Test
Data Transfer Tool for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012
Reference: technet.microsoft.com and other sources
Microsoft has released
the beta version of Test Data Transfer Tool for Dynamics AX 2012. Which is
applies to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack and Microsoft Dynamics
AX 2012.
This tool is a
command-line tool that exports data from a Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012
transaction database in a production or non-production environment. The tool
also imports data into a Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 business database in a
non-production environment. The non-production environment can be either a
development or test environment. Microsoft strongly recommends not use this tool to import data into a production environment.
The Test Data Transfer
Tool (beta) is a powerful tool for importing and exporting data. The test data
transfer tool is useful when we required to import large set of data into other
environment (Non production), move data in different environments with
similar customization's and when data version is required.
You must run the tool directly from the system that is hosting the database
during import.
To
use this tool you should have prior knowledge on SQL databases. To perform the
activity using this tool you should be a database administrator or a developer
who has experience and also have permission to read from or write directly to
the Microsoft Dynamics AX database that you are working with, and to execute
applications directly on the computer that is hosting the database. Before
performing this activity you need to take the backup of source and destination
databases.
Each
and every operation that works with data has risks and also make sure that you
understand which conditions are logged as errors during import. For example,
you might try to import data for a table or column that does not exist in the
target database. This attempt is not treated as an error by the tool, because
the tool is designed to work seamlessly when the source and target databases
have a different set of tables.
Benefits:
The Test Data Transfer
Tool (beta) uses the Microsoft SQL Server bulk copy tool (bcp). The Test Data
Transfer Tool provides the following key benefits that other methods for
importing and exporting Microsoft Dynamics AX data do not provide:
- You can export or import data when an AOS instance is
not running.
- You can export or import Microsoft Dynamics AX data
more quickly compared to other methods.
- Only minimal changes are made to the data that you
import. This feature helps guarantee that the data is stable over time.
For example, the tool never renumbers RecIDs.
- The data file format is text-based. Therefore, the data
can be compared with earlier versions and stored in a version control
system.
- The data file format is a standard format that is
produced by bcp.
The Test Data Transfer
Tool (beta) adds the following features that work with bcp. These features make
bcp an appropriate tool for managing data for Microsoft Dynamics AX.
- Exported data can be filtered. Therefore, specified
tables, columns, or rows can be easily excluded from the export.
- Differences between builds of Microsoft Dynamics AX
2012 are found and corrected. These differences often occur during
development. Because of this feature, data can often be imported without
user intervention, even when the table definitions have changed. For
example, tables or fields that have been renamed do not prevent import.
- Entity IDs, such as table IDs, class IDs, and extended
data type IDs, are updated to match the IDs of the target system.
- The tool reads and correctly updates the
SYSTEMSEQUENCES table.
Limitations:
- The Test Data Transfer Tool (beta) does not make sure
that data that you export is complete or coherent. However, the tool does
export any data that you ask it to export.
- The tool does not make sure that data that you import
produces a complete or coherent database. However, the tool does import
any data that you ask it to import.
The Test Data Transfer
Tool (beta) imports and exports the data as-is. In some cases, you might
exclude tables or records from either import or export. Nevertheless, the tool
does not make sure that the data is complete or coherent when other tables
contain references to excluded tables or records. Therefore, after import and
export, you must make sure that the data that you are importing or exporting is
coherent.
