BizTalk 2013 R2 known bugs, issues & quirks

Below a list of know bugs, issues, & other quirks* of BizTalk 2013 R2 (mainly CU3) and Visual Studio 2013 (update 4) , but I will update with fixes as the CUs come out or when I know about a new issue, so if you have another one I will add it (and link to it if you have a blog about it) if you let me know.  This in addition to the ones listed by Microsoft on Known Issues in Installation, Configuration, and Deployment

* My definitions for classifying these are
Bug: Causes negative impact and no known work around or requires a lot of effort to work around.
Issue: Causes negative impact but has an easy or quick work around.
Missing: A feature that BizTalk doesn’t have that would make our life easier.
Quirk:  Something strange or unusual but does not cause a negative impact so far as known.

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Host Integration Server 2013 Cumulative Update 4

Microsoft recently announced CU 4 for Host Integration Server 2013.   The KB article  Cumulative update package 4 for Host Integration Server 2013 details the fixes and you can download the CU from there.

BizTalk Server Migration tool

I just came across the announcement by Microsoft about a BizTalk migration tool.   Must give that a go sometime. This could be useful if you are trying to sync to a second server.

A pity that one of the things listed as Feature Unavailable is SSO Affiliate Applications however, as we tend to use that a lot.

 

 

Azure Functions vs Azure Logic Apps

toon vanhoutte

Azure’s serverless iPaaS offering has two key components: Azure Functions and Logic Apps. If you consult the documentation, you’ll find out that there is quite some overlap between the two. For many people, it’s not clear what technology to use in what scenario. In this blog post, I discuss the main differences between these two event-driven Azure services and I provide some guidance to help you to make the right decision.

Comparison

Developer experience

A popular comparison states that Azure Functions is code being triggered by an event, whereas Logic Apps is a workflow triggered by an event. This is reflected in the developer experience. Azure Functions are completely written in code, with currently support for JavaScript, C#, F#, Node.js, Python, PHP, batch, bash and PowerShell. In Logic Apps, workflows are created with an easy-to-use visual designer, combined with a simple workflow definition language in the code view. Each developer…

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BizTalk Server embrace open source

Microsoft has announced that they have open sourced all the schemas that they ship with BizTalk.  They also said that contributions “can include elements like Schemas, Samples, Adapters, pipeline components or anything else you feel the community can take advantage of.”  So it will be interesting to see if Microsoft open source any of these artefacts themselves.

Codeplex shutting down – BizTalk Tools

It was announced in March that Codeplex was shutting down.

As of this post, we’ve disabled the ability to create new CodePlex projects.  In October, we’ll set CodePlex to read-only, before shutting it down completely on December 15^th, 2017.

So various tools and code that are used for BizTalk have moved to a new home.

Below is a list of their new locations

• BizTalk Benchmark Wizard now on Github
• BizTalk Business Rules Engine Pipeline Framework  now on Github
• BizTalk CAT Instrumentation Framework Controller now on Github
• BizTalk Configuration Reports now on Github
• BizTalk Documenter  now on Github
• BizTalk Deployment Framework (BTDF) now on Github
• BizTalk Deployment Utilities (BizTalkDiff) now on Github
• BizTalk Map Documenter now on Github
• BizTalk Password Manager now on Github
• BizUnit – Framework for Automated Testing of Distributed Systems now on Github 
• PAL (Performance Analysis of Logs) now on Github
• REST Start Kit for BizTalk now on Github

Projects not yet moved

• BizTalk Adapter Wizard
• BizTalk Application Comparer
• BizTalk backup tool
• BizTalk Control Center (BCC) – 3.2
• BizTalk environment config loader 
• BizTalk Flow Visualizer
• BizTalk Message Decompressor
• BizTalk Scheduled Task Adapter
• BizTalk Server Pipeline Component Wizard
• BizTalk tracking exporting and importing utilities
• BizTalk X-Ref Manager ( BizTalk Cross Reference Data Management )
• BizTalk Zombie Management
• BizUnit Designer
• DanSharp XmlViewer
• GenerateTypedBamApi
• SAB BizTalk Archiving Pipeline Component
• Xml Complete Validator

Gone

Does anyone know where the below has gone?

