Recap of the BizTalk Sessions during Integrate 2019

Recap of the BizTalk Sessions during Integrate 2019

It was again time for the most awaited conference in the Microsoft Integration space and the execution happened successfully! INTEGRATE is a global annual conference organized by BizTalk360 for people working in the Microsoft Integration space. Here, we bring the highlights of all the BizTalk sessions at the #INTEGRATE 2019 UK. 

The Value of Hybrid integration – Paul Larsen

Paul Larsen, a Principal Program Manager for the Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, presented the session “The Value of Hybrid Integration” by explaining about the legacy of BizTalk Server and he gave meaning to the word Hybrid with some examples. He made the big announcement “BizTalk Server 2020” and confirmed that it will be released at the end of 2019. 

Paul announced the important feature updates in BizTalk Server 2020:

This version of BizTalk Server will have capabilities to deploy BizTalk Server applications using VSTS, make backups to Blob Storage and so on. It will also have integration with App Insights, Event Hubs, Power BI, etc. 

Migration Tool

Paul talks about the BizTalk Server Migration tool and Host Integration Server 2020. This Migration tool will be helpful on dehydrating our configuration on old BizTalk Server environments and rehydrate that configuration to new Azure IaaS VM’s or local VM’s. Microsoft IT developed the BizTalk Server Migration tool which they use to migrate their own BizTalk environments. Because the architecture of BizTalk Server is kept common between BizTalk Server 2010, 2013, 2013 R2 and 2016, the migration does not affect the underlying layer of BizTalk Components.

Logic Apps IBM 3270 Connector

Next, Paul made an announcement on the Logic Apps connectors for 3270 screen scraping which is available in preview. During an entertaining demo, Paul explained how the 3270 screens are used and how the 3270 Logic Apps connectors can be used.

 

BizTalk Server Fast & Loud Part II: Optimizing BizTalk – Sandro Pereira

Sandro Pereira, as usual, sets the scene of the session by comparing BizTalk Server Performance to different types of cars like Formula 1 cars, BMW cars, and Truck Cars. He explained the different parameters that affect the performance of BizTalk Server with the functioning of a car (Memory, Network, Disk Space, BizTalk Server, SQL Server).

Next, Sandro provided different tips to optimize the performance:

  1. What is your requirement? 
    To improve the performance of the BizTalk environment, choose the right set of infrastructure to manage your business requirement
  2. Message Processing (Slowing Down) 
    BizTalk message processing can be slowed down when there are quite huge volumes of messages. In that case, use queues to process the messages
  3. Techniques to optimize the performance 
    Sandro explained the different techniques which can be used to fix the performance issue  
      • Observation 
      • Analysis 
      • Apply Fixes
  1. Redesign the system 
    If an existing BizTalk solution is a bottleneck in the performance, you can suggest redesigning the solution to meet the business requirement and space, to scale the solution for future challenges.

  2. Move to Historic Data (Tracking) 
    Sandro explained how to manage historical data. Storing the data is important, but use the minimum tracking necessary, to avoid database and disk performance issues.
  3. SQL Server Memory optimization 
    Use SQL Server memory configuration to optimize the performance of the message processing. 


    Sandro then explained two real-time solutions in which performance improvement was achieved;

Cock Sector World Leader 

Sandro told about how the BizTalk Team scaled the solution when the performance was hit in one of the manufacturing sections; 

  1. Follow the sequences based on the number of messages (5 million messages) 
  2. Dividing the process – Parallel process (Queues) 
  3. Scaling up the SQL Server Tier 
  4. Move data to Historic (Enable the Minimum tracking) 

Banking System

Sandro explained how his team provided the solution with a Banking system, with an example of opening a Banking Account scenario. He gave various techniques used in the Banking Solution;

      1. Azure 
      2. API Management 
      3. Composite Orchestrations 

To process the data to open a banking account takes more than 1 min to process the data. Sandro explained the factors that affect the performance;

      1. Network/LDAP 
      2. Composite Orchestration Expression shape  
      3. Resources Unload (Slow First hit) 

He continued to be telling about fine-tuning the performance to process the creating bank account by;

      1. Improving warming up by Recycling BizTalk and IIS 
      2. Memory  
      3. IIS Application Pool 
      4. MQ Agent Recycling 

 He then explains various solutions to optimize performance; 

      1. BizTalk Polling Intervals in MQ Agent (Careful on the set the polling) 
      2. Tune the performance with multiple configurations 
      3. Orchestration Dehydration (Composite Orchestration) 
      4. SQL Affinity – Maximum amount of memory usage
      5. Priority in BizTalk: Set Priority Send port priority (10 lowest – 1 Faster) 

Scripting a BizTalk Server installation – Samuel Kastberg

Installing and configuring BizTalk server is not straightforward, and it can take a lot of time. It is useful to have scripts to run in a different environment and get everything in place. Samuel, Senior Premier Field Engineer at Microsoft, explains the importance of scripting BizTalk Server installation and during his session, he provides all kind of tips and tricks for scripting such an installation.

