What's New: Database administration [AX 2012]

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2, you must create your Microsoft Dynamics AX business and model store database on Microsoft SQL Server. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 does not support creating the Microsoft Dynamics AX database on Oracle database server. All other databases, such as the databases that are used for Microsoft SharePoint 2010 products and Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, also require SQL Server.

In the previous version of Microsoft Dynamics AX, the application files, or AOD files, that contained Microsoft Dynamics AX metadata were stored on a file share. In this version, application objects are stored in the model store database and are managed as model files.

Important
In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2, the model store was moved into a database that is separate from the business database.

This version of Microsoft Dynamics AX has a fixed schema, which means that tables and fields are no longer dropped and then added again when license or configuration keys are changed. This change applies to all tables and fields, except for some that are used during upgrade (SysDeletedObjectsXX), which are dropped when the relevant configuration keys are disabled in a production environment.This change was made to better support Analysis Services cubes in Role Centers.

In this version, Microsoft Dynamics AX provides full-text search, which lets you search business data over a large volume of text data or documents. Full-text search also supports additional features, such as language-specific word breakers, stemmers, and extensible APIs. You can create a full-text index on tables that are associated with the table types Main or Group.

Note
You must configure the SQL Server full-text search functionality before you can use it in Microsoft Dynamics AX. For more information, see Full-Text Search (SQL Server).

Like regular SQL Server indexes, full-text indexes can be updated automatically when data is modified in the associated tables. This is the default behavior for Microsoft Dynamics AX. In the Application Object Tree (AOT), developers can set the ChangeTracking property of a full-text index to either Auto or Manual. Indexes that have the ChangeTracking property set to Auto are updated automatically by SQL Server when data is modified in the associated tables. You must manually update indexes that have the ChangeTracking property set to Manual at a specified interval. For more information, see Getting Started with Full-Text Search. By default, the ChangeTracking property is set to Auto when a new full-text index is created. The Auto setting provides optimal response time and throughput for your program.

A new type of temporary table that is created in the TempDB database is available in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. In the AOT properties for a table, the TableType property is now an enum. The InMemory enum value is the type of temporary table that was created on Application Object Server (AOS) or on the client in earlier versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX. The TempDb enum value is the new type of temporary table that is created in the SQL Server TempDB database. TempDB temporary tables can be joined on the database tier with tables from the Microsoft Dynamics AX database. The use of TempDB temporary tables can improve performance and simplify the programming model. The domain account that you use for the Microsoft Dynamics AX service must have read and write access to the TempDB database.

Note
SQL Server creates TempDB at startup. Therefore, you must assign permissions to TempDB every time that SQL Server starts or restarts.

Planning the database infrastructure and storage is a critical requirement for optimal Microsoft Dynamics AX performance. For more information, see Configure SQL Server and storage settings.

For information about how to upgrade from previous releases of Microsoft Dynamics AX, see Upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

Database administration activities, such as database backup, recovery, and data recovery planning, must incorporate the following enhancements in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012:

• The business database, model store database, and baseline model store databases

• Full-text search