With the Seer 365 team boasting extensive experience across a variety of Dynamics 365-related roles, we understand firsthand the unique challenges that implementation partners face. This is why a little over three years ago, Seer 365 developed the GYDE365 platform, a suite of software applications specifically designed to empower partners to streamline and enhance their business processes.
Marvin Dean-Palmer, one of our Product Development Managers, has over five years of experience working within Product Support teams. His expertise, prior to joining Seer 365, lay in the diagnosis, analysis, and remedying of complex Microsoft Dynamics 365 issues. In his article below, Marvin shares his top five tips focused on helping support team members to effectively address Dynamics 365 issues. If you’re involved or interested in Dynamics 365 support resolution and optimisation, read on.
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In the world of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management (formerly known as Finance & Operations) stands out as a powerful business application. Yet, ensuring it is running at optimal performance can be a challenging task, as I am sure some of you will be aware? In this article, I will shed some light on the complexities of Dynamics 365 performance monitoring and optimisation.
There are two common scenarios where system performance can sometimes fall short of what is expected. The first is the system slowing down more than it should, and the second is slow loading forms testing your patience and the system signalling you to ‘wait,’ while progress remains elusive.
These two situations are far from uncommon. In this article, I will provide you with some insights in how to handle them proactively. So, join me as I navigate the complexities of Dynamics 365’s performance and offer practical tips to ensure your support unit has the foundations to diagnose performance-related issues.
Tip 1: Establish a Performance Baseline
The performance baseline definition in relation to Dynamics 365 is the minimum level at which your systems need be performing to be working as required. To assess your performance, as a starting point, you must first identify key metrics such as response times, server resource utilisation, and database query performance that will provide you with a clear view of your performance baseline.
Once you have a clear view of your baseline, next set some clear performance goals for those critical metrics. This will help you to understand your system performance and if it is delivering as expected.
There are tools to help you determine a baseline for your Dynamics 365 environment, such as Azure Monitor and Lifecycle Service (LCS). Azure Monitor allows you to create custom dashboards that display real-time performance data and Lifecycle Service (LCS) Performance Monitoring dashboard helps you to identify your performance trends.
It’s important to regularly review and update your Dynamics 365 environment as time goes by and technology advances. It is a bit like maintaining a car. You shouldn’t skip regular servicing if you want your vehicle to run smoothly. It’s also important to regularly review your baseline and update it from time to time, when necessary, to ensure optimal system performance.
Tip 2: Set Up Real-time Monitoring and Alerts
Next step is to implement real-time monitoring and alerts to ensure you are promptly notified of any issues. You don’t want your system crashing and then not being alerted about it! With alerts in place, you can fix an issue quickly and minimise system downtime, reducing or even better, avoiding any impact on your customers. It’s super important to clearly outline the conditions that will trigger these alerts, such as High CPU usage, memory spikes, or extended response times – all vital things to be made aware of when running a Dynamics 365 system.
Alerts are important but without escalation procedures in place, they are not much use. Establishing clear escalation procedures involves ensuring the right team members are notified when alerts are activated so that they can take immediate action to remedy any issue as soon as is possible.
And one final thing. Don’t forget to test your alert system regularly to ensure it is working, in just the same way that public buildings do weekly fire alarm tests. Don’t just assume it is working. Stay on top of it and you’ll thank yourself later.
Tip 3: Collect, Analyse and Correlate Data
Data is your friend, especially when you need to understand how your system performance is doing. You need to be gathering data from a variety of sources, including server logs, application metrics, and database queries. These will help you to put all the pieces of the puzzle together to give you a holistic (full) view of your system performance.
By implementing Application Insights within Azure Monitor you can start to connect the dots, spotting patterns and identify potential bottlenecks that might slow or already be slowing your system down. An even easier way to interpret and analyse performance data for you and your team is to employ data visualisation tools to create charts, graphs, and dashboards.
Cross-referencing data from a day, a week, a month or even a year before can help find where the performance issues are coming from and correlating data from various sources can help you to pinpoint the root causes of the performance issues – allowing you, or your team to fix it like a pro!
Tip 4: Analyse the Root Cause
Once an issue has been identified, you will need to isolate the specific component causing the problem to find out whether it’s a slow database query, server misconfiguration, or insufficient code, etc., etc. When a performance issue arises, the first thing to do is to identify the root cause. To speed up this process of finding the source of the problem, you will often need to work with other relevant teams, such as database administrators or developers. Teamwork will often help you solve issues quicker.
Unfortunately, not all issues are ‘one-offs’ and they come back despite thinking that the issue was remedied the last time it happened. So, it is crucial to understand with a new issue whether it is a recurring or isolated incident. If it is a recurring issue, you will need to do some further investigation and analysis into your system to prevent the issue from happening again.
And what is the next step? Clear documentation, of course. Once the analysis, identification and isolation of a root cause has been carried out, ensure you document it and how it can be remedied to enable you to troubleshoot similar issues in the future.
Tip 5: Optimise your System and Consider Scaling Up
Don’t forget to schedule in some regular performance reviews to ensure your Dynamics 365 system continues to meet performance requirements. Keeping on top of resource utilisation will help you figure out if you need to scale up certain resources, such as increasing server capacity or optimising database indexes to accommodate growth.
But wait! Before making any changes in a ‘live’ system, wherever possible, carry out performance testing in a controlled ‘test’ environment to assess how effective the improvements are and if they work according to your expectations – there is nothing worse than breaking something in the ‘live’ system!
Another piece of advice is stay up to date with what the latest patches and updates are for Dynamics 365 as they often include performance enhancements that you will need to understand as they can affect your live system. Being pro-active with these updates will mean you can quickly manage any issues that may arise.
Putting these tips into action
Now that I’ve shared some of my top tips, it’s over to you to put them into action if you aren’t doing them already! It is the responsibility of a product support specialist using a Dynamics 365 system to ensure it is running at optimal performance. If you follow the suggestions outlined above, you’ll be able to ensure that your system operates at its peak performance level, boosting efficiency and productivity throughout your organisation. Plus, by regularly testing your Dynamics 365 system you’ll be ahead of the game, which is key to the early identification of potential problems or even preventing those problems in your live system.
Good luck!
Useful Resources
To compliment my article and to further your understanding of Dynamics 365 performance monitoring and optimisation, here are some useful resources:
Performance troubleshooting using tools in Lifecycle Services (LCS): This article describes how you can troubleshoot and mitigate performance issues using the tools available in Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services (LCS).
Work with performance and monitoring tools in finance and operations apps: This Microsoft Learn module provides training on how to use performance tools and Lifecycle Services environment monitoring tools to enhance your validation and testing experience in finance and operations apps.
Analyse Performance in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations with Performance Timer: This article discusses various ways to analyse performance in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, such as using Trace Parser, the monitoring tools in Life Cycle Services, or leveraging the Performance SDK in Visual Studio.
Collect Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations event traces with Windows Performance Monitor: This blog post explains how users can collect Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations event traces using Windows Performance Monitor.
Written by Marvin-Dean Palmer
In early 2022, Marvin-Dean Palmer joined the Seer 365 team as a Product Development Manager, bringing with him over 5 years of experience working within the Microsoft Dynamics 365 ecosystem. Marvin-Dean helps to continuously develop and monitor the performance of our GYDE365 applications to ensure they are running at optimal performance.