Debatching

http://mstecharchitect.blogspot.com/2008/12/debatching-biztalk-xml-messages.html
http://seroter.wordpress.com/2007/08/23/debatching-flat-files-into-xml-with-header-intact/
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/gg650658.aspx
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/biztalkgeneral/thread/95353406-d4ea-4c02-acb4-03bc030a7d25
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/biztalkgeneral/thread/dfc85aa0-0d76-4098-9831-960677cb53db/
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa560481(BTS.20).aspx
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/17140/Debatching-Large-Messages-and-Extending-Flatfile-P
http://www.richardhallgren.com/efficient-grouping-and-debatching-of-big-files-using-biztalk-2006/

http://www.biztalkgurus.com/biztalk_server/biztalk_blogs/b/biztalksyn/archive/2005/10/23/processing-a-large-flat-file-message-with-biztalk-and-the-sqlbulkinsert-adapter.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc296600.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa717050.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/appfabriccat/archive/2010/09/29/biztalk-patterns-part-1.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb463275.aspx

BizTalk Best Practices

http://geekswithblogs.net/VishnuTiwariBlog/archive/2011/05/14/biztalk-server-best-practices-again.aspx

New Features in BizTalk Server 2010

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee920495.aspx

With the release of BizTalk Server 2006, the fourth generation of the Microsoft business process integration server, customers gained the benefits of integration with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and 64-bit support. BizTalk Server 2006 also enhanced the existing administration functionality, introduced new capabilities for business activity monitoring (BAM), and enhanced the core messaging engine. BizTalk Serveris built on the core architecture of BizTalk Server 2006 and made strides in all dimensions of application-to-application, business-to-business, and business-process automation.

BizTalk Server 2010 further enhances the user experience and introduces features that enable BizTalk Server customers to better manage and represent their businesses in a BizTalk Server setup. This release of BizTalk Server also provides key usability enhancements for BizTalk Server administrators and developers. This topic describes the new and enhanced features available with BizTalk Server 2010.

• BizTalk Server Settings Dashboard
  
• Improved Management Pack
  
• FTP Adapter Enhancements
  
• Enhanced Trading Partner Management
  
• Enhanced support for HIPAA documents
  
• Enhanced BizTalk Mapper
  
• Support for .NET Framework 4
  
• SQL Server Backup Compression in BizTalk Server
  
• SQL Server Transparent data encryption (TDE) in BizTalk Server
  
• Monitoring known issues in BizTalk Server
  
• Customer Experience Improvement Program in BizTalk Server
  
• Updated Platform Support
  

BizTalk Server Settings Dashboard

The BizTalk Settings Dashboard in BizTalk Server 2010 collates all the performance settings and provides a central console to manage them. For more information about how to use Settings Dashboard for performance optimization, see Managing BizTalk Server Performance Settings.

Improved Management Pack

System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) provides capabilities that can improve the manageability of Microsoft products through centralized and proactive availability and health monitoring. The BizTalk Server Management Pack for Operations Manager provides comprehensive discovery and monitoring of BizTalk Server components and applications. With BizTalk Server 2010, the following enhancements are introduced in BizTalk Server management pack:

• Separate views for enterprise IT administrators and BizTalk administrators. There are two different personas that need to monitor a BizTalk Server environment, the enterprise IT administrator and the BizTalk Server administrator.
  
  
  • An enterprise IT administrator is interested in monitoring the state and health of the various enterprise deployments the machines hosting the SQL Server databases, machines hosting the ENTSSO service, host instance machines, IIS, network services, etc. In general, an enterprise administrator is interested in the overall health of the “physical deployment” of a BizTalk Server setup.
    
  • A BizTalk administrator is interested in monitoring the state and health of various BizTalk Server artifacts and applications such as orchestrations, send ports, receive locations, etc. In general, a BizTalk administrator is interested in monitoring and tracking BizTalk Server health and if corrective measures are required to ensure that the applications are running as expected.
    
  The BizTalk Server 2010 management pack now provides two separate views to cater to both these personas.
  
• Optimized discovery of artifacts across multiple machines. In a typical BizTalk Server setup, a BizTalk group contains multiple runtime machines. When such an environment is monitored using SCOM, monitoring agents running on the machines discover the same set of artifacts from the configuration database which results in duplicate artifacts getting displayed on the SCOM console. With BizTalk Server 2010 management pack, the monitoring agents discover the artifacts from a single machine.
  
