daclark's WebLog : BizTalk

Zero Touch Provisioning 2.5 is Available!

daclark — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 01:28:00 GMT

Well, after many months, ZTP 2.5 is generally available through an MS Services engagement. We'll maintain source (features and bug fixes) through a Services engagement model (requiring Consulting Services for initial deployment or Premier Services for maintenance).

Q: What’s new in ZTP 2.5?
• Active Directory ServiceAdapter for WS queries to AD
• Combined status across ZTP+HWS
• Web Services for all ServiceAdapters and Administration
• New Web Parts: Navigation multi-view, Common Services, Pending Requests, Service Description, Administration tool
• Updated UI to match SharePoint styles and templates
• Updated User Controls modified to use Web Services and SharePoint styles/templates
• Sample Call Service Orchestration to batch updates to ZTP
• Sample Bulk Update Manager User Control for querying Active Directory
• Bug fixes increasing scalability and performance

Q: What platform is supported by ZTP 2.5?
• Windows Server 2003 SP1
• BizTalk Server 2004 SP1
• .NET Framework 1.1 SP1
• Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 SP2
• SQL Server 2000 SP4
• SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services SP2
• Systems Management Server 2003 SP1 or SP2

Q: How do I get ZTP 2.5?
ZTP 2.5 is currently only available as a Microsoft Services engagement. Contact your local Engagement Manager or Technical Account Manager to pursue an estimate.

Post-SP1 COM+ Hotfix Rollup

daclark — Wed, 04 May 2005 14:52:00 GMT

If you're using ZTP, BizTalk, or anything that uses Enterprise Services (COM+), after installing Windows Server 2003 SP1, you need to install the post-SP1 hotfix listed in 896729.

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=896729

From the article:

Provide extended COM+ services to support the Indigo Microsoft .NET technologies for building and running connected systems through advanced Web services.
Provide support for the Indigo WS-AtomicTransaction specification in the Distributed Transaction Coordinator (DTC).
The DTC stops responding (hangs) or leaks memory when the DTC is used with Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004.
You experience slow performance when there are available threads in the thread pool. This issue occurs even when you configure the COM+ single-threaded apartment (STA) thread pool with the EmulateMTSBehavior registry key.

Using ZTP with Windows Server 2003 SP1

daclark — Tue, 03 May 2005 00:54:00 GMT

After installing Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1, the default security settings for MSDTC and DCOM must be modified to allow BizTalk and ZTP to work properly.

Change the MSDTC Security Configuration settings and DCOM permissions on each server the ZTP components remotely communicate (BTS, MIIS, SMS, SQL, WSS). Set the MSDTC settings:

Enable Network DTC Access
Enable Allow Inbound
Enable Allow Outbound
Set the Transaction Manager Communication option to “No Authentication Required”

Also, grant the service accounts for ZTP and the BizTalk Host (i.e. ztpservice and btsservice) ALLOW for default Remote Launch, Activation, and Call Access for DCOM on each server. Or, specify permissions for each component (ZTP/BTS/WMI) on each server.

For a summary of the changes to DTC made by SP1 see http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/cossdk/html/2627a956-60b3-4d26-bc04-e0676ec97786.asp?frame=true.

The last 30 days have been big for BizTalk Server

daclark — Tue, 22 Feb 2005 03:35:00 GMT