CSD Customer Experience Team's Blog

SQL and SOAP Adapter Whitepapers Published

Two new whitepapers have recently been authored and will be posted to MSDN shortly.  These are full of key information on the primary issues customers may face when using the SQL and SOAP adapters with BizTalk Server.

They can be found at: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/biztalk/aa937652.aspx.

Best Practices for the SQL Adapter

Sample Design Patterns for Consuming and Exposing Web Services from an Orchestration

Kudos to our fantastic Support Engineers who continue to publish relevant content back to our customer base!

Enjoy,
- Doug

BizTalk Server 2004 SP2 Released

BizTalk Server 2004 Service Pack 2 is now released to web.  All BizTalk Server 2004 customers are encouraged to read the release notes carefully and install the service pack as soon as possible. 

English:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D20B4510-E5A6-4D7B-87A1-4BD52BDD57B8&displaylang=en

Chinese (Simplified):
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D20B4510-E5A6-4D7B-87A1-4BD52BDD57B8&displaylang=zh-cn

Chinese (Traditional):
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D20B4510-E5A6-4D7B-87A1-4BD52BDD57B8&displaylang=zh-tw

French:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D20B4510-E5A6-4D7B-87A1-4BD52BDD57B8&displaylang=fr

German:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D20B4510-E5A6-4D7B-87A1-4BD52BDD57B8&displaylang=de

Italian:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D20B4510-E5A6-4D7B-87A1-4BD52BDD57B8&displaylang=it

Japanese:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D20B4510-E5A6-4D7B-87A1-4BD52BDD57B8&displaylang=ja

Korean:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D20B4510-E5A6-4D7B-87A1-4BD52BDD57B8&displaylang=ko

Spanish:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D20B4510-E5A6-4D7B-87A1-4BD52BDD57B8&displaylang=es

A fix list can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924330/en-us

BizTalk Server 2006: Performance Month

BizTalk's September theme on TechNet is performance and there have been several new whitepapers created and published as part of this theme.  BizTalk Server 2006: Managing a Successful Performance Lab was a collaborative effort between the BizTalk TAP team, Product Team, Ranger Team, and MCS, and an attempt to establish a canonical process around managing a performance lab that can assist the field, partners, and end customers tackling such an engagement.  Inevitably, we hope this will lead to more successful implementations of BizTalk in the future:

Part of every application’s pre-production testing should include performance and stress testing.  You should know the limits of your platform and your applications with certainty prior to ever receiving or sending a live message in production use.

Performance and stress testing can also intersect with capacity planning.  Understanding upfront what type of hardware you’ll require and how much will be critical for your business.  Also, if your company has very strict requirements for volume or latency with constraints on hardware, proving that the system can meet the required goals with expected hardware will be key.

This document exists to provide some general guidance around approaching performance labs with BizTalk Server 2006.  For specifics, we have made reference to correlated documents that already exist on the web or in the product documentation for additional assistance.

Another interesting read is the BizTalk Server 2006 Comparative Adapter Study whitepaper which describes the results of a comparative adapter study—a set of tests that compared each adapter that ships with Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 against its BizTalk Server 2004 SP1 counterpart under identical conditions.

Happy reading!

BTS 2006: Transactional Adapter Whitepaper Published

A new BizTalk Server 2006 whitepaper has been posted on the subject of developing a transactional BizTalk Adapter using the Microsoft Base Adapter Classes.

You can find the paper here:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/7/6/376a6f6c-8c97-4ab5-9d5a-416c76793fbb/Transact_Adapter.doc

New BPM Site Launched

A new Business Process Management (BPM) site was recently launched by Microsoft at www.microsoft.com/bpm.

Visit this site to learn how integrated, easy to use business process management solutions from Microsoft make it possible for organizations of all sizes to increase sales, reduce costs, optimize existing customer and supplier relationships, and recognize and react quickly to changing conditions to gain a real business advantage.

BizTalk Server 2006: New Scripts/Utilities Posted

Some new scripts and utilities have been posted to the BizTalk Server 2006 Scripts site. 

One is a command-line utility (provided with code) to purge local and remote MSMQ queues and send sample test messages to these queues.  This could be very helpful when conducting performance lab engagements, resetting queues in between runs.

Another is a diagnostic tool that can help troubleshoot ESSO setup problems.

Enjoy,
- Doug

The sample scripts and utilities are not supported under any Microsoft standard support program or service. The sample scripts and utilities are provided AS IS without warranty of any kind. Microsoft further disclaims all implied warranties including, without limitation, any implied warranties of merchantability or of fitness for a particular purpose. The entire risk arising out of the use or performance of the sample scripts, utilities, and documentation remains with you. In no event shall Microsoft, its authors, or anyone else involved in the creation, production, or delivery of the scripts be liable for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of business information, or other pecuniary loss) arising out of the use of or inability to use the sample scripts or documentation, even if Microsoft has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

BizTalk Server 2006: New Healthcare Video Published

A new BizTalk Server 2006 customer evidence video has been produced and published for Oncology Hematology Associates of Southwest Indiana.