He listed what you should script:

    1. Things you can control
    2. Things you want to do it repeatedly
    3. Good Candidates
    • Windows Features
    • Provision VM’s in Azure (if the environment needs to be created in Azure)
    • BizTalk features and group configurations
    • MSDTC settings, Hosts, Host Instances
    • Visual Studio, SQL server
    • Your  favorite Monitoring tool
    • Bad candidate-Things which are going to change over time

Samuel advised considering below points before you start scripting;

    1. Decide what your main drivers are, repetition and control are the drivers to automate, standardized developer machines, disaster recovery preparation, and test environments
    2. Decide what your baseline is and document it, think what could change in 6 months or a year
    3. Document the execution process, scripting is not a replacement for the documentation
    4. Set a timeframe for your work

Reference – https://skastberg.wordpress.com/2019/04/13/automating-biztalk-server-installation-and-configuration/

Windows feature installation

  1. Choose different tools of your taste
  2. Use the Server Manager to check for the installed features

Ensure the features and configurations you need are in place and use PowerShell cmdlets to install the required Windows features.

BizTalk Server Feature Installation

Setting up the BizTalk Server product consists of installation and configuration. Installation adds the binaries to the system, while configuration enables you to create or join a BizTalk Group and enable/configure other features as Rules Engine, BAM and EDI.

Setup/Add Local – Export configuration .xml file (select the required features).

Installing CU/Adapter pack – More complex

Configuration File – Used for providing the required parameters

    1. Consists of feature element – Each one maps to specific sections in the configuration tool
    2. Each feature contains one or more questions – Answer attribute selected = True
    3. Export from config.exe
    4. Edit the export to be a template- Replace the real values at configuration time. You need one file while creating a group

Configure Host and instances – Use WMI or PowerShell provider

Create handlers – Use WMI and PowerShell

Handling secrets – Use KeyPass, Key Vault. KeyPass to use when no internet access is available.

Before using it in the real world: Test the Script in your environment!!!

Conclusion

Do you want to hear about the latest and greatest in Microsoft Integration? It’s not yet too late! By the end of the month, Integrate also comes to the USA and there are still tickets available! Check the web site!

 

The post Recap of the BizTalk Sessions during Integrate 2019 appeared first on BizTalk360.

BizTalk Server 2020 Announcement with Hybrid Integration updates

BizTalk Server 2020 Announcement with Hybrid Integration updates

Introduction

Integrate is the premier integration conference for everyone working in the Microsoft Integration Space. Integrate happens annually in London and this year it happened from 3 to 5 June. The 3-day event, with speakers from the Microsoft Product Group and from the Global Integration Community, is the ideal event to listen to leading Integration Specialists and learn what is coming next in Microsoft integration. This year a lot of newer people were joining the event. Initially, the event used to be a BizTalk Server focused event however, from last few years it expanded the scope to general integration technologies in Microsoft space, including Azure Integration capabilities.

The Value of Hybrid Integration

Paul Larsen, a Principal Program Manager for the Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, presented a session on “The Value of Hybrid Integration”. At Microsoft, Paul leads the Host Integration engineering team to deliver and support Azure, BizTalk Server, SQL Server, Office, and Windows connectors to existing IBM systems. At Integrate, he started the session by explaining the legacy of BizTalk Server and explained the meaning of the word Hybrid with some examples.

BizTalk Server 2020 Announcement

After that, Paul made the big announcement of “BizTalk Server 2020” and he also announced it will be released at the end of 2019.

BizTalk Server 2020 Announcement

Important feature updates in BizTalk Server 2020 are:

  • Integrate cloud Services with built-in adapters for cloud, Logic Apps to On-Premise Gateway, Service Bus, Event Hubs, API Management, O365 Mail, O365 Schedule, O365 Contact, Blob Storage (Dev) API management to all the resources (On-Premise and Cloud)
  • Manage BizTalk Server environments by using the new BizTalk Server REST API’s
  • The Blob Storage adapter is still under development. Using File adapters which are published as a UNC Endpoint is not straight forward, as pluggable. Using Blob storage adapter will be a useful feature that will help administrators to, for example, have the Backup BizTalk Server job write the backups to Azure Blob storage
  • Secure the BizTalk Server Infrastructure settings with Read-only administrator view
  • Deployment with VSTS – Application Life Cycle Management to deploy and update BizTalk Server instances using Visual Studio Team System
  • Transport Layer Security 1.2– Securely deploy BizTalk Server using TLS 1.2 authentication and encryption
  • SQL Server Encrypted Data– Read and write to SQL Server with Always encrypted columns using BizTalk Adapter for SQL Server
  • Advanced Scheduling -Set up recurrence on BizTalk Server receive locations with greater precision using time zones, months, weeks, and days
  • Application Insights– Send BizTalk Server tracking data to Application Insights for extensible analytics, to understand performance and usage of BizTalk Server
  • Event Hubs – Send BizTalk Server tracking data to Event Hubs
  • Power BI Integration – Analyze and report BizTalk Server tracking data using Power BI. BizTalk operational data template, for use with Power BI visualizations and dashboards
  • .NET components continue to evolve over the last release of the .NET MQ Client.
  • A new version of Enterprise Single Sign-On