• Optimized discovery of relationships between artifacts. With BizTalk Server 2010, the management pack optimizes the discovery of relationships between different BizTalk Server artifacts by properly sequencing the discovery of the artifacts before the discovery of relationships. For example, to establish the relationship between a receive port and a receive location, the management pack must first discover the receive port and receive location and then discover the relationship between them. In previous releases of the BizTalk Server pack, the ordering of discoveries was not proper.
  
• Visual representation of health status. The SCOM implements color schemes to visually represent the health status of all BizTalk Server related artifacts. For example, the platform-level artifacts such as host instances can either be in a running or stopped state. This is represented with colors green and red respectively. Similarly, BizTalk application level artifacts can be categorized into three buckets: green, yellow, and red. If all instances of an orchestration are running and it is in a perfect running state, the health status is represented in green. If less than 70% of the orchestration instances are faulted, the health status is represented in yellow. If more than 70% of the orchestration instances are faulted or in case of critical errors, the health status is represented in red.
  
  The BizTalk Server 2010 management pack changes the parameters that are used for monitoring the health of a BizTalk Server deployment. While in the previous management packs only the configuration state (e.g. orchestration state) was considered for health monitoring, in BizTalk Server 2010 management pack the runtime state (e.g. the number of suspended instances) is also used to monitor the health status. For example, the visual representation of a send port may change to yellow or red not only if the send port is not properly configured but also if there are some suspended instances of the artifact.
  
• Diagnostic support. In addition to exposing the artifacts with errors, the BizTalk Server 2010 management pack provides diagnostic support by including basic information about the error. For example, if a send port turns yellow from green, diagnostics is automatically run and the user can troubleshoot the reason for this change in the State Change Events tab of the Health Explorer.
  
• Other performance enhancements. With the previous releases of management pack, when an artifact is monitored, even the smallest change to the artifact is written to the SCOM database. To avoid frequent calls to the database and to improve system performance, the BizTalk Server 2010 management pack highlights issue and changes to properties that require attention of an IT administrator and are less likely to be modified very frequently. The BizTalk Server 2010 management pack also fixes performance issues related to high resource utilization if the discovery intervals are set too low.
  

Where do I start? To start using the BizTalk Server 2010 management pack you must first install System Center Operations Manager and then download and install the management pack for BizTalk Server 2010.

FTP Adapter Enhancements

The BizTalk FTP adapter exchanges data between BizTalk Server and an FTP server and enables integration of data stored on varied platforms with different line-of-business applications. With BizTalk Server 2010, the FTP adapter is enhanced to provide the following feature additions:

• Support for transferring data to and from a secure FTP server. The FTP adapter in BizTalk Server 2010 supports reading and writing data from a secure FTP server. The adapter provides support for file transfer from an FTP server over Secure Socket Layer (SSL)/Transport Level Security (TLS).
  
• Support for downloading file from locations marked as read-only. In the FTP adapter available with the previous releases of BizTalk Server, the adapter deletes the file after downloading so that it does not download the file again in the next polling cycle. Due to this design, the adapter was limited to download files only from FTP locations that provide write access. With BizTalk Server 2010, the FTP adapter is enhanced to support downloading of files from read-only locations as well.
  
• Support for atomic file transfer in ASCII mode. The FTP adapter available with the previous releases of BizTalk Server provides atomic file transfer only for binary mode. With BizTalk Server 2010, the FTP adapter is enhanced to support atomic file transfer for ASCII mode as well.
  

Where do I start? All the FTP adapter enhancements mentioned in this section are configured using adapter properties. So, to use these new features you must set the relevant binding properties while configuring the FTP adapter send port or receive location. For information on the FTP adapter features in BizTalk Server 2010, see Enhancements to the FTP Adapter in BizTalk Server 2010. For instructions on how to configure the FTP adapter, see Configuring the FTP Adapter.

Enhanced Trading Partner Management

For more information about the enhancements to the Trading Partner Management feature in BizTalk Server 2010, see Building Blocks of a Trading Partner Management Solution.

Enhanced support for HIPAA documents

For more information about the enhanced HIPAA support in BizTalk Server 2010, see HIPAA Document Schema Version 5010.

Enhanced BizTalk Mapper

For more information about the enhancements to the BizTalk Mapper feature in BizTalk Server 2010, see Enhancements to BizTalk Mapper.

