White Papers

This whitepaper provides operations guidance based on real-world experience. The idea for the guide originated with Microsoft field representatives, partner organizations, and customers who plan, deploy, and maintain BizTalk Server installations. This group of IT professionals has accumulated extensive hands-on experience with a diverse range of BizTalk solutions. As they gained experience they created checklists, best practices, and presentations to guide future BizTalk Server operations. We collected and organized this information to create the guide.

This guide consolidates and provides prescriptive guidance on the best practices and techniques that should be followed to optimize BizTalk Server performance.

This guide explains how to use Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2 with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. The emphasis is on BizTalk Server, but the performance evaluation methods and performance testing scenarios are useful for analyzing the performance of virtualized server applications in general. This guide will be of interest to both the IT Pro and Developer communities.

Customization of message processing in Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2 can be extended through the use of Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) custom behaviors. This article is the first of two parts discussing how the use of WCF custom behaviors within BizTalk Server gives increased control over the message transmission process.

Customization of message processing in Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2 can be extended through the use of Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) custom behaviors. This article is the second of two parts discussing how the use of WCF custom behaviors within BizTalk Server gives increased control over the message transmission process.

This whitepaper provides developers with techniques for designing, developing, and deploying solutions within Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2 in conjunction with Team Foundation Server.

Microsoft added Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) to Microsoft BizTalk Server as a way for business analysts to track information that is important to them. This paper provides a deep, low-level review of how BAM works and how BAM can be extended. It reviews BAM basics, shows ways in which BAM data can be collected, discusses the BAM infrastructure, demonstrates methods for collecting BAM data, and shows how BAM can be extended to non-Microsoft technologies.

There are several roles involved during a BAM solution development including business analyst, BizTalk developer, and system administrator. This training breaks down the BAM solution development into roles. Each lesson covers the background information, the tools and the development procedures. This kit contains the following: an overview of the BAM feature ("BAM Training.doc"); a BAM solution sample ("BAM Training_Hands-On Exercises.doc"); sample code files to use with the sample solution ("BAM Training_Lab Files" folder); and a PowerPoint slide deck to use in an instructor-led setting ("BAM Training_Instructor Slide Deck.ppt").

This white paper describes how to track failed messages in Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 by using Business Activity Monitoring (BAM). It contains steps for creating a basic solution for tracking failed messages. It also provides tips for variations to track different types of failed messages.

Microsoft and SAP deliver software solutions to enable a flexible integration and application infrastructure. It is well known that connecting a line of business (LOB) system has become an important task to many customers and the area of SAP is of particular importance and relevance today. This whitepaper presents an overview of the integration components and then describes usage scenarios for setting up interoperability between SAP and other software solutions using Microsoft® BizTalk Adapter Pack.

Microsoft delivers software solutions to enable a flexible integration and application infrastructure. The area of integration is of particular importance and relevance today. Typically connecting to heterogeneous and line of business (LOB) systems has become an important task for many customers. As a result this most often increased development costs and application complexity. This whitepaper presents an overview of the various integration components. The objective is to explain a unified and open approach on the technology of Microsoft Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) programming model.

This whitepaper explains how BizTalk Server can leverage OAGIS schemas within BizTalk Server processes, maintaining data in a consistent and open format while taking advantage of BizTalk Server’s development and processing features. Unless required by a specific process or partner, the data can remain in OAGIS format for the entire processing lifecycle.

This paper discusses the use of Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2 and its WCF adapters as a platform for service orientation that alleviates the aforementioned integration challenges. The paper emphasizes the configuration and integration of custom WCF bindings with BizTalk solutions, through the use of the above adapter platform.

This article provides you with the best solutions for implementing and achieving optimal performance, scalability, and functionality in your applications; it also covers best practices when using the Microsoft® BizTalk® Adapter Pack as stand-alone or in association with Microsoft BizTalk Server and offers suggestions that can help you optimize the design of your application.

When BizTalk Server processes a message, many components work together, such as Internet Information Services (IIS), Active Server Pages .NET (ASP .NET), SOAP adapter, orchestrations, remote Web services, and so on. Because of the variety of technologies, performance considerations, and business scenarios, configuring the SOAP adapter appropriately can be complex. This white paper is explains these common issues and provides guidance on solutions.

This whitepaper explains how an enterprise can implement EPC Information Services using the suite of relevant products and technologies from Microsoft.

One of the most important changes in the technology world today is the shift within enterprises from relying solely on local software to a world of software plus services (S+S). This overview describes S+S, focusing on what Microsoft is doing in this area. While not everyone uses the same terms, the entire industry has embraced the idea of S+S under various headings and while the move to S+S certainly affects consumers, this description focuses on S+S for business users. S+S isn’t a futuristic idea; it’s a reality today. Yet the full impact of this transition is still years away. Understanding what that impact will look like requires thinking about the effect on applications—packages as well as custom software—and on the platforms those applications depend on. This overview describes both.

Leveraging the Value of Your Host Systems with Real World SOA

This document walks you through an example of implementing a real-world SOA by using Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 and the BizTalk Adapters for Host Systems.

These white papers present the results of a study that compared Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 to SAP XI for integrating heterogeneous systems, and discuss the value proposition of BizTalk Server.

(August 2006) This paper outlines key strategies for managing a successful performance lab with Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006.

(June 2006) Read about improvements made to the application deployment and application upgrade experience via the platform’s application concept, the new BizTalk Server Administration Console, and more in this white paper.

(May 2006) This white paper describes the deployment of Microsoft Dynamics and BizTalk Server, yielding a robust, high-value solution that provides cross-functional integration and coordination of line-of-business and supply chain management applications across the extended enterprise.

(May 2006) This white paper explains integration and automation in BizTalk Server 2006, how each enables midsize businesses to improve supply chain functioning, and some broad principles to be aware of when searching for effective integration and automation solutions.

(January 2006) This white paper examines the opportunities and benefits of RFID and how this technology will revolutionize supply chain management.

(November 2005) This white paper discusses both the new built-in adapters and enhancements to the existing built-in adapters that will ship with BizTalk Server 2006.

BizTalk Server 2006 Runtime Improvements

(November 2005) This white paper reviews the improvements that have been made to message processing as part of the core engine enhancements for BizTalk Server 2006.

(October 2005) Learn about key features and improvements in BizTalk Server 2006, such as significantly simpler installation; better support for deploying, monitoring, and managing applications; and improved capabilities for Business Activity Monitoring.

(August 2005) Read this article to understand how the BizTalk Server 2006 hub and spoke model supports administrators who want to install and deploy the associated bits of a BizTalk Server solution from one central server and multiple remote servers.

(June 2006) This paper provides a detailed description of two new Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) features in BizTalk Sever 2006—the BizTalk Server BAM Portal, and Alerts and Notification Support—and it discusses enhancements to the BAM features in BizTalk Server 2004.

(April 2005) This white paper describes some key product enhancements in BizTalk Server 2006 that are of interest to developers, in particular the Flat File Wizard.