BizTalk

Dot Net Haven and SharePoint Portal and Beyond...

Michael J. Hamilton, Sr. — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 07:25:00 GMT

A few months ago a few of us had an idea - what would be the ideal hosting and support site for .Net Developers? Dot Net Haven? Perhaps.

www.dotnethaven.net is currently active and growing quickly.

Initial features are hosting plans, FAQ's with the responses that only premier blogs like this one provide; a Help Desk Ticket system that provides some limited support for users.

Finally? If you are an authorized MSDN Licensee and get clearance, you have access to the SharePoint Portal sandbox that we're using as a learning and training ground. Here we provide extensive access to 2 different servers that provide extensive development opportunities for developers. Coming soon? BTS 06, Host Integration Server, and many more. Again however, you have to be an authorized and cleared MSDN subscriber.

But hey, check it out. You never know.

Unable to connect to registry on the server (machineName), or you are not a member of the OLAP Administrators group on this server

Michael J. Hamilton, Sr. — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 12:10:00 GMT

Unable to connect to registry on the server (machineName), or you are not a member of the OLAP Administrators group on this server

The devil is always in the details J

The following I wanted to share because this individual sorted through this error and his resolution may help someone else. I am posting a summary of our correspondence.

PROBLEM:

BizTalk Deployment Failing – Error: Unable to connect to registry on the server (machineName), or you are not a member of the OLAP Administrators group on this server

============================================================

From: Shalabh

To: Mike

Date: 8.31.05 2006 hours EST

Subject: Biztalk deployment failing.

Message…

Hello Mike,

I have a 3box setup -

1. BizTalk 2004 (installed DSO and Client Tool for AS) 2. SQL Server 2000 (SP3a and SQL2000-KB810185-8.00.0878-ENU.exe)

3. Analysis Server 2000 (SP3a - sql2kasp3.exe)

My BizTalk 2004 configuration is continually failing with message - "Unable to connect to registry on the server (machineName), or you are not a member of the OLAP Administrators group on this server"

Can you think of anything? Nobody answered to my newsgroup query.

Appreciate your time.

============================================================

From: Mike

To: Shalabh

Date: 8.31.05 2035 hours EST

Subject: Biztalk deployment failing.

Message…

Initially, based on what you have conveyed, the BTS Administrator's Group needs access to the OLAP server's OLAP Admins group.

Usually, the same service account is used for BTS and OLAP - so you do not run into this problem.

Check the service account / user account that is running both the BTS Admins group and the OLAP group.

============================================================

From: Shalabh

To: Mike

Date: 8.31.05 2146 hours EST

Subject: Biztalk deployment failing.

Message…

Okay.

I changed the Analysis Service to run under the credentials of domain\BtsService.

I added the 'domain\BtsAdmin' account and 'domain\Biztalk Server Administrators' as members of OLAP Administrators group on each box.

I still get the same result.

I also changed the Analysis service to run under domain\BtsAdmin but still the same error.

Any more ideas??

============================================================

From: Mike

To: Shalabh

Date: 8.31.05 2204 hours EST

Subject: Biztalk deployment failing.

Message…

There can obviously be a number of issues.

Have you tried walking through the stand-alone deployment that on my bog? It's pretty straight-forward, and works perfectly?

============================================================

From: Shalabh

To: Mike

Date: 9.01.05 1300 hours EST

Subject: Biztalk deployment failing.

Message…

Answer to your questions:

<machinename> is the box where OLAP or Analysis Service is installed. I get my actual machine name in the error message.

I tried running OLAP under local service and still the same result. There are no services running on the BTS box that I can see.

I did check the event viewer and there were no error messages or warnings on both boxes.

I did see this problem listed on msdn and applied the patch they suggested at the bottom of the following page:

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

ting/htm/ebiz_depl_install_fdjh.asp

Problem: You may encounter the error "Unable to connect to registry on the server (machineName), or you are not a member of the OLAP Administrators group on this server" or the BAM cube DTS fails on execution.

Resolution: Install the following software: (download from

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=22840)

============================================================

From: Mike

To: Shalabh

Date: 9.01.05 1410 hours EST

Subject: Biztalk deployment failing.

