The official System Requirements Guides for Dynamics SL does not contain any network requirements resulting in some implementers forgetting to ask or assuming that network structure doesn’t matter.
Facts to be aware of:
- Processing in Dynamics SL passes a high volume of network traffic between the Dynamics SL clients and the server. Therefore, Dynamics SL is supported only when the SL file server, SL clients and the SQL server hosting the SL databases are on the same Local Area Network (LAN).
- Wide Area Networks (WAN), Virtual Private Networks (VPN), or any other variants are not supported and at minimum can cause poor performance and at worse will generate errors in Dynamics SL.
- As faster internet speeds become more cost-effective, it gets more tempting to put space between the Dynamics SL client and servers or to put the SQL server in a data center. A 1 Gbps network interface card usually won’t not achieve maximum speed over a lossy WAN or VPN with a likely maximum of 50-200 Mbps.
- Additionally, accessing Dynamics SL using wireless connections is not supported. Ethernet connections are more secure and offer faster data throughput that the SL clients require for optimal performance.
- Accessing Dynamics SL using Remote Desktop Services is the only supported configuration in WAN or Cloud scenarios.