Support for .NET Framework 4

For more information about how BizTalk Server 2010 supports .NET Framework 4, see Updated .NET Framework Support.

SQL Server Backup Compression in BizTalk Server

SQL Server backup compression is a new feature that is introduced in SQL Server 2008 Enterprise edition. In BizTalk Server 2010, backup compression enables you to create compressed backups of BizTalk Server databases that are business critical and consume large amounts of disk space.

Note
Creating compressed backups is supported only in SQL Server 2008 Enterprise and later versions.

When you run backup compression, custom databases that are a part of BizTalk backup jobs will also be compressed. Database backups will happen without compression if backup compression is enabled on databases that belong to nonenterprise editions of SQL Server. If you are a SysAdmin, a warning message will be displayed in the SQL Server’s Event Viewer.

Upgrade Scenarios

If you have upgraded to BizTalk Server 2010 from BizTalk Server 2009/2006R2 and you plan to use backup compression then you must browse to the drive:\Program Files\Microsoft BizTalk Server <2009/2006R2 >\Schema directory, and then run Backup_Setup_All_Procs.sql against all the custom databases that you want to back up. This updates the stored procedures.

Performance Impact

• By reducing the size of your BizTalk backups, you save significantly on disk media.
  
• Reduces the amount of time to backup BizTalk Server databases.
  
• Backup compression increases CPU usage, and the additional CPU consumed by the compression process might impact concurrent BizTalk Server operations.
  
• We recommend that you do not enable database backup compression when you are using transparent data encryption (TDE). This is because the compression ratio of encrypted data is far less than unencrypted data.
  

SQL Server Transparent data encryption (TDE) in BizTalk Server

Transparent data encryption (TDE) is a new encryption feature introduced in Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008. It provides protection for the entire database “at rest”, meaning the data and log files without affecting existing applications.

In BizTalk Server 2010, the transparent data encryption (TDE) feature of SQL Server can be used to protect data that contains confidential and sensitive information such as customer orders with credit card information in messages. This information must be secured in order to comply with privacy legislation and industry standards. For example, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=195137) specifies a set of requirements designed to ensure that ALL companies that process, stores or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment.

You may want to protect stored cardholder data and restrict access to cardholder data by business need-to-know. To help secure BizTalk Server, SQL TDE offers a way to encrypt data files so that data in backups cannot be read if the reader does not have access to a decryption key and a password. This reduces the risk of sensitive data being compromised even if physical access to the backed up data is obtained.

When enabling TDE, we recommend that you take backups of all BizTalk Server databases and store it in a secure off-site location. You must ensure that the state of TDE encryption is consistent across all BizTalk Server databases. For example, when you add a new message box DB to the BizTalk Server, you must explicitly enable TDE on that DB.

Caution

When enabling TDE, you should immediately back up the certificate and the private key associated with the certificate. If the certificate ever becomes unavailable or if you must restore or attach the database on another server, you must have backups of both the certificate and the private key or you will not be able to open the database. The encrypting certificate or asymmetric should be retained even if TDE is no longer enabled on the database. Even though the database is not encrypted, the database encryption key may be retained in the database and may need to be accessed for some operations.

Managing TDE in BizTalk Server

To enable and disable TDE, backing up the TDE enabled BizTalk Server databases and restoring them see Understanding Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=195138).

Considerations If a database is being used in database mirroring or log shipping, both databases will be encrypted. The log transactions will be encrypted when sent between them.

Caution

Backup files of databases that have TDE enabled are also encrypted by using the database encryption key. As a result, when you restore these backups, the certificate protecting the database encryption key must be available. This means that in addition to backing up the database, you have to make sure that you maintain backups of the server certificates to prevent data loss. Data loss will result if the certificate is no longer available. For more information, see SQL Server Certificates and Asymmetric Keys (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=210625).

Monitoring known issues in BizTalk Server

Monitor BizTalk Server is a new SQL Agent job introduced in BizTalk Server 2010. You can run the job to identify any known issues in Management, Message Box, or DTA databases. For more information about the Monitor BizTalk Server job, see Monitoring BizTalk Server.

Customer Experience Improvement Program in BizTalk Server

Microsoft introduces the Customer Experience Improvement Program in BizTalk Server 2010. As part of this support in Beta, you are automatically opted-in to provide useful feedback to Microsoft regarding your usage of BizTalk Server. The data collected from you is anonymous and cannot be used to identify you. Microsoft collects feature usage statistics as part of this program.

