When you deploy Microsoft Dynamics NAV on Windows Azure or other cloud service for the first time, you will have a Microsoft Dynamics NAV environment that is configured for a single Microsoft Dynamics NAV company. The environment consists of a Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web Server instance, Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server instance, and Microsoft Dynamics NAV database. Depending on the network topology that you chose for deployment, the components will be deployed on one or two virtual machines.

After the initial deployment, you can begin to scale the topology by adding companies, Microsoft Dynamics NAV web server instances, Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server instances, and Microsoft Dynamics NAV databases.

Scaling Configurations

There are three basic configurations for scaling up the Microsoft Dynamics NAV environment: single-instance, multiple-company, and multiple-instance.

Single-Instance

With the single-instance configuration, each company has its own virtual machines that host the Microsoft Dynamics NAV web server instance, Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server instance, and Microsoft Dynamics NAV database. Companies or instances do not share resources.

Scaling NAV on Azure Single instance

Multiple-Company

With the multi-company configuration, companies share the same Microsoft Dynamics NAV web server instance and Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server instance, and Microsoft Dynamics NAV database.

Azure Scaling Multi-Company

Multiple-Instance

With the multi-instance configuration, companies share the same Microsoft Dynamics NAV web server instance and Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server instance, but have their own Microsoft Dynamics NAV database.

NAV on Azure Multi-Instance Scaling

Comparing the Configurations

The following table provides information that compares the different configurations to help you decide which configuration to use for your environment.

Configuration Single-Instance Multiple-Company Multiple-Instance

Advantages

Full isolation on the operating system and database levels

Each customer has their own virtual machine

Lowest resource consumption

Easiest to upgrade and manage

Low resource consumption

Easy upgrade of Microsoft Dynamics NAV

Full isolation on the database level

Disadvantages

No shared resources

More expensive to set up and maintain

No database isolation

No middle tier (Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server) isolation

Single-point-of-failure for multiple customers

Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server consumes memory whether the customer is connected

Recommended usage

When each virtual machine requires LOB software or configuration

When users read data only. In this case, no writing and process-isolation is required because data is shared between companies

When low resource consumption and full isolation are required, but you want to maintain process-level control of customers

Memory used (approximate)

Operating system - 400 MB

Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server - 200 MB

User - 20 MB

Operating system - 400 MB

Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server - 200 MB

User - 20 MB

Operating system - 400 MB

Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server - 200 MB

User - 20 MB

Shared memory

None

Operating system, Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server

Operating system

How to Scale the Network Topology

To add the network topology, you use can use Microsoft Dynamics NAV Development Environment or Microsoft Dynamics NAV PowerShell cmdlets to add Microsoft Dynamics NAV web server instances, Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server instances, Microsoft Dynamics NAV databases, and companies. For security, we recommend that you establish a remote desktop connection to the virtual machines.

See Also