Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 SP2 Web Client Scale-Out Deployment: Introduction

Back in April I did a series of posts on the new Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Web Client covering the installation and first use. In that series of posts I look at installing the web client as a single machine deployment.

Well, I thought it was time to do a series of posts on installing the Web Client as a scale-out deployment; that is, one where the components of the Web Client are installed on separate machines. This type of deployment is typically done by larger organisations who have need for multiple session hosts (the web client equivalent of a Terminal, or Citrix, server).

To install the scale out deployment of Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Service Pack 2, I have configured a number of test servers with, predominantly, Windows Server 2012 to use for his series of posts (Server Name in parenthesis):

• Domain Controller (DC1) – This is the one Windows Server 2008 R2 being used because I saw no reason to create an entirely new DC and so am reusing the one I created last year.
• SQL Server (SQL1) – Running two instances of SQL Server 2012 Datacentre:
  1. GP (SQL1) – which will host the Microsoft Dynamics GP system and company databases
  2. Reporting (SQL1) – which will host the SQL Server Reporting Services databases
• Reporting Server (RPT1) – Running SQL Server 2012 Datacentre Reporting Services.
• Session Control (SC1) – This is the IIS Web Server running the Session Control Service which controls the Session Host to which the user will be assigned when they log into Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client.
• Session Host 1 (SH1) – Runs the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Web Client Runtime which.
• Session Host 2 (SH2) – Duplicate of the above machine.

I did, briefly, consider writing an overview of the architecture, services and infrastructure of the Web Client, but quickly decided that the Dynamics GP 2013 Web Client Infrastructure Overview post by Aaron Donat on the Developing for Dynamics GP blog was much more comprehensive than anything I would have done.

Over the coming days and, possibly, weeks, I will be taking a look through all the steps needed to create a scale out deployment of the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 SP2 Web Client (and only 10 months later than I told Brian R. that I would be doing this series of posts).