BizTalk Configuration Manager

Michael Stephenson has released a new version of configuration manager for BizTalk. I myself was not familiar yet with this tool. I downloaded it from CodePlex and tried it out on one of virtual machines. To use the tool there is a video out that explains the tool. Tool itself is used to help you manage the different settings needed for binding and configuration files across different environments and allows you to connect this with your build process.

Once you have downloaded the tool in zip file, you need to unzip it. There is a compiled help file that will tell you about the tool, how to set it up and install it, walkthroughs and utilities. I did a quick and simple install, setting up the database and application. In VPC I used was BizTalk 2006 R2 environment with VS2005 and SQL2005. Setting up database will result in following database schema

image 

Application will need its connection string set to database (ConfigurationManagement) on your server. I added the test data and started the application (ConfigurationManagement.Administration.exe).

 image

Setup is easy and straight forward. This kind of tool will come very handy in DTAP environment and will something to introduce this week at customer I work for now to use it in DTAP. We have a deployment framework now in place using Excel sheet for keeping configuration settings.


Technorati::

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DTAP Strategy: Pricing and Licensing

Image
To implement BizTalk solutions it is a good practice to have an DTAP environment in place. DTAP stands for Development, Test, Acceptance and Production. Development and test environments are equal (mirrored) and same account for acceptance and production. Deploying DTAP environments is easy, because there are many factors influencing outcome of DTAP. One factor is pricing and licensing costs. BizTalk is available in different editions and since BizTalk depends on operating system and database there are some configuration options to. Here is an overview of possible configurations for DTAP environments, hence there is a nice BizTalk Feature Dependency Matrix. Besides features, there are non-functional requirements to reckon with like fail-over, availability and scalability. On Microsoft Pricing and Licensing FAQ section of BizTalk I found this on non functional side. In a large BizTalk Server 2006 R2 deployment, two key considerations ensure redundancy in all areas of the architect
Read more

Table Operation on Oracle 11g XE with OracleDbBinding

Image
Last year I did a post on table operations on SQL Server Table with WCF-SQL Adapter from BizTalk on SQL. Now I like to do similar thing on table in Oracle 11g Express database using the Oracle Binding from BizTalk Adapter Pack 2010. Oracle 11g Express Edition is available through OTN. For downloading software you will need to have an account! It is important that when accessing Oracle you have appropriate client installed. This can sometimes be a hassle if you do not know, which client you need. When you trying to connect to Oracle you will get error messages like: Connecting to the LOB system has failed. Could not load file or assembly 'Oracle.DataAccess, Version=2.111.7.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89b483f429c47342' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.. This can be pretty annoying, but there is documentation that can help you going the right direction. In installation documentation I read that supported versions are: Oracle d
Read more

Integration, the community blasting into 2017!

Image
In the past, now and tomorrow I will keep saying that integration is relevant, even in this day and age of digitalization. Integration professionals will play an essential role in providing connectivity between systems, devices and services. Integration drives the digitalization forward by connecting everything with anything. Integration skills are still in demand. A LinkedIn study revealed a top 10 with integration and middleware in top 5 with Cloud, Data Science, UX and Web. And the expectation for 2017 is that this will be similar. Our toolbox is expanding from on premise tooling to cloud services; we have WCF, BizTalk Server, MSMQ to Logic Apps, API Management and Service Bus. Formats ranging from flat file, EDI, XML to JSON, several protocols open and proprietary, tooling from mappers to BizTalk360. It can be challenging yet much more exciting. My conclusion is more options, more fun, at least in my view. In February I, will be travellin
Read more