Message…

Open Component Services... Expand Component Services-->Computers, and right-click on My Computer.

Select the MSDTC tab, then in the lower-left, Security Configuration.

Ensure that

NetWork DTC Access - checked

Network Administration - checked

Network Transactions - checked

Network Clients - checked

Transaction Internet Protocol - unchecked XA Transactions - Checked

And it should be running as the NETWORK SERVICE account.

============================================================

From: Shalabh

To: Mike

Date: 9.01.05 1421 hours EST

Subject: Biztalk deployment failing.

Message…

On BTS Server, the Network Clients was not checked and I checked it.

On OLAP box, MSDTC was not enabled. I enabled it and ensured the option below were checked and rebooted the box.

Still the same result.

============================================================

From: Shalabh

To: Mike

Date: 9.01.05 1506 hours EST

Subject: Biztalk deployment failing.

Message…

Found out...need to install sp3a on the BTS box as well.

Thank you so very much.

============================================================

SOLUTION

As you can see, the problem was solved by installing the installing Service Pack 3a on the BTS box. On this box was the SQL Server/OLAP client and DSO (Decision Support Object) tools, but without the SP3a patch, the error was persistent.

I want to thank Shalabh for permission to post this information – and I am glad another problem has been solved.

Deploying BizTalk Server 2004 - Complete / Clustered - Production Setup

Michael J. Hamilton, Sr. — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 12:26:00 GMT

Deploying BizTalk Server 2004 - Complete / Clustered - Production Setup

(NOTE: If you find any errors here - please feel free to point them out - I worked hard to document each step and leave nothing out. Some of the steps that are not detailed are so because the process is pretty straight-foward.)

This document takes the following considerations into account. Please note: You need to be familiar with basic network naming conventions for this setup.

Before beginning the processes to setup BizTalk Server on any servers, ensure that you have read and completed the steps covered in Enterprise Single Sign-On (ENTSSO) Setup.

NOTE: This deployment of BizTalk is a complete install: BAS/BAM is setup, and this requires Analysis Services and SharePoint Services 2.x to be installed. A word of caution: If you are running applications under the DefaultAppPool, the installation of SharePoint Services could cause problems with the execution of those applications. You need to be familiar with the different installation options for SharePoint. Here we perform some pretty basic stuff – but I wanted to mention this.

At the time of this setup, Host Integration Server 2004 had a newer SSO engine, so we actually used that SSOENT setup instead of the BTS one. You can use either, but we ultimately wound up clustering this setup – which requires setting up the Enterprise Single Sign-On (ENTSSO) on a clustered SQL Server.

This setup takes into account that we are 1) running SQL Server clustered – with a virtual machinename of HAMILTON\SQLSERVERINSTANCE. This cluster runs on the servers HAM1 and HAM2 respectively.

There are 2 computers used to setup BTS. Each is in the HAMILTON domain, and each is named BTS1 and BTS2 respectively. Network Load Balancing is being used on these servers – not full clustering. For basic HTTP orchestrations, this will work great – but you will see some notes below that address the obvious: BTS is an active/active server component itself, and is not designed to be clustered. We had a requirement to make it work nonetheless, and we did. So read onJ.

Within an enterprise, it is ideal to use domain-level security groups, so you have a little leg-work to do here. For this walk-through, we used a domain called HAMILTON, and the short name in our group naming convention of HAM .

The following BizTalk and HIS domain-level groups were created before proceeding:

(This is a Systems Administration task – often handled by your AD or Server Group personnel.)

HAM BizTalk Application Users
HAM BizTalk BAS Managers
HAM BizTalk BAS Users
HAM BizTalk BAS Web Services Group
HAM BizTalk Isolated Host Users
HAM BizTalk Server Administrators
HAM EDI Subsystem Users
HAM HIS Administrators
HAM HIS Runtime Users
HAM SSO Administrators
HAM SSO Affiliate Administrators

Notice that the naming convention is the default for BTS and HIS – preceded by HAM and a space.

Next, add the HAMILTON/BtsService user (service) account to the following groups:

(This is a Systems Administration task as well.)

