In my previous update, I discussed my intention to release a new major version of my stencils. However, I’ve opted for a gradual approach, releasing minor updates along the way. This way, it becomes easier for me because I don’t need to spend long periods allocated to this task, and at the same time, all of you can start enjoying these new icons.
Keeping my promise, I’m presenting another update. I hope it meets your expectations! If you have any specific requests, don’t hesitate to share them with me.
What’s new in this version? (for now)
The main goal of this release was to provide the new icons present in the Azure Portal, on the Power Platform, and new existing Services. In this version, the changes and additions are:
New stencil packages: Additional stencil packages were incorporated into this project to enhance the discoverability of shapes:
MIS Azure Integration Services: this file contains shapes related to Azure Integration Service and messaging.
MIS Microsoft Fabric: this file contains shapes related to Microsoft Fabric – This was actually a request made by a community member. And credits to Sam Debruyn for these Microsoft SVG files. I only had the work to “convert” them into proper Visio stencils.
Move some shapes: I reorganized and relocated certain shapes to other files within this package.
SVG Files: Add new SVG files;
Special Highlights: API Center, Policy fragments, Event Grid, Event Grid: Namespace, Partner namespaces and Partner registrations or APIM Schemas
Microsoft Integration, Azure, Power Platform, Office 365, and much more Stencils Pack
Microsoft Integration, Azure, Power Platform, Office 365, and much more Stencils Pack it’s a Visio package that contains fully resizable Visio shapes (symbols/icons) that will help you to visually represent On-premise, Cloud or Hybrid Integration and Enterprise architectures scenarios (BizTalk Server, API Management, Logic Apps, Service Bus, Event Hub…), solutions diagrams and features or systems that use Microsoft Azure and related cloud and on-premises technologies in Visio 2016/2013:
BizTalk Server
Microsoft Azure
Integration
Integration Service Environments (ISE)
Logic Apps and Azure App Service in general (API Apps, Web Apps, and Mobile Apps)
Azure API Management
Messaging: Event Hubs, Event Grid, Service Bus, …
Azure IoT and Docker
AI, Machine Learning, Stream Analytics, Data Factory, Data Pipelines
SQL Server, DocumentDB, CosmosDB, MySQL, …
and so on
Microsoft Power Platform
Microsoft Flow
PowerApps
Power BI
Office365, SharePoint,…
DevOps and PowerShell
Security and Governance
And much more…
… and now non-related Microsoft technologies like:
SAP Stencils
The Microsoft Integration Stencils Pack is composed of 29 files:
Microsoft Integration Stencils
MIS Additional or Support Stencils
MIS AI and Machine Learning Stencils
MIS Apps and Systems Logo Stencils
MIS Azure Additional or Support Stencils
MIS Azure Integration Services
MIS Azure Mono Color
MIS Azure Old Versions
MIS Azure Others Stencils
MIS Azure Stencils
MIS Buildings Stencils
MIS Databases and Analytics Stencils
MIS Deprecated Stencils
MIS Developer Stencils
MIS Devices Stencils
MIS Files Stencils
MIS Generic Stencils
MIS Infrastructure Stencils
MIS Integration Fun
MIS Integration Patterns Stencils
MIS IoT Devices Stencils
MIS Microsoft Fabric
MIS Office365
MIS Power BI Stencils
MIS PowerApps and Flows Stencils
MIS SAP Stencils
MIS Security and Governance
MIS Servers (HEX) Stencils
MIS Users and Roles Stencils
You can use and resize without losing quality.
Download
You can download Microsoft Integration, Azure, BAPI, Office 365, and much more Stencils Pack for Visio from GitHub here:
Hope you find this helpful! So, if you liked the content or found it helpful and want to help me write more content, you can buy (or help buy) my son a Star Wars Lego!
Author: Sandro Pereira
Sandro Pereira lives in Portugal and works as a consultant at DevScope. In the past years, he has been working on implementing Integration scenarios both on-premises and cloud for various clients, each with different scenarios from a technical point of view, size, and criticality, using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft BizTalk Server and different technologies like AS2, EDI, RosettaNet, SAP, TIBCO etc.
