Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services July release shortens on-prem updates

Microsoft has rolled out the July release of Lifecycle Services (LCS) that includes a change in the process of applying updates to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations on-premises environment.

Previously for an on-premises deployment, clicking "Apply Updates" in the environment details page meant the start of the downtime for your environment even though the update steps that directly affected the environment would start much later, according to a post on the Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services Engineering Blog.

Although the initial time was spent downloading the package, and preparing the environment for the update, the environment wasn't updated during the execution of these steps.

To reduce the overall downtime, and increase reliability, Microsoft has divided the servicing operation into two activities - preparation and servicing.

In the preparation activity, all the tasks needed for servicing, such as formatting the package, downloading the package, and taking code backups are completed, according to the Lifecycle Services team. During this time, the on-premises environment isn't accessed, and there is no downtime for the environment or the users of the system.

The actual deployment takes place in the service activity, which is a downtime for the environment. Customers can now prepare the environment before they start the actual downtime for servicing, the LCS team said.

This reduces the overall downtime needed to update an on-premises environment. To use this feature, users must have the latest version of the local agent, such as Version 2.1.0. For details on how to use this feature, refer to the Apply Updates documentation.

In addition, the July release includes performance improvements ...