Once Data migration has been completed in an implementation, it is a good idea to recommend to clients that they regularly run Data Consistency Checks on the system. Data Consistency Checks (DCCs) are checks run in the Microsoft Dynamics AX system to ensure that data is consistent across different relations. DCCs run through tables and transactions and cross-references data. Once completed, an infolog will appear with possible corruptions of data. These can be run out of business hours and checked regularly.
So why run Data Consistency Checks? If run regularly, they can prevent data from becoming corrupt over time from human and system error. DCCs may pick up warnings that don’t trip system errors and infologs. These could be underlying problems that a user may not notice are occurring. With time, these data discrepancies can severely jeopardize the validity and efficiency of an organizations database.
Standard AX comes with general Data Consistency Checks out of the box, but in an implementation, rules can be developed and added to the DCCs so that every time they are run, they check for the added rules. This also allows the opportunity to add ISV and custom data to DCCs so that the standard data isn’t the only data being checked for errors, and prevent false positives in the checks.
Obviously there are challenges when creating new and custom DCCs. Some customizations may be too complicated to create check rules for and may need to be checked manually. This custom data should be given strict security on who in the organization can edit the data. It should also take advantage of data requirements to ensure errors are difficult to commit.
Using Data Consistency Checks in addition to Data Migration tools, like Data Acceptance Testing, is a crucial step in setting up a successful implementation and a happy client.