What's new: Manage PTEs in the Admin Center

0:06 Hello everyone and welcome to this session on what's new in app management for business central. My name is Yostast and today I'm presenting with my colleague. >> Hello everyone, I'm Ricardo. >> Uh today we'll cover three new features for app management and we'll jump right in with our headline feature of PTE management in the admin center. So with this release wave, we're adding the upload, install, and update operations to PTE management in the admin center, which effectively brings full life cycle management for PTEES uh to the same place in the admin center. Uh to see how it works, let's jump into a demo right away with Ricardo. Great. So let me guys guide you through what has changed in the admin center with regards to PT management.

0:48 So I have four environments here and I'm going to go through some different scenarios in order to show you all the new things and and cool features that have been introduced in the admin center. So let's start from this first demo environment. I want to show you how you can install a now from the admin center. So we open the apps page which lists all the currently installed apps on this environment. Now we have this install extension button here at the top. So from here you can trigger the installation of a per tenant extension. So I'm just going to choose the app file that I want to install.

1:28 It's this version 1.0 of this app. And you can also choose a different deployment schedule for the installation. So previously when you were installing the PTEs from within the product you could only install them um with an immediate deployment schedule while right now we expose more possibilities with regards to this. So you can not only install uh right now but also schedule the installation for a later moment. We're going to go into more detail about this but for now let's just keep the deployment schedule to immediate.

2:02 I want the installation to actually kick in right away. You can also choose a different sync mode for the app if that applies. We just leave it to the default add mode. Here we accept the terms and kick off the installation just by clicking on schedule install. Yes. Great. So now the extension installation is in progress as the message says and this is going to continue happening in the background. We can always check the operations page for the updates and I'm going to show you this also in a moment where you have a comprehensive overview of all the operations that are happening on the environment.

2:39 So let's keep this happening in the background. Meanwhile, we're going to switch back to another environment. So now we're going to go into the second environment here because we have already installed exactly the same v.0 zero version of that PT. We can actually filter on a different view here. Uh this was not previously possible. Now we can get different overviews of the different apps installed on the environment.

3:09 So if I just want to look into the per tenant extensions, I go here and there's my PT that I have previously installed with version 1.0. So if I want to schedule an update to this PT, then I can just click here into manage updates. This will lead me to the application specific details of this PTE and I can still say install extension. I choose a different version of this PT. I want to install an update. So I'm going to select the version 1.1. Select this one. And I want to trigger it again with immediate schedule.

3:49 Uh or you can choose a different one. That's up to you. Still keep the same sync mode. accepting the terms and I schedule the installation. So this will again trigger the installation of the PTE but this time it's going to actually be an update of the PT. We're going to inspect the progress in a moment to verify that the update has actually succeeded. Back to the list of environments, we're going to proceed with showing yet another possibility with the regards to PT management. So if we drill into the demo 3 environment and again moving to the list of apps this time I still have version 1.0 already installed of my PTE

4:33 but I want to schedule future updates for this PTE so that they land actually on the next minor version and the next major version potentially. So this is possible with the install per tenant extension functionality. Again I want to choose future versions of my PTE to be installed. I pick version 1.1 but this time I want to schedule this so that it happens with the next minor update. So I select just next minor update again. Accept the terms and schedule the installation. And it is possible to have multiple schedules at the same time for the same PTE.

5:14 So that I install version I want version 1.1 to be installed with the next minor update but I can at the same time have version 2.0 of this app um scheduled to be installed with the next major update. So I can just choose yet another version of the same PT version 2.0. Here it is. This time we choose deployment schedule next major update again sync mode app. I accept the terms and schedule the installation. So where can I actually inspect that this has been captured successfully. Now if I drill into the application details page here.

5:53 This is where I'm going to see that my future schedules have been captured. Version 1.1 for the next minor update and version 2.0 zero for the next major update. Drilling down here on the status will show me the operation details with all that all the details that are relevant for this schedule. You can always inspect this at the same time from the operations page. Same thing for the 2.0 next major update schedule. So once we have scheduled a PT to be to be installed in a future moment, for example, in the next update window, I always have the possibility to cancel this uh future installation.

6:37 Still from the same app details page, we have the cancel schedule install. So I'm just going to click here, confirm the prompt. I make sure that this is the intended action and just click yes. This will make sure this PT will not actually be installed in the next update biming. So everything is reverted as if I didn't do anything. Great. So everything that I've shown until now is always audited on this environment operations page. Everything that is performed with regards to PT installation and update and future scheduling is always captured here. Um as we can see we are currently looking into the demo 3 environment.

7:17 So we have the first app installation currently already completed because that's when we installed version 1.0 with schedule kind immediate. So this app has already been installed and we further uh scheduled installation of the update for this app both with the next minor update. We can see target app version is 1.1. Similarly, the later app installation operation is for schedule next major update. This time targeting app version 2.0.

