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
Just less than one day to go for the webinar series on accelerating BizTalk Server to Azure Integration Services migration!
The first session will occur on March 2 (tomorrow) from 10 – 11AM GMT, hosted by Kent Weare, about Microsoft offerings to accelerate BizTalk to Azure migration.
Do you wonder what Microsoft offers to advance BizTalk to Azure migration? Kent Weare, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft, will highlight the key resources in this session.
The second session will be with me, which will occur on March 9 from 10 – 11AM GMT, about migration from BizTalk Server to Azure Integration Services.
How do Enterprises deal with BizTalk to Azure migration? Sandro Pereira, Head of Integration at DevScope, will share the migration strategies and best practices acquired from his experience with multiple Global Enterprises!
And finally, the third and last session will occur on March 10 from 10 – 11AM GMT, hosted by Michael Stephenson and Lex Hegt, about Addressing the Operational challenges in BizTalk Server to Azure Integration Services migration.
Michael Stephenson, Coach and Consultant, Microsoft Azure Adoption, Connected Systems Consulting Ltd, and Lex Hegt, Lead Product Consultant at BizTalk360 & Serverless360, will educate us on the Operations perspective of BizTalk Server to Azure migration highlighting the importance of defining a support strategy using reliable solutions available.
Hurry Up & Save your spot now, the webinar is free, and if you are in the Enterprise Integration space, you don’t want to miss it.
Key takeaways from the webinar series
Microsoft offerings to advance the BizTalk to Azure migration.
Strategy options and planning considerations for migrations.
Best practices to accelerate BizTalk to Azure migration.
Operations aspects of the migration from BizTalk to Azure.
Join us in this webinar series for exclusive expert advice on BizTalk to Azure migration!
Link for the registration
You can register for this webinar series here:
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
This documentation is intended for clients considering or having already decided to move their entire BizTalk Server on-premises integration solution to Azure or parts of the solution into Azure, making some hybrid solutions and helping them with this process.
Now I had, once again, the honor of being invited a few weeks ago by my friend – and now Microsoft Principal Product Manager – Azure Logic Apps – Kent Weare to record a special episode on BizTalk Server to Azure Integration Services – Ask the Experts on his YouTube channel.
In this episode, we are going to discuss some important questions and concerns customers may have on this journey to migrate their BizTalk Server Solutions to Azure, like:
What are some examples of BizTalk migrations that I have been involved in? What is the biggest driver for these customers?
If I’m helping a customer migrate, what advice would I provide to the customer?
When considering BizTalk architectures, what is an anti-pattern or something that customers should avoid/re-think as they move to Azure?
And many other questions.
You can see the full episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYLFsUK5AmY
I hope you enjoy and find this topic interesting. Let me know what you think.
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
This guideline is focused on clients considering or having already decided to move their entire BizTalk Server on-premises integration solution to Azure or parts of the solution into Azure, therefore, making some hybrid solutions. Of course, in this process, many questions about best practices to use, what services to use, and others will be raised.
This guide provides an overview of the reasons and benefits, product comparisons, capabilities, and other information to help you start migrating from on-premises BizTalk Server solutions to cloud-based Azure Integration Services. Following this guide, you’ll find more guides that cover how to choose the services that best fit your scenario, along with migration strategies, planning considerations, and best practices to help you deliver successful results:
This is a simple feature matchup diagram that you will find in the guide:
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
Wow… what a 2+ years journey. Writing a book during the pandemic phase and dealing with all aspects of the book was a challenger, and for that, I have to say thank you to Tom Canter and Lex Hegt for taking this journey with me and thank you Kovai and Saravana for supporting us!
I was also surprised that the book was released today because today was also the day I got back to the office and provided a copy of the book to my team! A lucky coincidence! Thanks, Pedro Almeida and Diogo Formosinho, for the support during these last years.
And of course, I have to say thanks to the people that also make part of this book: Mandi Anez Ohlinder for writing the foreword, Steve Lemkau, and JoAnn Een for reviewing it!
