Microsoft AX 2012 R3 Azure Demo machine 'Windows License is expired'

I had an issue today where I spun up a new AX 2012 R3 'Retail Essentials' machine on Azure. It was only online for about an hour or so until the machine shut down suddenly. I thought someone shut down my VM thinking I left it on.

I went into Azure and sure enough it was shut down. I restarted it and got back in.

Upon logging back in, a colleague noted in the lower right hand corner the message of 'Windows License is expired' (Figure 1 below).

Figure 1 - The windows license expired message

The machine was built off of a script where the server needed to be 'rearmed' so the license is no longer expired. There are two ways to do this:

1. Click the 'Rearm Server' script in the start menu all the way to the right (Figure 2)
2. Open the command prompt as an admin and type in 'slmgr -rearm'.

The server will restart and when you log back in, the license will no longer be expired. 

Easy to fix for the demo machines that are available out of the box. 

Special thanks to Devin @devkitt

Figure 2 - The 'rearm server' script

AX 4.0 Qmm, Pmf, and Pds Objects in AX 2012

For those who are looking to upgrade from AX 4.0 to AX 2012, you may be assessing the objects that exist in your AOT to determine upgrade-ability of mods, ISV solutions, etc.

Three common ISV solutions that may sit in your BUS or VAR layer will likely start with 'Qmm' (quality management), 'Pmf' (process distribution), or 'Pds' (process manufacturing). For example, the AOT object may be named 'PdsBatchAttributes'. I'm naming these three AOT prefixes specifically as I've worked with them a lot in the past. I just ran into them today and had to remember what they were and what the objects are in AX 2012.

I said 'what the objects are in AX 2012' because these modules were acquired by Microsoft and included into the base product in subsequent releases of AX. Sometimes the prefixes are changed in the code migration.

Pmf and Pds objects will have the same acronym in AX 2012 but the Qmm objects will start with 'InventTest...' in AX 2012.

This post is really specific to a certain group. I couldn't easily find this info with a quick search so I decided it would make a good post for those few people that were in the same situation as me. I'll likely find this post in future trying to remember what I was trying to remember today :-)

How to create Dynamics AX 'keyboard shortcuts' e.g. hot keys for controls on a form

I'm back after taking a month off from blogging in May! Feels good to be back :-)

Some Microsoft Dynamics AX users need to be able to quickly do certain actions without touching their mouse. An example would be an order entry user who needs to enter hundreds of orders in a single day. Any efficiency to their process via the keyboard becomes critical. People will utilize thwa they call 'hotkeys', 'keyboard shortcuts', 'quick keys', etc

There is a way to access objects on an AX form via the keyboard. On any AX form, hit the 'ALT' key and you'll see little letter boxes pop up (dubbed 'KeyTips') which indicate which key needs to be hit to put the focus on that form control. Hitting 'Enter' on a highlighted keytip will mimic a click whether that triggers an action item, a drop down menu button, etc. If its a menu, you can use the arrow keys to navigate and hit enter. 

You can have duplicate letters on a single form as there are only 26 in the alphabet :-). As an example of this, hitting 'S' in Figure 1 after pressing ALT will hide all non-'S' key tips and only show the three controls which are associated with the 'S' keytip. The first 'S' control will be highlighted. Subsequent hittings of the 'S' key will change the focus to the other S controls for the user to hit enter on. 

TIP: Using these keyboard shortcuts with user by user layout changes in the IntelliMorph designer to achieve optimum results.

If'you have custom objects or a specific flow and would like to control what these values are, use the 'KeyTip' property on the form controls as seen in Figure 2 below

It's pretty powerful functionality. I've been able to fully create a sales order, change a number of key fields, add a few lines and release it to warehouse in an incredibly short amount of time.

Hope it helps! Enjoy!

Figure 1 - Examples of the keytips (keyboard shortcuts) on the AX sales order form

Figure 2 - The 'KeyTip' property for controls