Deploy 365 for Operations through LCS

Overview of the Basic Steps 

• Create a project in LCS
• Setup VSTS Visual Studio Team Services
• Integrate LCS with VSTS
• Integrate LCS with Azure
• Deploy Environments

To setup AX7 or Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations. 

Prerequisites

• Azure Subscription 
• Two virtual machines of  D13, don't worry about setting this VM, it will be done automatically during setup. 
• Microsoft Office Account
• Browser mode must be InPrivate Browsing mode for Microsoft Edge browser or Incognito window for chrome browser
• If you want to use your normal browser mode, delete its cookies and restart your browser.

With all these set, you can 

Start a new project in LCS

To use Lifecycle service to manage your environment you must create a project

1. Goto https://lcs.dynamics.com.logon/index
2. click sign-in
3. Login with your Microsoft office 365 account
4. Click + icon to create a new project

      5. Select project type

       6. Enter project information and click create

Creating a project was easy. Now let's Deploy environment

Before you deploy your environment you must setup VSTS,(Visual Studio Team Services).

VSTS Setup

• Login to https://www.visualstudio.com
• Click "Free Visual Studio" in top right corner
• Under the Visual Studio Team Services, click "Free Account"
• The user who wants to be VSTS owner should sign in with his/her work account.
• Enter a customer/organization specific URL
• Choose Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC) and click continue.
• The VSTS account is created https://<org/customer>.visualstudio.com. This comes with a default project "My FirstProject".

In order to connect VSTS to LCS you will create another project.

• Click on "Team Services" in the top left corner to exit the project
• Click New under "Project and Teams"
• Enter Project Name, Process Template must be Agile, Version control must be TFVC
• Click "Create Project"

Finally for this section you need a Personal Access Token

• Click on your name in the top right corner
• Select security
• Click on  Personal Access Token
• Click Add
• Enter a description
• Expiration date: choose the maximum
• Under Authorized Scope: Select All scopes
• Create token.

This generates an alpha-numeric token which should be copied and saved because it is important for the connection to LCS.

Setup LCS integration with VSTS

• Goto LCS: Setup VSTS is either found on the LCS homepage or in Project Settings

• Enter VSTS Url
• Paste Personal Access Token

• Click Continue
• Select the new  VSTS Project you created.

• Click Save
• Click Authorize

• Click Yes

• Click Accept

• Setup is Complete

With VSTS Setup let's move on to the next phase. The Final Saga

Integrate LCS with Azure

NB: The steps in this section require the old and new Azure portal.

• Goto Project Settings.
• Click on Azure Connector on the left navigation pane.
• Follow the steps here to Integrate LCS with Azure successfully.

After a successful integration, you should have something like this 

Deploy Environment

Environment should be deployed to an existing Azure subscription.

You can create an environment in two ways:

• Deploy to Microsoft cloud (Azure)
• Download the local VHD and operate it on-premise.

My thought on that if you ask, just go with the cloud. it takes more than enough resources to operate AX7 on-premise and also since 365 for operations is a cloud platform why drag yourself backwards.

• Click on cloud hosted environment
• In the Environment Click the +Add icon
• Select your environment

• Select the topology to deploy
• Deploy your environment: Environment must not have space or number

• Click the environment to view details about the deployment status.
• The first deployment will take a few hours, but each subsequent deployment will be much faster.
• When the deployment status changes to Deployed, click Login to connect to the client, or click the VM name to the development machine by using Remote Desktop.
• After the deployment is completed, you can find the base URL, and also the information that you require to connect to the environment via Remote Desktop