Migrating to BizTalk Server 2020
This book is intended to be a valuable resource for managers, architects, developers, testers, and administrators involved in migrating BizTalk Server platforms and solutions running on previous versions toward BizTalk Server 2020. It will provide practical recipes and strategies that will help them enhance and strengthen their knowledge in this sensitive and sometimes complicated upgrade process.
This book is a “mini” bible to migrate your BizTalk Server to the last version of the product covering all most aspects of this topic:
Overview of BizTalk Server 2020: will provide the reader with a full overview of BizTalk Server 2020, the latest version of the product, addressing topics like what are the main components and core features, what is new, what was deprecated or removed from this version and hardware and Software requirements & supported versions as well
Migration Drivers (why upgrade to BizTalk Server 2020): Many companies have this idea that upgrading to newer versions of BizTalk Server can be challenging, and they tend to skip certain version upgrades to minimize the effort and the costs. This chapter aims to address and discuss the main reasons why you should migrate from the previous version of the BizTalk Server to this latest version
Preparing for Your Upgrade: There are specific tasks, considerations, and components standard in each platform migration, but in the end, every BizTalk Server migration is different from each other. This chapter will go thru the Evaluate, Plan, and Implement (EPI) approach, providing you a path for completing your upgrade in a controlled and timely manner, focusing on the key considerations that need to be taken into account when planning your migration
In-place upgrade: Despite in-place migration or BizTalk Server upgrade is not supported in all scenarios, and in most cases, not recommended in production environments. It is still a valid option. This chapter will outline the key considerations that need to be taken into account when planning an in-place migration of your BizTalk Server environment
Migrating to BizTalk Server 2020 (side-by-side): Side-by-side migration is probably the most common migration path used. And once we decided on this approach, we need to understand and clarify all the steps that need to be performed to migrate from your previous BizTalk Server version to BizTalk Server 2020. his chapter will discuss the steps around setting up the new platform, making you aware of challenges that come with maintaining multiple (live) environments, and providing you will all the tips and recommendations for you to migrate your BizTalk solutions peacefully and transparently. After completing this chapter, you will be aware of and understand what will be involved in a migration process and the efforts required for each component
Migrating to Azure: This last chapter covers the key takeaways that you need to consider before deciding to migrate or move your on-premiss BizTalk Server machines to Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). When you can and can’t move, why you should move and what will be required. While not the focus of this book, this chapter will also briefly look at the BizTalk Server solution migration process to Azure Integration Services. Highlighting what will be possible or not, the difficulties you might encounter, and some approaches they could use to make this transition as simple as possible
Where can I order the book?
For now, the book is available for you can order the book online at Shopify here:
Finally, to my wife Fernanda and my children Leonor, Laura e José, my life would be empty and meaningless without all your hugs, jokes, crying to demand attention, affection, and all our other crazy things. Thanks for being part of my life.
While going through my adventure on a BizTalk Server + Host Integration Server (HIS) project and mainframe connectivity, I’m trying to migrate an old HIS2006 solution to BTS2016 + HIS2016. Just ten years of evolution, I notice that:
Many things on HIS2006 are not compatible with HIS2016.
You may found some new limitations and new features.
Luckily Microsoft provides tools to migrate several components, especially the TI resources.
HIS Tools have changed:
SNA Manager is quite the same. Maybe some screens and options are a bit different.
TI Manager is no longer available. Now we have a different tool called TI Configuration Tool with the same goals as the previous one. However, the way we configure Host-Initiated Processing (HIP) and Windows-Initiated Processing (WIP) is different nowadays.
The HIS documentation is quite limited, and you will not find much information about it.
I have to say I’m lucky to have good friends, and because of that, I have been learning a lot with my dear friend Steve Melan, that is the best expert I know regarding HIS.