HAM BizTalk BAS Managers
HAM BizTalk BAS Web Services Group
HAM BizTalk Isolated Host Users
HAM BizTalk Server Administrators
HAM HIS Administrators
HAM SSO Administrators

We are now ready to install the prerequisite software.

NOTE: We copied all necessary CD’s for all components that we were going to install to a \Microsoft folder on each server. These include:

BTSENT04 - BizTalk Server 2004 Enterprise License
HIS04 - Host Integration Server 2004 License
SQLOLAP - SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services License
SP3A - Service Pack 3a for SQL Analysis Services License
WSS2 - Windows SharePoint Services 2.x License

Prerequisite Software (some optional):

SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition
SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 3a
SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services
SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services Service Pack 3a
Internet Information Services 6.0 (NOTE: By default IIS 6.0 configuration does not allow ISAPI extensions. You must explicitly configure this before using BizTalk Server HTTP receive handlers.)
ASP.Net
MSXML 4.0 (Must be done for each BTS Server)
SQLXML 3.0 SP2 or later. (Must be done for each BTS Server)
SOAP SDK 2.0 (optional, but recommended)
MS OWC (Office Windows Components) Version 10 (Must be done for each BTS Server)
NOTE: KB Article 831950 deals with a transaction log / backup issue and should be applied to the server after SQL Server is configured.
SharePoint Services 2.0

Installing Analysis Services

Install the SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services.

You do not need to install Sample Applications or Books Online

Immediately afterwards, install the SP3a (Service Pack 3a) for OLAP (SQLOLAP).

Installing Windows SharePoint Services

Install the SharePoint Services, and test the installation once completed:

Permissions need to be set up on the target SQL Server, granting Database Creator permissions to the account desired. (We used our BtsService account in this walk-through.)
Open Web Service Extensions management (Computer Mgmt à Services à IIS à Web Service Extensions)
- Prohibit FrontPage Server Extensions
- Enable everything else except CGI Extensions
Go to Add/Remove programs à Widows Components à Application Server
- Check “Enable Network DTC Access”
- Open IIS, uncheck FrontPage Server Extensions
Install SharePoint Services making sure to install on a Server Farm and not a typical installation.

Create a new Application Pool.
Because we are configuring for BTS BAS, call it SharePointBASPool, for lack of a better imagination.
Select Configurable option under Select a Security Account for This Application Pool.
Provide the username / password to use for this configuration (in this case, the user id is HAMILTON\BtsService; password = ).
Restart IIS, and then click OK. (NOTE: Do NOT click the OK for SharePoint before restarting IIS (drop to a command prompt and type iisreset. – Otherwise you’ll be uninstalling and doing this part over – for WSS.)
Next, Set Configuration Database Server. Provide the HAMILTON\SQLSERVERINSTANCE as the SQL Server instance.
Provide a name (such as SharePointBASDb) for the configuration database in SQL Server 2000.
Select Users Already Have Domain Accounts for this configuration.
Click OK.
Uninstall FrontPage extensions (if applicable)
From the Central Administration window, we need to create and configure the Content Database.
- Select Extend or Upgrade Virtual Server from the Virtual Server Configuration options.
- Select Default Web Site.
- Select Extend and Create Content Database.
- Provide our SharePointBASPool application pool.
- Provide the same username / password we used for our application pool setup (under site owner settings). In this case, it is HAMILTON\BtsService
- We need to now test SharePoint by creating a test site.

To verify that SharePoint is configured correctly

You may select the hyperlink displayed as the top-level website to test this configuration. If the template shows up, then the configuration worked fine. If you want to be absolutely sure, perform the more thorough check below:
On the Start menu, point to Control Panel, click Administrative Tools, and then click SharePoint Central Administration.
Click “Create a top-level Web site”. Click your default Web site, typically named “Default Web Site".
On the next page, in the Web Site Address section, supply a name for the new Web site. In the URL Name box, type test. This will create the site http:///sites/test.
In the “Site Collection Owner” section, enter a valid username using the format domain\user, and an email address, for example mail@mail.com.
Click OK.
On the next page, click the hyperlink for your new site. Then select a template for your site.

You should see your new Web site. This indicates that SharePoint is working correctly.

