Month: August 2024

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2.

The 7th of the new functionality in the Governance and administration section is support IPv6 for enhanced security and scalability.

The adoption of IPv6 in Business Central helps to ensure uninterrupted service, improved security, and scalability in the future as the number of internet-connected devices continues to grow and IPv4 addresses become less available.

Enabled for: Users, automatically
Public Preview: –
General Availability: Feb 2025

Feature Details

The supply of IPv4 addresses is limited and will eventually run out. So, starting in 2024 wave 2, Business Central supports IPv6 addresses. The transition to IPv6 not only ensures seamless connectivity for your environments but also enhances the security of your data with IPv6’s built-in security protocols. More importantly, this update prepares your environments for the future as the world moves towards widespread IPv6 adoption.

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2.

The 6th of the new functionality in the Governance and administration section is get list of manageable environments for Microsoft Entra apps.

Using a new admin center API endpoint, Microsoft Entra apps authorized in the admin center can get a list of environments for which the app is authorized. This capability reduces the manual overhead associated with maintaining environment lists and facilitates the automation of repetitive administrative tasks, enhancing operational efficiency for partners.

Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: –
General Availability: Dec 2024

Feature Details

Partners increasingly automate administrative tasks on their customer environments by authorizing their multitenant Microsoft Entra app in their customers’ admin center. As the number of customers per partner and partners per customer grows, and with the environment-level access controls introduced for partners in 2024 wave 1, the overhead of manually keeping lists of manageable environments per Microsoft Entra app is increasing. So is the demand to automate repetitive tasks, like updating installed apps.

A new API endpoint for Microsoft Entra apps returns a complete list of all environments in all tenants that are manageable by the Microsoft Entra app. This will make it easier for partners to automate administrative tasks across all their customers’ environments.

My Opinion

This isn’t my area, but it sounds like an enhancement which will be beneficial.

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2.

The 4th of the new functionality in the Governance and administration section is view app compatibility with future versions in admin center.

By reporting the compatibility between the base application and other apps installed on an environment in the admin center, administrators can better prepare for changes and avoid potential problems during upgrades.

Enabled for: Users, automatically
Public Preview: –
General Availability: Dec 2024

Feature Details

Environment updates might include changes to functionality that installed apps depend on, which, in turn, can break those apps. Until 2024 release wave 2, only notification recipients and registered Application Insights resources received messages about incompatibilities of installed apps with a future Business Central update.

To make it easier to plan for these changes ahead of time and avoid upgrade failures, you can now view app compatibility reports directly in the admin center. You’re prevented from scheduling an update to a version that installed apps are incompatible with.

My Opinion

This sounds like it will be useful to avoid nasty surprises at upgrade time by giving advance notification and allowing any issues to be managed.

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2.

The 3rd of the new functionality in the Governance and administration section is manage per-tenant extensions in admin center.

Having a unified user interface and API for managing per-tenant extensions (PTEs), alongside AppSource apps makes it easier and faster for administrators to deploy and maintain extensions across different environments and tenants.

Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: –
General Availability: Dec 2024

Feature Details

In this release, Microsoft are introducing a new feature that lets Business Central administrators manage PTEs from the Business Central admin center and its API, similar to how AppSource apps can be managed today. This feature saves time and effort because admins can manage PTEs across different environments and tenants without having to go to the client of each environment.

My Opinion

I’m not directly involved in applying updates to Business Central, but this sounds like it could be a useful tool for those who are.

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2.

The 2nd of the new functionality in the Governance and administration section is migrate record links and notes with cloud migration tooling.

Business users often attach links and notes to records in Business Central to add context and extra information. For businesses transitioning from on-premises to cloud environments, this feature ensures that these links and notes on records are included in the cloud migration without the need for the external tooling. This feature saves valuable time and reduces the risks of error with manual data transfer.

Enabled for: Users, automatically
Public Preview: Sep 2024
General Availability: Oct 2024

Feature Details

Previously, the record links and notes were not automatically migrated to the online tenant as part of the cloud migration process. Instead, you had to use manual means to move the data. Now, the cloud migration setup and replication tooling will automatically migrate the links and notes on records for you with minimal work on your part.

My Opinion

More and more clients are making the decision to migrate, or upgrade from an on-premises deployment of Business Central, to the cloud SaaS version of Business Central. This enhancement should make the move to th cloud easier to do while preserving data in the system without needing external tools.

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2.

The 1st of the new functionality in the Governance and administration section is manage environment updates more flexibly.

With extended periods for major releases and optional minor updates, administrators have more flexibility to update environments in a way that suits their needs. Businesses have more time to prepare for updates and plan them for less busy periods.

Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: Oct 2024
General Availability: Mar 2025

Feature Details

Previously, relatively rigid update policies were in place for major and minor updates. This release introduces the following changes for much more flexibility:

• Five month update periods for major updates: This change gives more time for thorough testing and preparation before implementing the update. Resellers can spread the workload of updating all customer environments over the entire calendar year to avoid peak periods for major updates. Developers have more time to ensure all apps are compatible with the update, and customers with specific testing and preparation requirements have more time to comply with those requirements.
• Optional minor updates: This change allows administrators to choose when and whether to implement minor updates based on their needs and schedule. The default behavior of environments receiving updates every month doesn’t change. Instead, a new environment-level setting makes it possible to opt-out of monthly minor updates.

As part of these changes, the grace period after the update period for the next major update shortened to one month. As before, the update will run and can’t be postponed to a later date during this grace period. The update will be forced by uninstalling incompatible extensions once the grace period ends.

My Opinion

This change sounds like a strong positive for VARs (Value Added Resellers) as it will allow client updates to be spread out more, allowing for more time for any development updates to be made and tested, and also allow the client to prepare for the upgrade as well, with any changes to process they want to test and prepare if they’re going to start using some of the new functionality.