Administration

Path: Business Central on-premises > Administration · tier official · system administration · narrative reviewed (checked by Opus)

Overview

This section is for administrators of on-premises Business Central. It starts with the two management tools: the Administration Shell (PowerShell cmdlets for server instances, web server instances, databases, users and extensions) and the Administration Center, a Microsoft Management Console snap-in for managing instances, tenants and remote servers. Subtopics cover each layer of the deployment: server instance settings, the web server (navsettings.json on IIS), the SQL database, user authentication, server monitoring, and database performance analysis. Own pages cover cross-cutting tasks: database authentication, data encryption keys, session timeout, and registering the app in Microsoft Entra ID. Integration pages cover the Excel add-in, Outlook add-ins, App Key Vaults and preparing Dynamics 365 Sales. The Excel, Outlook and Key Vault setups rely on Microsoft Entra ID registration and authentication. The Sales page covers creating the integration user and installing the integration solution. For orientation, use the management tools and the core configuration pages first, then the integration pages.

Key points

• The Administration Shell offers PowerShell cmdlets for server instances, web server instances, extensions, users and databases, and supports PowerShell 7. The page refers to version 28 (2026 release wave 1).
• The Administration Center is an MMC snap-in for creating server instances, managing tenants and connecting to remote servers.
• Database authentication sets up SQL Server authentication for single-tenant and multitenant deployments, including encryption key setup and encrypted connections.
• Data encryption uses the .NET Data Protection API. Each tenant supports one key, managed through export, import and delete.
• Session timeout is controlled by settings such as ClientServicesIdleClientTimeout, SessionTimeout, ClientServicesReconnectPeriod and ClientServicesKeepAliveInterval.
• Registering in Microsoft Entra ID (client secret, API permissions) enables Power BI, Universal Print and the Excel and Outlook add-ins.
• Outlook add-ins (Contact Insights, Document View) can be deployed by centralized, automated individual or manual deployment.
• Subtopics cover server and web server settings, SQL tuning, monitoring with performance counters and ETW, and slow query analysis with SqlLongRunningThreshold and Query Store.

Subtopics

• Configuring user authentication (5 pages)
• Configuring Business Central server (2 pages)
• Configuring Business Central web server (2 pages)
• Configuring Business Central database (6 pages)
• Monitoring Business Central server (10 pages)
• Analyzing database performance (3 pages)

More Learn pages

• Business Central Administration Shell: Read about the PowerShell cmdlets managing Business Central Server instances and extensions for on-premises deployments.
• Configure Business Central Database Authentication: This article describes how to configure SQL Server authentication between the Dynamics Business Central instance and a database.
• Configure Session Timeout: When you start a Business Central client, a connection is established, and a corresponding session is added to the Business Central Server.
• Encrypting Data in Dynamics 365 for Business Central: Learn about data encryption and how to use it to add security in Dynamics 365 Business Central.
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Administration Center Tool: Read about the MMC snap-in for creating and managing Business Central Server instances for on-premises deployments.
• Preparing for Dynamics 365 for Sales for Integration: Learn how to set up and configure Dynamics 365 Sales for integrating with Business Central.
• Register Business Central On-Premises in Microsoft Entra ID: Register Business Central on-premises in Microsoft Entra ID to integrate with online services like Power BI and Universal Print.
• Set up the add-ins for Outlook in Business Central on-premises: Learn how to configure your Business Central on-premises solution so that users can work with Business Central data in Outlook.
• Setting up App Key Vaults for Business Central on-premises: Describes how to set up App Key Vault with Business Central on-premises.
• Setting up the Excel Add-In for Editing Data: Learn about how to configure the Excel add-in so users can edit data in Excel and push back to Business Central.

Business Central pages and reports

The pages, reports and queries this hub’s Learn pages name (ms.search.form, API reference), joined to the code by exact object id (data/index/docs-objects.json); a page shows the table it runs on.

• Page 8700 “Table Information” · via Configuring Business Central database
• Page 8705 “Table Information Card” · captioned “Index Management” · via Configuring Business Central database
• Page 9521 “Database Missing Indexes” · via Configuring Business Central database

Source: Microsoft Learn (CC BY 4.0). Descriptions are Learn’s own.