by community-syndication | Oct 6, 2009 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Ever needed to scan the entire database for a specific value? I ran into problem twice in one week, so I put some thought into it, and hopefully it will help someone else.
DECLARE @wordToSearchFor varchar(50)
SET @wordToSearchFor = 'BizTalk Application Users' -- The word you search for
DECLARE @query varchar(500)
DECLARE SearchAll CURSOR FOR
SELECT 'IF(SELECT COUNT(*) FROM [' + TABLE_SCHEMA + '].[' + TABLE_NAME
+ '] WHERE ['+COLUMN_NAME+'] = '''+@wordToSearchFor+''')>0
BEGIN SELECT * FROM [' + TABLE_SCHEMA + '].[' + TABLE_NAME
+ '] WHERE ['+COLUMN_NAME+'] = ''BizTalk Server Administrators''
PRINT ''[' + TABLE_SCHEMA + '].[' + TABLE_NAME + ']'' END'
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE DATA_TYPE LIKE '%CHAR'
OPEN SearchAll
FETCH NEXT FROM SearchAll INTO @query
WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
BEGIN
EXEC (@query)
FETCH NEXT FROM SearchAll INTO @query
END
CLOSE SearchAll
DEALLOCATE SearchAll
Hope this helps
by community-syndication | Oct 5, 2009 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Hello,
I just made available version 10.15 of MBV : http://blogs.technet.com/jpierauc/pages/msgboxviewer.aspx
This build fixes some bugs of version 10.14 of course but provides also lot of new queries & rules and use now some VBS queries like “MSDTC Setting” , “RPC Settings”‘, ‘TCP Settings”, etc…
Using VBS script with WMI calls in these queries allow to target correclty this time 64bits registries on 64 bits Servers.
As you probably now, a 32 bits tool like MBV using .NET remote registry functions can target only the 32 bits version of registry on a 64 bit server (by design with .NET) , so until now MBV returned sometimes invalid MSDTC settings for example when targeting 64 bits servers.
Using WMI in VBS script can workaround this limitation specifying the type of provider to load (32 bits or 64 bits).
I added also some new queries and one interesting query I added is the “Artifacts per host” one which list all artifacts used by each host.
For our Support teams for example, it is indeed critical to see very quickly which host manage which type of artifacts.
I also identify now what we name COM+ or MSDTC “Rollup package” from the software layers found on each server. We have again some dependencies with COM+ and obviously MSDTC so it is is important to know which COM+ or MSDTC version is installed on each server before to decide to apply possible COM+/MSDTC hotfixes.
You will find the list of new features in this version here : http://blogs.technet.com/jpierauc/pages/msgboxviewer.aspx
Feel free to report me your comments, suggestions, and of course the bug you could find 😉
Thanks
JP
by community-syndication | Oct 4, 2009 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
My buddy Kent Weare is launching a great series of posts on pulling/pushing documents
in/from SharePoint and BizTalk. Using InfoPath to beautify what hard-core developers
have known for years – that thing called XML.
Kent’s just rolling up his sleeves and getting cracking – http://kentweare.blogspot.com/2009/10/biztalk-2009-sharepointwss-30.html
Well done Kent – looks great!
by community-syndication | Oct 4, 2009 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Something that I’ve come across in recent years and it concerns me more and morelong
running transactions.
For example let’s take an Insurance Company implementing a Claims Process.
The way it works is:
-
Design Long Running Business Processes around BizTalk Orchestrations
Sounds great on the surface and since BizTalk 2004, the techniques for implementing
this were easier.
Basically – the BizTalk Environment will look after ensuring state is maintained,
waiting Orchestrations are managed and Correlations are in place for return messages,
that may return seconds, minutes, weeks or months later.
So in this case we’d implement a main claims process manager which
is runs for the duration the claim is active in the system.
A Claim comes in, enters the System and the Claims Process Manager initiates and we’re
off and running.
A common technique with long running processes is to forcibly suspend biztalk
messages that are in error. At a later date someone looks into the BizTalk
Admin Console (or via a WMI query) and ’deals with’ the suspended messages.
The benefit of these suspended messages is that they potentially can be resumed right
where they left off and these messages are stored in the MsgBoxDB awaiting attention.
The reason why I don’t think this works:
-
Messages are immutable – meaning that while they’re in the MsgBoxDB they can’t be
changed (technically we *can* changed these messages as a hack, but it’s *not supported*).
So if the message is incorrect and in the overall process, we might fix the problem
and resubmit that message – we can’t do this from within the MessageBox. We have to
export the message out and provide some ’resubmit to biztalk’ port (usually a file
port).
