Sandbox for Dynamics 365

7
votes

I am trying to learn Dynamics 365, but the trials https://trials.dynamics.com/ are not long enough. What other alternatives do I have for a sandbox style environment for me to learn Dynamics, ideally something which is a lot longer than 30 days or if I have to pay, something which is not going to cost me an arm and a leg.

Are the following options (ideally without paying) in the hope that I get longer trials:

  1. Use on-prem hyper-v servers to install and configure Dynamics 365 myself

  2. Use the 1 year Azure trial to install and configure Dynamics 365 myself

  3. A docker solution which has everything pre-configured for a 1 year Azure trial for Dynamics 365

  4. Any other solution which I have not considered?

If any of the above options are possible, detailed instructions on how to get these configured would be highly appreciated.

2
dynamics-crmmicrosoft-dynamicsdynamics-365
If you or your org is part of Microsoft partner then you can extend trial instances till 90 days. – AnkUser
I am not a Microsoft Partner unfortunately. – oshirowanen
I'm a MS Dynamics developer and I'll be the first to tell you that it's a shame that Salesforce provides absolute free environments for training while the latter doesn't :( I was paying over $100/month just so I could practice developing a solution for the PSA module. – J.S. Orris

2 Answers

6
votes

Dynamics 365 purely works on licensing model & short trial period for prospect try-outs. Without license the show cannot run for long time, even for learning purpose. Forget about a year long free try-outs (or learning environment), the Dynamics online will give a 30 days with a possibility of another 30 days extension in trial environment. You can always take out the Customization (solution backup), data backup too and restore in another new 30 days trial to go on.

When we talk about on-premise environments, say Dynamics installed on local server or Azure VM - you will still get a roadblock with key or expiring trial licenses, probably 90 days (IIRC).
Installing D365CE 9.0 – step by step instruction by Andrew Butenko

One thing I remember is Dev Community Plan - I heard in one of the UG meetings, that it's available for a year but neither tried and not sure. This will fit you as this purely for Developer individual use.

If you want to build skills and learn more about Power Apps, Power Automate, and the Common Data Service, the Power Apps Community Plan is the right plan for you. The Power Apps Community Plan gives you a free development environment for individual use, where you can:

  • Learn to build business apps and workflows with the full functionality of Power Apps and Power Automate.
  • Connect to any data source by using our 100+ out of the box connectors or by creating your own custom connectors.
  • Explore how you can use the Common Data Service to build powerful business apps with the common data model and the SDK.
  • Export the solutions you create in your individual environment, and list them on AppSource so your customers can test-drive them.
0
votes

TL;DR Buying a real Dynamics cloud environment with a couple of licenses to do learning/dev is probably simpler/cheaper.

On-prem

MSDN enterprise standard subscription gives you access to an on-prem Dynamics installation with no limit.

As far as I know, only the highest tier provides this. The spreadsheet from the pricing page shows that Dynamics is only for Enterprise, and the pricing page implies that access to those software is for a standard subscription - not monthly.

Pricing: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/pricing/

Access to Microsoft software for Dev/Test use (Windows Server, Windows SQL Server, and more

Links to: https://download.microsoft.com/download/1/5/4/15454442-CF17-47B9-A65D-DF84EF88511B/Visual_Studio_by_Subscription_Level.xlsx

With the subscription, you can install everything needed to get one (or more) VM environments running, including Windows Server, SQL Server and Exchange.

Downside with on-prem is that many features are cloud-only nowadays (PCF, Flow/PowerAutomate, etc.) and the version is lagging behind even though cumulative patches are released regularly.

If you go this route, installation instructions are provided on MS Docs. Getting a basic HTTP configuration to work is simple enough, but to get the full functionality (incl. Outlook App on Exchange) it is a bit more involved: you'll have to setup HTTPS domain certificates and ADFS to enable IFD. I suggest to run ADFS5 on a Server 2019 VM if you ever plan to develop with the CRM web api in this configuration, eg to query from VsCode using tokens.