Dynamics 365 Commerce Scale Unit CSU Core

July 18, 2023

Dynamics 365 Commerce: CSU Core and Commerce SDK – Revolutionizing the Platform 

Dynamics 365 Commerce, Microsoft’s powerful commerce platform, has introduced new features and enhancements that are transforming how the platform is used.  

The introduction of CSU Core and Commerce SDK brings improved efficiency, performance, and flexibility to the platform, benefiting customers and partners alike. This blog post will explore these new advancements and highlight the key topics surrounding CSU Core. 

CSU Core: The Next Generation Commerce Scale Unit 

CSU Core is a technology update over the legacy CSU, built on the .NET Framework. While both platforms serve as hosts for the headless commerce engine in Dynamics 365 Commerce, CSU Core offers greater efficiency and performance. This is achieved by leveraging ASP.NET Core and .NET Core, which are cross-platform and high-performance frameworks.  

CSU Core utilizes the latest version of .NET Core, .NET 6, which brings significant improvements in performance, scalability, and reliability. Key benefits include faster web applications, smarter code optimization, better support for modern web standards, and lower memory usage. 

Commerce SDK: Extending and Customizing Dynamics 365 Commerce 

Commerce SDK is a software development kit that enables the extension and customization of Dynamics 365 Commerce functionality. It includes code, code samples, templates, and tools for various components, such as the Store Commerce app, Commerce Runtime, Headless Commerce APIs, and Hardware Station.  

It’s important to note that extensions built using the Retail SDK and the legacy .NET Framework are not compatible with CSU Core. Therefore, to leverage CSU Core, extensions need to be migrated to the Commerce SDK. Additionally, extensions must be developed using .NET Standard 2.0 to ensure compatibility and portability across different platforms and devices. 

Legacy CSU: Support and Compatibility 

The legacy CSU is the original platform for hosting the headless commerce engine in Dynamics 365 Commerce. It currently serves existing retailers who haven’t migrated to CSU Core.  

While the legacy CSU provides similar functionality to CSU Core, it has lower API performance due to running on .NET Framework. Extensions built with the Retail SDK and .NET Framework are compatible with the legacy CSU. 

Transitioning to CSU Core 

To take advantage of the enhanced capabilities offered by CSU Core, existing Dynamics 365 Commerce customers need to start to think about a migration plan. Here are some resources to consider in this transition: 

To ensure compatibility with CSU Core, Microsoft also provides a health check feature. Use this URL to check your retail domain: https://<MyRetailServerURL>/healthcheck?testname=extensions.  

The test results will indicate which extensions are compatible and which are not. The health check is a vital step before deploying the extension package to CSU Core. The final step involves creating a support ticket and confirming the extensions are using .NET standards and the health check has passed. This is valid for both sandbox and prod environments. Once complete, the CSU will then be changed to CSU Core.  

Overall, this is a huge technical performance upgrade to your D365 Commerce web site and user experience. For further information contact us or read more about this from one of Microsoft’s solution architects here: Commerce Scale Unit (CSU) Core (linkedin.com). 

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Posted in Dynamics 365/CRM, Retail & Commerce