He is a regular blogger, international speaker, and technical reviewer of several BizTalk books all focused on Integration. He is also the author of the book “BizTalk Mapping Patterns & Best Practices”. He has been awarded MVP since 2011 for his contributions to the integration community.
View all posts by Sandro Pereira
Welcome back to yet another post, driven by my desire to maintain my mental well-being, as I’ve become exhausted from the constant need to look this up. I often conduct demonstrations and proof-of-concepts for my clients and during my sessions, resulting in the creation of multiple Azure services. However, I don’t always use them extensively, and sometimes it can take months before I revisit them. One such example is Azure SQL databases. The predominant dilemma I face in this specific database context is my consistent forgetfulness when it comes to passwords! While I recognize the necessity of storing them safely, such as in Keypass, these resources are usually generated during live demonstrations, and safeguarding this information isn’t always our immediate concern.
So, the main question is: How to reset the Azure SQL Server admin account password?
Actually, this is a very simple task to accomplish. For that, you need to:
Go to the Azure portal. From there search for SQL databases, and select the database from the list.
On the Overview page, under Essentials panel, click on the Server name link.
On the SQL Server Overview page, on the top menu click Reset Password.
On the Reset admin password panel, enter a new password and then click Save.
Your password must be at least 8 characters in length.
Your password must contain characters from three of the following categories – English uppercase letters, English lowercase letters, numbers (0-9), and non-alphanumeric characters (!, $, #, %, etc.).
Alternatively, if you know i the SQL Server name you can accomplish the same by:
Go to the Azure portal. From there search for SQL Servers, and select the SQL Server name from the list.
On the SQL Server Overview page, on the top menu click Reset Password.
On the Reset admin password panel, enter a new password and then click Save.
The primary task ahead is to rectify all the services that rely on a connection string to access any database residing on this SQL Server.
Hope you find this helpful! So, if you liked the content or found it helpful and want to help me write more content, you can buy (or help buy) my son a Star Wars Lego!
Author: Sandro Pereira
Sandro Pereira lives in Portugal and works as a consultant at DevScope. In the past years, he has been working on implementing Integration scenarios both on-premises and cloud for various clients, each with different scenarios from a technical point of view, size, and criticality, using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft BizTalk Server and different technologies like AS2, EDI, RosettaNet, SAP, TIBCO etc.
He is a regular blogger, international speaker, and technical reviewer of several BizTalk books all focused on Integration. He is also the author of the book “BizTalk Mapping Patterns & Best Practices”. He has been awarded MVP since 2011 for his contributions to the integration community.
View all posts by Sandro Pereira
Within those blog posts, I also provided at least one SQL script for monitoring the status of jobs – whether they were disabled or running as anticipated, such as every minute, every fifty minutes, and so forth. However, it has come to my attention this week that even though they were enabled and running as planned, some of them were not finishing with success, and I was not notified. For this reason, I decided to create a second SQL script to enhance the functionality of the earlier one. This new script is designed to search for any failures that have occurred in the last hour. It will then present me with the most recent failure details, including the error message, for each of the Jobs in an error state.
THIS SQL SCRIPT IS PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.
Hope you find this helpful! So, if you liked the content or found it helpful and want to help me write more content, you can buy (or help buy) my son a Star Wars Lego!
Author: Sandro Pereira
Sandro Pereira lives in Portugal and works as a consultant at DevScope. In the past years, he has been working on implementing Integration scenarios both on-premises and cloud for various clients, each with different scenarios from a technical point of view, size, and criticality, using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft BizTalk Server and different technologies like AS2, EDI, RosettaNet, SAP, TIBCO etc.
He is a regular blogger, international speaker, and technical reviewer of several BizTalk books all focused on Integration. He is also the author of the book “BizTalk Mapping Patterns & Best Practices”. He has been awarded MVP since 2011 for his contributions to the integration community.
