Set up a D365 Finance and Operations VHD for first use

From time to time the 180 day trial x5 has expired and you need to set up and configure a new VHD for development. This is a time consuming job as the download and extract takes long time. As it is some time between each time I do this I forget the steps and all the nitty gritty detail. So it's about time this article was created. Here is my take on the process. 

Download and extract the VHD

Log in to the Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services (LCS) portal and navigate to the Shared Asset Library. Select "Downloadable VHD" as the asset type and find the desired version. Download all the associated files (usually four files  .exe and .rar parts). Extract the files by running the .exe file to get the final .vhd file. You can also use a tool like 7-Zip or WinRAR.

Create and configure the virtual machine

Open Hyper-V Manager and select New > Virtual Machine. Follow the wizard, selecting "Use an existing virtual hard disk" and pointing to the extracted .vhd file. In the VM's settings, set the number of processors to at least 4 and the RAM to a minimum of 16,384MB (16GB) for dynamic memory. Ensure the network adapter is connected to your home network via the virtual switch.

Register a new application in Microsoft Entra ID

Add a new app registration in Microsoft Entra ID, follow the steps outlined in Register app or web API. The new app registration should be for a web application, and the following redirect URIs should be added:

• https://usnconeboxax1aos.cloud.onebox.dynamics.com/
• https://usnconeboxax1aos.cloud.onebox.dynamics.com/oauth/

Once created, make note of the Application (client) ID to use in the next step.

Complete the initial setup

Start the virtual machine and log in with the default credentials (username: Administrator, password will be pre-set to "pass@word1"). Right-click the "Generate Self-Signed Certificates" shortcut on the desktop and run it as an administrator. When prompted, provide the Application (client) ID for your Entra ID application registration. Once the script finishes, run the Admin Provisioning tool to set the administrator account, permissions, and tenant. The file is located in the bin folder of the application.

C:\AOSService\PackagesLocalDirectory\bin\AdminUserProvisioning.exe

Visual studio

Open and sign in to Visual Studio, run it as administrator to ensure all extensions are registered correctly. Connect to your DevOps and map and get your source code before doing a build and a synchronization of the database. You can now access the Dynamics 365 F&O application from the VM to begin development and testing.

Final steps

For the Commerce features, follow the additional configuration steps outlined in the Microsoft Learn documentation.