By participating in this program, you can help improve the reliability and performance of various features of BizTalk Server. Post BizTalk Server 2010 Beta, you may also choose to opt out of this program. For more information about this program and its privacy policy, see Microsoft BizTalk Server CEIP Privacy Policy(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=188553).

Updated Platform Support

BizTalk Server 2010 includes support for the following software versions:

• Windows Server 2008 R2
  
• Windows Server 2008 SP2
  
• Windows 7
  
• Windows Vista SP2
  
• SQL Server 2008 SP1
  
• SQL Server 2008 R2
  
• Visual Studio 2010
  
• Microsoft Office 2007
  
• Microsoft Office 2010 (x86 only)
  

BizTalk Server 2010 also supports upgrade from BizTalk Server 2006 R2 and BizTalk Server 2009. For more information, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=183138

New Features in BizTalk Server 2009

New Features in BizTalk Server 2009

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa561109(v=bts.10).aspx

With the June 2006 release of BizTalk Server 2006, the fourth generation of the Microsoft business process integration server, customers gained the benefits of integration with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and 64-bit support. BizTalk Server 2006 also enhanced the existing administration functionality, introduced new capabilities for business activity monitoring (BAM), and enhanced the core messaging engine.

BizTalk Server 2009 builds on the core architecture of BizTalk Server 2006 and makes strides in all dimensions of application-to-application, business-to-business, and business-process automation. This topic describes the new and enhanced features available with BizTalk Server 2009.

EDI Enhancements

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is one of the most prevalent means by which businesses exchange data electronically. It represents approximately 75 percent of all business-to-business electronic transactions and grows at about 5 to 7 percent per year. EDI usage entails message syntax and standards (including ANSI X12 and UN/EDIFACT), messaging protocols, and transports.

BizTalk Server 2006 R2 introduced the ability to process EDI messages using EDI pipeline components, as well as AS2 support. BizTalk Server 2009 improves EDI support with the following features:

Dynamic EDI Envelope Generation:

• Override EDI envelope settings at runtime by setting context properties.
  
• Values configured in party resolution are used unless the specific value is overridden.
  

Multiple Batches

• Multiple batch configurations can be created for each party.
  
• Batch lifecycle can be managed individually.
  

HIPAA

• HIPAA schemas now support equivalent segments.
  

AS2 Enhancements

Transmitting EDI transactions over the Internet is an increasingly popular alternative to sending and receiving EDI using value-added networks (VANs). Using the Internet for data exchange reduces costs, increases efficiency, and has advantages in terms of redundancy and scalability.

To support this growing trend, BizTalk Server 2006 R2 introduced support for EDIINT AS/2 (Applicability Statement 2). AS/2 is a specification that enables transport of business data over the Internet in a safe and reliable manner. BizTalk Server uses AS/2-defined methods to send, receive, encrypt, decrypt, decompress, sign, and verify signatures between partners using HTTP over the Internet. BizTalk Server helps ensure the security of messages through the use of encryption keys, digital signatures, certificates, and non-repudiation.

BizTalk Server 2009 introduces the following AS/2 features:

• Drummond Group certified for Multiple Attachment (MA) and Filename preservation (FN) support.
  
• Resend messages if an MDN has not been received within a specified time frame.
  
• Send and receive multiple file attachments.
  
• Preserve attachment file names.
  

Empowerment for Developers

BizTalk Server 2009 empowers the developer by providing support for the latest .NET Framework and better integration with Visual Studio 2008.

The following are new features for developers:

• Property pages for BizTalk artifacts are now integrated into Project Designer tabs.
  
• Migrating projects created for previous versions of BizTalk Server is now handled by the Visual Studio project update wizard.
  
• Support for the Microsoft Build Engine (MSBUILD).
  
• Support for both release and debug builds.
  

Deeper Windows Server System Support

BizTalk Server 2009 provides deeper support of the Microsoft Windows Server System integrated server software by including an x86-based 64-bit version of BizTalk Server, and by supporting the latest versions of Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Microsoft Visual Studio, and Microsoft Virtual Server.

The following are the enhancements in Windows Server System support.

