Introduction

This is just a quick note on how I setup an Ax 2012 on an Azure machine to get the most bang for my buck. The example I’m using is a DEV machine where I keep the sample code for this blog. But you could apply the principles for every environment.

Sizing & disks

Since I’m on a limited budget with my Visual Studio enterprise subscription I don’t use premium storage. So my favorites are the D2/D3 and D11 v2 machines, especially the D11 which has more memory, less cores (compared to D2/D3), it can have 4 data disks and the temporary local storage is larger than DS machines. This storage will become very useful for SQL Server and the extra memory is also a must.

Since standard disks are limited to 500 IOPS and 60 MB/s throughput I like to attach multiple disks and spread my installations over these. So I did my installation like this:

• Disk 1: SQL service + SSMS + LDF files + backup folder.
• Disk 2: SQL MDF files.
• Disk 3: Dynamics Ax client and service + visual studio.

(You can even add a 4th disk on this machine size but I didn’t really need it.)

SQL Server

Another neat performance trick is to use the temporary local SSD for the SQL temp db and buffer pool extension file. Check the link below on how to do it, I also have modified their powershell startup script to start my AOS.

Source: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dataplatforminsider/2014/09/25/using-ssds-in-azure-vms-to-store-sql-server-tempdb-and-buffer-pool-extensions/

# Customize the service names to your installation
$SQLService = 'SQL Server (MSSQLSERVER)'
$SQLAgentService = 'SQL Server Agent (MSSQLSERVER)'
$AXService = 'Microsoft Dynamics AX Object Server 6.3$01-AX2012R3'

$tempfolder="D:\MSSQL"

if (!(test-path -path $tempfolder)) {
    New-Item -ItemType directory -Path $tempfolder
}

Start-Service $SQLService
Start-Service $SQLAgentService
Start-Service $AXService
Code language: PowerShell (powershell)

Automation

I prefer starting and stopping my machine manually but another good way is to use Azure Automation to automatically start and stop your machine when you are not using it. This will save a lot of money on your bill.

If this is too much trouble but you’re afraid that you might forget to shutdown your VM you can also use the auto-shutdown feature. This feature can be found on the menu of every VM.