Deployment in BizTalk 2006 is a greatly improved process over that of BizTalk 2004. The typical deployment process in BizTalk 2006 goes something like this:

1. Export the MSI using BizTalk Administration
2. Move to target computer
3. Import MSI through BizTalk Administration or BTSTASK
4. Run the MSI to GAC the DLL’s

Simple and straight forward. But why do we need to run the MSI after we import it?

This accomplishes a few things, mostly to GAC the DLL’s and to have the MSI package show up under Add/Remove programs. This makes is easy to see what has been deployed to the target computer.

But what if you only wanted to move the code to one target computer and you did not care about seeing the items under Add/Remove programs?

Well, then you could change the DLL properties (a.k.a. Resources) inside BizTalk Administration to
actually GAC your DLLs on MSI import.

How to change the Resource properties in BizTalk 2006

Step 1: Open BizTalk 2006 Administration, select your Application, click on Resources.

Step 2: Select the first BizTalk Assembly Resource, right click, select Modify

 Step 3: Under Modify Resources – Options box, check the “Add to the Global Assembly Cache on MSI file import (gacutil)”

4. Repeat for each BizTalk Assembly or other resources in your application that you needed GACed.

It is that easy!  Now when you import the MSI your BizTalk resources will be put into the global assembly cache without any additional effort. 

Now remember, just because you can do something does not mean you should.  This most likely would be most valuable on a single computer install and remember you MSI will not show up under Add/Remote programs.