Storage considerations with Dynamics365 Online
There are great offerings and capabilities that come with Microsoft Dynamics 365 which make it very easy for a lot of organisations to forget one very important aspect to consider within their Dynamics 365 installations, which is Storage.
I have observed many organisations are very busy, obsessed with customizations and understanding the application until they such a time they start to receive email notifications and alerts about low storage. Fortunately enough, when you run out of space, you can simply add more.
Why Monitor Your Organization’s Storage?
It is very important to monitor your storage to ensure there is enough space for growth and optimal performance.
How to Monitor the Amount of Storage Your Organization Is Using?
When you have used 80% of your total capacity, your Dynamics admin will receive email notifications and alerts on the service health page on the Office 365 admin center. To check your storage and how much you have used:
Go to Office 365 admin center and sign in, using Office 365 Global administrator credentials.
Click Admin centers then Dynamics 365.
Select the Service Health tab.
Increasing Your Storage
With Microsoft Dynamics 365, the default capacity is 10 GB and it is relatively easy to acquire additional storage. The storage limit increases at the rate of 5 GB per x 20 Dynamics 365 full licenses purchased. Therefore, when the volume of users within your organization increases, the free storage available also increases.
If the service health page indicates that your Dynamics 365 organization is running low on storage, the viable option is to purchase additional storage space or add more user licenses.
The other option is to reduce some of your current storage usage. Some of the ways you can achieve this include:
1. Deleting outdated records, such as cases and opportunity
If you have outdated records that you do not need anymore, you can delete them to free up space for your Dynamics 365 Online organization.
2. Removing unnecessary email and note attachments through advanced find and bulk deletion
Attachments consume a large amount of space and should be cleaned up regularly. When you delete these emails and notes with attachments, the data will no longer be on Dynamics 365. However, emails saved on Microsoft Outlook will still be accessible from there.
3. Deleting bulk email and workflow instances, using a bulk deletion job
Clean up storage space for your Dynamics 365 organization by deleting emails and workflow instances that are outdated with bulk record deletion.
4. Evaluating and deleting suspended workflows
On many Occasions l have noticed workflows are suspended because certain conditions are not met. These processes will continue to read the status “waiting” and it is better to delete them to free up space.
5. Removing bulk duplicate detection jobs and associated copies of duplicate records
When a duplicate detection job runs, a copy of each duplicate record is stored in the database as part of the duplicate detection job. All duplicate records will be stored in the database under that instance of that duplicate job until the duplicates are merged or deleted or until the instance of that duplicate detection job is deleted.
6. Deleting bulk import instances using a bulk deletion job
Every time you perform a bulk import, there is a system job associated with that import. The system job details show which records were imported successfully and which records failed.
7. Deleting bulk deletion job instances using a bulk deletion job
Another important way to free up space is through bulk deletion of completed failed system Jobs and workflow jobs from the system. They can be chunks of data that require an unnecessarily huge number of records.
8. Deleting audit logs
Many Organisations turn on auditing for the entire Dynamics365 instance without thinking of the effect of audit logs. If auditing is turned on for too many Dynamics365 entities, the size of the audit logs quickly become very large. If you choose to use auditing, plan to audit only the most relevant entities and keep track of the audit logs.
9. Integrating Dynamics 365 with SharePoint
(This will move attachments and files from Dynamics 365 to SharePoint). Kindly note that file security and accessibility should be considered before choosing this approach.
How to add additional storage to Dynamics 365 (Online)
Go to the Office 365 admin center and sign in, using Office 365 global administrator credentials.
Click Billing then Purchase Services.
Scroll down to the Add-on subscriptions section and mouse over the Dynamics 365 – Additional Database Storage tile.
Click Buy now, and then proceed through the order process.
I have observed many organisations are very busy, obsessed with customizations and understanding the application until they such a time they start to receive email notifications and alerts about low storage. Fortunately enough, when you run out of space, you can simply add more.
Why Monitor Your Organization’s Storage?
It is very important to monitor your storage to ensure there is enough space for growth and optimal performance.
How to Monitor the Amount of Storage Your Organization Is Using?
When you have used 80% of your total capacity, your Dynamics admin will receive email notifications and alerts on the service health page on the Office 365 admin center. To check your storage and how much you have used:
Go to Office 365 admin center and sign in, using Office 365 Global administrator credentials.
Click Admin centers then Dynamics 365.
Select the Service Health tab.
Increasing Your Storage
With Microsoft Dynamics 365, the default capacity is 10 GB and it is relatively easy to acquire additional storage. The storage limit increases at the rate of 5 GB per x 20 Dynamics 365 full licenses purchased. Therefore, when the volume of users within your organization increases, the free storage available also increases.
If the service health page indicates that your Dynamics 365 organization is running low on storage, the viable option is to purchase additional storage space or add more user licenses.
The other option is to reduce some of your current storage usage. Some of the ways you can achieve this include:
1. Deleting outdated records, such as cases and opportunity
If you have outdated records that you do not need anymore, you can delete them to free up space for your Dynamics 365 Online organization.
2. Removing unnecessary email and note attachments through advanced find and bulk deletion
Attachments consume a large amount of space and should be cleaned up regularly. When you delete these emails and notes with attachments, the data will no longer be on Dynamics 365. However, emails saved on Microsoft Outlook will still be accessible from there.
3. Deleting bulk email and workflow instances, using a bulk deletion job
Clean up storage space for your Dynamics 365 organization by deleting emails and workflow instances that are outdated with bulk record deletion.
4. Evaluating and deleting suspended workflows
On many Occasions l have noticed workflows are suspended because certain conditions are not met. These processes will continue to read the status “waiting” and it is better to delete them to free up space.
5. Removing bulk duplicate detection jobs and associated copies of duplicate records
When a duplicate detection job runs, a copy of each duplicate record is stored in the database as part of the duplicate detection job. All duplicate records will be stored in the database under that instance of that duplicate job until the duplicates are merged or deleted or until the instance of that duplicate detection job is deleted.
6. Deleting bulk import instances using a bulk deletion job
Every time you perform a bulk import, there is a system job associated with that import. The system job details show which records were imported successfully and which records failed.
7. Deleting bulk deletion job instances using a bulk deletion job
Another important way to free up space is through bulk deletion of completed failed system Jobs and workflow jobs from the system. They can be chunks of data that require an unnecessarily huge number of records.
8. Deleting audit logs
Many Organisations turn on auditing for the entire Dynamics365 instance without thinking of the effect of audit logs. If auditing is turned on for too many Dynamics365 entities, the size of the audit logs quickly become very large. If you choose to use auditing, plan to audit only the most relevant entities and keep track of the audit logs.
9. Integrating Dynamics 365 with SharePoint
(This will move attachments and files from Dynamics 365 to SharePoint). Kindly note that file security and accessibility should be considered before choosing this approach.
How to add additional storage to Dynamics 365 (Online)
Go to the Office 365 admin center and sign in, using Office 365 global administrator credentials.
Click Billing then Purchase Services.
Scroll down to the Add-on subscriptions section and mouse over the Dynamics 365 – Additional Database Storage tile.
Click Buy now, and then proceed through the order process.
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