Robert Rijsdijk's Weblogs

BizTalk Server 2006 RTM Now Available on MSDN

Robert Rijsdijk — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 22:36:00 GMT

Very good news !!!

BizTalk Server 2006 is now available for download on the MSDN Subscribers Download site!

Also available are the SWIFT, RosettaNet, HL7, and HIPPA Accelerators as well as the Enterprise Application Adapters.

BizTalk 2006 Launch yesterday and new packaging announced

Robert Rijsdijk — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 06:51:00 GMT

Yesterday was a big day for Microsoft and ofcourse also for us developers. Im happy with the next release of Microsoft BizTalk Server.

Microsoft announced yesterday that BizTalk Server 2006 packaging has undergone some significant changes, namely all adapters in the box, and inclusion of functionality previous found in Host Integration Server 2004 Enterprise edition.

The news about adapters is very significant for our customers. All of the new adapters we've purchased from iWay will be included in the box with ALL editions of BizTalk Server, and, require no additional licensing. Also, the SAP adapter will now also be included in the packaging!

While we are discontinuing Host Integration Server Enterprise Edition (but keeping Standard edition), we are rolling the Transaction Integrator function into BizTalk Server 2006. This means that host communication to IBM mainframes, AS/400s and the like will be native BizTalk data sources/destinations. Also, a DB2 adapter is provided in the BizTalk box.

While we are incrementally raising the price for BizTalk Server 2006, it's hard not to admit that we are adding SIGNIFICANT functionality into the product by not requiring the purchase of additional licensing for complementary components. If you're a prospective SoCal BizTalk customer, I'm going to work with you to see the definitive value of purchasing BizTalk Server 2004 + SA NOW in order to get the BizTalk Server 2006 product at BizTalk 2004 prices. Great stuff. I'm jazzed about giving our customers the capability to do more robust EAI/B2B/BPM as soon as they install the bits.

The CTP we released today (on Microsoft BetaPlace) also has a portion of the new adapters provided (namely, Peoplesoft). To sign up for the CTP, go the the BizTalk Evaluation Page.

Read the full BizTalk Pricing FAQ on the Microsoft.com site for all the details. Also, the BizTalk Server page at Microsoft.com has undergone a BizTalk 2006 transformation today!

BizTalk 2006 Beta 1 First impressions Part 4 Mapper Improvements

Robert Rijsdijk — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 05:18:00 GMT

I wanted to test the new Mapper of BTS2006 and I saw that they added some new functoids (IsNil (Logical), Nil Value (Advanced) and Assert (Advanced)). Today I saw a post from Stephen W. Thomas about his experiences with the new Mapper.

Read his blog here

BizTalk 2006 Beta 1 First impressions Part 3 Workaround Group Hub Query

Robert Rijsdijk — Mon, 15 Aug 2005 09:25:00 GMT

Yesterday I received an email from Microsoft with a workaround of issue (bug) I mentioned earlier , see here. Indeed the error is a bug in Beta 1 and will be fixed in Beta 2. For a workaround follow the following instructions :

Workaround: Customers in the affected timezones should set the times on their machine to either GMT or to timezones lagging GMT. They should change the clock time prior to opening the Admin Console or open a new Admin Console window, where the changes will have taken effect.

After opening the Admin Console with the clock set to GMT (or GMT lagging) and refreshing the Group Hub page (or running a specific query), users can reset the clock on their machine back to their GMT+ time. The Group Hub page will continue to work since certain cached time values are used.

The workaround steps have to be followed for each new Admin Console window which is opened.

BizTalk 2006 Beta 1 First impression part 2 (BAM Portal)

Robert Rijsdijk — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 02:10:00 GMT

Today I dived in the new BAM Portal of BTS2006 Beta 1 and had it up and running BAM in about 1 hour. First of all I Migrate a simple project EAISolution (from the Labs of BTS2004 maybe u know it) and I had a BAM xls SalesManagerView.xls copied to my project directory. The migration from VSS2003 to VSS2005 went perfectly. I filled in a new application EAISolution and deployed it.

After the deployment of the orchestration and the EAISchemas I started up my new Application. So far so good.

Alse a new feature is the Zoom function This orchestration I zoomed out for 50%. Now the Business Activity Monitoring was ahead. The first thing I did was search for the BAM.xls as in BTS2004. I couldn't find it. In the BTS2006 the Excel Add-in is added to the Toolbox add-in and it is now automaticly checked. So I started up Excel and installed via the Tool menu the new Business Activity Monitoring. Now the Menu Item BAM was added. But I wanted to use the previous Excel Definitions (SalesManagerView.xls). When I started up the file u receive the following message :

I hoped there was a migration option somewhere but I couldn't find it so I decided to make the Activity and views from the beginning but then in a BTS2006 format like u did in BTS2004. When I finished the Activity and Views (Milestones etc) I exported the XLS to a XML file (option Export XML).

