With the recent announcement that Customer Driven Updates (aka CDU) are now available to upgrade Dynamics 365 to the v9 release (aka July 2017 update, aka October 2017 update, aka February 2018 update) customers might be keen to upgrade their existing Dynamics 365 v8.x instances.
This is a little side step from my ongoing “Migration to Cloud Series”. I will get back to that soon!
As part of the planning phase, there are a couple of items that would need to be looked at.
The first thing would be to check the current list of known issues with Dynamics 365 v9 update to see if there would be any impacts the existing configuration. Microsoft has recently posted a entry on the documentation site. These issues are being addressed by Microsoft team but sometimes the timelines are unclear/unknown.
As with any upgrade, it is highly recommended that the upgrade be run on a copy of the existing instance and tested before running the process on production.
Finally, a common misconception is that a customer will be able to choose exactly when the upgrade will happen, meaning that they will be able to “press the button” to upgrade. This is not exactly the case. A customer/partner will need to schedule the update and there may or may not be the time slots available to update.
Scheduling the update is done via the Dynamics 365 Administration Center. Click on the UPDATES tab and you will see a list of instances that can be upgraded.
Choose the instance and click “Schedule your update”.
From there you can see the dates available. You may be surprised that some dates are not available (e.g. it appears that updates during March break is either blocked off or already booked up)
Once scheduled you will receive emails and like your upcoming dentist appointment, you do have the option to reschedule.
The upgrade process itself should go smoothly and not be painful (like a root canal).
I am looking forward to the benefits offered by Dynamics 365 v9 and I hope your updates run smoothly!
Nick Doelman is a Microsoft Business Solutions MVP who has been upgrading Dynamics CRM since v1.0. Nick reminds everyone to brush and floss regularly.
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