The below considerations are important when making the decisions regarding what type of work items to track in which application.
BPM and DEVOPS
How does it integrate
- The synchronization between LCS and DevOps is one-directional from LCS BPM to DevOps, as a result:
- Any updates made in DevOps will not be reflected in the BPM library
- All work items that need to be available in the BPM need to be created via BPM and synchronized to DevOps
- Business processes (epics, features) need to be created in BPM, not in DevOps
- The mapping between BPM and DevOps is done in LCS and the options available depend on the project template type used for the DevOps project:
- when “Agile”, a BPM requirement type will generate a work item with type “User story” in DevOps
- when “Scrum”, a BPM requirement type will generate a work items with the type “Task” in DevOps
- If the DevOps template is “Custom” – including when it is derived from Agile – a BPM requirement type will generate a work items with the type “Task” in DevOps
- Test cases are linked to BPM process nodes (epic/feature in DevOps), not the requirements (user story/task in DevOps), maximum one test case can be linked to one process
- The one-directional synchronization rule applies also here
- If the test case should have a link to the requirement / user story / task, this can be added manually in DevOps
The DevOps process templates can be defined via DevOps Organization setup screen. The standard process templates are pre-created (Basic, Agile, Scrum, CMMI) and can be extended (KANBAN below).
The process template must be linked to the DevOps project via project settings screen:
The synchronization settings between LCS and DevOps are configured via LCS project settings tab “Visual Studio Team Services”. The options available in this screen depend on the process template used for the selected project.
In case of Agile process template, it is possible to select “User story” in the column “VSTS work item type” for LCS work item sub-type “Requirement”:
In case of Custom process template, it is not possible to select “User story” in the column “VSTS work item type” for LCS work item sub-type “Requirement”. The only available options are “Task” and “Bug”:
For additional details regarding the different DevOps process templates and how these are intended to be uses please refer to the Microsoft documentation
Conclusion
Considering the usability of LCS BPM and DevOps and the synchronization limitations our recommendation is to use BPM for 2-3 levels of processes and use DevOps for tracking the user stories / requirements / tasks. With this approach, the end users and key users can add new user stories / requirements via DevOps and link them to the proper BPM nodes (features / epics) inside DevOps.
When a new process is added, this must first be created via LCS BPM and synchronized to DevOps to make it available as a parent on new user stories / requirements.
Good luck on your improved user experience!
Automated backups of D365FO databases.
When you work with LCS then below list of data base movement operations are familiar to you. Nowadays exporting and refreshing can also be triggered with the Database Movement API This can become extremely handy for daily automated backups of D365FO databases. How we do it? With DEVOPS release pipelines. The pipeline looks like this. The BACKUP TST is disabled because the API does not ‘yet’ support Tier 1 Databases.
Speeding up
Because we had to apply automated backups of D365FO databases at multiple customers. It became time consuming. So, we optimized it. All customer specific setting became Variables of the pipeline. Because customer specific Client ID, Client Secret, and password, are sensitive information we have hidden them. Be aware in case you unhide, the values are cleared.
PowerShell
Below PowerShell script is a sample of how we generate the Token. This token is later used on the backup commands PowerShell.
| $tokenUrl = “https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/oauth2/token” $tokenBody = @{ grant_type = “password” client_id = “$(CLIENTID)” client_secret = “$(CLIENTSECRET)” resource = “https://lcsapi.lcs.dynamics.com” username = “$(USERNAME)” password = “$(PASSWORD)” } $tokenResponse = Invoke-RestMethod -Method ‘POST’ -Uri $tokenUrl -Body $tokenBody $token = $tokenResponse.access_token Write-Host “##vso[task.setvariable variable=TOKEN] $token” |
In the next sample we create the backup
| $cstzone = [System.TimeZoneInfo]:ConvertTimeBySystemTimeZoneId( (Get-Date), ‘W. Europe Standard Time’) $filedate = Get-Date $cstzone -f “yyy-MM-dd” $BackupName = “ACC-$filedate” Write-Output $BackupName $refreshUrl = “https://lcsapi.lcs.dynamics.com/databasemovement/v1/export/project/$(LCSPRPOJID)/environment/$(ACC)/backupName/$BackupName” $refreshHeader = @{ Authorization = “Bearer $(TOKEN)” “x-ms-version” = ‘2017-09-15’ “Content-Type” = “application/json” } $refreshResponse = Invoke-RestMethod $refreshUrl -Method ‘POST’ -Headers $refreshHeader Write-Output $refreshResponse |
And the DEVOPS insider will comment, yeah dream on, no build , is also no release. True, you just must reuse a build pool in your environment.