In the older version of BizTalk the BM.exe was the deployment tool for BAM. This tool is changed. In BTS2004 the statement was like this : bm.exe deploy salesmanagersview.xls. The tool generates a Live Worksheet for u and the Business Analist could work with that one. To attach the definition to your Business Process (in my sample EAIOrchestration) the TPE tool was the tool to use. Import the XML Definition file and select to right Assembly and the drag and drop action can begin. In BTS2006 the deployment is a littlebit different. The new statement is : BM deploy-all -DefinitionFile:salesmanagersview.xml. Now the definitions activities,milestones etc are stored in the BAMPrimaryImport Database. To attach the shapes from your orchestration to the Milestones and the Data is a littlebit different. I started up the new Tracking Profile Editor and u can select the deployed BAM Activity Definition from the left pane and the assembly with your orchestration from the right pane.

When I started up the BAM Portal I saw that BIzTalk added a new folder SalesManagerView nested with Activity Seach and Aggregations. What I missed was the folder Alert Manager. You can read this in the documentation Scott Woodgate posted on his blog, one of the new features of BTS2006. I started up the BizTalk Server Configuration to see if the BAM Tools --> BAM Alerts was installed. I saw that the check box was not on, but I installed SQL Notification Services. (Strange !!). After read some documents I noticed that I installed the wrong version of SQL Notification Services. U have to install SQL Server 2000 Notification Services, Standard Edition 2.0 SP1 and I installed an earlier version. So I uninstalled that version and installed the newer version and started up the BizTalk Server Configuration Tool and I noticed that I could press on the check box , filled in all the Alert field like Alert File Location (Network drive) , SMTP Server , Alert Database. The last option in this screen gives me an error the Prefix of the Alert Database names. I filled in BAMAlerts and everything went fine. I think this is a small bug. I reported this to the Microsoft guys.

BizTalk generates two extra database : BAMAlertsApplication and BAMAlertsNSMain.

A little example of the BAM Portal u can so here :

I will tell u the alert functionality in my next post

BizTalk 2006 Beta 1 bug ? First impression part 1

Robert Rijsdijk — Wed, 10 Aug 2005 02:18:00 GMT

This week I have time to look at the new version of BizTalk and I participate with the BizTalk 2006 Beta program. Im really impressed to see how this Beta 1 version is rolled out. I've got some problems to install Windows Sharepoint Services , but when u follow the Install Instructions it will be solved.

The only thing I saw was a Query Error in the BizTalk Administration Console so far. When I do a refresh on the BizTalk Group I see the following error :

I run Microsoft SQL Server 2000 with SP4. Anyone have an idea ? Of course I submit this issue to Microsoft. Hope they will come with an answer very soon.

BizTalk 2006 - BTSTask

Robert Rijsdijk — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 05:18:00 GMT

BizTalk 2006 comes with a new handy tool called BTSTask. For more information about this new tool read here : http://blogs.conchango.com/matthall/archive/2005/08/02/1908.aspx

Its the new version of the BTSDeploy.exe of BizTalk 2004 with much more new features like import export MSI files.

BizTalk Server New Adapters

Robert Rijsdijk — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 23:09:00 GMT

Microsoft is providing eight new application adapters forBizTalk Server that it has acquired from iWay software early in 2006. The adapters in question are:

Oracle Db
Oracle Apps
SAP
PeopleSoft
Siebel
TIBCO Rendezvous
TIMCO JMS
Clarify

Scott Woodgate has made a brief comment on this announcement.

BizTalk Server 2006 Beta Program

Robert Rijsdijk — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 00:50:00 GMT

Biztalk 2006 Beta is now available for public sign up.

Biztalk Server 2006 greatly simplifies the administration and deployment process. Some of the other key enhancements are the flat file schema wizard, calling pipeline from an Orchestration, improved BAM, and suspended message routing, just to name a few.

To sign up for the beta program follow these easy steps:

1. Go to http://beta.microsoft.com

2. Sign in with your passport

3. At the top of the page it should say something like “if you have a Guest Id click here”.

4. Enter: BizTalkBetaTeam (case sensitive) as your guest id.

5. Fill out the survey. I think the link is located on the left side of the screen. Make sure you do not use a PO Box.

6. You should get a welcome email once you are processed. I do not know how long this will take.

I recommend anyone interested in Biztalk to take advantage to this beta program. It will give you a great opportunity to see the new features of the upcoming release and to have access to the beta news group. Just a note, Visual Studios 2005 Beta 2 is also required.

Once you have the software installed, do not forget to check out www.BizTalkGurus.com for samples and videos covering the new features of Biztalk 2006.