View all posts by Sandro Pereira
Lately, I’ve been engaged in the process of cleaning and reorganizing my hard drives. The sheer volume of resources I’ve accumulated over the years is quite substantial. However, there are occasions when I find myself a bit frustrated in my quest to locate them. Additionally, I’ve been revisiting a few of my online profiles and initiating the process of consolidating my resources on GitHub.
As I embarked on this quest, I stumbled upon some of my vintage articles originally crafted for Microsoft TechNet Wiki. Astonishingly, I recognized that a handful of these articles had laid the foundation for my first book: BizTalk Mapping Patterns and Best Practices.
Considering the product’s inherent characteristics, they all remain exceptionally current and relevant, so I decided to add them to my GitHub repo.
BizTalk Server: Basic Principles of Maps
Maps or transformations are among the most common components in the integration processes. They act as essential translators in the decoupling between the different systems to connect. In this article, as we explore the BizTalk Mapper Designer, we will explain its main concepts, covering slight themes such as product architecture, BizTalk Schemas, and some of the mo st widely used standards in the translation of messages.
This whitepaper aims to serve as an introductory guide for individuals embarking on their initial journey with this technology.
Maps or transformations are a cornerstone of integration processes, functioning as essential translators that facilitate the seamless exchange of information among different systems. This whitepaper is aimed at demystifying how maps are processed internally by the engine of the product as we explore the map editor BizTalk Server.
Microsoft BizTalk Server seen by the programmer’s eyes
Originally featured in the Portuguese magazine ‘Programar’, this whitepaper has since been translated into English. Its primary objective is to explore the advantages that the BizTalk Server platform offers to developers.
Hope you find this helpful! So, if you liked the content or found it helpful and want to help me write more content, you can buy (or help buy) my son a Star Wars Lego!
Author: Sandro Pereira
Sandro Pereira lives in Portugal and works as a consultant at DevScope. In the past years, he has been working on implementing Integration scenarios both on-premises and cloud for various clients, each with different scenarios from a technical point of view, size, and criticality, using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft BizTalk Server and different technologies like AS2, EDI, RosettaNet, SAP, TIBCO etc.
He is a regular blogger, international speaker, and technical reviewer of several BizTalk books all focused on Integration. He is also the author of the book “BizTalk Mapping Patterns & Best Practices”. He has been awarded MVP since 2011 for his contributions to the integration community.
View all posts by Sandro Pereira
Yes, I know that in my last post, I told you that it was the previous blog post from Thomas Canter that I was revitalizing. Still, last week, while I was relaxing in my car waiting for my wife to get out of the pool, I received an email titled: Are you interested in more old blogs? Hell yes! was my prompt response… So, here it goes, another Thomas Canter old and still very updated blog post: The New VirtualStream in BizTalk Server 2006.
I bet you are all drooling over the new VirtualStream support in BizTalk Server 2006 (once again, valid for any version of BizTalk Server, including 2020). With this, you can access a forward-read-only stream as if it were a fully implemented stream with backward and forward access to the data.
The VirtualStream is implemented in the undocumented APIs but is also exposed in the SDK as VirtualStream.cs, so I feel pretty safe in using the deployed version.
But, the use of the VirtualStream is not what this is about. This is about the security implications of the VirtualStream. The VS supports a disk caching scheme to store large streams…
As such, this means that the stream size in the cache can be quite large, and you _generally_ don’t have to worry about it, but in fact, you do because this can fail subtly and unexpectedly.
Two things can go wrong in this scenario.
Understand that the stream is cached to the BizTalk Server Host Instance account’s %TEMP% folder, generally under:
C:Documents and SettingsLocal SettingsTemp
The first problem I see here is that the C: drive is NOT a good place to put large files that grow unexpectedly. The IO performance is poor, and in addition, you could exhaust the drive space unexpectedly. So, I recommend manually setting the BizTalk Host Instance’s TEMP folder to a separate drive, preferably a non-backed-up high-speed disk.
Ok, so now you have the TEMP folder set to a separate drive, the second problem that could occur is that the BizTalk Host Instance account may not have Read-Write access to that folder. When the account is logged on the first time, the OS builds the account’s local folder structure and gives it the correct access, but you need to manually set this when you manually set the TEMP folder location.
