Lifecycle Services for Microsoft Dynamics User Guide (LCS) [AX 2012]

Applies To: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services provides a cloud-based collaborative workspace that customers and their partners can use to manage Microsoft Dynamics AX projects from pre-sales to implementation and operations. Based on the phase of your project and the industry you are working in, the site provides checklists and tools that help you manage the project. It also provides a dashboard so that you have a single place to get up-to-date project information.

Lifecycle Services is available to customers and partners as part of their support plans. You can access it with your CustomerSource or PartnerSource credentials. Go to Lifecycle Services.

Tools provided by Lifecycle Services

The following table lists the tools that are provided in Lifecycle Services and the phases that each tool applies to. It also provides a link to documentation for the tool.

Tool	Description
Projects Read the documentation: Projects  (Lifecycle Services, LCS)	Projects are the key organizer of your experience of Lifecycle Services. The type of project you configure determines which checklists and tools you can use to manage that project.
Business process modeler Read the documentation: Business process modeler  (Lifecycle Services, LCS)	Business process modeler lets you create, view, and modify standard process  flows inside Microsoft Dynamics AX. By using Business process modeler, you can do the following: Standardize process flows. Align Microsoft Dynamics AX processes with  industry standard processes as described by APQC. Identify fit and gaps between users’ needs and the functionality that Microsoft  Dynamics AX provides by default.
Cloud hosted environments Read the documentation: Deploy  Microsoft Dynamics AX  to Azure using  Lifecycle Services (GA)	Cloud hosted environments is a tool in that you can use to deploy Microsoft Dynamics AX on Microsoft Azure. When you use the Cloud hosted environments tool, you’ll need to select the type of Microsoft Dynamics AX environment that you want to deploy. Based on your selection, the Cloud hosted  environments tool provisions the appropriate number of virtual machines in Azure. These virtual machines have Microsoft Dynamics AX components already installed on them.
Cloud powered support Read the documentation: Cloud powered support  (Lifecycle Services, LCS)	Cloud powered support is a part of Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services that helps you manage support incidents. It enables you to create a virtual machine in Azure that has the same hotfixes installed as your local environment,  reproduce and record the incident on the virtual machine and then submit it to our support team. Support follows up by investigating, and if possible,  testing a fix on the virtual machine, and sending it back to you to verify.
Customization analysis Read the documentation: Customization analysis  (Lifecycle Services, LCS)	Customization analysis validates model files against best practices and provides a report of potential areas for improvement.
Issue search Read the documentation: Issue search  (Lifecycle Services, LCS)	Issue search helps you find existing solutions and workarounds for  known issues in Microsoft Dynamics AX. You can see which issues have been fixed, which issues remain open, and which issues have been resolved as “won’t fix.”
License sizing estimator Read the documentation: License sizing estimator  (Lifecycle Services, LCS)	License sizing estimator helps you estimate the number of licenses required for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. It provides a shared workspace that enables you to model default and customized roles, and then automatically calculate required client access licenses (CALs).
Microsoft Dynamics ERP RapidStart Services Read the documentation: Microsoft Dynamics ERP  RapidStart Services	RapidStart Services lets partners and customers configure an installation of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 by using a cloud-based,  interview-style questionnaire. The questionnaire uses general terminology about business processes instead of terms that are specific to Microsoft Dynamics AX. Partners, independent software vendors (ISVs), and customers can create, maintain, and reuse  configurations that reflect their custom solutions. Partners can also create additional groups of questions to enlarge the scope of a configuration.
RFP responses Read the documentation: RFP responses  (Lifecycle Services, LCS)	The RFP responses page helps partners respond to requests for proposals.
System diagnostic service Read the documentation: System diagnostic service  (Lifecycle Services, LCS)	System diagnostic service helps administrators monitor Microsoft Dynamics AX environments.
Updates Read the documentation: Updates for Microsoft  Dynamics AX 2012 R3  (Lifecycle Services, LCS)	The Updates page hosts the update installer for that is used for cumulative updates. It also provides access to groups of updates that can be used for slipstream installations.
Upgrade analysis Read the documentation: Upgrade analysis  (Lifecycle Services, LCS)	Upgrade analysis helps you plan your upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 by analyzing code artifacts (AOD files) from Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 or Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009. We also provide a Rapid Data Collector (RDC) tool that analyzes existing environment information to help estimate the scale of the upgrade project.
Usage profiler Read the documentation: Usage profiler  (Lifecycle Services, LCS)	Usage profiler is a data-gathering tool that helps you describe your projected or current usage of a Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 implementation. The usage profile that is generated can be used for a wide variety of purposes, such as hardware sizing and support.

The Lifecycle Services team is also blogging at the Lifecycle Services Engineering blog. Subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up with our posts and announcements.

Announcements: To see known issues and recent fixes, use Issue search in Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services (LCS).

Read More at : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn268616.aspx

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