Dealing with "DevToolsService" Upgrade Failures in D365FO: A Practical Guide

Hello there, 

Upgrading a Cloud-Hosted Environment (CHE) in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations is usually a "set it and forget it" task. But occasionally, the LCS deployment hits a wall at the DevToolsService step, leaving you with a failed update and a Visual Studio instance that feels a bit broken.

If you’ve seen the error Update script for service model: DevToolsService on machine..., you aren’t alone. Here is the simple, direct way to fix it and why it happens.

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The Issue: Why Automation Fails

The LCS deployment uses a PowerShell script called AutoUpdateDevToolsService.ps1 to automatically find your Visual Studio installation and update the D365 extension.

Why it misses:

• Version Mismatch: If you’ve upgraded to Visual Studio 2022 on an older VM, the script sometimes looks for the VS2019 path and panics when it can't find it.

• Folder Permissions/Missing Links: Sometimes the automation simply fails to resolve the path to the existing extension, causing the whole deployment to "fail" even if the AOS and Database steps are fine.

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The Solution: The "Manual Touch"

When automation fails, the most reliable fix is to handle the extension installation yourself. This approach ensures the tools are registered correctly in your specific version of Visual Studio.

1. Locate the Package

Navigate to the Service Volume (usually the K: drive on cloud VMs).

Path: K:\DeployablePackages\

Sort the folders by Date Modified and open the most recent folder—this is the update package currently being applied.

2. Find the Scripts

Inside that package folder, go to:

DevToolsService\Scripts

3. Install the Extensions Manually

In this folder, you will find one or more .vsix files. These are the Visual Studio extension installers. You should see:

• The Main Installer: Usually named Microsoft.Dynamics.Framework.Tools.Installer.vsix (look for the version that matches your VS, e.g., .17.0 for VS2022).

• The Internal Tools: Microsoft.Dynamics.Framework.Tools.InternalDevTools.vsix.

Action: Close all Visual Studio instances and double-click these files to run them. If prompted, select the version of Visual Studio you are currently using.

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Final Step: Resume the Upgrade

Once you’ve manually installed the tools, the "heavy lifting" for that step is done.

1. Go back to Lifecycle Services (LCS).

2. Click Resume on the failed deployment.

3. The system will re-check the environment, see that the tools are present, and move on to the next steps (like Database Synchronization).

Summary

Don't let a "DevToolsService" error ruin your day. If the automation can't find Visual Studio, just walk into the K: drive, find the latest deployable package, and run the installers manually. It’s a 5-minute fix for a frustrating problem.

Cheers!