So:
Try to move the TEMP folder of the BizTalk Host Instance account to a large and non-OS used drive.
Make sure that the BizTalk Host Instance account has full control of the folder.
That’s it! Then you won’t get surprising failures in your pipeline when processing large files.
Thanks Tom for sending me this interesting stuff!
Hope you find this helpful! So, if you liked the content or found it helpful and want to help me write more content, you can buy (or help buy) my son a Star Wars Lego!
Author: Sandro Pereira
Sandro Pereira lives in Portugal and works as a consultant at DevScope. In the past years, he has been working on implementing Integration scenarios both on-premises and cloud for various clients, each with different scenarios from a technical point of view, size, and criticality, using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft BizTalk Server and different technologies like AS2, EDI, RosettaNet, SAP, TIBCO etc.
He is a regular blogger, international speaker, and technical reviewer of several BizTalk books all focused on Integration. He is also the author of the book “BizTalk Mapping Patterns & Best Practices”. He has been awarded MVP since 2011 for his contributions to the integration community.
View all posts by Sandro Pereira
Today, I will bring back to life another old BizTalk Server blog post, the last one, written by an old friend of mine, Thomas Canter, with his permission, that I find pretty interesting and helpful: File System permission for the BizTalk Server 2004 to 2010 File Adapters – be aware that I rename it to File System permission for the BizTalk Server 2004 to 2020 File Adapters. This was initially published on http://geekswithblogs.net/ThomasCanter, now retired.
I’m sure that over time, you’ve run into the dreaded File transport does not have read/write privileges for receive location error.
Usually, you simply go to the folder and either give the BizTalk Account Full Permission (bad) or Everyone Full Permission (really bad).
So, what are the absolute minimum permissions required for a production environment?
Receive File Adapter
For the Receive File Adapter, the explicit permissions are:
NTFS Attribute
Property Name
DELETE
Delete Files
FILE_READ_DATA
List Folder / Read Data
FILE_WRITE_DATA
Create Files / Write Data
FILE_APPEND_DATA
Create Folders / Append Data
FILE_READ_EA
Read Extended Attributes
FILE_WRITE_EA
Write Extended Attributes
FILE_DELETE_CHILD
Delete Subfolders and Files
FILE_READ_ATTRIBUTES
Read Permissions
FILE_WRITE_ATTRIBUTES
Write Attributes
How does this translate into what to do in the System?
Right-clicking on the folder and select Properties. In the security tab, setting Modify is not enough, though you would think so:
Strangely enough, the Delete Subfolders and Files attribute is not set when the Modify property is set. You need to add the FILE_DELETE_CHILD Delete Subfolders and Files Attribute:
Once you have added the Delete Subfolders and Files check box, you will have the minimum permissions for the file receive adapter.
Send File Adapter
The permission for the File Send adapter depends on what properties you have set in the Adapter’s Advanced properties:
If you have the Use temporary file while writing flag un-checked, then all you need are:
NTFS Attribute
Property Name
FILE_WRITE_DATA
Create Files / Write Data
If you have the Use temporary file while writing flag checked, then the flags you need are:
NTFS Attribute
Property Name
DELETE
Delete (or Delete Files)
FILE_WRITE_DATA
Create Files / Write Data
FILE_DELETE_CHILD
Delete Subfolders and Files
FILE_READ_ATTRIBUTES
Read Permissions
Note: I couldn’t get the original pictures in good quality, so I decided to create and update the pictures to the current days but keep the essence of the original ones.
Hope you find this helpful! So, if you liked the content or found it helpful and want to help me write more content, you can buy (or help buy) my son a Star Wars Lego!
Author: Sandro Pereira
Sandro Pereira lives in Portugal and works as a consultant at DevScope. In the past years, he has been working on implementing Integration scenarios both on-premises and cloud for various clients, each with different scenarios from a technical point of view, size, and criticality, using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft BizTalk Server and different technologies like AS2, EDI, RosettaNet, SAP, TIBCO etc.
