Managing updates in the Business Central admin center
Business Central environments are updated according to the Business Central roadmap, with two major updates a year, one in April and another in October, and minor updates in every month except April and October. Learn more in Major Updates and Minor Updates for Business Central Online and the Dynamics 365 Release Plans.
Updates of the base application and platform are managed by Microsoft. As an internal administrator or as a partner, you use the Business Central administration center to specify the timing of updates for each environment and who receives notifications of when an update is available. You can also help prepare your solution and your users by creating preview environments so that you can get acquainted with new functionality in the product. Learn more in Major Updates and Minor Updates.
Set the update window for each environment
The update window for an environment defines the hours during the day for the selected time zone in which the environment can be updated. When an update is rolling out it will be applied to an environment within the time frame that the update window defines.
Important
Updates always start during the update window specified for the environment, but not necessarily right at the start of the update window. Updates that fail to complete before the end of the update window are cancelled to ensure the environment is operational during business hours; the update is automatically rescheduled seven days later for a new attempt and notification recipients are informed.
This window helps ensure updates are applied outside of the normal business hours of the organization. Every environment has a default update window that's between 8:00 PM and 6:00 AM local time for the environment's country/region. In countries/regions that have multiple time zones, the system sets a time zone that's close to the geographic center of the country/region as default.
Note
Desktop users who are signed in during the update will receive an alert in Business Central before the update starts.
To change the update window for an environment:
- On the Environments tab of the Business Central administration center, choose the Name of the relevant environment to open the environment details.
- Choose the Update Settings action, and then choose the Set update window action.
- In the Set update window pane, specify the time zone, start time, and end time, for the update window for the environment. The update window must be a minimum of six hours.
- Choose Save.
This timeslot now becomes the default window when updates will be applied to this environment.
Schedule an update date
Once an update is available, you can choose a specific date that each environment is updated.
The following fields on the environment page can help you plan the update:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Available Update Version | Specifies the version to which you can update your environment |
| Update Scheduling Available | Specifies whether it's possible for you to change the update date. The options are Yes or No. |
| Update will start on or after | Specifies the default update date set by Microsoft. You can change this date to one you prefer, if Update Scheduling Available is set to Yes. If you change the date from the default, the field's caption on the environment details page changes to Scheduled Update Date. |
| Scheduled Update Date | Specifies the update date that you've explicitly chosen to use instead of the default update date. |
| Update Window (UTC + offset) | Specifies the hours of the day that an update can run. (UTC + offset) indicates the time zone, represented as Coordinated Universal Time plus or minus the difference in hours and minutes. |
| Update Rollout State | Microsoft can sometimes postpone the updates for various reasons. This field provides information that can help you track the current state of the rollout. For more information about what happens in such cases, see Postponed updates |
Important
If you don't set a date in the Scheduled Update Date field, Microsoft will update the environment automatically on any day between the default date (that is, the date shown in the Update will start on or after field) and the date that is shown as the last possible update date in your notification email. If you don't want your environment to be updated automatically, change the update date to one that fits you better.
Learn more in Schedule updates.
To schedule an update date:
On the Environments tab of the Business Central administration center, choose the Name of the relevant environment to open the environment details.
Choose the Update Settings action, and then choose the Set update date action.
In the Schedule Environment Update pane, specify the update date.
Note
You can choose to ignore the environment's update window when scheduling a specific update by switching Allow the update to run outside the update window to Yes. If an update is scheduled for the same day, this option lets it start immediately, and it lets large upgrades run for longer than 24 hours if required. Updates that run in this mode won't be automatically cancelled at the end of the update window, so it's not recommended to use this setting for updates on environments that must be available for users again by a certain time.
Choose Schedule Update.
If an administrator hasn't picked a date for an update, then the update is applied automatically within a default date range. The default date range is communicated in advance to tenant administrators through administrative notifications. You can then choose to override that with a custom date by following the steps that are provided above. Not selecting an update date doesn't prevent the environment from being updated.
Get notified of updates
For updates that tenant administrators can schedule, a notification is sent to all notification recipients that are listed on the Notification recipients tab of the Business Central administration center. Learn more in Managing Tenant Notifications.
Important
To not miss update notifications from Microsoft, you must verify that the emails are not redirected to a spam folder by your email software. The notifications are sent from the Microsoft account, [email protected].
Environments that can't get updated
Sometimes an environment can't get the new update. For example, a per-tenant extension might conflict with the changes in the new version of the base application.
Before a major update, Microsoft routinely checks per-tenant extensions in all existing environments for compatibility with the next major update. If we detect compatibility issues with the upcoming version, we send email notifications that describe the detected issues to the notification recipients. We warmly encourage all admins to review these emails and take action as soon as possible.
If you discover any such issues, apply the changes to your solution as usual using Visual Studio Code. Test the new app in a sandbox environment that runs on the new major version, either in preview or the official version. If tests complete successfully, upload the new app version into your production environment in the Extension Management page, setting the Deploy to field to Next major version. This way the compatible version of your app will be used when your environment is updated. For more information, see Deploying a Tenant Customization.
For more information, see Failed updates and rescheduling.
Related information
What's new or changed in Business Central
Major Updates of Business Central Online
Prepare for major updates with preview environments
Working with Administration Tools
The Business Central Administration Center
Managing Environments
Managing Tenant Notifications
Introduction to automation APIs