Data comparison - Tracking configuration changes in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

Situation:

Many customers have rules and permissions that restrict changes to configuration data that can impact the entire AX 2012 system or subsystem. In many cases that configuration is stored separately as a master or setup configuration with only few people having write access to it. If a change in the configuration, it has to go through the company’s workflow and testing before being applied in production.

Challenge:

The big challenge that customers face is how to compare the master database with the proposed changes to ensure that only acceptable changes are applied to the production environment.

Recommended solutions:

We recommend using one of the following methods for comparing configuration settings in test and production environments

1. Visual Studio Data Compare Utility

2. Exporting the database into text files per table and comparing using file compare utilities available.

Visual Studio Data Compare Utility                                                                                       

The Visual Studio Data Compare Utility can compare data between two databases to the individual row and column level and show the precise delta. With Visual Studio 2010 and SQL Server 2010, the data compare tool is built-in. If you are using SQL Server 2012, then you will need to install the tool from the SQL Server Data Tools - January 2014 update.

As the data is compared, a Data Manipulation Language (DML) script is generated, which you can use to synchronize databases by updating some or all of the data on the target database. When the data comparison finishes, results appear in the Data Compare window in Visual Studio.

To compare data by using the New Data Comparison Wizard

1. On the SQL menu in Visual Studio 2012 or the Data menu (in Visual Studio 2010), click Data Compare, and then click New Data Comparison.

The New Data Comparison wizard appears. Also, the Data Compare window opens, and Visual Studio automatically assigns it a name such as DataCompare1.

Visual Studio 2012 withSQL Server Data Tools 

2. Identify the source and target databases.

If the Source Database list or the Target Database list is empty, click New Connection. In the Connection Properties dialog box, identify the server on which the database resides and the type of authentication to use when connecting to the database. Then, click OK to close the Connection Properties dialog box and return to the Data Compare wizard. 

Verify that the information for each database is correct, specify which records you want to include in the results, and then click Next.

3. The second page of the Data Compare wizard appears and shows a hierarchical listing of the tables and views in the database. Select the tables and views that you want to compare. Optionally, expand the nodes for database objects, and then select the columns within those objects that you want to compare.

4. If more than one key is present, you can use the Comparison Key column to specify the key on which to base the data comparison. For example, you can specify whether to base the comparison on the primary key column or on another (uniquely identifiable) key column.

5. Click Finish.

The comparison starts.

When the comparison completes, it shows the records per table comparison as shown below where we can see the new records/ deleted records or modified records for a particular table (as highlighted in the columns). 

Compare exported databases as text files

1.       Another comparison method is to export the database into text files using the Microsoft Dynamics Ax Test Data Transfer Tool (Beta). Follow the instructions here to install the tool and export the data. An example of an exported database is shown below. There will be 3 exported files per table. The .out file contains the data separated by #EOC marker for “End of column” and #EOR marker for “End of row”.

Export entire database to a single folder to use as a master configuration, then after making your changes and validating them,  do another export to a different folder and compare the two folders by using a file comparison tool such as WinDiff, Beyond Compare etc.