How to Deploy a Tier 2+ Environment in Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations

Deployment of Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations cloud environment is self-service through Lifecycle Services (LCS). You can control when you need to deploy the environment and verify when it is already deployed. There is no remote desktop access to Tier 2+ environments but all operations that you need are available as self-service actions under the environment’s Maintain menu. There is also no SQL server access, but you can request SQL database access using just-in-time access through LCS. To deploy a Tier 2+ environment, follow these steps.

Note: Even though most customers, commentators, and consultants still call it Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations or D365FO, Microsoft now technically licenses it as Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management.

1. 1. Login to LCS with an “environment manager” or a “project owner” account. https://lcs.dynamics.com.
   2. Go to your F&O project.
      
   3. Under the “sandbox/default: standard acceptance test” section, click the “Configure” button. If the button is grayed out or is missing, please check that you have an active F&O base license. The base license gives you 1 free sandbox and 1 production environment.
   4. Under the “General” tab, specify a unique name for the environment and the geographical location or region where you want this environment to be deployed.
   5. Do not click the “Change selected topology” button unless you are deploying with a lower or different application version than the default. Proceed to the “Customize SQL Datasets” tab.
   6. Under the “Customize SQL Datasets” tab, select “None” in the AX Database.
   7. Under the “Customize solution assets” tab, select the BPM library to be used.
   8. Under the “Power Platform Integration” tab, leave the “Configure Power Platform Environment” switch to NO. This is the recommended settings from Microsoft for Tier 2+ environments. This gives you flexibility to point your environment to an existing Dataverse later.
   9. Under the “Environment notifications” tab, enter two email addresses separated by a semicolon. These email accounts will receive notifications regarding this environment.
   10. Under the “Environment administrator” tab, select the email address of the user who will be the environment administrator of the deployed environment.
   11. Under the “Summary” tab, review your settings then click “Next” to continue.
   12. Under the “Customer sign off” tab, verify that the email address of the system administrator is correct then click “Deploy”.
   13. The environment will now be deployed. This usually takes an average time of 1-2 hours depending on the type of environment (sandbox or production). You can monitor the deployment progress from LCS’ Environments section. When it’s done and if the deployment is successful, the status should say “deployed”. If the deployment fails, the status will say “failed”.

If the deployment fails, you can open a Microsoft support ticket. Remember to include the Environment ID and Latest activity ID under the Manage Environment section, in your ticket.

If the deployment is successful, the environment administrator will be able to login to the environment. He can then import new users and assign them roles/permissions as needed.

If you have any questions about Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations, please contact us.