To delete this site, return to SharePoint Central Administration (to the home page) and select Delete Site Collection. Type the complete URL for the site to delete and then confirm the deletion.

· Important If the SharePoint Configuration database, Content database, and BizTalk Server 2004 exist on different computers, and if you use Windows authentication to access those databases, then you must have db_owner permissions on these databases when running BizTalk Server 2004 configuration. After BizTalk Server configuration is complete, these permissions should be removed from the SharePoint Configuration and Content databases.

Installing BizTalk Server 2004

We need to make sure the following local groups are created on the target SQL Server boxes (HAM1 and HAM2 – our clustered servers for SQL Server.):

· BizTalk Application Users

· BizTalk Isolated Host Users

· BizTalk Server Administrators

SSO Administrators

Once these Groups are created, we need to add our domain Groups to these local Groups. We do this using the Manage Users and Groups. Right-click My Computer, select Manage. When the computer management MMC opens, expand Manager Users and Groups and then select Groups on the left hand side.

Create the groups we need, and during the creation, you will see a button at the bottom that will allow us to add Users or Groups to this Group. We want to add to each group the respective domain group.

For the BizTalk Application Users we’ll add the HAMILTON\HAM BizTalk Application Users group.

We do this for each of the groups. Notice the only difference in the default BizTalk group naming is that our domain group is preceded by HAMILTON\HAM and a space.

Permissions

Make sure that our HAMLTON\BtsService account has permissions on the production servers (BTS1 and BTS2) to access the folders (read/write or full) so our orchestrations execute without error. The directories in which the custom DLL files reside will require at least read access for the service account.

Now run the BizTalk installation – and perform a complete installation.

Once this is complete, run the BizTalk Server Service Pack 1 upgrade.

Configuration Framework (First node in the cluster on machine BTS1-You will repeat this on BTS2 once this first setup is complete.)

Once BizTalk is installed, execute the ConfigFramework.exe from the \Program Files\Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004\ folder.

We are creating a new BTS Group.

This will not be the Master Secret Server. (That was setup under the Enterprise Single Sign-On Setup.)

Select Untrusted for both Host and Isolated Host Application(s). (We will review creating Trusted hosts later.)

When prompted, select yes to both Create an Analysis database for tracking and Use an Analysis Server for BAM Aggregations.

Next, specify the correct Windows accounts for the default groups created by BizTalk Server. Change the windows account for access control to the domain groups. Add the prefix “HAMILTON\HAM “to all of the default groups to utilize the HAMILTON domain accounts (with the exception of the BAS Site Owner). Change the BAS Site Owner to the service account (HAMILTON\BtsService).

When prompted, change the default Site for the BAS site to SharePointBASSite.

Next, we leave the default BizTalk Host Name and Isolated Host Name as they are.

Next we leave the default Human Workflow Service Web Site the Default Web Site.

Next we specify the database for all of the database objects, except the BAS databases. Our production database is HAMILTON\SQLSERVERINSTANCE for all of the databases, including the SSODB. The installation should default to the proper BAS database as the machine name that OLAP was installed on.

Next we specify the Windows service account that is used to execute the list of services. We provide our HAMILTON\BtsService account for all of these services. (Yes, if you want to setup different _service accounts for running different services, you can – we are simply providing the basics here.)

Next, leave the default BAS site, but change the default email to a valid address.

Next, we will bind all message queuing to the virtual IP of our clustered BTS production servers (Again, this is a clustered-ready setup – so our servers have load balancing running – and each server group (2 or more) share a virtual IP address. For this example, you can also simply provide the server IP that you are working on). This will ensure we have NLB routing to each server for load balancing.

Next, save the Configuration Setup and click Next to proceed. If prompted for a login, use the BTS service account.

Setting up the Registry for Clustered BizTalk Orchestrations

Once this instance of BizTalk is configured, we need to modify the registry using the regedit snap-in.

Select StartàRun and type regedit and press .

Load Balancing File Receive When BTS is Load Balanced in Windows

It seems compelling to specify a file receive folder on a remote server that can be used by more than one BizTalk Server as a file receive folder, in order to provide a simple load-balancing scenario on a file receive. However, a race condition may arise in cases of heavy load that causes some messages to be locked and orphaned. A symptom of this is “File Not Found” errors appearing in the Application Event Log as one server tries to receive files that are already being received by another server. Therefore, it is not recommended to try to load balance file receive locations unless you have a compelling reason to make it work.

