BizTalk FAQ's

What is BTS:
The BizTalk server is a product of Microsoft, used for application integration. Used mainly for Enterprise application integration, where business could be automated between different departments or enterprises, which could be business to business(B2B) automation.

What are the different versions of BTS:
BizTalk 2000
BizTalk 2002
BizTalk 2004
BizTalk 2006 and BizTalk 2006 R2.
BizTalk 2009
BizTalk 2010

Define Schema’s:
The structure of message in the application integration, which could be used for automation and transform to the client requirement.

Define schema namespace:
Namespace is used to identify the schema uniquely, so that the two schema’s with same root node will be able to be available, and the namespace grouping will not overlap.


What are the different type of adapaters:

Some adapter are added to BTS over the growing versions. However listed as below commonly used.
File:
MSMQ:
SQL:
HTTP:
SMTP:
POP3:
SOAP:
FTP:
SFTP:
WCF:

Explain the BizTalk architecture in genral:

There would be components as below on the receiving end.

Hosts                                        

   Receive ports

      Adapters

         Receive pipelines

And written into the Msgbox.

If Orchestration, is designed and present the msg is routed to orchestration for further processing. The message is persisted in Msgbox again.

                          Host

                             Orchestration

On the send End, the components as listed below.

Hosts

   Send ports

      Adapters

        Send pipelines

What are the different customizable/ programmable components in BizTalk:

Adapters

Pipelines

Orchestration

Explain pipeline and the stages:

·         Pipeline does the data processing functions and persisting in between stages for tracking.

·         Pipeline converts the data in any format to BizTalk understandable XML, and from XML to the target data format .

Receive pipeline stages:

Decode

Disassemble

Validate

Resolve Party

Send Pipeline stages:

              Pre-assemble

              Assemble

              Encode

Explain ESSO in detail:

Enterprise Single sign-on database is the place where the user credential information is stored which is secured by encryption and used for single sign-on by BizTalk services.

·         Stores the send and receive port configuration information.

·         Application configuration information

The credentials are encrypted/Decrypted using a key called master secret key. This key is stored on the  BizTalk server  registry and the ESSO service running on this server use the key and this BizTalk server is called the Master secret Server.

If there are any additional BizTalk servers in the cluster group, The ESSO service running on these servers would access the master secret server which would be the first server for the key. The key information is cached on each other servers.

So it means there is a dependency on the Master Secret Server, if this fails the other ESSO services hosted on other BizTalk server on cluster will fail on restart.

Backup the key so that the key can be retrieved and other system can be configured as Master secret server.