Supported platforms

• The following 64-bit processors are supported:
  
  
  • AMD64 (x86-64)
    
  • Extended Memory 64-bit Technology (EM64T)
    

  Note
  Intel Architecture-64 (Itanium-based 64-bit) is not supported.

• .NET Framework 3.5
  
  

  Note
  In BizTalk Server 2009, to use the BizTalk Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) adapters, you must install Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Redistributable Package, which can be downloaded from the following location: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=71264.
• Windows Server 2003 SP2 or Windows Server 2008
  
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
  
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008

New Features BizTalk Server 2006 R2

New Features BizTalk Server 2006 R2
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb743854(v=bts.20).aspx

Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2 is an update release to BizTalk Server 2006 that includes the following new and updated features that enhance the capabilities of BizTalk Server:

• EDI
  
  Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is one of the most prevalent means by which businesses exchange data electronically. It represents approximately 75 percent of all business-to-business electronic transactions and grows at about 5 to 7 percent per year. EDI usage entails message syntax and standards (including ANSI X12 and UN/EDIFACT), messaging protocols, and transports.
  
  BizTalk Server 2006 R2 processes EDI messages using receive and send pipelines specific to EDI that can parse and serialize EDI messages. EDI and AS/2 perform the following EDI processing in BizTalk Server 2006 R2:
  
  Receive functionality 
  
  
  • Parses the EDI interchange, processing batched transaction if configured.
    
  • Supports multiple interchanges per inbound file.
    
  • Performs HIPAA document splitting if configured.
    
  • Validates the message.
    
  • Generates the acknowledgment or acknowledgments.
    
  • Reassembles the interchange if the batch is to be preserved.
    
  Send functionality 
  
  
  • Serializes the EDI interchange, generating the envelope based on party settings.
    
  • Validates the message to be sent.
    
  • Processes a received acknowledgment or acknowledgments to the message.
    
  Batching functionality 
  
  
  • Accumulates transactions for batching based on party-specific filters.
    
  • Creates and validates a batched interchange.
    
  • Releases a batched interchange for transmission based on party-specific release criteria.
    
  • Provides comprehensive status of in-flight batches through Batch Status reporting.
    
  Other functionality 
  
  
  • Provides the capability to set processing properties for parties engaging in EDI document exchange.
    
  • Provides more than 8,000 schemas supporting X12 (versions 2040 through 5030), EDIFACT (versions D93A through D05B), HIPAA version 4010A1, and EANCOM (versions EAN94, EAN97, EAN02 syntax versions 3 and 4).
    
  • Provides a comprehensive status of EDI document exchange transactions through a list of EDI interchanges and their correlated acknowledgments.
    
  • Provides the capability to validate schemas and maps, validate instances, and generate instances at design time.
    
  • Provides support for migration from BizTalk Server 2006 Base EDI, HIPAA Accelerator 3.0, and HIPAA Accelerator 3.3 through schema and port migration utility.
    
• AS/2
  
  Transmitting EDI transactions over the Internet is an increasingly popular alternative to sending and receiving EDI using value-added networks (VANs). Using the Internet for data exchange reduces costs, increases efficiency, and has advantages in terms of redundancy and scalability.
  
  To support this growing trend, BizTalk Server 2006 R2 supports EDIINT AS/2 (Applicability Statement 2). AS/2 is a specification that enables transport of business data over the Internet in a safe and reliable manner. BizTalk Server 2006 R2 uses AS/2-defined methods to send, receive, encrypt, decrypt, compress, decompress, sign, and verify signatures between partners using HTTP over the Internet. BizTalk Server helps ensure the security of messages through the use of encryption keys, digital signatures, certificates, and non-repudiation.
  
  Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2 - EDI and AS/2 perform the following AS/2 processing:
  
  
  • Drummond Group certified solution.
    
  • Receive EDIINT AS/2 encoded messages over an HTTP/HTTPS transport.
    
  • Send EDIINT AS/2 encoded messages over an HTTP/HTTPS transport using the HTTP POST operation.
    
  • Are implemented as a solution supporting multiple payloads, allowing users to send EDI, XML, or other business data securely over the Internet.
    
  • Return a message disposition notification (MDN) either in the HTTP response message body (known as a synchronous MDN) or via a new HTTP POST operation to a URL for the original sender (know as an asynchronous MDN).
    
  • Provide the capability to set processing properties for parties engaging in AS/2 document transport.
    