He is a regular blogger, international speaker, and technical reviewer of several BizTalk books all focused on Integration. He is also the author of the book “BizTalk Mapping Patterns & Best Practices”. He has been awarded MVP since 2011 for his contributions to the integration community.
View all posts by Sandro Pereira
I’m thrilled to be back doing a presential event after INTEGRATE 2023! And I’m excited to return to Gothenburg and Sweden after seven years! It has been so long! The last time I was in Sweden was in 2016 when I presented at BizTalk User Group Sweden in Stockholm and Gothenburg.
This time, I was invited by Contica to present at their event: BizTalk to Azure -The Migration Journey. In fact, my presence should have happened last year, but for personal reasons, I had to cancel my trip. But I promised that I would come back, and here it is! And to make up for it, in double dose! I will be delivering not one but two talks:
1: Elevating Integration – The Roadmap from BizTalk Server: If you are embracing the journey to move your current BizTalk Server environment to the cloud, in this session, we’ll guide you through the steps, strategies, and best practices needed to successfully transition your integration solutions to the cloud. What phases in your migration journey are crucial? Which tools and technologies should you use? After this session, you’ll know about the dos and don’ts, as well as the key considerations that will empower the agility and scalability of Azure Integration Services. Join us to unlock the potential of Azure’s cloud-native services and streamline your integration landscape.
2: Azure Integration in Action – BizTalk to Azure Transition Case Studies: Join us for an engaging session where we bring Azure Integration Services to life through simple real-world case samples. Through these exercises, you’ll gain practical insights, strategies, and tips to ensure a smooth BizTalk Server migration while embracing Azure’s agility, scalability, and cost-efficiency. Take advantage of this opportunity to see Azure Integration Services in action, guiding your path toward a seamless and future-ready integration landscape.
The event will take place on September 28, 2023, between 5 PM – 9 PM (local time) at Contica, floor 9 Masthamnsgatan 1, Göteborg, Sweden.
Simon Stender will join me at this eventto deliver a session about Design and Infrastructure in Azure: Shaping Robust Infrastructure.
Sandro Pereira lives in Portugal and works as a consultant at DevScope. In the past years, he has been working on implementing Integration scenarios both on-premises and cloud for various clients, each with different scenarios from a technical point of view, size, and criticality, using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft BizTalk Server and different technologies like AS2, EDI, RosettaNet, SAP, TIBCO etc.
He is a regular blogger, international speaker, and technical reviewer of several BizTalk books all focused on Integration. He is also the author of the book “BizTalk Mapping Patterns & Best Practices”. He has been awarded MVP since 2011 for his contributions to the integration community.
View all posts by Sandro Pereira
A Log Analytics workspace is a unique environment for logging data from Azure Monitor and other Azure services, such as Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft Defender for Cloud. Each workspace has its own data repository and configuration but might combine data from multiple services. It is also a centralized place where you can store, collect, and analyze data from various sources.
Think of it as a tool that helps you keep track of everything happening across your Azure environment. It allows you to perform advanced analytics and visualize data in real-time to help you identify and troubleshoot issues quickly. You can also use it to create custom queries and alerts, set up automation tasks, and integrate with other Azure services to get even more insights into your data. Overall, the log analytics workspace is a powerful tool that helps you stay on top of your Azure environment and ensure everything runs smoothly.
In this video, we’ll cover the process of sending log analytics error reports by filtering data from an entire resource group.
Send Log Analytics error reports by filtering Data from an entire Resource Group by Luis Rigueira
Hope you find this helpful! So, if you liked the content or found it useful and want to help me write more content, you can buy (or help buy) my son a Star Wars Lego!
Big thanks to my team member Luís Rigueira for creating this video.
Author: Sandro Pereira
Sandro Pereira lives in Portugal and works as a consultant at DevScope. In the past years, he has been working on implementing Integration scenarios both on-premises and cloud for various clients, each with different scenarios from a technical point of view, size, and criticality, using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft BizTalk Server and different technologies like AS2, EDI, RosettaNet, SAP, TIBCO etc.