• PowerShell Provider BizTalk see Archive copy
  • For BizTalk 2010 or earlier, Matt Corr from Mexia posted a copy of the BizTalkFactory.PowerShell.Extensions.Setup – v1.4.0.1.msi here on his Dropbox account: https://t.co/0Oe1WSkO7X
  • With BizTalk 2013 onwards, the PowerShell Provider comes with the BizTalk SDK: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft BizTalk Server 2013 R2\SDK\Utilities\PowerShell
  • A copy of the Getting Started Guide for 1.4.0.1 can be found here 

 

If you have other tools that you know off, feel free to share in the comments.

Tokenizing the BizTalk Tracking Settings

At my work, for all new BizTalk projects we use the BizTalk Deployment Framework (BTDF).  One of the features it has is to have a master binding file where you tokenize some of the settings that vary between environments such as URLs and usernames.

We have also started tokenizing the BizTalk tracking settings.  This means that your deployment will automatically have different tracking for different environments and you don’t accidentally blow out your tracking database in Production by having body tracking on, but have it on the environments you are most likely to need it, like Development ones.

Full Body tracking in Development,  less tracking in Test and Production.

Below is what the SettingsFileGenerator.xml looks like

​

And in your PortBindingMaster.xml some examples of how to use these.

For Orchestrations

<Service …… TrackingOption=”${Orchestration_Tracking}” >

 

In the Send and Receive Ports

<Tracking>${OneWay_SendPort_Tracking}</Tracking>

​

And the Pipelines

<ReceivePipeline …. TrackingOption=“${Pipeline_Tracking}” />

BizTalk Assessment: How to check if Windows Defender is running on BizTalk Server with PowerShell — SANDRO PEREIRA BIZTALK BLOG

Sandro Pereira wrote a blog about Windows Defender and BizTalk 2016.   Well worth a read.

Why checking if Windows Defender is running on BizTalk Server, or another anti-virus, is important?
…
They tend to be a little slow, so tuning it well is important for archive a better performance and by default Windows Defender is configured on that machines. Not only as a negative impact in the general performance of the machine but also can have a huge impact on BizTalk Server performance.

Read the article here BizTalk Assessment: How to check if Windows Defender is running on BizTalk Server with PowerShell — SANDRO PEREIRA BIZTALK BLOG

.Net 4.6 now supported for BizTalk 2013 R2, BHM 4.1 released

Over a year ago we hit a situation where we got a warning from BHM about .Net 4.6 not being supported, which was a bit of effort to sort out.

Today I looked at the release notes for the latest BizTalk Health Monitor, v4.1 and noticed that in the release notes it said “Removed BizTalk 2013 R2 .NET 4.6.x warning since it is now supported”.   I then checked Hardware and Software Requirements for BizTalk Server 2013 and 2013 R2 and sure enough, they have now listed .Net 4.6 as supported for BizTalk 2013 R2.

Here are the other changes for BizTalk Health Monitor

• Fixed issue with losing monitoring configuration
• Upgraded update mechanism to handle all components of BHM
• Added support for displaying each view of a BHM report in HTML format
• Improved update to happen on secondary thread
• Improved the ChkBHMRep.exe tool
• Added support for BizTalk 2013 R2 CU6, BizTalk 2016 CU1, and BizTalk 2016 FP1 (Feature Pack 1)
• Improved report to provide DTA purge job parameters with improved formatting
• Added warning for infinite max SQL memory config
• Fixed some issues with detecting Host Integration Server CUs
• Removed BizTalk 2013 R2 .NET 4.6.x warning since it is now supported
• Updated query and rules repository

 

BizTalk Documenter – Moved to Github

Do the the impending closure of CodePlex, the BizTalk Documenter project has been moved to Github

It needs a bit of work to ensure that all the prerequisites are automatically included as per the issue #1 Unable to build.   Just a matter of finding the time or a volunteer to get this done.

If you have any other issues or suggestions for improvement, please do raise it as an issue.

Give Microsoft Feedback on BizTalk

Is there an issue or a feature lacking in BizTalk that you would like to see addressed?  Then vote on the ideas for BizTalk Server or add your own on uservoice.com