Like I wrote in my previous post, BizTalk Server 2010 is coming and you’d better be prepared for it!
There is a good reason for Microsoft to call this new version of BizTalk Server not 2009 R2 but BizTalk Server 2010. It is not just that it is aligned with the 2010 versions of Office, SharePoint (Foundation), Visual Studio and will support Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 R2, but it is more than that. It also supports the .NET 4.0 framework so you can start building BizTalk applications and custom components like functoids and pipeline components using .NET 4.0 framework features (BizTalk Server 2010 will support 2009/2006R2 applications as well). But there is another reason to name it 2010, implicating a major release:
BizTalk Server 2010 introduces “BizTalk + AppFabric”. This combines the rich proven features of BizTalk Server and the flexible development environment experience of .NET to allow users to easily develop simple integration applications. Since AppFabric is used to host WCF and WF applications, this will add a new dimension to BizTalk development. Some very very very preliminary documentation about this can be found here. The BizTalk + AppFabric feature allows for low latency scenarios by skipping the persistency in the message box like is the case with the current publish/subscribe mechanism in BizTalk Server.
The documentation consists mostly of installation guides which are not final yet. The most final guide so far seems to be “Installing BizTalk Server 2010 on Windows Server 2008 R2 and 2008.docx”. Although there is no installer yet to perform the actual installation, it is interesting to walk through the document.
You need to have on your machine:
- Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 SP2, Windows Vista SP2
- .NET Framework 4.0 and 3.5 SP1
- IIS 7.0 / 7.5
- Microsoft Office Excel 2007 or 2010 (must be 32-bit version)
- Visual Studio 2010 (Professional recommended, Standard and Team System supported)
- SQL Server 2008 SP1 or 2008 R2
- SQL Server 2005 Notification Services
- SharePoint Foundation 2010 or WSS 3.0 SP2 (side-by-side installation supported)
Like with the previous and current versions of BizTalk Server, a CAB file with prerequisites is (already) available for download (Win2k8R2 x64).
It looks like there are no separate components you can install, the new features are part of the setup components we already know from current versions. One thing however that we all expected: HWS is deprecated.
Documentation about BizTalk Server 2010 can be found here:
Keep in mind that this documentation is far far from final. At this moment for example the installation guide for Windows 7 and Windows Vista actually appears to be the upgrade path from BizTalk Server 2009/2006 R2. Also the document about BizTalk + AppFabric is in such a draft state that it probably will be changed the moment the first Beta will be made public.