-
BizTalk MessageBoxDB is keeping state of the system. In process Claims are part floating
around as part of our system (we could also be a bank processing Loans etc etc). If
we lose the MessageBoxDB this could spell even more trouble.
-
Also system upgrade complexity moves up that extra notch, careful planning and various
considerations need to be thought out. Pending Orchestrations have to be allowed to
run through to completion; hydrated messages waiting to be sent through Ports, means
that those ports must stay around until these messages are dealt with and many other.
-
Backup – despite the recent advancements in SQL Server 2008 (mirroring) we can’t take
advantage of it in the BizTalk world.
The supported Technique is to use Log Shipping – The recommended
backup interval is 15 minutes so worse case your system is out 15
minutes in the case of a crash.
This is not entirely true on busy systems the actual log shipping process may take
between 15-30 mins to backup. This means that during the time while log shipping backup
is running, the system is not being backed up. So all in all your system could be
running for 1hr (approx.) with no covering backup.
This essentially is the state of your solution.
What Does Work.in my opinion.
-
Manage the State of your System in another area, such as SQL or SharePoint.
-
Where possible keep the Orchestrations short running.
-
Upgrades are simplier
-
System maintenance is simplier.
-
Provide a MSMQ or File Inbound Port for ’Resubmission into BizTalk’.
-
Use Content Based Routing to establish mutually exclusive processes.
Food for thought folks, from what I’ve worked on and noticed out in the field.
Mick.
by community-syndication | Oct 3, 2009 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
I was importing an MSI into one of our regions, and I received the following error:
“Import/Copy failed as there are active/pending batches. Stop active/pending batches and try importing/copying. (Microsoft.BizTalk.Edi.PartnerAgreementManager)
I was deploying a lot of pipeline components and by simply stopping the BizTalk service(s), it installed successfully.
by community-syndication | Oct 3, 2009 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
This morning I decided this was something I wanted to do. So, I BINGed around and saw others had already been down this path. However, their techniques didn’t work for me (this is still a CTP, change is certain, and perhaps that’s why). Eventually, I connected, and thought I would do a post here for the benefit of others who may have similar issues.
As has been stated, you need to cancel out of the initial connection dialog box you get when you start Management Studio, and then choose New Query to get a connection dialog. If you don’t do that, you will not be able to connect.
Some key points about my dialog below:
- Server name: this is the FQDN (do NOT include the “tcp:” prefix the Azure portal shows in the connection strings for server name)
- Login: this is just my user name as shown in the connection string on the portal (and not <username>@<servername>) as most posts show
- Click the Options button an type in the name of the database you want to connect to
After doing that, if all goes well, you’ll get the following dialog, which you can ignore.
After I did that, I was able to do this:
Some more notes:
- As Richard points out here, you need to specify a clustered index, or table creation will fail
- As Ramaprasanna says here, most problems people have are firewall issues
Hope this help. Now that I’ve successfully flexed this brand new capability, I’m going to brainstorm with myself about what cool things I can do with it.
by community-syndication | Oct 3, 2009 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Mark Coleman found a bug in the implementation of Per-Instance Config support in my PipelineTesting library for BizTalk Server. The problem was related to how the config XML was parsed, and would only manifest itself on certain conditions, depending on how said XML was formatted.
Mark was also gracious enough to propose the fix, which I’ve […]
by community-syndication | Oct 3, 2009 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Hi all
Jon Skeet, who has been a C# MVP since 2003, as I understand it was to have his MVP
renewed on October 1’st 2009, but his employer Google advised him not to be renewed,
so he had to tell Microsoft to not consider him for renewal. You can see Jons blog
entry here.
To be honest, I think it is very petty way Google is thinking.
So to Jon: Great work, keep it up, and hopefully either Google will come around or
you will find a better job and get your MVP status back.
—
eliasen
by community-syndication | Oct 3, 2009 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Hi all
Now, I am aware that people following my blog are probably very likely to follow Richard
Seroters blog as well, but just in case you haven’t noticed, Richard tortured
me with his 4 questions this time 🙂
You can find his questions and my answers here.
Now, being interviewed by Richard and thus having a link to my blog appear on his
blog entry is bound to generate some traffic to my blog from people who either didn’t
know me or didn’t visit my blog So naturally, the first about 12 hour after Richard
posted his interview, my blog was down because the webhosting company that hosts eliasen.dk
had changed something or something else, who knows? 🙂
As you can see, though, my blog is again up and running and will hopefully stay this
way! 🙂
—
eliasen
by community-syndication | Oct 3, 2009 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
I’m a little late in announcing this. WSCF.blue is now formally released to web as v1. Although its only been out 3-4 days now we’ve crossed over a 100 downloads already. Whew. Looks like a lot of folk were waiting for this release
Christian Weyer has blogged about the release. I would also like […]