The last strange (all of them are strange) issue I encountered while trying to Add Host-Initiated Processing (HIP) Object on my HIP configuration by using the Transaction Integration (TI) Configuration Tool was:
Add TI HIP Implementing Assembly
Invalid Assembly. Assembly does not contain any TI Objects that inherit from interface: namespace.interface
Or in other cases:
Invalid Assembly. Unable to load one or more of the requested types. Retrieve the LoaderExceptions property for more information.
Cause
As I told you before, many things changed from HIS2006 to HIS2016, and migrate the Host Application projects is not direct – Visual Studio does not migrate the project as it does for a C# project or BizTalk Server project. Instead, you need to migrate the resources using the TIConversionTool and then import them to your Visual Studio Host Application project.
And you need to make sure that you are not breaking anything like methods and interface names. And then, you need to reference these new resources (DLL containing the .Net Server Definition) on your interface implementation project. This interface implementation is a C#, or VB, class library project. Then, inside that project, you need to create a class that implements the inherited .Net Server Definition interface and provides the implementation of all the members defined within the interface – in this case, all the operations or COBOL programs in that Host Application .Net Server Definition.
My problem was that this interface implementation was also a very old project, compiled in .NET 2.0. For some reason, I yet not completely understood, and despite successfully migrating them to .NET4.6.1, I couldn’t make it fully compatible with the HIP, and I always got these two issues above.
Solution
The resolution was, in fact, quite simple. Basically, I create a new C# class library project from scratch and copy-paste all the existing code to the new one, recreating the old one manually.
Surprise… everything work perfectly! And then, I could create the HIP object.
An example of a Host Application .Net Server Definition interface implementation is something like this:
using RemoteOrder;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Runtime.Remoting;
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels;
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Tcp;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using IHIPServices;
namespace TestOrders
{
public class OrderImplementation : IHIPServices
{
void IHIPServices.GetOrders(ref string value)
{
/*
* Implement the logic
*
*/
}
}
}
What you need to be aware of are:
It should reference these two HIS assemblies:
Microsoft.HostIntegration.TI.ClientContext
Microsoft.HostIntegration.TI.ServerContext
It should reference the Host Application .Net Server Definition assembly
In this case, represented by IHIPServices
Implement the interface members
In this case, represented by IHIPServices.GetOrders(ref string value)
It is a strange year, and for the first time since 2013, we didn’t have face to face INTEGRATE event. Instead, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year we had to go with an online event. Despite all of that, it was a great event. Nevertheless, I miss that social interaction we use to have and see friends that I usually only see once a year in this event.
The good part for me in being an online event was that I was able to attend (or view) the sessions at my on rhythmic. Having three small kids at home can be a challenge, and it was a little difficult to attend in real-time to all the sessions, so once they went to bed, I could see the sessions that I miss out during the day without having to wait two months for them to be available online.
About my session
Session Name: BizTalk Server 2020: Migration Path
Session Overview: The goal of this session to demystify and clarify the BizTalk Server migration process and help both implementation teams as decision-makers to be aware of all the considerations that need to be taken into account when planning your migration to BizTalk Server 2020 and hopefully helping you carry out these tasks.
Like previous years, the event was recorded, so if for any reason you could not be present at these events, or if you want to review it again, you can now do it here:
INTEGRATE (formerly known as BizTalk Summit) is the primary conference for professionals working in the Microsoft Integration space and once again is back this time REMOTE due to the COVID-19 issue around the word. It will be the first-ever INTEGRATE REMOTE conference that will happen from June 1 to 3, 28 speakers – 12 MVPs, 15 Microsoft PM and 1 former MVP – will address the entire Microsoft Integration Platform landscape on topics like BizTalk Server, Logic Apps, Service Bus, Event Grid, Event Hubs, Power Automate, API Management, Azure Functions and many more.
And once again I will be there delivering a session – since the first BizTalk Summit event, I’m a constant presence as a speaker at these events – about BizTalk Server! This time on a session about: Migration Path to BizTalk Server 2020.
