Managing Solutions

This article covers the general management of Continia solutions in on-premises deployments of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. For information on Continia license management, including how to buy or cancel solution licenses, manage modules, and add or remove companies, see Managing Licenses.

Important

The guides in this article are aimed at Continia partners and only partners can carry out the steps mentioned. If any of the guides apply to you, please reach out to your dedicated Continia partner and ask them to complete the relevant guides for you.

To activate a solution

When you've purchased a license for a solution or downloaded the free trial, you can activate the solution by following these steps:

  1. In Business Central, in the Search box, enter Continia Solution Management, and then choose the related link.
  2. In the list of installed Continia solutions, select the solution you wish to activate.
  3. In the action bar, select Activate Solution.
  4. Follow the on-screen instructions of the assisted setup guide to complete the activation.

If this is the first solution you activate, the customer's company is also activated at the same time. In that case, you must enter the customer's client credentials and select the company type (test or production) when going through the setup guide. When you order a license for a Continia product through the Continia License Manager, you automatically receive an email with the requested client credentials.

To deactivate a solution

To deactivate a Continia solution, follow these steps:

  1. In the Search box, enter Continia Solution Management, and then choose the related link.
  2. In the list of installed Continia solutions, select the solution you wish to deactivate.
  3. In the action bar, select Deactivate Solution.

Note

When a solution has been deactivated, certain core features will stop functioning for this solution. However, the solution will still be visible in the user interface, and you'll still be able to access its data.

Note that when you deactivate all solutions, the company you're currently signed in to will also be deactivated.

To change client credentials

Warning

Take caution when you change client credentials. You should only ever change client credentials when moving from a production to a demo environment. Otherwise, you risk losing essential data in Continia Online.

Note

Whenever you change a customer's credentials, all of the customer's companies and their respective solutions are automatically deactivated. After the change, you must manually reactivate all solutions for each company.

To change client credentials, follow these steps:

  1. In the Search box, enter Continia Solution Management, and then choose the related link.
  2. In the action bar, select Client Credentials to open the Continia Client Credentials page.
  3. Enter the new client ID and the corresponding client password, and select Save to save the changes and close the page.
  4. Reactivate all solutions manually using the usual procedure.
  5. Repeat all the above steps for any additional companies.

Activating companies

Once a company has been added, it must be activated. You do this by activating all relevant solutions which you can do using the activation procedure. You must activate at least one solution per company to activate the company.

Deactivating companies

You can deactivate a company directly in the user interface by deactivating all active solutions for the company you're currently signed in to. When all active solutions have been deactivated, the company is also deactivated.

Note

When a company has been deactivated, certain core features will stop functioning for this company. However, the company will still be visible in the user interface, and you'll still be able to access its data.

Registering a company as a test company

In general, companies can be registered as either test companies or production companies, and it's generally possible to change the company type after the initial activation of a solution. However, your options depend on whether you use demo or production credentials, as described below:

Using production credentials
When you activate the first solution for a customer's company, you must define it as either a test company or a production company. If production credentials are used, there's no technical difference between these two company types, as they both point to production environments. The only difference is that you don't have to buy a license for a test company.

You can always change the company type at a later stage, if necessary. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. In the Search box, enter Continia Solution Management, and then choose the related link.
  2. Under Company Status, select the company type (test or production).

Using demo credentials
When you activate the first solution for a customer's company, the company is always registered as a test company, and this can't be changed.

To activate a company after database changes

Sometimes you may have to make changes to your database, for instance, if you need to move it to a new server or would like to back up your system to test new functionality. In such cases, you must reactivate all companies following the change.

To avoid any accidental import of production data into a test environment, the system automatically detects if the database has been restored or moved to another server. Whenever the system detects changes to the database information, all companies and their respective solutions are deactivated, and a warning is displayed on the Continia Solution Management page. To reactivate the deactivated companies and solutions, follow these steps:

  1. In the Search box, enter Continia Solution Management, and then choose the related link.
  2. Select the warning that's displayed (as mentioned above) to open the Continia Client Credentials page.
  3. Do one of the following, depending on your situation:
    • If the database is a copy of another database (whether a production or a test database), change the client credentials and select Save. Then activate all solutions manually using the activation procedure.
    • If the database has been moved or restored, select Update Database Info to continue with your existing credentials. This will automatically reactivate all solutions.
  4. Repeat all the above steps for any additional companies associated with the database that's been changed.

