biztalk server 2013 in windows azure iaas

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BizTalk 2013 in Windows Azure IaaSSTEPHEN W.

THOMAS

About Me

10 Year Integration MVP

Run the community site BizTalkGurus.com

Co-authored “Applied Architecture Patterns on the Microsoft Platform”

Pluralsight Author

Presented at numerous events of the past 12 years

One of the worlds worst spellers

Twitter @StephenWThomas

Email anytime – me@biztalkguru.com

With Risks Comes Great Rewards

Risk of ending up in the Dog House for leaving my wife at home with our 2 weeks old

Reward

Overview

Common Infrastructure pain points

Basics of Windows Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

BizTalk 2013 and Windows Azure IaaS

Pain PointsTHE REAL REASON WE DON’T ALWAYS GET ALONG WITH THOSE OTHER IT GUYS

We are Control Freaks

Infrastructure is usually out of our control

Makes us ask questions

Why does it take so long?

This really isn’t that hard, right?

I need to open a ticket?

What do you mean you erased by VM?

Why am I not a member of the SSO Admin group?

Common Pain Points

Resource onboarding

Slow, Out of space, Additional support, Costs

Upgrades

Multi-server environments

Solutions with a short life span

Bursting

Basics of Windows Azure IaaSIMPRESS YOUR BOSS WITH THIS KNOWLEDGE

What is Windows Azure IaaS

Microsoft’s pay-per-use infrastructure offering

Two key components

Virtual machines

Virtual network

Rich and growing list of pre-built Images

Create custom images and pre-built disks

Pay-per-minute pricing and MSDN discounts

Allows for programmatic creation of environments

Inside an Azure Virtual Machine

Windows AzureVirtual Machine

(PersistentVMRole)

Service

OS Disk

AzureStorage

Data Disk

AzureStorage

Data Disk

AzureStorage

AzureStorage

Data Disk

Quick Tips

Disks

Use more disks to increase throughput

Geo-replicated disk could be out of sync

Charged for actual storage with file level shrink

Always use Quick Format

VM

Plan in advance because not all settings can be changes after a VM is created

New features are not always available to existing objects

Too Good to be True?

Windows Azure changes quickly

Core features

Portal

PowerShell

Limitations are often hard limits

Object latency can cause unpredictability

BizTalk 2013 and IaaSTAKE BACK CONTROL

BizTalk 2013 for Windows Azure IaaS

Pay per minute or bring your own license

BizTalk Provisioning Tool

Installed on Azure VM Images

Command line tool

Using XML configuration for single and multi-server configuration

Service needs to run on all Machines

Client runs using XML Config file on one machine

Still have issues with unattended configuration

My Dream Scenario

Have more if not total control over your environments (Dev and Test)

Automated

Self service

Repeatable

Secure

Lots of Options

Portal

REST API

PowerShell

When to use the Portal

Isolated single server scenarios

One off scenarios

Pros

Simple

Cons

Too simple for anything more than one isolated server

Some properties can not be set via the Portal

Not scriptable

Demo

Windows Azure Portal

Windows Azure REST API

Allows programmatic access to Azure

Exposes more than the portal

Authentication via certificates

Supports A-Sync operations

Versioned

When to use the Azure REST API

Programmatic access to Azure through .Net, BizTalk, SharePoint

Multi-user build out

Works great with the BizTalk REST Adapter

Pros

Once understood, easy to use

Support for more than one Subscription

Cons

Authentication is BizTalk like (Azure360?)

Documentation is sometimes wrong

My Vision

Self service portals

Virtual Labs and demos

Demo

REST API Tool and BizTalk REST Adapter

Windows Azure PowerShell Commands

Downloadable commands to do Azure task via PowerShell

New features added often

Easily understood since its PowerShell

3rd Parties have created custom commands

Use remote PowerShell on VMs

When to use PowerShell Scripts

Individuals doing build outs

Pros

Universal adoption

Easily customizable

Cons

Initial setup and troubleshooting is a pain

Frequent releases that could break existing scripts

Poor documentation on new changes

Do not forget to run as Administrator

BizTalk IaaS PowerShell Scripts

Single server installation and configuration (BROKEN)

Uses the supplied BizTalk 2013 Evaluation Image (Well, it did)

Full, end to end setup and configuration of BizTalk

Very hacky

About 50 hours to create

BizTalk IaaS PowerShell Scripts

Full domain build out

Uses Enterprise Images for BizTalk and SQL

Understand the cost impacts of this

Doman Controller

Add BizTalk domain users and groups

SQL Server

Two BizTalk Servers

BizTalk configuration is manual

Over 150 hours, mostly on unattended configuration

Demo

PowerShell

Scenarios

Ready now

Dev and Test environments

Environment creation as part of nightly build and unit testing

Less BizTalk Configuration for multi-server

Depending on scenario

Production, single server BizTalk Environments

Geo located

Use BizTalk 2013 features

Review

Windows Azure IaaS is simple to use

Scripting allows for easy environment creation

BizTalk plays nicely with Windows Azure IaaS

Questions?

Email: me@biztalkguru.com

Scripts and Sample BizTalk Code to be posted to BizTalkGurus.com in a few days