Dynamics 365 Human Resources Database Migration and Copying Guide

This technical guide details the protocol for migrating and duplicating databases within Microsoft Dynamics 365 Human Resources, specifically focusing on moving data to sandbox environments via Lifecycle Services.

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The process involves a total overwrite of the target database, necessitating strict adherence to geographical constraints and administrative role requirements to ensure post-copy access. Because the migration disables non-admin users and resets specific environment-specific settings—such as batch jobs and SMTP configurations—manual reconfiguration is essential to restore full functionality. Furthermore, the guide highlights the necessity of synchronising Power Platform components and reapplying custom Dataverse fields to maintain data integrity across the integrated ecosystem.

Key take aways

• Infrastructure Transition: Since June 2022, Human Resources environments are deployed on the finance and operations app infrastructure. This infrastructure does not support a "copy instance" function; instead, you must deploy new environments and use database movements to create copies.

• Database Copying Requirements:

  • You must use Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services (LCS) to copy a database to a sandbox environment.
  • The source and target environments must be in the same region.
  • The user performing the copy must be an Administrator in both the source and target environments to ensure access after the process is complete.

• Separation of Power Apps: Copying a Human Resources database does not copy Power Apps elements (apps or data). These must be copied separately through the Microsoft Power Platform Admin Center.

• Data Exclusions: To prevent system errors and unwanted communication, several data elements are not copied, including:

  • Email addresses and SMTP passwords/relay servers (to avoid duplicate emails).
  • Batch job history and environment-specific server configurations.
  • Document attachments in the DocuValue table.

• Post-Copy Environment Status:

  • The target database is erased and unrecoverable once the copy begins.
  • All users except System Administrators are automatically disabled to allow for post-refresh cleanup.
  • Most batch jobs are set to a "Withhold" status.

• Required Manual Configurations: After the copy, administrators must:

  • Reapply custom fields to Dataverse tables by toggling the "Enabled" status for each entity to trigger a schema update.
  • Reconnect integration endpoints and re-enable Dataverse integration.
  • Manually re-enable users as needed.

More information can be found the Microsoft Learn sources