  • Provide a comprehensive status of AS/2 transmissions through a list of AS/2 messages and their correlated acknowledgments (MDNs).
    
  • Allow you to access underlying EDI interchanges when sent via AS/2.
    
• Microsoft BizTalk RFID
  
  Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a technology originating in the military that uses tags that emit radio signals, and devices called readers to pick up the signals. Readers then communicate with software to transmit the tag information. RFID is used widely for end-to-end tracking in scenarios such as supply chain, high-value assets, documents, pharmaceuticals, and cattle.
  
  Microsoft BizTalk RFID is designed to provide a scalable, extensible platform to develop, deploy, and manage rich RFID and sensor solutions.Core components include a device abstraction framework and robust set of tools that enable customers to build .NET-based RFID and sensor applications with:
  
  
  • Plug and play services for a rich set of heterogeneous RFID and sensor devices, using the Device Service Provider Interface (DSPI).
    
  • Application services for interacting with devices and tag reads for filtering, transformation, and aggregation of events.
    
  • Tools to manage devices and design RFID-based business processes (RFID Manager).
    
  • Extensibility points (event handlers) to implement standards-based solutions.
    
  RFID also provides customers and partners with a rich set of primitives to build end-to-end, real-time solutions that:
  
  
  • Connect to line-of-business (LOB) applications using adapters, as well as execute long-running business workflow (for example, inventory control) via the business to business (B2B) and business process management (BPM) capabilities of BizTalk Server.
    
  • Use the aggregations and views of Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) in BizTalk Server to obtain end-to-end process visibility and the analytics of RFID event flow during business process execution.
    
  • Use SQL Server for data management and business intelligence.
    
  • Create and deploy business rules via the declarative business rules engine (BRE) to execute business decisions based on incoming events.
    
  • Use Microsoft Operations Manager to monitor and troubleshoot deployments, thus providing a scalable, fault-tolerant operations environment for RFID solutions that are ready for production.
    
  RFID is enterprise-ready with built-in support for 64-bit processors, Microsoft Update, Active Directory, failover, and a demanding performance environment.
  
  Key Benefits
  
  
  • Uniform management and configuration of heterogeneous RFID devices.
    
  • Operational simplicity.
    
  • Innovative process architecture that decouples design time and deployment-time activities.
    
  • Reliable and fast event processing engine that supports using business rules or custom .NET components.
    
  • Synchronous and asynchronous communication with RFID devices.
    
  • Extensible development platform for creating custom event handlers.
    
  • Part of the Windows Server System.
    
• WCF Adapter
  
  The BizTalk WCF (Windows Communication Foundation) adapters allow Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2 to communicate with WCF-based applications.
  
  Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2 contains the following WCF adapters and wizards:
  
  
  • WCF-WSHttp adapter: Provides the WS-* standards support over the HTTP transport. This adapter implements the following specifications: WS-Transaction for the transactional interactions between external applications and the MessageBox database, WS-Security for message security and authentication. The transport is HTTP or HTTPS, and message encoding is Text or Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism (MTOM) encoding.
    
  • WCF-BasicHttp adapter: Communicates with ASMX-based Web services and clients and other services that conform to the WS-I Basic Profile 1.1. The transport is HTTP or HTTPS, and message encoding is Text or Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism (MTOM) encoding.
    
  • WCF-NetTcp adapter: Provides the WS-* standards support over the TCP transport. This adapter provides efficient communication in a WCF-to-WCF environment. It implements the following specifications: WS-Transaction for the transactional interactions between external applications and the MessageBox database, and WS-Security for message security and authentication. The transport is TCP, and message encoding is a binary encoding.
    
  • WCF-NetMsmq adapter: Provides support for durable asynchronous messaging by leveraging Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ) as a transport, and enables support for loosely coupled applications, failure isolation, load-leveling, and disconnected operations.
    
  • WCF-NetNamedPipe adapter: Provides secure communication, and is optimized for on-computer cross-process communication. It uses transport security for transfer security, named pipes for message delivery, and binary message encoding.
    
  • WCF-Custom adapter: Enables the use of WCF extensibility features. The adapter allows users to select and configure a WCF binding, behavior, and behavior extensions for the receive location and send port.
    
  • WCF-CustomIsolated adapter: Enables the use of WCF extensibility features over the HTTP transport. The adapter allows users to select and configure a WCF binding, behavior, and behavior extensions for the receive location running in an isolated host.
    