There is a workaround for the race-condition issue, and you may wish to investigate its suitability for your application. BizTalk Server 2004 is able to rename files before locking them for processing. Since the rename can be done in a single file system operation, it prevents other servers from attempting to receive them. To enable this feature, create a new registry key for all receiving servers:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\BTSSvc{GUID} RenameReceivedFiles DWORD 1. This has a few side effects:

The files are renamed by being given a new extension (.BTS-WIP). This means that if there is any service interruption before reception is completed (such as dropping the SQL Server connection), these files could be orphaned because they will not be picked up under the file mask that filters that receive location. You don’t want to change the file mask to *.*, because this negates the effect of renaming the files. An idea for solving this is to create another receive port/receive location that is only serviced by a single BizTalk Server, and set its file mask to *.BTS-WIP. This will pick up any files in the receive folder that are orphaned by this issue.
During failover, you may or may not experience issues with the file renaming process. If both servers in the cluster are configured like this, we did not experience 1 problem – however, the individual that provided this work-around stated that problems have been experienced during failover.

Installing Host Integration Server 2004

Now we are ready to install HIS 2004. Here we perform a complete installation. Ensure that all Security options are selected (expand that node and select all options). Do not include the SDK or Toolkit.

Once the HIS 2004 is installed, run the ConfigFramework.exe for HIS and complete the setup. Select Join for the SSO configuration and Yes to configure the HIS databases. Leave the Windows accounts as default. Select a non-clustered server the SQL Server for both the SSO database and the TI database. HIS cannot resolve a clustered server for this function, but we will work around that later. Set the Windows service configurations to utilize the domain service account (HAMILTON\BtsService). Enter the HIS subdomain as HIS_PRODUCTION. Accept the default for network protocol. Save the configuration and finish the wizard.

Deploy Host Integration Server 2004 on a Clustered SQL Server 2000 Instance

(Taken from a related article already posted.)

PROBLEM

When you have SQL Server 2000 Enterprise installed on a A/A or A/P (active/active or active/passive) cluster, and you are running Virtual Instances of SQL Server, you will experience a problem when you try to install HIS on a different server, pointing the database connection to one of the virtual instances on the cluster. The ConfigFramework fails with the following found in the error log:

· [12:50:59 PM Info DatabaseHelper] Configuring HISAdmin database role.

· [12:50:59 PM Info DatabaseHelper] Executing database stored procedure:

· [12:50:59 PM Info DatabaseHelper] sp_grantlogin '\HIS Administrators'

· [12:50:59 PM Error ConfigHelper] Windows NT user or group '\HIS Administrators' not found. Check the name again.

In our case, we provided the \ for the database to connect to. For example, SERVER_A\SQLSERVER_A.

HIS passes the virtual machine name to SQL Server, and SQL Server cannot resolve the name because it is a virtual instance, and the groups are on the physical machine, and the command sp_grantlogin on that \GroupName will fail.

SOLUTION

Microsoft is aware of this problem, and provided us part of the following solution. We note additional items not provided in the solution, but necessary for the HIS, TI (Transaction Integrator MC), and ENTSSO to work properly.

For this to work, you must already have the ENTSSO installed on a SQL Server cluster where the SSODB resides. Also, you will need a stand-alone SQL Server that is not a virtual / clustered instance to install HIS onto. (We used HAMILTON\TEST for this – another SQL Server installation – not clustered.)

