Checking up on Backup history?

Ever needed to show the history of your backups? Here is the SQL script to do it

SELECT top 10

    database_name,

    recovery_model,

    CASE bs.type

        WHEN 'D' THEN 'FULL'

        WHEN 'I' THEN 'DIFFERENTIAL'

        WHEN 'L' THEN 'TRANSACTION LOG'

        ELSE 'UNKNOWN'

    END AS backup_type,

    backup_start_date,

    backup_finish_date,

    backup_size,

    compressed_backup_size

FROM msdb.dbo.backupset bs

where database_name = 'AX2012'

order by backup_finish_date desc

Database Maintenance Strategies for Dynamics AX - reblog

I just happened to come across these blog posts while perusing my news feed:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/axinthefield/archive/2012/08/01/database-maintenance-strategies-for-dynamics-ax.aspx

http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2009/02/index-fragmentation-findings-part-1-the-basics/

That reminded me of an article which I found a couple of years back that described index fragmentation in this manner:

"Index fragmentation is a lot like cholesterol. The bad kind, not the good kind. It builds up slowly. Some deletes occur, leaving empty space in a data page here. Inserts occur, but the target page is packed, so a page split occurs so the record can be inserted in the correct order, yet the other page is now mostly empty. Updates are a double whammy. Over time, your index pages continue to be less and less full, meaning you have to perform that many more reads per query.

Just like cholesterol, it’s not perceptible. Sure, if you compared yourself now to 10 years ago, you’d be able to instantly recognize that you feel tired all the time, or occasionally dizzy spells or have blurred vision. Then all of a sudden — HEART ATTACK!"

Agile development and ERP

Here is small collection of blog-posts, articles and case-studies on Agile and Enterprise Resource Planning implementations.
The post Can Agile Practices Prevent ERP Disaster sums up different sources on the topic and Agile practices in large system integration projects introduces a series of posts all dealing with agile and ERP.

MSDynamicsworld.com has a post titled How to Substitute Agile ERP Implementation for the Waterfall Approach which is spot on, when it comes strong link between the waterfall model and ERP-implementations.

InfoQ has a whole subsite dedicated to agile processes and Jesper Boeg's introduction to Kanban "Priming Kanban" can be downloaded for free.

Dynamics AX Easter Egg

Jacob posted this easter egg on his blog - funny little thing
I know it's a "bit" off-season, but funny nonetheless

static void easterEgg(Args _args)
{;
    info(conPeek(new HeapCheck().createAContainer(), 4));
}

AX6, Reports and SSRS

As mentioned in a previous post on the sample content of the Technical Conference on AX, many tracks have SSRS and the transition from X++ reporting to SSRS reporting as a theme, and I anticipate that SSRS will be the de-facto reporting language in future versions of AX.
However, as Saveen Reddy mentions on his blog, the transition from X++ to SSRS is no novelty. The gap between the two technologies is too big, despite many white papers, blogs and documents, and consultants and developers need to ramp up their skills in order to offer customers the full benefits of their AX investment.
Luckily Saveen Reddy, lead programme manager for Dynamics AX Business Intelligence, acknowledges this difficulty in making the transition and has a series of posts on his blog, which might help developers and consultants alike "being productive", as he calls it.
The plan is a 4 phase series, which is already posted, so there is ample opportunity for us all to start learning SSRS and how it collaborates with Dynamics AX 6, for as Saveen Reddy states in no uncertain terms:
'And again why should you care? I’ll repeat again: the future of AX Reporting is SSRS. Internalize that message. I cannot emphasize it enough. X++ will continue to see much less investment in the future. Becoming very familiar with SSRS is your best bet to stay productive with AX in the future.'
Read the first post here and see all of the published posts on SSRS and AX 6 here

More on AX 6 from the Techincal Conference Programme

During the last couple of weeks the programme for the Dynamics AX 2011 Technical Conference has been disclosed gradually. You can head about the conference here, which in itself is an interesting read.

Much more interesting is the sample session content, which indicates in which direction Microsoft Dynamics AX is heading. I have written about the X++ editor and I posted a general summary of AX 6 posts I found around the web. Going through the sample session content further hints to new functionality coming to light, e.g. 

'the new granular metadata support for forms which reduces the upgrade impact, the new metadata driven approach to making the UI context-aware based on country region, the new managed host control which enables easier integration of WPF or WinForm controls, and the ease of use for controls supporting the enhanced user experience.'

and a very interesting session which is described this way:

'Outline the programming models and developer tools in Microsoft Dynamics AX. Layout guidelines for choosing the right programming model, language (.NET or X++) and development tools (MorphX or Visual Studio) for categories of development.'

along with several session covering an upgrade of a X++ report in a SSRS context indicating what I talked about earlier, i.e. that Microsoft is pushing .NET and SSRS as the defacto standard programming languages/platforms for future versions of Dynamics AX. 

To me, it appears that Project Green is arisen in another guise. So instead of having the same kernel for the whole Dynamics portfolio, Microsoft are moving the development tools and language to their .NET framework and Reporting Services.

The new X++ editor in action

During the last couple of months Vincent published more details on how the upcoming X++ editor will present itself.

I previoulsy discussed some of the features which the community have called out for and it seems that Microsoft hear our prayers.

In this post Vincent shows some nice screenshots of the new IntelliSense, (which AxAssist provides for 3.0, 4.0 and 2009) and in this video you can see some of the new features in action.