  • BizTalk WCF Service Publishing Wizard: Used to create and publish BizTalk orchestrations as WCF services, and to publish schemas as WCF services, as well as publishing metadata-only endpoints in IIS.
    
  • BizTalk WCF Service Consuming Wizard: Used to generate the BizTalk artifacts, such as orchestrations and types as well as bindings files for send port creation, to consume a WCF service based on the metadata document of the WCF service.
    
• BAM interceptor
  
  In BizTalk Server 2006, BAM is a collection of tools, APIs, and services that allow you to manage aggregations, alerts, and profiles. With BAM you can also instrument automated processes to send events to monitor relevant business metrics. Together, these provide end-to-end visibility into a business process.
  
  BAM interceptors extend this same functionality to Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), Windows Communication Framework (WCF), and other runtimes. By using the BAM interceptors, you can track your business processes without recompiling your WF or WCF solution — integration is done through a configuration file.
  
  By using the BAM WF or WCF BAM interceptor in your project, you can:
  
  
  • Use the BAM portal to view information about the business processes running in your WF or WCF application.
    
  • Use BAM functionality without adding additional code to your application.
    
  • Deploy your solution using familiar BizTalk Server tools and utilities.
    
  • Take advantage of your existing BizTalk Server environment for existing and new WF and WCF applications.
    
  BAM XLA to support Excel in Office 2007
  
  BAM XLA has been updated to support Microsoft Office Excel 2007. It continues to support Excel 2003.
  
• Line-of-business (LOB) adapters
  
  One of the primary design goals of BizTalk Server 2006 is to facilitate the exchange of business documents between trading partners. To help meet this goal, BizTalk Server 2006 R2 includes several LOB adapters that provide connectivity between BizTalk Server and LOB applications using commonly recognized data protocols and document formats.
  
  Windows SharePoint Services adapter supports Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
  
  The supported platforms for this adapter now include Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, while still maintaining support for Windows SharePoint Services 2.0.
  
• Enterprise Single Sign-On 4.0
  
  This new version of SSO contains the following features:
  
  
  • Management agent for MIIS: Further simplifies management of credential mappings in the SSO database. Mappings can be created or deleted in SSO using Microsoft Identity Integration Server (MIIS). SSO can also receive password changes from MIIS through this management agent.
    
  • Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in: In the Enterprise SSO Administration console, SSO administrators can view status and manage SSO servers remotely using the new MMC snap-in.
    
  • Mapping Wizard for Affiliate Applications: Allows SSO administrators to create mappings using a wizard when the external account name is based on the Windows domain account. Additionally, the initial password can also be specified when creating the mapping for a user.
    
  • Direct Password Sync from Windows: Enabling this option in an Affiliate Application will allow EntSSO services to sync the password in the SSO database directly. The password change from Windows is received from either Microsoft Password Change Notification Service (PCNS) or MIIS. This is useful, for example, where a Windows domain account to a Windows domain account mapping is created in the SSO database.
    
  • Password filtering: For single sign-on and password sync adapter scenarios, if a filter is defined, then the filtered password is returned to the caller or to the password sync adapter. Basic filtering includes options for upper case and lower case, truncation, and removing special characters. Advanced filtering includes options for substituting characters and for the ability to pad a character in the front or end.
    
  • Backward compatibility and upgrade: SSO 4.0 can upgrade prior versions of SSO. This is done by upgrading the master secret server, which will also upgrade the SSO database. An upgraded master secret server and SSO database can work with all prior versions of SSO servers.
    
  • Active Directory marker: During configuration, SSO registers the service in Active Directory to help keep track of SSO servers available in your environment.
    
  • IPv6 support: SSO is supported in an IPv6 environment.
    
• Support for Microsoft Update
  
  BizTalk Server 2006 R2 includes support for Microsoft Update, which delivers updates for Microsoft software, including BizTalk Server 2006 R2. For more information, see the Microsoft Update Web site at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=37601.
  
• Support for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
  
  BizTalk Server 2006 R2 supports the use of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and SharePoint Server 2007. For more information see Windows SharePoint Services Support in BizTalk Server 2006 R2.