Install HIS, pointing it to the stand-alone SQL Server (if SSODB does not already exist on a stand-along SQL Server, create it at this time, otherwise JOIN it).
Create the MSHIS_xxx database objects manually on the clustered, virtual instance of SQL Server. (MS)
On each node of the cluster, manually create the HIS Administrators and HIS Runtime Users security Groups. (MS)
Create logins for these security Groups on the virtual instance of SQL Server you created the database objects on. (MS)
Add these logins to the database objects created. (MS)
For each database object created, create 2 rolls – HISAdmin and HISRuntime.(MS)
Add the HIS Administrators login to the HISAdmin roll in each of the databases. (MS)
Add the HIS Runtime Users login to the HISRuntime roll in each of the databases. (MS)
From the machine you installed HIS, copy the file HIPTables.sql from the \Program Files\Microsoft Host Integration Server\System folder to a folder where the clustered SQL Server instance is running.
Run Enterprise Manager on the clustered SQL Server.
Select ToolsàQuery Analyzer from the menu bar, and execute the Query Analyzer.
Ensure that you are in the MSHISxx_HIP database.
Open the file HIPTables.sql file – from within Query Analyzer.
Execute this script at this time (MS).
Close Query Analyzer.
With Enterprise Manager still open, expand the MSHISxx_HIP database.
Select Tables on the left tree, and local the table Computers on the right.
Right-Click and Return All Rows of this table object.
Here you will see the machine name of the computer you are on. You will want to change this to the machine name that HIS is actually going to be running from. NOTE: If you are running HIS from a NLB cluster, you will have more than one machine name here. For each HIS machine that will be using this database, enter those machines names now (KB 885003).
Save the edits, and exit Enterprise Manager.
On each machine that HIS is installed on, and that you want to interface with the clustered SQL Server, you must make the following registry edits.
Execute the registry editor – StartàRun and type in regedit and press .
Locate HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Host Integration Server\HIP and select HIP.
You will see and entry for Connectionstring in the right pane – double-click this (or right-clickàproperties) to edit this entry.
Change the database reference here to the \ of your clustered SQL Server (HAMILTON\SQLSERVERINSTANCE for us).
Now, locate HKLM\Software\Microsoft\ENTSSO\SQL and select SQL
You will see an entry for Server in the right pane – double-click this to edit this entry.
Change the database reference here to the \ (HAMILTON\VIRTUALSSO) of your SSODB clustered SQL Server.
Performing these registry edits on each HIS machine that must use the clustered server will allow all components of HIS to work.
You will also need to do a command line prompt of “ssomanage – updatedb ssodb.xml” where the xml file contains the target SSO server (HAMILTON2 in this case – I note this because the domain HAMILTON runs on HAMILTON1 and HAMILTON2 servers. This has to be done for proper SSOENT setup on the clustered servers.).

Performing Installation on Secondary Node/Server (BTS2)

We are now ready to perform the same setup on BTS2 server – or secondary node.

All aspects of the setup are the same except for the ConfigFramework.exe setup in BTS 04 and HIS 04. We will not be creating a new BTS group, but rather, Joining and existing Group – already installed on BTS1.

You will otherwise follow the same steps already noted above.

NOTES: Joining the first BTS Server with server #2

If you are attempting this with 2 BTS servers, and you find that you cannot JOIN the first group/BTS Server, ensure that you have 2 machines that are 'member' servers of the same domain.

If you have 2 servers that you want to create this environment on, and these servers are not joined to the same domain controller as member servers, then one 'cannot' see the other.

NOTES: Link for ENTSSO Setup

http://www.geekswithblogs.com/mhamilton/archive/2005/05/01/38783.aspx

NOTES: Good Point Pedro

Pedro, very good point. So the question is, are we working with Standard/Partner edition? Or are you using Enterprise? (I am directing this specifically to BHambert).

Microsoft's stance on the Standard and Partner editions is pretty straight-forward: They're for light weight, limited integrations. Please reference http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk/howtobuy/default.mspx for comparison/review of each.

Standard/Partner versions will not deploy for multiple servers like the Enterprise/Developer versions. So you will not be able to JOIN like this document refers to - more than one server.

Clustering Enterprise Single-Sign on Update

Michael J. Hamilton, Sr. — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 07:41:00 GMT

I noticed, only after some feedback, that my original post did not inlcude the actual Xml structure of the file you needed to complete. I apologize for this. I am not very used to how these blogs strip out (or does not strip out) Xml references.

Hopefully the new entry / update will not only make sense, but help the hundreds that have reviewed this article and were not able to use it with out this fix.

Again, my apologies. I'be beein on the road for several weeks - and getting time to update aspects of the glob - well, that's next to impossible :-)