Access Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations instances

This topic describes how to access development instances of Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations, configure on-premises development VMs, and find important configurations settings for developers and administrators.

Dynamics 365 for Operations is deployed in two modes:

A cloud environment that is provisioned through Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services (LCS), and that supports various topologies (developer, demo, and high availability)

• A local (on-premises) development virtual machine (VM) that is downloaded from LCS

Cloud environment that is provisioned through LCS

When a cloud environment is provisioned through LCS, the following events occur:

• The user who requests the cloud environment is provisioned as the administrator in that environment.
• A user who requests access through LCS will be able to access the cloud environment through Remote Desktop.

Accessing an instance through a URL

The system can be accessed by end users. The administrator can add users to this system by using the Users page in the instance. Note that these additional users don’t have to be users in LCS.

You obtain the base URL for the cloud environment from your LCS project site.

1. Go to your LCS project page.
2. In the Environments section, click the deployed environment.
3. When the environment page opens, you can access the application by clicking Login > Log on to Dynamics 365 for Operations in the upper-right corner.
4. Use valid end user credentials to sign in to the application. If the current LCS user is the user who originally deployed the environment, that user is probably a valid end user and the administrator of the application.
5. In your browser, make a note of the Dynamics 365 for Operations base URL after you sign in. For example, the base URL might be https://dynamicsAx7aosContoso.cloud.dynamics.com.

Accessing the cloud instance through Remote Desktop

Some cloud environments can be accessed both as an end user and as a developer. The developer gets access to the system through Remote Desktop credentials. The Remote Desktop credentials are obtained from the environment page on the LCS project site (see the illustration earlier in this topic).

1. Click the VM name.
2. Use the local administrator user name and password that are shown to connect to the cloud VM through Remote Desktop. You can reveal the password by clicking the eye icon.

After you sign in to the environment through Remote Desktop, if you want to access the local application from the browser, use the same base URL that you use to access the application from a remote computer. The previous section explains how to obtain this base URL from LCS.

VM that is running on-premises

An environment virtual hard disk (VHD) is made available for download from LCS, so that it can be set up on a local machine. This system is intended to be accessed by a developer.

1. On the main page for your LCS project, in the Environments section, click the plus sign (+), and then click Locally. You’re taken to the Connect site.
2. Go to the Downloads page to download the latest VHD.
3. In Microsoft Hyper-V Manager, create a local VM from the VHD that you downloaded. It’s a good idea to give your VM the recommended 16 gigabytes (GB) of memory and two virtual processors. Don’t use dynamic memory allocation.

Retail configuration

A newer downloadable VHD is also provided, in Preview state, to support Retail point-of-sale (POS) customization scenarios. This VHD is based on Microsoft Windows Server 2016 and lets you test your customized Retail POS app in an emulator on the VM. Except for this difference, both VHDs are self-contained and support the same set of developer scenarios.

To use the downloadable VHD for POS customizations, you must also follow this step.

• On the host computer, enable Nested VM support. For more information, see Run Hyper-V in a Virtual Machine with Nested Virtualization.

Running the Virtual Machine (VM) locally

Follow these steps to run the VM from Hyper-V Manager.

1. To start the VM, click Start.
2. To open the VM in a window, click Connect.
3. Click the Ctrl+Alt+Delete button on the toolbar. The VM receives most keyboard commands, but Ctrl+Alt+Delete isn’t one of them. Therefore, you must use the button or a menu command.
4. Sign in to the VM by using the following credentials:
• User name: Administrator
• Password: pass@word1

Tip: You can resize the VM window by changing the screen resolution. Right-click the desktop on the VM, and then click Screen resolution. Select a resolution that works well for your display.

5. Provision the administrator user. For more information, see the next section.
6. Start the Batch Manager Service. This step is required if you’re running batch jobs or workflows.

1. Open a Command Prompt window as an administrator.
2. Type net start DynamicsAxBatch, and then press Enter.

You can also start the service from the Services window.

Retail configuration

For the downloadable VHD for POS customizations, you must also follow these steps on the guest VM.

1. Download and install Microsoft Emulator for Windows 10 Mobile Anniversary Update.
2. Start the Hyper-V host service. For more information, see Hyper-V: The Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management service must be running. If errors occur during startup, you can also try to uninstall and reinstall the Hyper-V role on the guest VM.

Provisioning the administrator user

For developer access, you must be an administrator on the instance. To provision your own credentials as an administrator, run the admin user provisioning tool that is provided on the desktop, and provide your email address (Azure AD credentials) in the tool.

1. From the desktop, run the admin user provisioning tool as an administrator (right-click the icon, and then click Run as administrator).
2. Enter your email address, and then click Submit.