To reactivate a renamed company

When a company has been renamed, you must reactivate it. You can do this either from the Role Center or from the Continia Solution Management page. Both methods are described below.

To reactivate from the Role Center, follow these steps:

  1. In the Role Center, the notification "<Solution name> has been installed. Would you like to activate it now?" is displayed. Select this notification to start the Solution Activation setup guide.
  2. Complete the guide by following the on-screen instructions to reactivate the solution.

To reactivate via Continia Solution Management, follow these steps:

  1. In the Search box, enter Continia Solution Management, and then choose the related link.
  2. On the Continia Solution Management page, a red label with the text "The company has not been activated correctly" is displayed. Select this label to reactivate the company, including all previously activated solutions. The red label will disappear upon activation.

To copy a company for use as a test company

Note

Only one set of client credentials is stored in each database. For example, the customer's production credentials are stored in a production database, and from here they point to the production environment of Continia Online. If you want a complete separation of your test and production environments, you must create a new database and use demo credentials for this.

To create a new test company in a production database by copying a production company in the same database, follow these steps:

  1. Copy the company, and give it a new name. For details on how to do this, see this Microsoft article.
  2. Open the company that you've just created as a copy.
  3. In the Search box, enter Continia Company Setup, and then choose the related link.
  4. Under General, enter a new company code, and select OK when you're done.
  5. Activate the company by activating all relevant solutions using the activation procedure. As you complete the setup guide, select Test Company as the company type.

To copy a company for use as an active company

To create a new active company in a production database by copying a production company in the same database, follow these steps:

  1. Copy the company, and give it a new name. For details on how to do this, see this Microsoft article.
  2. Deactivate the original company:
    1. Open the original company (unless you're already signed in to this).
    2. Using Continia Solution Management, deactivate the original company by deactivating all active solutions. When all active solutions have been deactivated, the company is also deactivated.
  3. Activate the new company:
    1. Open the new company.
    2. Using Continia Solution Management, activate the new company by activating at least one solution. You do this using the activation procedure.

To copy a production database for use as a test database

When you copy a production database to use as a test database, you must separate the test database from the production details in Continia Online (that is, details regarding activation status). To do this, you must specify a new set of demo client credentials and then activate all relevant solutions.

Important

You can't use the same client credentials in multiple databases simultaneously.

The activation status of a company is stored in Continia Online. When the system checks if a company is activated, it does so based on the client credentials, the company name, and the company GUID that are stored for the company in the database. If you don't change the client credentials, the new test database will be activated as the production database, thereby taking over the existing production database's activation status. Also, the test database will be linked to production details in Continia Online.

To copy a production database for use as a test database, follow these steps:

  1. Restore the new database.
  2. Using Continia Solution Management, change client credentials to demo client credentials.
  3. In the Search box, enter Continia Company Setup, and then choose the related link.
  4. Under General, enter a new company code, and select OK when you're done.
  5. Activate the company by activating all relevant solutions using the activation procedure. As you're using demo client credentials, the company will by default be registered as a test company.

Copying a production database to a new server

When you copy a production database to a new server, you must update the client credentials in one of the databases or delete the client credentials from one of the databases. To delete the client credentials, run the table and delete the relevant record in the table.

Importing data into a company using import tools

When importing data from one company to another using import tools such as Rapid Start, you must make sure that Continia Core tables are skipped, as they store the current company's activation data. If the Continia Core tables aren't omitted, you could corrupt the data and invalidate the company's activation state.

Therefore, you must skip importing data stored in objects in the following range: 6192810 to 6192868.

See also

Managing Licenses
Continia Collection Management Resellers and Partners