BizTalk Interview Questions 02

1.         What is Biztalk Server? Since when are you working on BizTalk?

 BizTalk Server is Microsoft’s Integration and connectivity server solution. BizTalk Server 2010 provides a solution that allows organizations to more easily connect disparate systems. BizTalk Server provides connectivity between core systems both inside and outside your organization. In addition to integration functionality, BizTalk also provides strong durable messaging, a rules engine, EDI connectivity, Business Activity Monitoring (BAM), RFID capabilities and IBM Host/Mainframe connectivity.

          BizTalk Server 2006R2, BizTalk Server 2009, BizTalk Server 2010

2.         What versions of Biztalk Server have you worked on?

3.         What is the difference between 2004, 2006 and 2006R2?

4.         Did you get chance to work on BizTalk 2009 version? If yes what difference you saw in it from R2 and what enhancements Microsoft has made in it?

5.         Tell me about BizTalk Server architecture?

6.         Tell me about any engagement which you rate top most while working as BizTalk developer and why?

7.         Most Imp: Tell about a project which was most challenging to you and how you overcame it?

8.         What do you hate about BizTalk Solution development and which you would like to improve in upcoming versions?

9.         How you do testing with your BizTalk Solutions and what tools or methods you use?

10.       How do you debug any errors occurring in BizTalk Solution?

11.       How do you debug an assembly used in Orchestration?

12.       Which way you find most efficient debugging Biztalk Solutions and why?

13.       Were you involved in designing BizTalk Solutions? If yes than what kinds of architecture you have designed?

14.       What design patterns you follow for designing solutions with BizTalk in it?

15.       What do you know about Itinerary based routing architecture?

16.       Did you ever got chance to work on ESB's? If yes, tell me more about it?

17.       Tell about BizTalk Solution development lifecycle?

18.       What kinds of Integrations you have done with BizTalk Server?

19.       What challenges you faced while designing and developing a Biztalk solution which involved multiple non MS platform technologies? How did you overcome them?

20.       What different kinds of Adapters you have worked on?

21.       Have you worked on SAP Adapters? Why did you opt using SAP adpaters instead of communicating with Web Services?

22.       Have you worked on Salesforce.com integration in any of your engagements? If than tell me more about it.

23.       What challenges you faced while working with Salesforce.com?

24.       Have you worked on EDI documents? What kind of EDI documents have you worked on?

25.       What different types of industries you have worked on? Which one you found most challenging and why?

26.       Were you involved in developing Custom components for BizTalk Solutions? If yes than what were those?

27.       Have you developed and used any Custom Pipeline Components? If yes than how did you develop them and later used in BizTalk Solution? Challenges you faced using custom pipeline components?

28.       What kind of environments you have worked on?

29.       Have you worked on environments containing multiple BizTalk box installed? If yes than what different kinds of configurations were there?

30.       Were you involved in administrating Biztalk solutions?

31.       Tell me how you deploy your BizTalk solutions? Do you use any tools or API's for deployment?

32.       How do you deploy your solution on multiple BizTalk boxes easily and efficiently? What issues have you faced doing that?

33.       Have you worked with Business Rules Engine? Tell me about the BRE architecture?

34.       How does a rule gets actually fired or processed in an orchestration?

35.       Have you worked with Business Rules apart from using them in Orchestrations?

36.       What are the different ways you can call a Business Rule in Orchestration? Which way you find most efficient and why?

37.       Have you worked with BAM? What is BAM and why did you use in your particular project?

38.       How did you develop a Biztalk solution with BAM in it?

39.       What deployment steps you apply to deploy BAM?

40.       Which are different BAM Databases? Have you manually deleted any BAM data? If yes than how?

41.       What is the easiest way to develop a schema from an given XML message?

42.       Have you worked on a architecture having WCF Services? If yes than tell me more about that architecture?

43.       How would you rate using Web Services over WCF Services in BizTalk solution? Why?

44.       Have you ever exposed you BizTalk Solution as a Service? How?

45.       Have you ever felt that using BizTalk at a place wasn’t a good option?

46.       What types of different capabilities of BizTalk Server you have worked on?

47.       What do you know about transactions in BizTalk Solutions? What is Atomic/Long Running transaction? When do you use them and when not?

48.       How do you handle your exceptions occurring in BizTalk Solutions? Do you follow any particular standard to handle exceptions?

49.       What are the most important things to keep in mind while designing BizTalk Solution Architecture?

50.       What size of architectures you have worked on and how many multiple Enterprise Systems were involved in it? How much time it took for you to design and develop it? What was the team structure for that engagement?