Exam MB6-872:

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Installation and Configuration

Published:September 16, 2011
Language(s):English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Chinese (Simplified)
Audience(s):IT Professionals
Technology:Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012
Type:Proctored Exam

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Preparing for an Exam
This certification exam measures your ability to understand and articulate how to use, maintain, and support Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 installation and configuration including planning a Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 installation, understanding the organizational model, managing users and security, managing services and workflows, managing analytics and reporting, managing Enterprise Portals, and managing administration.
Exam Topics Covered
The following list includes the topic areas covered on this exam.
  • Planning to Install Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and Understanding the Organizational Model
  • Installing Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012
  • Managing Users and Security
  • Managing Services and Workflow
  • Managing Analytics and Reporting
  • Managing Enterprise Portals
  • Managing Administration
Audience Profile
This exam is intended for individuals who plan to install, implement, configure, consult on, or support Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. This audience typically includes administrators, implementers, developers, and technical consultants who need to understand the technical aspects and administrative functionality of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

Additional Skills Recommended:
General working knowledge of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, including all required deployment platforms; Windows 7; Windows Server 2008; Active Directory, including the security model; IIS; and Microsoft SQL Server 2008, including SQL Server Reporting Services and SQL Server Analysis Services.
Note This preparation guide is subject to change at any time without prior notice and at the sole discretion of Microsoft. Microsoft exams might include adaptive testing technology and simulation items. Microsoft does not identify the format in which exams are presented. Please use this preparation guide to prepare for the exam, regardless of its format.
Skills Being MeasuredThis exam measures your ability to accomplish the technical tasks listed below.The percentages indicate the relative weight of each major topic area on the exam.The higher the percentage, the more questions you are likely to see on that content area on the exam.

