BizTalk was developed by Microsoft to streamline and automate business processes. It provides an enterprise application integration (EAI) server solution for companies to exchange documents on premises or across organizational boundaries. It offers, as well, a way to enable cooperation amongst business partners between who may have disparate systems and use different software applications. It does this by creating a reliable bridge between the systems to allow them to interconnect and share a schema; this is a great benefit for business-to-business communication.
Besides the obvious benefits of addressing various applications and business partner integration needs, on top of delivering service-oriented capabilities, Microsoft’s BizTalk trusted enterprise service bus (ESB) is utilized by countless companies worldwide as it helps them build new SOA-oriented applications with ease. The product provides an infrastructure that is easy to use, user-friendly and economical.
BizTalk server is appropriate for many businesses; there are, however, some ways to maximize its performance. Next are 10 tips a user can perform on their BizTalk environment to improve one’s experience; they are:
1. Modify Host Properties
By creating/configuring a dedicated tracking host, one can improve the overall health of BizTalk’s environment and can ensure business data are moved out of the specific MessageBox database to the BizTalk Tracking (DTA) and BAM Primary Import databases.
2. Turn On/Off Global Tracking
By default, global tracking is enabled, but that can be changed to disabled for those having performance issues when the BizTalk Tracking (BizTalkDTADb) database grows in size. Doing so will tell BizTalk to no longer collect tracking information. Alternatively, one can configure to turn off tracking for individual events.
3. Install Latest Updates
Installing the newest updates for Microsoft BizTalk Server and Microsoft BizTalk Adapter Pack, as well as downloading the cumulative update packages for SQL Server and .NET framework, will not only bring resolutions to bug fixes, but will cause performance improvements too.
4. Ensure BizTalk Server SQL Server Agent Jobs are running
By configuring and enabling agent jobs to be scheduled to run, without changing any default schedules, it will assist the user in managing the BizTalk Server databases and improve operational actions as intended.
5. Set Auto-growth Settings for BizTalk Server Databases
Pre-allocating space in advance can help minimize the occurrence of database auto-growth. Do this for performance reasons: As a rule of thumb, for large files one should not need more than 100 MB; 10 MB is enough for medium-sized files and 1 MB for small files.
6. Separate Data and Log Files
Doing so will reduce I/O contention and help performance. It is recommended to put the two files on a separate disk as well as in separate drives with a place for the message box (BizTalkMsgBoxDb) and an area for the tracking database (BizTalkDTADb).
7. Set to Specify the Fixed Amount of Memory
It is recommended to set the ‘min server memory’ and ‘max server memory’ on each SQL Server that hosts the BizTalk Server databases. This might be able to enhance both the SQL and BizTalk Server performance.
8. Disable Hyper-threading
According to the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN), by turning off this BIOS setting, which has the tendency to cause high levels of contention and decrease performance, on BizTalk and SQL Servers, it will make the server appear to have more processors/processor cores than it actually does.
9. Avoid Using Antivirus Software for Real-time Scanning of BizTalk Server
As per MSDN, one must configure antivirus software to exclude scanning of BizTalk Server executable files as it can negatively impact BizTalk Server performance.
10. Disable Non-essential Services on BizTalk/SQL Servers
Running unnecessary services does consume system resources and could lead to system degradation; therefore, by disabling non-essential services, as many already know, can better overall server performance.
The mentioned tips are able to effortlessly improve performance and availability for BizTalk Server computers. They can help more users create a system that really blends in with their existing information systems and can become the process automation tool of choice.