BizTalk

Moving to www.biztalkcenter.com

Darko Jovisic — Sun, 22 Oct 2006 17:05:00 GMT

I'm moving my blog to my own web site http:/www.biztalkcenter.com where I will continue to write on BizTalk related topics. Check it out!

74-135 Developing E-Business Solutions Using Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004 - Impressions

Darko Jovisic — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 00:59:00 GMT

Two days ago I took BizTalk exam and passed it. My socre was 737 (700 is required for passing). Test contained 40 questions. It was my first Microsoft exam, and I can say it was pretty hard. I've been studying quite hard. Mostly I used BizTalk 2004 Unleashed" which is a great learning resource.

Surely you are wondering what kind of questions are in the test ? (that's what I was looking on blogs, but couldn't find too much information).

So I can tell you that there are some pretty easy questions (too easy), and some are quite hard. So here are couple of examples (I'm trying to be accurate as possible):

- During BizTalk installation you want to use SQL Server that is not in domain. What do you need to do to enable this ?
1.) Establish cross-domain trust
2.) Disable RPC security
3.) Configure ISA Proxy Client
4.) ?

- You are working in Finance group, and you need to move to the Procurment group. How can you change your BizTalk server, so that you can join Procurment BizTalk group ? (I think options 2 and 3 are correct)
1.) Reinstall BizTalk
2.) Run ConfigFramework.exe /u
3.) Run ConfigFramework.exe
4.) Update database connections

- Terry wants to see real-time aggregations as they happen. Which tool he needs to use ? (Answered 1)
1.) BAS
2.) BAM
3.) TPE
4.) HAT

- You want to make sure if a message property is registered with BizTalk. How can you do this ? (Answered 4)
1.) In HAT, click Configure -> Pipelines
2.) In HAT, click Message -> Metrics
3.) Resubmit the message
4.) Query HAT for running instances, and then view message details

I rember some other questions as well, but I'm to lazy to write them. I hope this gives you some idea about the difficulty level. If you need any additional info, please feel free to contact.

DISCLAIMER: I can't guarentee that the questions and answers are correct.

Generating xml schemas from sample xml files

Darko Jovisic — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 01:26:00 GMT

If you need to create xml schema and you already have a sample xml file, you can have BizTalk generate schema for you. You can do this by:

1. Right click your BizTalk project
2. Add -> Add Generated Items
3. Select "Generate Schemas"
4. New dialog opens. You need to select what kind of input document you will provide (default is dtd). You will want you use "Well formed XML", but this is not enabled by default BizTalk installation. To enable this go to you BizTalk installation folder (e.g C:\Program Files\Microsoft BizTalk 2004) and go to \SDK\Utilities\Schema Generator. You need to execute VB script called InstallWFX.vbs. After this you can use well-formed xml's.
5. Select your input file and click OK. Voilla, you have your schema.

REMARKS:
Be sure to inspect generated schema. The code generator works fine, but you might need to fine tune it (set proper data types, value ranges, etc.).

Location of Biztalk BAM Excel add-in

Darko Jovisic — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 17:01:00 GMT

I've just started working on a BAM project, so I started reading tutorials. Everyone was mentioning Excel add-in. I thought that it was an installation that you download from Microsoft's website, but after spending couple of hours searching for this add-in I realized it's just a plain Excel file BAM.xls located in \Program Files\Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004\Tracking (depends in which folder you installed BizTalk) that you need to copy somewhere else, because it's read-only. I felt so stupid! I hope I spared you some time looking for it.

Update: In BizTalk 2006 BAM Excel is no longer implemented as a Excel template, now it's a permanent add-in. If it's not available when you open Excel, click Tools -> Add-ins -> Business Activity Monitoring

Upgrading from BizTalk 2004 to BizTalk 2006 Beta 2

Darko Jovisic — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 16:38:00 GMT

Just finished upgrading our development & testing server to BizTalk 2006. There were no problems. Just be sure to backup master database and all the BizTalk databases, otherwise you might lose everything if something goes wrong.

Before upgrading, make sure you install:

1. Internet Information Services 6.0
2. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition with Service Pack 4
3. SQLXML 3.0 with Service Pack3
4. SQL Notification Services with Service Pack1
5. Windows SharePoint Services2.0 with Service Pack 2
6. Microsoft .NET Framework2.0
7. Microsoft Visual Studio®2005
8. Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC)2.8 Service Pack1 (SP1) (not required Win2003)
9. Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML)3.0 Service Pack7 (SP7)
10. Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML)6.0
11. Office Web Components 11 (OWC11) with Service Pack1 (required for HAT)
12. ADOMD.NET 8.0
13. ADOMD.NET 2005 (9.0)

Optional (if you want BAM and BAS):
1. InfoPath 2003 with Service Pack 2
2. Excel 2003 with Service Pack 2

Procedure:
1. Stop all BizTalk hosts
2. Stop Rule Update Engine service
3. Stop World Wide Web Publishing service
4. Start Enterprise Single Sign-On service, if not started.
5. BACKUP YOUR DATABASES
6. Start installation & follow instructions.

Restart is not required after upgrade.

Remarks: I didn't test assemlies written for .NET 1.1, but I think it should work just fine. Also I'm not sure how will this upgrade behave in a clustered enviroment, so be sure to read all the necessary documentation before taking any actions.

Refer to this document for further reading:

Installing and Configuring Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 Beta 2 on Windows Server 2003

BizTalk bug with inbound maps ?

Darko Jovisic — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 02:43:00 GMT

We had a perticulary nasty bug with BizTalk 2004. When we applied map as an inbound map, parser stripes whitespace. We tried every possible solution! Building custom xslt with xml:preserve, pad characters,... But when you do the same transformation inside orchestration that problem doesn't occur ! Strange! Maybe you have some experiances with this ?

Debugging BizTalk orchestrations

Darko Jovisic — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 17:47:00 GMT

You can download this tool to help you debug orchestrations:
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/DebugView.html

You can put an expression shape in your orchestration designer and write some information (by using System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine()) out that will be catched by this tool. For example:

System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(System.DateTime.Now.ToShortTimeString());

BizTalk installation: failed to enable the single sign-on (sso) service (error code 0x800706ba)

Darko Jovisic — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 10:43:00 GMT

I was installing BizTalk on Win XP sp2 machine when I got this message. I didn't understand what it meant. Then I found the solution on the net. Here is the procedure:

1. Start -> Run -> gpedit.msc
2. Click Computer Configuration
3. Click Administrative Templates
4. Click System
5. Click Remote Procedure Calls
6. Click on RPC Endpoint Mapper Client Authentication
7. A new window opens. Enable this service.

That's it!

Also make sure that your firewall and antivirus are TURNED OFF BEFORE you start configuring BizTalk (ConfigureFramework.exe).