Please be aware that MS is throttling these requests, only 3 backups a day are possible.
And at the end, we generate an email notification for the people that really need it.
LCS
We do not use the alerts from LCS, it causes simply too many emails. So, we disable the next notification for all LCS users
Don’t forget the other handy LCS tricks
Performance tuning development VM
It is a general complain of any developer. Why is it so SLOOOWWWWW? And yes, it is slow. But there are performance tuning tricks. Slow is influence on 3 things
- Startup VM
- Is also startup of
- Batches
- Management reporter
- Windows security
- Windows update
- Windows maintenance
- SQL
- There is no SQL maintenance
- Disk
- Is also startup of
You could disable the batches & management reporter. That will help. But the real issue is how the disks of that VM are configured. In general, it looks like below 16 lazy disks.
Now you can change these to faster disks , but please be aware of the prices. Also, these are managed disk, the cost fixed amount every month, so stopping the VM will not reduce below cost.
| Size | Premium SSD | Standard SSD | Standard HDD |
| 64 GiB | 9.47 | 4.05 | 2.54 |
| 128 GiB | 18.29 | 8.10 | 4.97 |
| 256 GiB | 35.26 | 16.20 | 9.56 |
| 512 GiB | 67.92 | 32.39 | 18.36 |
How does the disk migration work? The first step is migration to managed disks
Managed Disks simplify disk management for VMs by managing the Storage accounts behind the scenes. Managed Disks also provide granular access control with RBAC and better reliability for VMs in an Availability Set. Learn more about the benefits of using Managed Disks
Source unmanaged disks are not deleted after the migration. Managed Disks are created by making a copy of the source disks. You can revert back to unmanaged disks by creating a new VM with the source disks. Configuration of the VMs is not changed after the migration. Learn more about migrating to Managed Disks
In order to complete migration, we will need to start the virtual machine. Once migration is complete, you may stop the virtual machine.
Next you can change all the discs
But hold on 16 disks multiplied with 18.29 makes 292 euro on top of running the VM. This is very expensive in the relation to how you use it. So next step:
- Archive your code & database.
- Delete the VM
- Deploy a new one
And of course, do not forget to setup the auto shutdown and the azure software reductions
Dynamics 365 LCS Tricks – install Knowledge Base (KB) article
LCS is the place for getting all the information from Microsoft related to your Dynamics 365 for Operations projects. This Web portal also allows you to get your MS fixes to your environment and knows which Knowledge Base (KB) articles have been applied.
In the next image, for instance, we can see that there are 167 fixes applicable. So, let’s start cherry picking.
Dynamics 365 LCS tricks – platform update 4 experience
Dynamics 365 LCS Tricks – mass install packages
Deploying packages is a time-consuming thing. MS has improved the speed, but we partner can also help. This helping is by merging the packages. Good merged combinations are Binary updates and x++ updates, but your own code can also be combined with your customizations on your Retail (SDK) part.
Till now I was not able to merge ISV packages, so those must be deployed separately. However, there is quick dirty trick for local VM.
Dynamics 365 LCS tricks – force LCS to update
LCS is your friend in Dynamics 365 as long it is up-to-date. And I have seen it is not always the case. So I will share some tricks to force it.
There are some things you should know LCS is only updating 1 time a day and that is 10 o clock in the evening. But when you look in LCS you see it is not updated for a couple of days. So what’s next?
Dynamics 365 LCS tricks – A day in the life of LCS
We all must use LCS when working with Dynamics 365 these days, sometimes it feels good and sometimes it is frustrating.
The next real live image of LCS shows how I feel about the experience.
We are speeding up but at the same time we have to wait.