The information after “This objective may include but is not limited to” is intended to further define or scope the objective by describing the types of skills and topics that may be tested for the objective. However, it is not an exhaustive list of skills and topics that could be included on the exam for a given skill area. You may be tested on other skills and topics related to the objective that are not explicitly listed here.
Planning to Install Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and Understanding the Organizational Model (16 percent)
  • Setting up the server.
    • This topic may include: minimum server setup; complete server setup; other servers in the environment; Kerberos authentication; firewall settings
  • Planning domain accounts.
    • This topic may include: identifying necessary service accounts; service account requirements
  • Managing pre-installation tasks.
    • This topic may include: pre-installation checklists; planning system topology; planning hardware and software; managing the RAID system; disaster recovery; reviewing staff skills
  • Planning components.
    • This topic may include: prerequisites; databases; Application Object Server (AOS); Help Server; clients; .NET Business Connector; Debugger; Trace Parser; Microsoft Visual Studio tools; Microsoft Office add-ins; management utilities; Enterprise Portal for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012; business intelligence components
  • Identifying organizational model concepts.
    • This topic may include: legal entities; operating units; hierarchy purposes
  • Managing organizational hierarchies.
    • This topic may include: creating organizations; creating hierarchies; assigning a hierarchy purpose; adding organizations to a hierarchy
Installing Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 (15 percent)
  • Working with the setup utility.
    • This topic may include: using the Microsoft Dynamics AX Setup Wizard; automatic update installer; validation prerequisites; installing an environment; post-installation configuration steps; simplifying single-computer deployments; troubleshooting
  • Working with configuration utilities.
    • This topic may include: servers; clients
  • Working with Office add-ins.
    • This topic may include: configuring add-ins; using add-ins
  • Deploying clients.
    • This topic may include: creating a group policy logon script; deploying multiple clients; creating a shared configuration file; creating a batch file to install clients
  • Working with the initialization checklist.
    • This topic may include: preparing initialization; synchronizing the database; initializing the system
Managing Users and Security (16 percent)
  • Managing security.
    • This topic may include: default and sample security definitions; compliance, auditing, and reporting; custom authentication; integrating security with the organizational model
  • Managing authentication, users, and Active Directory user groups.
    • This topic may include: Active Directory users; Active Directory groups; claims users for Enterprise Portal; manually creating users; importing users from Active Directory; manually creating Active Directory user groups
  • Managing role-based security.
    • This topic may include: aligning application security with business needs; reusable permissions; role-based security concepts; roles, duties, and process cycles; privileges and permissions; role design principles; goals for security changes in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012; assigning roles to users; assigning users to roles; assigning roles based on an organizational model
  • Managing the extensible data security framework.
    • This topic may include: applying the extensible data security framework to a user; record-level security
  • Customizing security.
    • This topic may include: adding a role; modifying a role; adding duties to a role; removing duties from a role; editing a duty
Managing Services and Workflow (12 percent)
  • Managing administration and integration.
    • This topic may include: metadata service; query service; service groups; integration ports; inbound versus outbound ports; basic versus enhanced ports; websites; support for non-XML files
  • Managing infrastructure and deployment.
    • This topic may include: improving performance; the data model; system services; services and the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) runtime; hosting services on the AOS; IIS service hosting with the .NET Business Connector; deploying services on a web farm; debugging services by using Visual Studio .NET; viewing logs
  • Working with the architecture.
    • This topic may include: organization model integration; hosting workflow on the AOS; identifying workflow types and uses
  • Working with the graphical workflow editor.
    • This topic may include: adding approvals; adding conditional decisions; adding manual decisions; adding parallel activities; adding and working with sub-workflows; working with line-level workflows; adding tasks and automated tasks
  • Managing inquiries and reports.
    • This topic may include: performance analysis reports; viewing workflow history
Managing Analytics and Reporting (13 percent)
  • Working with cubes.
    • This topic may include: types of cubes; cube features; Date dimension and Gregorian calendar
  • Deploying analytics.
    • This topic may include: setup wizard; SQL Server Analysis Services Project wizard
  • Configuring analytics.
    • This topic may include: fixed schemas; configuring default cubes; analysis servers; exchange rate information; time periods; maintenance plans
  • Managing batch support and deployment.
    • This topic may include: reporting architecture; reporting services; Windows PowerShell report deployment
  • Managing report servers.
    • This topic may include: creating a new Report Server; validating settings
Managing Enterprise Portals (13 percent)
  • Installing enterprise portals.
    • This topic may include: prerequisites; installation tasks; search
  • Deploying enterprise portals.
    • This topic may include: simplified deployment; deploying from the Application Object Tree (AOT); deploying changes to the Enterprise Portal
  • Configuring enterprise portals.
    • This topic may include: Enterprise Portal parameters; publishing images; websites; collaboration workspace settings; configuring search; updating the search crawler role
Managing Administration (15 percent)
  • Managing models
    • This topic may include: models and model files; SQL Server–based model store; model store uses; baseline model store; managing label files
  • Managing system administration.
    • This topic may include: management packs; Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer; server configuration; cluster configuration; Help system parameters; client performance options; system service accounts; license configuration and information; system parameters
  • Setting up and managing email.
    • This topic may include: email parameters and retry schedules; email batch jobs; email inquiries; email broadcasts
  • Setting up batches.
    • This topic may include: batch groups; batch jobs; batch processing; batch job history
  • Managing alerts.
    • This topic may include: alert parameters; alert rules; creating alerts; processing alerts; notification lists; notification clean up
Preparation Tools and ResourcesTo help you prepare for this exam, Microsoft Learning recommends that you have hands-on experience with the product and that you use the following training resources. These training resources do not necessarily cover all of the topics listed in the "Skills Measured" tab.
Learning Plans and Classroom Training
Microsoft E-Learning
  • 80221AE: Installation and Configuration for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 (10 Hours)
Microsoft Press Books There are no Microsoft Press books currently available.
Practice Tests There are no practice tests currently available.
Microsoft Online Resources
Online Help within the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 product.
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 What's New training
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