Data upgrade

  • 10 minutes

A data upgrade is needed when moving from one version of finance and operations (such as Dynamics AX) to a newer one (like Dynamics 365 Finance), ensuring that all your important business data makes the transition smoothly. Instead of starting from scratch, a data upgrade brings over existing records so you don’t lose valuable insights or have to manually re-enter information. It also helps maintain continuity, making sure your system is ready to go with all the data you need in the latest version.

To perform a sandbox data upgrade, follow these steps.

  1. Choose data upgrade - In Lifecycle Services, go to Environment details > Maintain > Upgrade menu. Select your new application and platform versions.

  2. Prepare - During this time, new infrastructure is being provisioned on your behalf. No downtime occurs on your current sandbox environment.

  3. Apply packages - Apply newly created software deployable packages on your upgrade environment. This package should already have been compiled and tested on a developer environment, and the package should have been produced from a new build environment. No downtime occurs on your current sandbox environment.

    a diagram showing the first data upgrade step

  4. Upgrade data - This step swaps in your upgrade environment and deallocates your prior sandbox environment. The appropriate data upgrade package is applied for you based on your original application version and the target.

    a diagram showing the second data upgrade step

  5. Validate and sign off – Sign in to the environment and ensure that the data and code are working as expected. Sign off on the upgrade, and then the same can be performed in the production environment by using the exact same packages.

The sandbox data upgrade is completely self-service; you can schedule it on your own time. You can have a parallel instance provided to help minimize downtime. In case any issues occur, rollback is supported for the sandbox.

Typically, the sandbox environment has the latest production data, meaning that the production code is identical to the sandbox.

After upgrading, you are not required to run more upgrades, only continuous updates.