Microsoft Dynamics NAV Administration

Amit Sachdev, Sharan Oberoi

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781847198761
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Ciencia de la computación
• Subtopic: Bases de datos

In Detail

Microsoft Dynamics NAV is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software product that integrates financial, manufacturing, supply chain management, sales and marketing, project management, human resources, and services management information from across your organization, into a centralized database. It can take hours to browse through documentation and references available online to learn how to install, configure, deploy and administer Dynamics NAV. This book aims to offer quick-start information in one place.

You will be amazed to find out how easily you can administer Dynamics NAV using this quick step-by-step guide. This book also has recommendations for software and hardware requirements including operating system considerations and hardware considerations for administering Dynamics NAV to your advantage. It covers some advanced functions to set up periodic activities, common batch jobs, and create object files. It will also guide you to secure your database by creating backups and improving performance with practical examples.

First you will look at the considerations for deploying Dynamics NAV and best practices and the most important aspects of every ERP installation. Then you will install Dynamics NAV-client and server components and use Dynamics NAV with the Microsoft Stack.

We discuss the Dynamics NAV Security Architecture including security recommendations and best practices. You will then create and restore backups. This book covers some recommendations about performance tuning-using appropriate code syntax, proper hardware sizing, and considerations for writing customized C/AL code while using SQL Server database.

Finally, you will set up procedures for scheduling pre-defined reoccurring processes, error and exception handling procedures, and provide mechanisms for automatic data processing on the server. Also, you will learn different methods used in handling, promoting to the database, and creating object files-tables, reports, codeunits, forms, pages, dataports and XMLports.

A hands on, short guide taking administrators through the installation, configuration, deployment, and ultimately, the administration of Dynamics NAV

Approach

This book is a tutorial guide that illustrates the steps needed to install, configure, deploy, and administer Dynamics NAV. It shows you how to get started with Dynamics NAV and then gradually explains other admin tasks such as backing up and performance tuning, using practical examples.

Who this book is for

If you want to get started in administering Dynamics NAV, this book is for you. Readers do not need any previous experience with Dynamics NAV.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV Administration

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Table of Contents

Microsoft Dynamics NAV Administration

Credits

Foreword

About the Authors

About the Reviewers

Preface

What this book covers

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Setting up the Environment for Dynamics NAV

Considerations for deploying Dynamics NAV

Understanding the business needs of company

Factors to be considered for configuring a role

Exporting the reporting and Business Intelligence requirements

Getting to know the Inherent BI capabilities in NAV

Other BI tools—Business Analytics with NAV

Single or multisite deployment

Choice of using a single versus multi-database for deployment

Other DB aspects to consider while deploying

Inter-company operability

Integration with other systems in headquarters

Licensing costs

Integration with external systems and third-party add-ons

Data ports and XML ports

Navision Application Server also known as "NAS"

Integration using Web services

Exploring hardware, operating systems, and networking requirements

Dynamics NAV client

Dynamics NAV server

Using NAV in WAN configurations

WAN options

Hardware configurations

Networking

Summary

2. Installing Dynamics NAV

Installing a Classic client

Installing a C/SIDE database server

Preparing a Microsoft SQL Server database for Dynamics NAV installation

Connecting a Dynamics NAV client (Classic) to the NAV Classic database server

Connecting a Dynamics NAV client (Classic) to a Microsoft SQL Server database

Installing the RoleTailored client for Dynamics NAV

Installing the Dynamics NAV server (the middle-tier component)

Connecting a RoleTailored client to the database

Summary

3. Integrating Dynamics NAV with the Microsoft Platform

Integrating Dynamics NAV and the Microsoft Office system

MS SharePoint interface

Installing and setting up Microsoft Dynamics NAV Employee Portal

Installing Employee Portal

Installing other required software

Installing Employee Portal frontend components

The General tab

The Front End tab

The Key Exchange tab

Setting up captions

Creating Web Part Request templates

Setting up users and groups

Exporting documents to MS Excel and MS Word

Creating a Customer Card stylesheet for MS Word

Creating a Mail Merge with the Customer Card stylesheet

Using extensibility with NAV 2009 SP1

Using a control add-in on pages

Example of using an add-in on RTC

Creating add-ins

Registering the add-in in Microsoft Dynamics NAV

Summary

4. Securing Dynamics NAV Applications

Security with SQL Server installation

Dynamics NAV security models

Switching between Enhanced and Standard security models

Why synchronize?

Synchronizing one or multiple users

Users, logins, and passwords

Creating database logins

Setting up user accounts

How is a USER ID used across the application

Logging in using Windows Authentication

SQL extended stored procedures

Why use Windows Logins?

Passwords

Roles and permissions

Assigning permissions

Creating a new user from scratch

Security filter—record-level security

Sarbanes Oxley compliance

Security, backups, and authorization

Access control and audit trail

Change Log

Data validation and accuracy

Effective change management

Summary

5. Backing up and Restoring a Dynamics NAV Database

Creating and restoring backups using a Dynamics NAV client

Retrieving a backup of the Dynamics NAV database

Restoring the database

Handling error messages

Using HotCopy backup

Testing the database

Starting the test

Viewing the output of the database

Backing up and restoring with SQL Server

Creating a server-side SQL backup

Restoring the SQL backup

Synchronizing a SQL database

Expanding the database

Things to consider while defining the backup strategy

Summary

6. Performance Tuning

Configuring a SQL Server database for Microsoft Dynamics NAV

Defining database and transaction log files

Defining rules using collations

Writing less expensive C/AL code for customizations

Retrieving data using FINDFIRST/FINDLAST/FINDSET

Using the NEXT statement

Using ISEmpty

Locking the recordset

Disabling the "find-as-you-type" feature

Fine-tuning the SQL Server database for Dynamics NAV

SIFT

Using indexes/keys in Dynamics NAV

Investigating the performance of the database

Updating statistics

The Index Defrag tool

The Key Information tool

Session Monitor

Optimizing tables from the Dynamics NAV interface

Summary

7. Setting up Periodic Activities, Stylesheets, and Rapid Implementation Methodology

Job Queue

Setting up Job Queue

Common batch jobs

Recurring journals

Creating a Reminders batch job

Adjust Exchange Rates batch job

Managing stylesheets in Dynamics NAV

Rapid Implementation Methodology

Using RIM tools to set up a new company

Summary

8. Upd...

Table of contents

• Microsoft Dynamics NAV Administration