Advanced BizTalk 2006 Web Services, Part II

Richard Seroter - SoCal BizTalk Musings : Advanced BizTalk 2006 Web Services, Part I

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 20:24:31 GMT

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re: Advanced BizTalk 2006 Web Services, Part II

Kris — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 20:56:08 GMT

Very informative. We are using Biztalk in an intranet scenario and are planning to make use of it in our internet application too.

Is it possible to host Biztalk Webservices on a host other then the Biztalk server itself. In other words do you need to have a Biztalk instance on the server where the webservices are hosted to connect to the Biztalk server? I couldn't find much information with regard to the same. Can you please clarify.

Thanks.

re: Advanced BizTalk 2006 Web Services, Part II

rseroter — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 21:44:53 GMT

Hey Kris,

Yes, BizTalk Server sits on the box(es) with IIS. Ideally, you're running only the SOAP host instance on that box, with limited user rights. Then when services are published to the SOAP end point, the BizTalk Isolated Host instance can grab the inbound message and publish into the MessageBox.

re: Advanced BizTalk 2006 Web Services, Part II

Kris — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 23:16:31 GMT

Thanks for the info. Is this going to change in the future R2 or vNext? I ask this because the IT folks are reluctant to install any new server software on external facing IIS machines because they believe it exposes the surface area of attack. Do you hear this issue often? Wouldn't it be possible to have a generic webservice for the Biztalk server that could publish the message directly to the message box.

re: Advanced BizTalk 2006 Web Services, Part II

rseroter — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 23:35:08 GMT

R2 won't be any different, and it's too early to say on vNext. BizTalk shouldn't be placed on any external facing machines, rather, you should be using a reverse proxy (see http://www.microsoft.com/technet/isa/2004/plan/bestpractices.mspx , search for reverse proxy). So BizTalk sits behind the firewall, and traffic filtered from external facing IIS servers.

re: Advanced BizTalk 2006 Web Services, Part II

Tom — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 05:24:25 GMT

Another option would be to deploy a stand-alone .net web service externally & tunnel back with msmq (over http), etc.