| Question |
Response |
Area |
| Are there any changes to our high availability story in BTS 2006? |
In BizTalk Server 2006, the messaging service is clusterable now. For receive adapters, like MSMQ, FTP and POP3, using a clustered messaging service will achieve HA. All send adapters can also benefit from this (in addition to the existing multi-host approach in BizTalk 2004). There is documentation planned for Beta-2 which will provide prescriptive guidance on architecting highly available solutions and how to easily enable them with some of the new features in the Administration Console. |
Adapters |
| Is the VS 2005 RC0 supported on BTS 2006 Beta-1? |
No, only the VS 2005 Beta 2 is supported on our Beta-1, which can be downloaded from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=47892. |
Installation/Configuration |
| Is the latest September CTP of SQL 2005 supported on BTS 2006 Beta-1? |
No, only the June CTP is compatible. You can download this from following site by selecting the "Previous CTP (June)" download option: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/2005/productinfo/ctp.mspx |
Installation/Configuration |
| During installation, is it possible to install BizTalk minus the Developer Tools? |
Yes, and in this case Visual Studio will not be required on the runtime machine, only the .NET Framework. |
Installation/Configuration |
| Is it possible to perform an Admin only install without having to install the BTS runtime or BTS dev tools? |
Yes, this is also supported. The Admin MMC snap-in will be installed and remote administration of a BizTalk group(s) can be performed. See the documentation for the installation pre-requisites and security requirements for such administration. |
Installation/Configuration |
| What is the relationship between BizTalk Server 2006 and .NET 2.0 (and also Visual Studio 2005)? How will 1.1 applications and artifacts work with BTS 2006? |
BTS 2006 is taking a hard dependency on Whidbey -- Visual Studio 2005 and the .NET Framework 2.0. Our platform now sits on top of this stack and so will the new BizTalk solutions which are created with 2006.
This means that BTS assemblies (orchestrations, maps, pipelines, pipeline components, adapters, ...) will now be run within the 2.0 CLR. By extension, this means that so will any libraries referenced directly from, say, orchestration. If these external assemblies are compiled in 2.0 then you have no compat worries here. If they were compiled in 1.1, then you should consult the list of known compatibility issues between 1.1 and 2.0 published by the Whidbey team (see
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnnetdep/html/netfxcompat.asp). If this library happens to use a method which was changed or deprecated in 2.0, then rewriting, recompiling, and redeploying will be required.
The same goes for BTS assemblies themselves. We are hoping to achieve in-place upgrades of existing BTS 2004 solutions to BTS 2006 without necessitating recompilation and redeployment. In this upgrade case, we will attempt to run the compiled 1.1 BizTalk assemblies in the 2.0 CLR. This will work fine except in cases when user code uses any methods which have been changed or deprecated between 1.1 and 2.0. Areas of custom coding are most likely culprits -- custom pipeline components, custom adapters, and custom functoids. These may have to be rewritten, recompiled, and redeployed if 2.0 compat issues are encountered.
Does this mean that some other custom server application (MyWebApp.exe) written in 1.1 cannot be run on the same box as BizTalk? No, we can tolerate 1.1 externally side-by-side with 2.0. The whole machine need not be dedicated to .NET 2.0.
|
Platform |
| Will BTS 2004 adapters need to be rewritten for BTS 2006? |
The quick answer is you can continue to use existing 2004 adapters written on the old base classes provided that they do not encounter any .NET 2.0 compatibility issues.
As BTS 2006 is taking a hard dependency on Whidbey, all of your BTS artifacts (including adapters) will now be run within the 2.0 CLR. If your custom adapter was compiled in 1.1 (on BTS 2004), then you should consult the list of known compatibility issues between 1.1 and 2.0 published by the Whidbey team (see
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnnetdep/html/netfxcompat.asp). If it happens to use a method which was changed or removed in 2.0, then rewriting and recompiling will be required. However, if you have no compatibility issues, these should continue to work.
There are new adapter framework base classes, scheduled to be made available for Beta-2, which users may want to take advantage of. This would obviously require minor rewriting though, although the changes are mostly semantic in nature.
Regarding adapters from third party vendors, please contact each individually to find out what their release plans are. |
Upgrade |
| What are my options for upgrading from BTS 2004 to BTS 2006? |
Your first option is to do an in-place upgrade, taking down an already configured BTS 2004 group and upgrading it “in-place” to BTS 2006, which maintains all of the configuration settings, preserves the BizTalk related data, and most importantly retains the state of the running service instances. There will be explicit guidance on this option which should be followed closely. If your production environment contains multiple processing nodes or you plan on upgrading to SQL 2005 from SQL 2000 you should also pay close attention to the documentation.
Your second option is to move the already compiled 2004 artifacts onto a clean install and configuration of a BTS 2006 machine(s). This will allow you to take advantage of all of the new administrative and management features debuting in BTS 2006 without having to recompile.
Your third option is to take your existing BTS source code artifacts, copy them over to a dev environment in BTS 2006 and redevelop them to take advantage of all of the new 2006 features, recompiling them on .NET 2.0 from VS 2005.
Please consult the previous few questions regarding .NET 2.0 compatibility concerns. If your solution encounters any of these incompatibilities, you will have to exercise the latter option. |
Upgrade |
| Where can I get more information about the benefits of SQL 2005? |
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/2005/default.asp |
Yukon |
| Can I take BTS 2006 Beta-1, Beta-2, or RC builds into production? |
Use of pre-release software for production use is strictly prohibited by the Beta End User License Agreement. However, selected participants in the Microsoft Technology Adoption Programs (TAP) can receive special permission for production usage. |
Other |
| How can I find out more about BTS 2006? |
You can join the Beta program, download and evaluate the Beta drops, ask questions and receive answers on the private newsgroup, and join our webcast series to inquire more. For more information, click here. |
Other |
