Saturday, February 27, 2010

Impact Analysis feature for Dynamics AX 2009

Hot from the presses: Microsoft has just released a new tool, available from PartnerSource or CustomerSource, to analyze the impact of a patch on a system.

From the official text:

Impact analysis is the process of understanding a change that is being introduced into a system, determining the consequences of the change on related subsystems, and creating possible mitigation plans to reduce risk. When you install a Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 hotfix, impact analysis consists of understanding the changes being made to application objects in the SYP and GLP layers, analyzing how these application objects are customized in the environment, and creating test plans to test the system after you install the hotfix.

In theory, this sounds very good. Very anxious to test this out, definitely worth a try. Hope it is as good as it sounds.

With a new hotfix rollup under way (Rollup 4 for Ax 2009 is expected first half of March 2010), this could be very usefull.
We've all been in that kind of situation: Where the only solution left was to install a hotfix, but you didn't know if it didn't create more troubles on the way.
I would have expected a tool like this when Ax 2009 came out, but better late then never.

2 comments:

  1. Just downloaded hotfix KB980154 and the impact analysis should be a part of the install files (otherwise what good is it once the patch is installed). It does not appear to be a part of the hotfixes as of yet.

    You can download and install the tool seperately, which is cool, but if it is not part of the HF installer package, then you still need to put HF's into seperate environments, exports and then do manual compares.

    In summary, unless MBS puts the Impact Analysis as part of the HF installation package, it adds nothing of value to the process.

    GK
    1/18/2011

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    1. This is not entirely true. If you have a HF that does not have the support for the impact analysis, then find one that does and copy over the exe and I think one other file. Just do a comparison of the two hotfixes and it is easy to see what supporting files have changed. Now all HF's will support impact analysis

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