1. Samuel Kastberg Scripting a BizTalk Server installation
Senior Premier Field Engineer - Azure
Scripting a BizTalk Server installation
God morning everyone!
Thank you for having me!
I will be talking about Scripting a BizTalk Server installation.

2. Meanwhile in your datacenter! samuel.kastberg@microsoft.com

3. Why scripting the installation?
Predictability
Streamlined environments
Remember all details
Repeatable execution
Less errors than manual installation
Lower time and costs
Not on the first environment but on the second and third
Prepare for Disaster Recovery
Today we talk more and more of infrastructure as code.
From time to time I get to work with customers that want to script an installation and there are several different reasons.
First time Developer machines, then authority in Sweden that creates a test environment for each project …

4. What you should script? Things you can control
Things you want to be the same
Good candidates
Windows features
Provision VMs in Azure
BizTalk features and group configuration
MSDTC settings, Hosts, Host instances
Visual Studio, SQL Server …
Your favorite monitoring tool ;-)
Bad candidates
Things you don’t have control over
If you don’t have the rights to set Firewall rules …
Things that might change over time

5. Before you start you should know
What is your goal?
Developer machines
Streamlined Test, QA and Prod environments
What is your baseline?
Set of prerequisites dependent on ambition and politics
We need 4 VMs with Windows Server 2016
6 LUNs with x GB
Name and address for the SQL Availability group(s)
What is reasonable work?
Timeframe and adapt your ambition to the time you have
Scripting is not a replacement for documentation
Your documentation will just be a bit different

6. Good practices Maincode should orchestrate process
Create functions for tasks
Name scripts to show the order to run them
Write a module for common functions
Logging, Prompts, Checking etc.
Use a common timestamp for generated files
Be moderate with error handling
Easy to spend a lot of time on unlikely errors
Debugging is a good friend …
Add reminders to information source

7. Common issues Wrong binaries Permissions to create Cluster resources
I’ve seen both Developer in Prod and Enterprise in Dev/Test
Becomes an issue if you’re already in production
Permissions to create Cluster resources
Cluster Name Object don’t have rights in AD
When creating AG listener or clustered Hosts
Read here
Starting PowerShell 32/64 bit
Not elevated session

8. Windows feature installation
Different tools
ServerManager CmdLets don’t work with Windows 10
Win10
2016/2019
Source
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature *
Dism module
Get-WindowsOptionalFeature
Install-WindowsFeature
ServerManager module
Get-WindowsFeature
Add-WindowsFeature A
dism.exe
%SystemRoot%\System32
pkgmgr.exe

9. Installing BizTalk Server features
Setup /ADDLOCAL feature1,feature2 …
Setup /S ConfigFile.xml

10. Installing CU/FP and Adapter pack
Adapter pack installation
Separate 32 and 64 bit install
Separate SDK and Features install
CU and Feature packs

11. Configuration File Consists of Feature Elements
Each one maps to sections in the configuration tool
Each feature contains one or more questions
Answer Attribute Selected=True
Export from configuration.exe
Edit the export to be a template
Replace with real values at configuration time
You will need one file for Create group and one for join

12. Configuring the group Replace tokens with values
Run Configure.exe /S config.xml
Delete the configuration file since you have passwords in it!

13. Jobs and more

14. Configure Hosts and Instances
WMI
MSBTS_Host
MSBTS_HostInstance
MSBTS_ServerHost
PowerShell Provider
Navigate to the right folder
Use New-Item
Set properties

15. Create Handlers WMI PowerShell Provider MSBTS_ReceiveHandler
MSBTS_SendHandler2
PowerShell Provider
Navigate to the right location
Use New-Item
Note the ”dummy” path, yes it’s needed
Sometimes it gives a DTC error, just retry

16. Handling secrets Store secrets safely Replace at configuration time
KeePass
KeyVault
Replace at configuration time
Remember to Delete the configuration file

17. Demo

18. More details and examples
Blog posts
Github repository