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| BizTalk Roadmap, Service Pack Released |
| Mar. 7, 2005 |
BizTalk Server's next scheduled release (BizTalk Server 2006) will include manageability improvements and support for SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005, Microsoft said in Jan. 2005. The company also plans a BizTalk release after the next major Windows Server release (code-named Longhorn Server); that version of BizTalk will probably ship in 2008. The announcements were preceded by the release of BizTalk Server 2004 SP1, which rolls up almost 100 fixes to resolve problems ranging from low-severity glitches to more severe bugs that could degrade performance or cause data loss. Service Pack Fixes Broad Problems Arriving nine months after the Apr. 2004 release of BizTalk 2004, SP1 contains a relatively large number of fixes—perhaps not surprising, given the ambitious scope of the original release. (In contrast, BizTalk Server 2002 SP1 was released 17 months after BizTalk Server 2002 shipped and contained just over 50 fixes.) BizTalk Server 2004 was a nearly complete rewrite of BizTalk Server's core messaging and orchestration technologies and added major new features, such as a business rule engine, services and programming interfaces for human workflow applications, utilities for monitoring and tracking BizTalk applications, and a development environment based on Visual Studio .NET (VS.NET). Although the fixes in BizTalk Server 2004 SP1 span the full range of the product, the majority are clustered in BizTalk's most widely used feature areas. About 40% of the fixes resolve bugs in BizTalk's messaging component, many of which are related to handling Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) messages. Most of the remaining fixes are concentrated in BizTalk's orchestration engine and the new VS.NET-based development environment. Newer product areas, such as the business rule engine and human workflow components, did not get many fixes in SP1, which suggests that those components have not yet found their way into heavy production use. Thus, BizTalk customers could uncover additional bugs in these areas as the features see more production deployment. Although most bugs fixed in SP1 are not particularly severe, some could have caused system instability, performance degradation, or data loss. For example, a bug in BizTalk's handling of XML messages could cause a system's processor utilization to reach 100%, diminishing a server's ability to process additional messages or run orchestrations. A separate bug could cause orchestrations to hang when sending Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) messages, requiring administrators to restart the BizTalk application containing that orchestration. A third bug could cause BizTalk to falsely inform a client application that it has successfully received and recorded a message; because the client assumes the message has been successfully sent and recorded, it does not resend the message and the data contained in the message is lost. New Features for Monitoring, Migration Several new features accompany the bug fixes in SP1. For example, a new object lets developers enumerate messages in BizTalk Server's message database and retrieve information about those messages. Several new performance counters give administrators better visibility into BizTalk messaging activity. Alongside SP1, Microsoft has also released a set of tools called the Adapter Migration Toolkit, which will help developers migrate BizTalk 2002 solutions to BizTalk 2004. Specifically, the toolkit is designed to help migrate messaging components and tools developed for BizTalk 2002 that are not compatible with BizTalk 2004's messaging component. For example, the toolkit will generate BizTalk 2004 wrappers to allow companies to reuse custom BizTalk 2002 message processing objects called Application Integration Components (AICs), which many BizTalk 2002 customers built to house custom business logic. Previously, developers had to rewrite such components. BizTalk Future Unveiled Close on the heels of SP1, Microsoft released a roadmap of future BizTalk releases. The next version of the product, BizTalk Server 2006 (code-named Pathfinder), will deliver the following improvements:
BizTalk Server 2006 will probably appear in the first half of 2006. Beyond BizTalk 2006 will be a BizTalk version for the forthcoming Windows Longhorn Server. This version (not yet named) will exploit the "Indigo" Web services messaging system planned for Longhorn Server. Microsoft will improve the development environment and core engine so that both human workflow and business-to-business processes can be developed and run with the same set of tools and engines. This version will probably appear in 2008, depending on the release dates of BizTalk Server 2006 and Longhorn Server. It is also possible that this version of BizTalk Server will run on Windows Server 2003 retrofitted with Indigo. (For an illustration showing existing and planned BizTalk releases, and dependent technologies, see the illustration "BizTalk Server Product Roadmap".) Resources BizTalk Server 2004 SP1 is at www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=f4a5ab9e-d599-4cc8-abdf-ae6ae68bac3d. The fixes included in SP1 are listed at support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;888740. Knowledge Base entries detailing the BizTalk Server 2004 bugs mentioned in this article are numbers 842703, 843529, and 887918; enter these numbers in the form at support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;en-us;KBHOWTO to read the entries. The BizTalk Server 2004 Adapter Migration Toolkit can be downloaded at www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3383F89E-8223-4DB5-947A-1873C4C555BB&displaylang=en. For more about Microsoft's plans for BizTalk Server, go to www.microsoft.com/biztalk/evaluation/roadmap/default.asp. BizTalk Server 2004 is outlined in the Oct. 2004 Research Report, "BizTalk Server 2004 Drives Microsoft Integration Strategy". |
