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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE

Objectives

The objectives are:

• Know the structure and scope of the course.

Introduction

This chapter provides an overview of the course structure and the scope of the course.

This course focuses on Microsoft Dynamics® NAV 2009 and the way it

integrates with Microsoft® SQL Server® 2005 and 2008.

This chapter starts with an introduction to the Microsoft SQL Server tool set and how you can use it with Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009.

Next, it provides an overview of the all of the chapters in this course and explains the sequence of the topics.

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NAV 2009

Microsoft SQL Server tool set

Microsoft SQL Server Tools and Microsoft Dynamics NAV

2009

Microsoft SQL Server is a database platform for online transaction processing (OLTP), data warehousing, and e-commerce applications. It is also a business intelligence platform for data integration, analysis, and reporting solutions. SQL Server is a multi-component relational database management system centered around a high-performance, highly available database engine.

The SQL Server Database Engine is the core service for storing, processing, and securing data. The Database Engine provides controlled access and rapid transaction processing to meet the requirements of the most demanding data consuming applications within enterprises. The Database Engine also provides rich support for sustaining high availability.

SQL Server is more than just a database. The following diagram shows the relationships among SQL Server components and identifies interoperability between components.

FIGURE 1.1 SQL SERVER COMPONENTS OVERVIEW

SQL Server consists of a suite of tools and components that support you in designing, managing, maintaining, and programming a SQL Server installation and its associated data.

This course mainly focuses on the tools that are important for the performance of the Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 database.

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Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio, new in Microsoft SQL Server 2005, is an integrated environment for accessing, configuring, managing,

administering, and developing all components of SQL Server. SQL Server Management Studio combines a broad group of graphical tools with a number of rich script editors that provide access to SQL Server for developers and

administrators of all skill levels.

SQL Server Management Studio combines the features of Enterprise Manager, Query Analyzer, and Analysis Manager included in previous releases of SQL Server, into a single environment.

In Microsoft Dynamics NAV objects are managed and designed using the Object Designer. Within Microsoft Dynamics NAV you create tables, design keys, and implement properties using the Table Designer. The Microsoft Dynamics NAV database driver then translates these settings for SQL Server.

Although you can use SQL Server Management Studio and other SQL Server tools to change the way the database tables and indexes are designed, you must be careful when doing this. This is because Microsoft Dynamics NAV is always the master of the design.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV stores metadata describing tables and indexes. This metadata is decoupled from SQL Server metadata about tables and indexes and could be brought out of sync if changes are made directly from management studio. The consequence is that the next time a table is modified from inside Microsoft Dynamics NAV all changes made from outside Microsoft Dynamics NAV will be overwritten.

For example, Simon, the Systems Implementer, uses SQL Server Management Studio and changes the fields contained in an index for the customer table. He can use the SQL Server Management Studio to do this. Afterward, if Mort, the IT Systems Developer, opens the Microsoft Dynamics NAV table designer, the changes made by Simon will not be visible. Moreover, if Mort closes Microsoft Dynamics NAV table designer and saves or recompiles the customer table it might be that the customer table on SQL Server will be resynchronized with the design specified in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV and the changes applied in SSMS may be lost. So when Simon goes back into SQL Server Management Studio his changes will be lost and he will have to re-implement them.

This is why it is important to understand how to use the SQL Server tools. If you are required to make a change in the design of a table, you must do it from Microsoft Dynamics NAV. In Microsoft Dynamics NAV there are many properties available that influence how the database will be created on SQL Server. For example, within Microsoft Dynamics NAV there are several properties in tables and in keys that you can use to influence the way corresponding indexes are created on SQL Server. Only when there is no property available for a required change, can you make the change directly from SQL Server.

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NAV 2009

It is also important to know that if you use the Microsoft Dynamics NAV client to make a backup of your database, not all of the changes you performed directly in SQL Server will be included in the backup. After you restore the backup, you will most likely have to redo your changes.

Course Outline and Scope

The topics in this course are chosen to meet real-world implementations of Microsoft Dynamics NAV as closely as possible.

The course starts with an introduction of the technology and explains the requirements for the different components. One of the first things you do is to install and configure the software after evaluating the requirements.

Hardware is an important factor for high performance in any ERP system. Selecting the correct hardware and configuring it from the beginning helps produce optimal results for performance and will reduce the risk of encountering future problems. Although you can choose to comply with minimal hardware requirements, you also need to consider the future. The company may grow and the number of concurrent users may increase causing increased demands on the hardware. Choosing and configuring the correct hardware settings will affect the scalability of the solution.

If the customer chooses not to invest much initially and only complies with the minimal hardware requirements, and if the hardware you purchase is not

scalable, then you may encounter problems if the company and the corresponding concurrent users and database size grow greater than their expected limits. At that time you may need to expand the hardware to meet the demand. If the server is not scalable, you will have to invest again to buy a bigger server. This kind of investment can be avoided by selecting a server that is scalable at the initial implementation.

The next chapter provides an overview of the advantages of SQL Server. When selecting SQL Server as the database platform there are a number of advantages and possibilities that were not available in the old native database.

Once the application is implemented, it is important to start monitoring performance. By monitoring performance you can predict bottlenecks or problems that may occur in the future and take action to avoid issues. You can proactively monitor the database and also, for example, forecast database growth. This chapter presents and explains the tools SQL Server and Microsoft Dynamics NAV offer to monitor performance.

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If you discover a performance bottleneck there are different ways to solve the problem. The chapter about improving application performance goes into detail on what you need to know when designing the Microsoft Dynamics NAV application objects, properties, C/AL code, and keys to keep them performing optimally. It is important to know that, although you can try to make the design of the application as good as possible, a part of its performance will depend on how the application is used. This is why monitoring performance is important. It provides you with information on how the application is being used allowing you to change the design accordingly.

For example, if the Microsoft Dynamics NAV application is in one case mainly used for reporting and in another case it is mainly used for data entry, then these two scenarios may have completely different requirements on indexes.

Once Microsoft Dynamics NAV is running smoothly and the design and performance are optimal, your work is not finished. Now it is important to maintain the database. If you do not maintain a database, performance will decrease and may become sub-optimal.

For example indexes may become fragmented, the transaction log will continue to grow, and so on. There are several tools you can use to maintain a SQL Server database and this chapter explains how you can use them to keep the application running optimally.

Summary

This chapter gives a high-level overview of Microsoft SQL Server. It also describes the outline of this course.

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NAV 2009

Quick Interaction: Lessons Learned

Take a moment and write down three Key Points you have learned from this chapter

1.

2.

References

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