About my session
Session Name: BizTalk Server 2020: Migration Path
The goal of this session to demystify and clarify the BizTalk Server migration process and help both implementation teams as decision-makers to be aware of all the considerations that need to be taken into account when planning your migration to BizTalk Server 2020 and hopefully helping you carry out these tasks.
INTEGRATE 2020 Remote Registration
You are still on time to register for the conference here. Use my coupon discount INT2020-SPEAKER-SANDRO to get 15% discount!
What we learned when migrating a BizTalk Server 2006 farm (with multiple solutions/projects) to BizTalk Server 2013R2:
1. You need an intermediate step
Migrating BizTalk 2006 solutions directly to BizTalk 2013R2 (Visualt Studio 2013) is not supported. You will need to migrate the solution to BizTalk 2010 (Visual Studio 2010) first as an intermediate step. More information here in a MSDN forum thread. (nothing fancy in this one I must admit, but you need to take this step into account when estimating an upgrade…)
2. Install the latest BizTalk CU on your development machine
The fact that we needed an extra intermediate step in the migration process was no big deal in our situatuion. We had an emtpy VM with BizTalk 2010 and Visual Studio 2010 in place. This machine was installed a few years ago by a developer, but was never used. It had no BizTalk Cumulative Updates installed.
We didn’t have any issues when migrating simple BizTalk 2006 solutions. We migrated to BizTalk 2010 and then migrated to BizTalk 2013R2 on an other machine.
When migrating the more complex solutions (big orchestrations and lots of ASMX web ports), we started to experience some weird behaviour in Visual Studio 2010:
This issue might also occur when you try to build a BizTalk Server 2010 solution that was converted from a Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2 or Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009 solution in Visual Studio 2010.
After installing BizTalk Server 2010 CU8 on our development machine (the latest update at that moment), we restarted the migration (from the original BizTalk 2006 solution) of those complex projects, without the need to replace anything. The whole migration process completed without any error!
So, spare yourself the misery and start with a fully up to date BizTalk 2010 development environment. Other blogs on the internet might suggest to fix the “mismatched ‘braces’ ‘{}’ error” error by manually editting the .odx file. This was not the correct fix in our case as the error kept returning after every other change in the orchestration.
What we learned when migrating a BizTalk Server 2006 farm (with multiple solutions/projects) to BizTalk Server 2013R2:
1. You need an intermediate step
Migrating BizTalk 2006 solutions directly to BizTalk 2013R2 (Visualt Studio 2013) is not supported. You will need to migrate the solution to BizTalk 2010 (Visual Studio 2010) first as an intermediate step. More information here in a MSDN forum thread. (nothing fancy in this one I must admit, but you need to take this step into account when estimating an upgrade…)
2. Install the latest BizTalk CU on your development machine
The fact that we needed an extra intermediate step in the migration process was no big deal in our situatuion. We had an emtpy VM with BizTalk 2010 and Visual Studio 2010 in place. This machine was installed a few years ago by a developer, but was never used. It had no BizTalk Cumulative Updates installed.
We didn’t have any issues when migrating simple BizTalk 2006 solutions. We migrated to BizTalk 2010 and then migrated to BizTalk 2013R2 on an other machine.
When migrating the more complex solutions (big orchestrations and lots of ASMX web ports), we started to experience some weird behaviour in Visual Studio 2010:
This issue might also occur when you try to build a BizTalk Server 2010 solution that was converted from a Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2 or Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009 solution in Visual Studio 2010.
After installing BizTalk Server 2010 CU8 on our development machine (the latest update at that moment), we restarted the migration (from the original BizTalk 2006 solution) of those complex projects, without the need to replace anything. The whole migration process completed without any error!
So, spare yourself the misery and start with a fully up to date BizTalk 2010 development environment. Other blogs on the internet might suggest to fix the “mismatched ‘braces’ ‘{}’ error” error by manually editting the .odx file. This was not the correct fix in our case as the error kept returning after every other change in the orchestration.
