CSD Customer Experience Team's Blog : BizTalk Server

SQL and SOAP Adapter Whitepapers Published

BPIDCustomerResponseTeam — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 20:28:00 GMT

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

Doug Girard — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 20:19:00 GMT

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

Doug Girard — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 21:27:00 GMT

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

Doug Girard — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 21:27:00 GMT

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

BizTalk Server 2006: New Scripts/Utilities Posted

Doug Girard — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 21:17:00 GMT

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

Doug Girard — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 00:49:00 GMT

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)

Mitch Stein — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 20:00:00 GMT

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:

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

Doug Girard — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 21:15:00 GMT

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

Doug Girard — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 21:02:00 GMT

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

Bindings File Format

Doug Girard — Fri, 26 May 2006 21:49:00 GMT

The BizTalk Server 2006 bindings file format is documented here, but the XSD description of the bindings file is not included in the build. If you are interested in having this XSD, you can produce it via the following command:

xsd.exe "C:\Program Files\Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006\Microsoft.BizTalk.Deployment.dll" /type:BindingInfo

The xsd.exe tool comes with .NET Framework SDK.

Tutorials Re-published

Doug Girard — Wed, 17 May 2006 19:48:00 GMT

A number of fixes and updates have been made to the BizTalk Server 2006 Tutorials, which you can now download here. You can read about other tutorial-related issues on Liza's Blog.

WSE 2.0 SP1 Adapter Released!

Doug Girard — Tue, 16 May 2006 21:53:00 GMT

Last week WSE 2.0 Service Pack 1 released to web, coinciding with BizTalk Server 2006's generally availability in the field. This adapter enables interoperability between BizTalk Server and other applications that require use of WS-Security, WS-SecurityPolicy, WS-SecureConversation, WS-Trust, WS-Policy protocols as implemented in WSE 2.0 protocol stack. This service pack, in particular, allows the WSE 2.0 adapter to work with BizTalk Server 2004 as well as BizTalk Server 2006.

More information on this release can be found on Microsoft.com:
http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk/evaluation/adapter/adapters/wse/default.mspx

BizTalk Server: Understanding Application Upgrade

BPIDCustomerResponseTeam — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 01:29:00 GMT

If you didn’t read Understanding Application Deployment, be sure to view the archive. This explains the new features in BizTalk Server 2006 which assist with Application Deployment.

Now that you understand how to get applications deployed and running in production, at some point they’ll probably need to be upgraded. Perhaps a partner’s schema will change so your schema and map will have to be changed accordingly. Or maybe the business will require a new auditing API to be called during one part of the business process’s execution. And for as good as our BizTalk developers are, there are always code defects in application code that will need to be fixed.

So how does BizTalk Server accommodate these upgrades? Well, there are a couple of different ways to upgrade your running applications, and as always, different points to consider.

Simple Upgrade

One scenario we’ll deem the “Simple Upgrade Scenario”. This scenario requires no downtime, requires no code changes, and can be performed by an IT Pro or Business Analyst (BA) single-handedly.

Some examples include:

An additional partner requests access to all orders of a certain type
A business rule changes
A queried web server will be phased out and replaced with a new one

Changes in this scenario are typically as simple as adding an additional send port to a send port group, adding an additional send port with appropriate subscription filters, changing the URI of a send port, updating a rule in the BRE, et cetera.

However, there may be more involved cases of application upgrade.

Patching Scenario

One such scenario is called the “Patching Scenario” in which existing application binaries in production must be edited and swapped with updated ones.

Typical examples include:

Patching an orchestration with a code change
Changing a schema
Updating a map

In this case, the customer scenario must meet the following conditions:

System downtime can be scheduled for application upgrade
Customer does not have long-running business processes
Dehydrated or suspended instances can be quickly resumed and completed, or alternately terminated

If the customer is updating an orchestration, say, and meets these criteria, the following steps might be their typical marching orders. First, the application binaries will be updated and recompiled with name and version unchanged. Then, downtime must be scheduled and new instances should be prevented from starting up. During this period, running instances will have to be stopped and unenlisted, which requires all dehydrated or suspended instances to be either manually resumed and completed, or terminated. After service instances are in the stopped and unenlisted state, the new application binaries can be deployed. First, the group’s MgmtDb should be updated by performing a Deploy operation using the overwrite flag. Second, each and every server in the group must be updated by GAC’ing the changed assembly. Finally, all BizTalk host instances should be restarted. At this point, the new orchestrations can be re-enlisted and started, and message flow can be resumed.

However, some customers may have more stringent requirements for upgrade. For example, they may not be able to schedule downtime or may have very long-running instances which cannot be terminated. In these cases, side-by-side versioning may be required.

