Business Central Insider Releases Artifacts
Some have asked me about the Insider releases of Business Central; you can find some information on Microsoft Docs about specifics but in order to download these versions, you need to use the ready-made, published and available artifacts insider releases.
Insider Release Artifacts
These versions are made available to be able to test the new features (which may be different or missing in the final versions); they are currently published as artifacts and saved on a Cloud storage.
When you are creating a docker container using Artifacts Insider releases, you will get a the latest version of Business Central Container Helper (BCContainerHelper).
Where to find them – MS Collaborate
To download them you must have access to MS Collaborate, access to the program and to the Business Central packages must be required in order to access; MVPs, partners etc. can request it.
https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/dashboard/collaborate/
Yammer Group – Business Central (DynamicsNAVDev)
In this group you will find info on the insider release as well as being a real mine of information on Business Central with great interaction with the participants.
https://www.yammer.com/dynamicsnavdev/#/home
Hot-to download the last artifacts insider releases
Powershell Script example for BC2021Wave2 US release (confidential information under NDA hidden of course)
#Install\Update Last BC Container Helper Module
install-module BCContainerHelper -force
#Get BC Insider Artifacts images from storage
$sasToken = “Token ID”
$sasStorage = “Storage Name”
Get-BCArtifactUrl -storageAccount $sasStorage -sasToken $sasToken -country “us” -type Sandbox -select Latest #GET LAST ARTIFACT US Sandbox Version
$artifactUrl = Get-BCArtifactUrl -storageAccount $sasStorage -sasToken $sasToken -select Latest
$containerName = ‘bc19us’ #LOWERCASE NAME ex: ‘bc19us’
$password = ‘$Pass@ord!’
$securePassword = ConvertTo-SecureString -String $password -AsPlainText -Force
$credential = New-Object pscredential ‘admin’, $securePassword
$auth = ‘UserPassword’
# *** CREATE BC19W2 US CONTAINER FROM INSIDER IMAGE
New-BcContainer `
-accept_eula `
-useSSL `
-containerName $containerName `
-credential $credential `
-auth $auth `
-artifactUrl $artifactUrl `
-imageName $containerName `
-multitenant:$false `
-assignPremiumPlan `
-dns ‘8.8.8.8’ `
-memoryLimit 8G `
-updateHosts
#CONTAINER UTILITIES
#Remove Conatiner
Remove-BcContainer -containerName BC19Sandbox
#Get container LOG info
Get-BcContainerEventLog -containerName BC19Sandbox
#to retrieve information about URL’s again
docker logs BC19Sandbox
#to get debug information about the container
Get-BcContainerDebugInfo -containerName BC19Sandbox
#to open a PowerShell prompt inside the container
Enter-BcContainer -containerName BC19Sandbox
Artifacts folders
Testing BC 2021 Wave2 US last insider release