BizTalk Server 2020 Adapters

BizTalk Server 2020 Deployment

BizTalk Server 2020 Advance Scheduling

Host Integration Services

Host Integration Services has improved a lot in this version of BizTalk Server 2020. In short, most of the packages in BizTalk Server are getting updated in this version:

  1. HIS as add on to BizTalk licensing
  2. New Microsoft platforms
  3. New IBM platforms – integrated feature packs

BizTalk Server Migration Tool

Microsoft IT develops the BizTalk Server Migration tool which they use to migrate their own BizTalk environments. Because the architecture of BizTalk Server is kept common between BizTalk Server 2010,2013, 2013 R2 and 2016, the migration does not affect the underlying layer of BizTalk Components. In addition, as Microsoft makes this tool available to BizTalk users, this tool will be helpful for them on dehydrating the configuration on an old BizTalk server and re-hydrate that configuration to new Azure IAAS or VM.

BizTalk Migration Tool References:

Integrate 2019 USA

Logic Apps IBM 3270 Connector

Currently, the Logic Apps connector for IBM 3270 emulation is available in preview. In short, the Microsoft Connector for 3270 integrates Azure applications with resources available via TN 3270 Screen Scraping.

IBM 3270 Connector

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is an Industrial trend in cloud computing which offers screen scraping capabilities. Host Integration Server extends the Integration to the TN3270 connector with Telnet or TCP protocol to connect to IBM Mainframe systems. However, you require an Integration account to be able to connect the IBM 3270 adapters.

After that, Paul demonstrated the Integration of IBM mainframe programs and Azure Cloud application with 3270 Logic App connector. After the Demo, he made a couple of announcements about CICS, IMS screen clients for 3270/5050 connectors and VSAM, DDM .NET clients for IBM file systems.

Logic Apps IBM Connectors Road Map

In conclusion, Paul touched base on the Logic Apps IBM Connectors Road Map beyond the 2020 version. For instance, BizTalk Server vNext version will include improvement on a number of Logic Apps connectors:

  1. 3270 IBM Connector Improvement
  2. Midrange 5250 AS connector
  3. Mainframe SAM Connectors
  4. DB2 and Informix Support

IBM Connectors Road Map

Conclusion

The well-informed reader might have noticed that several BizTalk Server 2020 features also appear in the so-called Feature Packs for BizTalk Server 2016 which have been released by Microsoft. However, BizTalk Server 2020 also helps in aligning with the latest versions of the platform products. So, this release of BizTalk Server will be of use for all BizTalk Server customers.

Secondly, the release of BizTalk Server 2020 is good news for all existing BizTalk users, as it indicates that Microsoft covers them for the next couple of years. Similarly, we notice that customers who are just starting their integration journey, also choose for Microsoft BizTalk Server. In other words, this new release will be very helpful for them as it will help them with both their on-premise integrations, as well with their hybrid integrations.

The announcement of BizTalk Server 2020 was done during Integrate 2019 in London. However, in case you missed the event, there is no need to worry, because at the end of this month, Integrate will also come to the US! So, if you are still not sure if you should attend Integrate 2019 US, then this blog post, written by our CEO Saravana Kumar, might convince you to participate in the world-wide premier Microsoft Integration event.

Integrate 2019 USA

The post BizTalk Server 2020 Announcement with Hybrid Integration updates appeared first on BizTalk360.

June 3, 2019 Weekly Update on Microsoft Integration Platform & Azure iPaaS

June 3, 2019 Weekly Update on Microsoft Integration Platform & Azure iPaaS

Do you feel difficult to keep up to date on all the frequent updates and announcements in the Microsoft Integration platform and Azure iPaaS?

Integration weekly update can be your solution. It’s a weekly update on the topics related to Integration – enterprise integration, robust & scalable messaging capabilities and Citizen Integration capabilities empowered by Microsoft platform to deliver value to the business.

If you want to receive these updates weekly, then don’t forget to Subscribe!

 

Microsoft Announcements and Updates

 

Community Blog Posts

 

Videos

Podcasts

 

How get started with iPaaS design & development in Azure?

  • Robust Cloud Integration with Azure
  • Microsoft Azure for Developers: What to Use When
  • Serverless Computing: The Big Picture
  • Azure Logic Apps: Getting Started
  • Azure Logic Apps: Fundamentals
  • Microsoft Azure Developer: Creating Enterprise Logic Apps
  • Microsoft Azure API Management Essentials
  • Azure Functions Fundamentals
  • Cloud Design Patterns for Azure: Availability and Resilience
  • Architecting for High Availability in Microsoft Azure

Feedback

Hope this would be helpful. Please feel free to reach out to me with your feedback and questions.