Side-by-side (SxS) Versioning

This scenario, “Side-by-side Versioning”, allows two versions of the same application to be running side-by-side. The .NET runtime inherently allows for same-named but different versioned assemblies to be deployed and running. BizTalk also allows for this, although some discretion is advised.

BizTalk artifacts like maps are typically chosen by FQSN (fully-qualified strong name) which means the bindings are mindful of the version used. Making the code change in the map, upping the version number (major and minor builds only), compiling, and deploying the additional assembly to the group (and all machines) would then allow users to simply select the new map for inbound or outbound mapping. However, calling maps from orchestration may require code changes to the orchestration itself if the map reference is hard-coded.

Making changes to orchestrations can be a bit more involved. If you have short-lived orchestrations, then the “Patching Scenario”, previously described, may be sufficient. But if you have long-running orchestrations or cannot terminate existing instances, then side-by-side versioning will be your only alternative. Typically, the SxS story for orchestrations would go something like this.

Mortgage Company X needs to update their orchestration, but has many existing orchestration instances in flight that aren’t expected to terminate for weeks or months. They’d like for their existing instances to culminate on the live DLLs, but have new instances start up on the rev’d assemblies. To do this, they begin by having the developer increase the orchestration’s version number (major and minor builds only) and make the code changes to the orchestration. Next, they’ll deploy this new assembly to the group and GAC it on all runtime machines. Then the customer has the option to create new receive ports and locations for the new version or use existing ports. In the former is chosen, simply binding to the new ports and enlisting/starting the new artifacts will probably be sufficient. If the latter is chosen, some additional steps apply. The customer will have to (a) bind the new version of the orchestration to existing ports, (b) unenlist (but do not stop) the old orchestration version, and (c) enlist and start the new orchestration version. The documentation includes a script which help you to do steps (b) and (c) in one transaction so that messages are not missing subscriptions in between manual clicking.

The end result is that future publications will be directed to the new orchestration version and already running orchestration instances will complete on the older version. The product documentation should be consulted and followed closely for this kind of procedure, or for scenarios that depart from the “norm”, such as orchestration use of role links, direct binding, Specify Now binding, BAM activities, et cetera.

Upgrading pipelines has several alternatives as well. The simple solution is to simply choose the newly deployed pipeline version in the send port or receive location. This will replace the old pipeline with the new one. However, if true side-by-side functionality is required for backwards-compatibility purposes, then new send ports and receive locations will have to be created and bound to with the new pipeline version specified.

Finally, updating schemas also has some peculiarities. Side-by-side versioning is absolutely allowed, but the schema resolution behavior for the XML disassembler should be examined closely (described well in the docs). In certain cases, customers may want to hard-code references in the DASM properties to specific versions of the schemas to avoid dynamic resolution behavior. This will allow for more “pure” side-by-side scenarios.

How can MSIs be leveraged for upgrade scenarios?

Upgrading applications are typically a deliberate and precise operation in production. Because of this, following a manual checklist is advised. However, certain steps may be streamlined by using MSIs.

MSIs are a great way to wrap up your application artifacts into a distributable package. This may help when rolling out updated DLLs to multiple runtime boxes or assist with the group-level deploy. Precaution should be used when creating the MSIs to exclude all other unchanged resources and bindings from the package.

If conducting a “Patching Scenario”, stopping/unenlisting/re-enlisting/starting steps will need to be done manually before and after Importing/Installing the MSI. Similarly, numerous steps outlined above will have to be performed in the “Side-by-side Versioning Scenario” before and after using the MSI.

Still, MSIs can be useful for auditing purposes alone, since they leave a trace of the application’s upgrade installation on the machine in the Add/Remove Programs list.

More Information

In general, application upgrade is a cerebral activity and any change that you’ll ever make to your production environment should always be well tested and practiced in a pre-production environment. Having a non-production environment which mirrors the live environment will allow you to dry-run this and other production changes.

Needless to say, you should also carefully consult the product documentation before making any changes to your production environment, but this is especially true in the case of application upgrading. For more information on this topic, be sure to check out the documentation article entitled “Managing Artifacts”.

HTH,
Doug Girard

Note: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Print the BizTalk Server 2006 Documentation

BPIDCustomerResponseTeam — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 23:33:00 GMT

A common customer request has been to be able to easily print the BizTalk documentation. Now you can! Download the entire documentation in PDF format by visiting this link:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=8F3EC693-2865-4B85-8455-745511EA4267&displaylang=en

We're listening, so please keep the great suggestions coming. And be sure to thank the documentation team!

BizTalk Server 2006 ODBA Updated

BPIDCustomerResponseTeam — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 21:41:00 GMT

The download for BizTalk Server 2006's ODBA (Orchestration Designer for Business Analysts) was recently rev'd on April 14th. Be sure to download the latest version at:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5c731f68-5a4c-4faf-a18d-43d3479187c8&displaylang=en