He is a regular blogger, international speaker, and technical reviewer of several BizTalk books all focused on Integration. He is also the author of the book “BizTalk Mapping Patterns & Best Practices”. He has been awarded MVP since 2011 for his contributions to the integration community.
View all posts by Sandro Pereira
Azure Logic App (Consumption) is one of the most used integration services for orchestrating critical workflows, and an error in it would essentially affect your business continuity.
By default, Logic App allows handling errors using the Configure run after settings at a per action level. For more complex scenarios, it can be done by setting up Scope action and implementing try-catch or try-catch-finally statements.
This video aims to explain and discuss error handling within Logic Apps and explore the implementation of a try-catch-finally statement. Even though we are using Logic Apps Consumption for this proof of concept, the same principles will be applied to Logic Apps Standard.
Error Handling in Logic Apps by Luis Rígueira
Hope you find this helpful! So, if you liked the content or found it useful and want to help me write more content, you can buy (or help buy) my son a Star Wars Lego!
Big thanks to my team member Luís Rigueira for creating this video.
Author: Sandro Pereira
Sandro Pereira lives in Portugal and works as a consultant at DevScope. In the past years, he has been working on implementing Integration scenarios both on-premises and cloud for various clients, each with different scenarios from a technical point of view, size, and criticality, using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft BizTalk Server and different technologies like AS2, EDI, RosettaNet, SAP, TIBCO etc.
He is a regular blogger, international speaker, and technical reviewer of several BizTalk books all focused on Integration. He is also the author of the book “BizTalk Mapping Patterns & Best Practices”. He has been awarded MVP since 2011 for his contributions to the integration community.
View all posts by Sandro Pereira
Today, I will bring back to life another old BizTalk Server blog post by an old friend of mine, Thomas Canter, with his permission, that I find pretty interesting and useful: Checking for the existence of a property. This was initially published on http://geekswithblogs.net/ThomasCanter, now retired.
NOTE:
The variable PropExists as bool has already been created
The Property of interest is BTS.RetryCount
The Message is Message_In
The list from Using Operators in Expressions (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/biztalk/core/using-operators-in-expressions) has the typical list of stuff that you expect in C#, multiplication, bit operations (shift left and right), and Boolean operators, but a couple of extremely useful constructs are available that are unique to BizTalk.
The most important of these (in my humble opinion) is the exists operator.
As you are all aware, to even check whether a property exists in an expression throws an exception… as in the following case:
If BTS.RetryCount does not exist in the message context, then the MissingPropertyException (Windows Event Log Event ID 10019) is thrown.
Without having to resort to a scope shape and exception handler, the exists operator allows you to check if a property exists in a message and is used in the following format:
PropExists = BTS.RetryCount exists Message_In;
OR
if (BTS.RetryCount exists Message_In)
{
…;
}
Conclusion
Using the XLANG/s exists operator in your orchestration allows you to test for the existence of a property in a message without resorting to a scope shape and exception handler.
Below are a few more XLANG/s functions that can provide some value to your Orchestrations:
Operator
Description
Example
checked()
raise error on arithmetic overflow
checked(x = y * 1000)
unchecked()
ignore arithmetic overflow
unchecked(x = y * 1000)
succeeded()
test for successful completion of transactional scope or orchestration
succeeded()
exists
test for the existence of a message context property
BTS.RetryCount exists Message_In
Hope you find this helpful! So, if you liked the content or found it helpful and want to help me write more content, you can buy (or help buy) my son a Star Wars Lego!
Author: Sandro Pereira
Sandro Pereira lives in Portugal and works as a consultant at DevScope. In the past years, he has been working on implementing Integration scenarios both on-premises and cloud for various clients, each with different scenarios from a technical point of view, size, and criticality, using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft BizTalk Server and different technologies like AS2, EDI, RosettaNet, SAP, TIBCO etc.
He is a regular blogger, international speaker, and technical reviewer of several BizTalk books all focused on Integration. He is also the author of the book “BizTalk Mapping Patterns & Best Practices”. He has been awarded MVP since 2011 for his contributions to the integration community.
View all posts by Sandro Pereira
