BizTalk

Why am I getting the error: CLSID_BizTalkPropertyBagFactory error in the BTS Admin console

Perhaps you've experienced the scenario where you hit the F5 key on the Group Overview in the BizTalk Admin console and instead of seeing your message queues, you see instead the very ugly () message:

Failed to create a CLSID_BizTalkPropertyBagFactory COM component installed
with a BizTalk server. A dynamic link library (DLL) initialization routine
failed. (WinMgmt)

Go to the event viewer and look for any COM/COM+ errors under applications. Chances are you will see a conflict with WMI services--perhaps a threading error. Since the SSO, BizTalk Admin Console, SCOM...(even event viewer) use WMI for the MMC console, one of the DLLs for WMI may have become unavailable. If WMI is not available, or the WMI service has crashed, the console for the BizTalk Admin can fail with this error message as its swan song ().

Aaron Tiensivu's blog offers a way to isolate WMI issues on svchost:

http://blog.tiensivu.com/aaron/archives/294-Suspect-that-WMI-is-crashing-your-SVCHOST-Run-it-standalone..html

There are 2 solutions that I know of, 1 radical and 1 less so...

restart the server [waaay radical, but effective]
restart the WMI windows service

How do I know which version of BizTalk I am running?

The quickest way is to do the following:

Go to Start>Settings>Control Panel
Select Add/Remove Programs
Scroll unitl you find BizTalk
Click on the support anchor (see screen shot below)

Why do EDI permissions fail in BizTalk?

I am getting the message: "Unable to set permissions on the shared documents home folder"

This is probably happening because the needed membership in the security groups for EDI/SQL roles aren't set up all the way through, it is likely some of it is set up already and some of it isn't -- so when your bts service account is trying to execute EDI, you see this sort of error.

To correct this, try these quick few steps first. If all else fails, Microsoft has an online reference: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa546733.aspx

II. Check Permissions on Receive and Send Folders (READ: not the likely cause for this particular error, but best to be sure this is setup right anyway)

1. In windows explorer, right-click on your site's EDI Receive folder location.
2. Make sure service account for bts host has FULL CONTROL permissions.
3. Make sure that the other user groups that dump files there have WRITE permissions.
4. In windows explorer, right-click on your site's EDI Send folder location.
5. Make sure the service account for bts host have WRITE permissions.
6. Make sure that the other user groups have READ permissions.

II. Check to be sure the user account which the EDI service is running with is in the BTS_HOST_USERS sql role (READ: A good candidate for resolving this particular error message)

1. Connect to the database instance your bts server points to in SQL manager.
2. Look at the BizTalkMgmtDb security settings for Roles.
3. Look under Database Roles, then right-click BTS_HOST_USERS. Click on Properties.
4. Once there, look for the EDI Subsystem. If not there, click Add and then click the EDI sub-sytem users and add it.
NOTE: If there isn't and EDI sub-system user to add, it do the following:
            a. Go to Users, click New Database user.
            b. right-click Users. click New Database User.
            c. in drop-down, select EDI subsytem users group.

III. Check to be sure the BTS service account is in the EDI Subsystem Users Group (READ: Another good candidate, although likely to resolve a more dramatic EDI error! )

1. Go to Active Directory. Go to Users.
2. Double click on EDI Subsystem Users group and display properties.
3. Click on Memebers.
4. If BTS service account isn't there, click on Add. Add the BTS service account user.

What is a BizTalk "Host Instance"?

To answer this question, a more basic question to ask would be what is a BizTalk host, since a host must exist before an instance of it can exisit! This distinction may be confusing to BizTalk newcomers because when navigating through the BizTalk Admin Console, hosts and host instances are viewed separately.

In mid-90's techno-speak, (READ: about the time-frame where the development of the BizTalk/Commerce Server got its start) the host would have been thought of as a container for related adapter handlers, pipelines, receive locations and orchestrations. Since an enterprise's BizTalk configuration or implementation can span over multiple physical servers, grouping logical units of work tied to an abstract host allows instances of defined work to span servers. So, think of a host instance as the physical implementation of the logical grouping of work. For example, if a multi-national retail chain wanted to process its outgoing purchase orders, a likely BizTalk implementation would include instantiating multiple instances of a defined purchasing host across several physcial servers.

To read more about hosts and host instances, check these links out!

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa561042.aspx

http://geekswithblogs.net/toddu/archive/2004/10/02/12050.aspx