Connecting to Microsoft Dynamics AX (extractor)

Important

Any references to third-party products or services do not constitute Celonis Product Documentation nor do they create any contractual obligations. This material is for informational purposes only and is subject to change without notice.

Celonis does not warrant the availability, accuracy, reliability, completeness, or usefulness of any information regarding the subject of third-party services or systems.

The Celonis Microsoft AX extractor allows you to transfer data from your Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP system to the Celonis Platform for process mining and analysis. It supports the following basic features:

The Microsoft Dynamics AX extractor is only for use with uplink connections via on-premise extractors.

If you want to extract the SysDatabaseLog table, see: (Optional) Extracting the SysDatabaseLog table.

Prerequisites

This section details important prerequisites or prerequisite knowledge for using this extractor.

On-premise extractor required

Before connecting your Microsoft Dynamics AX tenant to the Celonis Platform you need to configure an on-premise extractor for the uplink connection to Microsoft Dynamics AX. For more information, see: On-premise extractors

Network settings for uplink connections

The following network settings apply only for uplink connections (via the on-premise extractor):

Source system	Target system	Port	Protocol	Description
On-premise extractor server	Source system	Depending on the database, typical ports are 5432 for PostgreSQL and 30015 for HANA for example.	TCP	JDBC connection from on-premise extractor server to the database. The port is the one you normally use to connect to the database.
On-premise extractor server	Celonis Platform	443	TCP	HTTPS connection from on-premise extractor server to Celonis cloud endpoint. The IPs of the Celonis Platform depending on the cloud cluster (which can be seen in the URL).

JDBC string guidelines

This section describes the guidelines for using custom JDBC strings in extractor configurations:

Authentication: The Credentials fields in the extractor configuration are required and always used to authenticate the connection. Do not embed credentials directly in your JDBC string.
Encryption: For standard (unencrypted) extractors (examples: SAP HANA, PostgreSQL), you can enable encryption by adding encrypt=true to the JDBC string. For encrypted extractors (examples: SAP HANA encrypted, PostgreSQL encrypted), connections are established with encryption enabled (encrypt=true) by default. You do not need to include this parameter in your JDBC string.
Certificate validation: Do not include validateCertificate=true in your JDBC strings. Instead, use Advanced Settings > Validate Certificate > Enabled.
Additional properties: You can include additional properties in either the JDBC string or the Additional Properties field. Do not specify the same properties in both places.

Authentication method – username and password

The Microsoft Dynamics AX extractor can connect to the database using a database user account. Provide the username and password for this account to authenticate the connection. Ensure this database user has sufficient permissions to access the data to be extracted.

(Optional) Extracting the SysDatabaseLog table

The data extraction from MicrosoftDynamics AX works like for every other database. However, the SysDatabaseLog table storing the change log events is an exception. As change log tables can grow in size and consume a lot of memory and storage, Microsoft decided to store the relevant columns of this table as a container data type. That means it is encrypted when trying to access the table via Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) or JDBC.

As the Celonis Platform can't read directly from the SysDatabaseLog container table, a view needs to be created using the following information:

CREATE View [dbo].[SYSDATABASELOG] as Select

[USERNAME]

,[DESCRIPTION]

,[LOGTYPE]

,MASTER.dbo.Fn_varbintohexstr(DATA) as DATA

,[TABLE_]

,[LOGRECID]

,[CREATEDDATETIME]

,[DEL_CREATEDTIME]

,[CREATEDBY]

,[CREATEDTRANSACTIONID]

,[DATAAREAID]

,[RECVERSION]

,[RECID]

from <Database_Name>.dbo.SYSDATABASELOG

The extraction will create two target tables, one called SysDatabaseLog which will extract the table as is and one called SysDatabaseLog$audit which decrypts the encrypted DATA column into readable strings.

For information about creating a view in Microsoft Dynamics AX, see: Microsoft Learn - How to create a view based on tables.

Configuring the Microsoft Dynamics AX extractor

This section describes the basic setup of configuring the Microsoft Dynamics AX. To configure the extractor:

In the Celonis Platform left navigation, select Data > Data Integration.
On the Data Pools screen, select the data pool you want to use for the extraction.
Note
If you do not have a data pool to use for this extraction, see Creating and managing data pools for instructions on how to create one.
In the Data Integration section, select Connect to Data Source.
Note
If this is not the data pool's first connection, the Data Connections window opens below. Select + Add Data Connection to add a new connection.
In the Add Data Connection window, select Connect to Data Source.
In the Connect to Data Source window, select the Microsoft Dynamics AX – On Premise extractor.
1. Follow the on-screen instructions to set up the uplink connection.
In the New Database Data Connection window, fill in the following information:
1. For Name, provide a name for this configuration.
2. For Uplink connections, ensure the correct uplink connection is displayed. If not, use the dropdown list to find and select the correct uplink connection.
3. For Database Type, ensure Microsoft AX is selected.
4. For Connection Type, select either Standard or Custom JDBC Connection String.
  1. If you selected Standard:
    - For Host, enter the hostname or IP address of your server.
    - For Port, provide the port to connect to (Default is 1443).
    - For Database Name, enter the name of the database that contains the data you want to extract.
    - (Optional) For Schema Name, enter the name of the schema that contains the tables to extract.
    - (Optional) For Additional Properties, enter any additional connection properties required by your database or driver. Separate each with ;.
  2. If you selected Custom JDBC Connection String:
    Important
    When using JDBC strings, there are specific guidelines to follow. For more information, see JDBC string_guildelines.
    - For JDBC Connection String, provide your string. Use the format:
      jdbc:sqlserver://<hostname>:<port>;databaseName=<database_name>;property1=value1;property2=value2;...
      Note
      For more information on connecting to PostgreSQL with JDBC strings, see the Microsoft SQL documentation.
    - For Driver class, enter your driver class name. This is typically:
      com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver
    - Optionally, provide values for:
      Schema Name: Enter the name of the schema that contains the tables to extract.
      Additional Properties: Enter any additional connection properties required by your database or driver. Separate each with ;.
5. For Credentials, provide the username and password of the database user for this connection.
  Note
  Ensure this database user has sufficient permissions to access the data to be extracted.
6. If desired, select Advanced Settings, and update these parameters as needed.
  Note
  The Advanced Setting > Validate Certificate parameter (Default: DISABLED) controls whether the extractor validates the server’s SSL/TLS certificate:
  - Disabled: Disables certificate validation (validateCertificate=false).
  - Enabled: Enforces certificate validation (validateCertificate=true).
  - Removed: Uses the driver’s default behavior. Check the driver documentation to confirm the default.
Select the Test Connection button to confirm the extractor can connect to the host system. If the test fails, adjust the data in the configuration fields as needed.
Once the test connection passes, select the Save button to continue. This returns you to the Data Integration window.