Have fun !!!

Chapter 10 — Improving Web Services Performance (Patterns and Practices) New

Robert Rijsdijk — Thu, 19 May 2005 15:59:00 GMT

Once you've got your SOA all sorted - IIS can run out of available connections pretty quick due to things like Web Services calling other WebServices on the same box using up valuable connections.

Here's a great MSDN Article that gives you the tech. details so your WebServices will hum.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnpag/html/scalenetchapt10.asp

SQL Adapter Wizard Query twice

Robert Rijsdijk — Thu, 19 May 2005 15:42:00 GMT

When u want to receive XML data from your stored procedure which containts a SELECT and UPDATE (processed records) statement, you can have some problems to Generate the SQL Adapter XSD.

When u press the last Window in the Wizard you could get an error message Failed to execute queury.

What we saw in the SQL Profiler is that the Generate SQL Adapter Wizard Executes twice the stored procedure Oops. The first one from Application name SQLClient provider and the second one from Visual Studio .NET 2003.

The first query execute returns the XMLDATA (XML Schema) , but also the stored procedure update. The second run executes the stored procedure once again without your XMLData schema.

So disable your update in your stored procedure and generate your XML schema after that enable the update and delete the XMLData option.

Good to know that the Wizard runs the stored procedure twice......

BizTalk Server 2004 and SQL Server 2000 SP4

Robert Rijsdijk — Tue, 10 May 2005 19:53:00 GMT

I found a post on the BizTalk Discussion Groups about SQL Server 2000 SP4 in combination with BizTalk Server 2004 Here his post : Installed SQL Server 2000 SP4 on two development servers over the weekend with no problems and on two production server on Monday with only slight problems during the Analysis Server SP4 installation. The problem (bug) has been reported to MS and they're issuing a KB article. It's related to the MDAC update on servers running MOM2005.

DBNETLIB Errors (Network Errors) after adding Multiple Publication MessageBoxes BizTalk Server 2004 SP1 / Microsoft SQL Server 2000 SP3

Robert Rijsdijk — Tue, 10 May 2005 19:37:00 GMT

At one of our customers we installed a complete new BizTalk infrastructure to improve the performance (throughput).

The following machines are involved:

1 x SQL Server dedicated to master message box processing wit publication disabled, single default instance.
      Software
      Microsoft SQL Server 2000 with SP3a and BizTalk SQL Hotfix SQL2000-KB810185-8.00.0878-ENU.exe
      Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP1
      Database Instance BizTalkMsgBoxDb

2 x SQL Servers dedicated to message box publication, each 1 named instance.
      Software
      2 x Microsoft SQL Server 2000 with SP3a and BizTalk SQL Hotfix SQL2000-KB810185-8.00.0878-NU.exe
      Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP1
      Database Instance BizTalkMsgBoxPubDb1 , BizTalkMngmtDb , EDIDb , SSO , etc
      Database Instance BizTalkMsgBoxPubDb2 , BizTalkDTADb

1 x BizTalk 2004 Server Machine DL380 3 GB of RAM

      Software
      Microsoft BizTalk Enterprise Edition 2004 SP1
      Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP1
      MDAC 2.8
      MSXML / SQLXML

When BizTalk uses one singe MessageBox on the Master Message Box Machine there are no errors generated, BizTalk works fine. When we enable the one or two extra Publication MessageBoxes (via the BizTalk Server Administration Console), the BizTalk Engine starts with Network Errors.

“An attempt to connect to “BizTalkMsgBoxPubDb2“ SQL Server Database on Server “<SERVERNAME>“ failed with error: “[DBNETLIB][ConnectionWrite(send())]. General network error. Check your network documentation.“.

This has something to do with ACK's and FIN's I read in some discussion groups.

What I saw on the SQL Server where the Publication Message Box is configured were many SQL Server Locks.
BizTalk Server 2004 Engine starts up the connection with his own message boxes one minute later.

Any idea how we can fix this network problem or anyone got an idea ?

Many thanks for your input.

BizTalk Server 2004 Performance Characteristics now online MSDN

Robert Rijsdijk — Mon, 02 May 2005 12:21:00 GMT

As you should know there is a BizTalk Server 2004 Performance Characteristics WhitePaper available. This whitepaper is now also available on MSDN : Check it out here.

Another good initiative: BizTalk 2004 Performance Blog

Robert Rijsdijk — Sat, 09 Apr 2005 14:37:00 GMT

After the BAM Online Lounge and some other good BizTalk blogs Wayne Clark started up a real nice performance blog. I definitly ask Wayne some questions :)). At one of our customers we had “big” performance issues. Some of them were fixed by SP1 but I wanne learn more about the inside of BTS2004 :)). Via Scotts blog.