BizTalk Server Development Best Practices

1. BizTalk Server DevelopmentBest Practices Brian Loesgen Principal SOA Architect Microsoft Corporation Alan Smith Developer, Trainer, Mentor, Evangelist KnowIT

2. Theme for this presentation…. • Chronology of this presentation • This is an interactive presentation, not a multicast • Audience participation is encouraged – AND EXPECTED! • You may have had experiences we have not, we want to hear about them, and they could help others. Please share!

3. Agenda • Infrastructure considerations: • Development environments • Project structure • Naming conventions • Deployment • Debugging • Testing • Architectural Considerations • Loose coupling • Exception Management • BAM • Schema visibility • Service-enablement • Administration Best Practices

4. Infrastructure Considerations

5. Development Environments • BizTalk is a *server* product, there is no “play” button in VS.NET for it • DO NOT use XP as a development environment • Shared environments can be problematic (other people stopping your services, consuming your messages, polluting your event log, etc) • Virtual machines are the way the experts do it • Fully self-contained virtual machines are best • Capture messages from external systems like SAP so you can “spoof” them when disconnected

6. Project Structure: General • Assuming a local database, change the server name to “.” • Use relative paths • Share a key between projects in an application • Define and adopt a common folder structure, something along the lines of: • C:\projects\<client>\<application>\ • Projects • Documentation • Deployment\Scripts • Deployment\Bindings • Etc…

7. Project Structure: Stratification • For simple “one off” projects, it’s OK to put all artifacts into a single project • For more complex projects, stratify projects by artifact type: • Schemas • Maps • Process • Pipelines • Helpers

8. Naming Conventions • Naming conventions don’t really matter in your isolated environment, but become absolutely critical when deployed to a share environment • Naming convention should be adhered to • Newbies sometimes have issues renaming artifacts as BizTalk uses the initial name for things like namespaces, be careful renaming and be aware of the points of impact

9. Deployment • Deployment of a BizTalk solution does not have to be difficult • MSIs are *the* unit of deployment, use them! • Creation of MSIs should be scripted using BTSTask, yielding a highly-repeatable way to add resources to a BizTalk application and generate MSIs (sometimes it’s OK to use the UI) • Be kind to your infrastructure folks, use different binding files for different environments. You should NOT include production passwords of course, but accounts, URIs and machine names are usually OK; providing them could eliminate the risk of confusion/mis-configuration

10. Deployment • NEVER deploy to production from Visual Studio (and keep it off your production servers)! • Remember that other resources can be packaged in the BizTalk solution MSI, including: • Business rules • Virtual roots (eg: Web service receive locations) • Helper classes that need to be GACed • Support DLLs that may be required by an adapter (eg: SAP) that can either go into the GAC or in the file system • Post-processing scripts • Once I have my script to generate an MSI, it takes a couple of minutes to create a complete deployment package for a complex solution, and… it only takes a couple of minutes to install it in a target production environment

11. Debugging • Get the SysInternals Debug View tool, write breadcrumbs for yourself from an expression shape with System.Diagnostics.Trace.WriteLine • The Best Practices Analyzer can be a great platform reviewer for you • Spend time getting to know the BizTalk admin tool • Notice the orchestration debugger • Notice the subscription viewer, look at some subscriptions, see what’s under the covers

12. Testing • Nunit is a great tool that can be used for BizTalk solutions too • BizUnit build on Nunit by adding additional test steps • From a purist standpoint, this is however not really unit testing, it’s functional testing • Profile your orchestrations to ensure code coverage from the test

13. Architectural Considerations

14. Loose-coupling • BizTalk is a pub/sub engine, use it!! • Use direct-bound ports where possible • Decouples processes • More extensible, new subscribers can be added post-deployment • Promotes a services-oriented mindset • Filter options: • Context properties (best choice as not bound by message type) • Message content that has been promoted as promoted properties

15. Exception Management • BizTalk solutions often span multiple technologies, you need a unified exception handling mechanism • The ESB Guidance provides such a mechanism • An effective exception management strategy will simplify troubleshooting, and allow delegation of troubleshooting to non-administrators

16. BAM • In most cases, operational metrics are very important and useful as they can provide insights into solution performance • You have not properly implemented a solution if there is no visibility into the solution • BAM can be used for operational metrics (“show me order service failures over time”), as well as business metrics (“how many orders did we get?”) • You have BAM, use it!

17. Schema Visibility • Define canonical schemas that are your internal representation of data • Generally, canonical schemas should not be exposed to the outside world as this would complicate change. Instead, map to your canonical schema

18. Service-enablement • By default, Windows 2003 Server is shipped as a file server • [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\BTSSvc$BTSHOST\CLR Hosting] “MaxIOThreads”=dword:00000064 “MaxWorkerThreads”=dword:00000064 “MinIOThreads”=dword:00000019 “MinWorkerThreads”=dword:00000019 • See http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/07/05/BizTalk/default.aspx#S5 for proper usage!

19. Seek out knowledge • Remember “tehInterweb”! ;) You are not alone, there are many, many BizTalk resources out there that can help you • Did you know an SDK installed when you installed BizTalk? It’s true, take a look, lots of valuable samples • Online samples: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/biztalk/aa937647.aspx

20. Summary • BizTalk is a development environment and platform, and as such, encompasses a broad range of technologies • BizTalk development does not need to be difficult • BizTalk deployment does not need to be difficult • Adherence to standards, and accepted best practices, will greatly simplify development, troubleshooting and deployment of BizTalk solutions

21. Resources: Microsoft Home Pages BizTalk Product Website:  http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk/ BizTalk Server Developer Center:  http://msdn.microsoft.com/biztalk/ BizTalk Server TechCenter on TechNet: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/biztalk/ Microsoft SOA: http://www.microsoft.com/soa

22. Resources: Learning Links BizTalk Server 2006 Tutorials:  http://msdn2.microsoft.com/enus/library/aa560270.aspx BizTalk Server Virtual Labs:  http://msdn.microsoft.com/virtuallabs/biztalk/ BizTalk Beginner Training Roadmap (BizTalk Server Team Blog):  http://blogs.msdn.com/biztalk_server_team_blog/archive/2006/03/21/556994.aspx Learning BizTalk Server 2006 - BizTalk Server Developer Center:  http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/biztalk/aa937649.aspx BizTalk Webcasts:  http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/biztalk/aa937645.aspx

23. Resources: Tools BizTalk Server 2006 Best Practices Analyzer (BPA) :  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=dda047e3-408e-48ba-83f9-f397226cd6d4&displaylang=en BizTalk Documenter:  http://www.codeplex.com/BizTalkDocumenter BizUnit:  http://www.codeplex.com/bizunit BizTalk Pattern Wizard: http://www.codeplex.com/PatternWizard BizTalk Orchestration Profiler: http://www.codeplex.com/BiztalkOrcProfiler

24. Resources: Blogs BizTalk, WCF, WF, SOA, ESB aggregator:  http://www.BizTalkBlogs.com Bloggers Guide to BizTalk (archived posts, “best of”): http://bloggersguides.net/ Alan Smith’s blog: http://geekswithblogs.net/asmith/Default.aspx Brian Loesgen’s blog:  http://blog.BrianLoesgen.com

25. Resources: Books