See how OCA raised revenue by 15 to 20 percent by using Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 and BizTalk Accelerator for HL7 to exchange patient data in real time between the practice management software, the billing system, an internal lab facility, and an external lab vendor with only two developers.

Video | Case Study | Solution Brief

For more BizTalk Server 2006 customer evidence, see:

http://blogs.msdn.com/CSDCustomerExperience/archive/2006/03/27/562292.aspx

Accepting Nominations for BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Technolgy Adoption Program (TAP)

BizTalk Server 2006 R2 will add several new features to the BizTalk product such as native EDI B2B services and RFID Framework plus it will include enhancements to improve compatibility with Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 products.

Summary of new features include:

·         Microsoft’s B2B EDI/HIPAA Solution

·         Microsoft’s RFID Framework

·         BizTalk Adapter for Windows Communication Foundation (formerly called Indigo)

·         .Net Adapter Framework

·         .Net Line-of-Business (LOB) Adapters (formerly BizTalk LOB Adapters)

·         BizTalk Dev Environment Compatibility with Windows Vista

·         BizTalk WSS Sharepoint Adapter Compatibility with MS Office 2007

BizTalk Server 2006 R2 TAP nominations are open through July 31, 2006 and space is limited.  This program is filling up quickly so if you would like to participate we would encourage to submit a Nomination form now.  Nomination forms and additional program details are available from BizTalk Server 2006 R2 TAP website.

To access this website please follow these instructions:

1. Go to http://connect.microsoft.com
2. Sign in using a valid passport account
3. Select  Available Connections
4. Look for  BizTalk Server 2006 R2 and select the Apply link on the right hand site
5. Note: The BizTalk Server 2006 R2 program will not appear unless you are signed in with a valid passport account.
6. Select I Agree
7. Complete the Registration form
8. Once logged on to the BTS 2006 R2 Site select Downloads
9. Select the BizTalk 2006 R2 TAP Nomination Form link

Please mail your questions to btsr2tap@microsoft.com

Best Regards and we look forward to hearing from you,

The BTS 2006 R2 TAP Team!

Understanding Application Deployment and Upgrade Whitepaper

Thanks to your input, we've created and published a new BizTalk Server 2006 whitepaper.   

This paper describes some key product enhancements of interest to Developers and IT Professionals which are included in Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006.  Of particular interest are improvements made to the application deployment and application upgrade experience via the platform’s application concept, the new BizTalk Server Administration Console, and developer redeployment enhancements made in Microsoft Visual Studio.

We hope you find this useful.
http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/3/b/53b9f43a-66e2-4b89-aca6-2577e71512f7/UnderstandBTSAppDepl.doc

Download more BizTalk Server 2006 whitepapers here.

BizTalk Server 2006: New MSIT Video

Microsoft IT's BizTalk Server implementation acts as the hub between internal and external business transactions at the company, from the production and manufacture of the Microsoft Xbox® video game system through the movement of more than US$20 billion in treasury funds each month. How were these mission-critical applications running on BizTalk Server 2002 and BizTalk Server 2004 migrated and upgraded to BizTalk Server 2006? And what were the benefits to upgrade? Read the technical white paper and watch the new video.

Technical White Paper | Video

For more customer evidence, see:

Microsoft Case Studies

BizTalk Server 2006 RTM and BizTalk Customer Evidence

More helpful links for World Cup fans

BizTalk 2006 R2 is announced!

You can find more information here: 

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060606/sftu068.html?.v=51

For User Group fans at TechEd

For World Cup fans out there!

BizTalk Server 2006 Best Practices Analyzer has shipped!

BizTalk Server 2006 Best Practices Analyzer is used to automatically examine a BizTalk Server 2006 deployment and generate a list of issues pertaining to best practices standards for BizTalk Server deployments. The primary use of this tool is to examine BizTalk Server production and staging environments, although it will still be useful on Dev machines.

The Best Practices Analyzer performs configuration-level verification by reading and reporting only. The Best Practices Analyzer gathers data from different information sources, such as Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) classes, SQL Server databases, and registry entries. The Best Practices Analyzer uses the data to evaluate the deployment configuration.

Downloads (live on 6/2):

• Live Download Center URL: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=DDA047E3-408E-48BA-83F9-F397226CD6D4&displaylang=en
• Technet Page: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/biztalk/downloads/bpa.mspx