7:53 So these two operations are going to be reconciled to a completed state when the next minor update starts and when the next major update starts. Thank you very much for your attention. So this concludes our demo about PT management in the admin center. So back to use. >> Yes, thank you Ricardo. Um as you start using this feature, there's a few things that are good to know. Uh so first of all, when you're installing new PTE, so PTEs that are new for the environment that you're installing it on, um it's important to know that the only two ways to install it is to install the PTE immediately or during the update window.

8:29 So for new PTE, it is not possible to target the next minor or next major update. On the contrary, for updates to uh PTE that are already installed on the environment, you can target the next minor or major update for the environment. With the introduction of full PTE life cycle management in the admin center, we've also announced that PTE management in the extension management pages in an environment and in the automation API uh will be deprecated as of version 30.0 which is scheduled to be released in April 2027.

8:59 Um so we encourage everyone that has been using the old experience to migrate to PTE management in the admin center in the next half year or so. And as you migrate uh we also recommend that you avoid using both experiences uh simultaneously in the same environment. This is because um PTE versions that are scheduled to be installed through either experience are only visible in the experience uh through which they have been scheduled until the PT has actually been installed. So if you uh schedule a PT to be updated with the next minor update through the admin center, it will not be visible in the extension manage pages uh until the update has actually succeeded.

9:40 And then finally for partners and and customers that are automating their extension management with our uh admin center APIs, I'm happy to share that um endpoints for all the operations that Ricardo has just showed in his demo uh are available in the API and that for partners using S2S apps um to orchestrate this across all of their customer environments uh the permission story has gotten a little bit easier. So these S2S apps do not require in environment registration and permission sets uh to upload and install PTEES on a customer environment.

10:12 Um moving on to the second feature in app management for business central. We have introduced the ability for customers to install hot fixes to Microsoft apps installed on their environments early. Um with the incredibly diverse uh customer set of Business Central spending many localizations industries uh with many customizations and extensions installed um it is possible for issues in Microsoft apps to slip through to customer environments and not be caught by our own internal testing and gates. Um whenever this happens we are quick to prepare a hot fix to make sure the issue gets addressed in customer environments.

10:45 And this fix gets rolled out using safe deployment, meaning that it doesn't reach every customer at the same time uh to make sure that this uh fix doesn't introduce new issues. In the past, customers that are due to receive a particular fix for an issue that they're affected by uh may have been waiting uh for this fix for several days if they're uh towards the end of our safe deployment cycle. uh for those customers, we're now introducing the ability uh for them to take a particular fix and install it on their environment immediately so that they don't have to wait for a safe deployment.

11:16 Um to install a fix to a Microsoft app, you do the same thing as you would for any other app update. You go into the app details page, in this case base application, you can see a hot fix version has been prepared. And uh just like any other updates, you can schedule the update from the admin center and choose it to run immediately or during the next update window for the environment. As you do this, there are a few things that are good to know. If you're affected by an issue in your environment that is caused by a Microsoft app, um make sure you know what the issue is and where the fix for the issue is as well. For this, you can use the known issues functionality in the Power Platform admin center.

11:53 Whenever we have issues that affect multiple customers in our applications, we publish the details there and as the build that contains the fix is ready, we'll update these known issues with the particular build number that includes the fix. Um, with this build number, you can now track in the admin center once that version is available to your environment and install it immediately. Also, if you have opened a support request for the issue that you're affected by, the support agent handling your support request will be able to provide you with the version number that includes the fix. And finally, if you're discussing a particular issue on our business central viva engage network, uh the engineers or product owners working on this fix will also be able to provide you particular build number um to update to from the admin center.

12:36 Secondly, it is important to point out that uh this is a very powerful functionality for customers that are affected by a particular fix. But it also uh bypasses our safe deployment, which is there for a reason. Uh so I would recommend that you only install uh hotfix versions to Microsoft apps when you know a particular version will fix an issue that you're affected by. um for environments that don't choose to to install hotspix versions from the admin center, safe deployment remains in place and the fix will reach your environment um automatically as part of our safe deployment processes.

13:11 And then finally, just like updating any other app, uh updating Microsoft apps from the admin center may affect users that are using the environment. So if a fix needs to be installed during business hours or during hours that users are working in these environments, make sure you coordinate with these users so that they're aware um that a fix is being installed that might affect their workflows. Or alternatively, if you can wait until the environments update window for this fix to be installed. And then finally, we have a small new feature in app management in this release wave which makes sure that dev extensions remain installed on your sandbox environments.

13:45 Until this release wave, uh, dev extensions by design would get uninstalled during environment life cycle operations, which in some cases led to these extensions being removed from an environment unexpectedly for developers, meaning that they would have to go and republish uh their work. Now, with this release wave, we've made changes to treat dev extensions more like PTE, meaning that they will not get uninstalled uh during environment updates or other life cycle operations unless they're incompatible with the changes that are being made to the environment. for example, an update. Um, this should lead to less unexpected uninstalls and uh should make it easier for developers to uh continue their work.

14:24 >> And that concludes our session on app management for Business Central in 2026 release wave 2. Thank you for watching. >> Thank you very much.