We are considering what to do with a BizTalk 2006 server that we need to replace (windows Server 2003 EOL coming up).
It has been suggested that we could use the BizTalk service within the Azure offering to replace it. However one of the processes that we have uses a POP3 connector as part of the Orchestration and I can't see this as one of the connectors offered in Azure.
Does anyone know if it is in there or not?
At this point, Azure BizTalk Services is not always a viable upgrade path from BizTalk Server. In cases where there is feature parity, it is essentially an entire new application for Azure BizTalk Services, though you can reuse some artifacts, such as Schemas and Maps.
Perhaps the recommendation was actually to migrate to a full BizTalk Server running on an Azure VM. That would be typically simple upgrade* from BizTalk server 2006 to 2013.
*FYI, from BizTalk Server 2006, you will have to make an intermediate step to BizTalk Server 2006 R2, 2009 or 2010 before finally upgrading the project to 2013.
Related
Are there any recent best practices / guidance for deploying Dynamics CRM (eg 2016) to Azure virtual machine IaaS (eg Windows Server 2016)?
In case you ask, we are pursuing this to control licensing costs.
I'm familiar with the Microsoft whitepaper from 2015, Deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM in Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines, but it is somewhat dated and Azure / cloud service providers have evolved tremendously in the past 4 years.
Are there any newer best practices / guidance? Are there any gottchas?
I've looked in some depth at SQL Server 2016 on Azure virtual machines, some examples of the Azure-specific guidance there would be:
tempdb on D: ephemeral disk (credit Brent Ozar)
backups on storage blogs mapped by URI (credit Microsoft in DBA Stack Exchange)
storage spaces (pools) for enhanced performance of Azure data disks
several Azure Quickstart Templates for SQL Server
etc
There is no mention of Dynamics (CRM or otherwise on-server) in the Azure Quickstart Templates.
I'm looking for equivalent guidance for Dynamics CRM on Azure VMs.
You are probably not going to find any Azure Templates for CRM because Microsoft is generally trying to push everyone to use Dynamics 365 Online. Without knowing your situation, that would always be my recommendation since you're essentially trying to create a cloud hosting solution for a product with a cloud hosting solution.
However, I understand that there are circumstances that would prevent this.
With that said, the guide seems relevant even if it's outdated. You can still set up the VMs using the plan recommended in the guide even if the steps may change.
Also, whenever I set up on-prem hosting, I would need to set up an ADFS server. This was always a separate VM that only ran ADFS and nothing else. Fortunately, Microsoft Docs have a pretty reference for creating ADFS in Azure.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/identity/ad-fs/deployment/how-to-connect-fed-azure-adfs
I have a need to implement an architecture which might be delivered on Azure but also has to run on a standard Windows Server. There is a direct correllation between Microsoft AppFabric Distributed Caching and the Azure Cache, but what technology could you recommend to proivide similar functionality to the Azure Queue on Windows Server.
I have three candidates
1) MSMQ
2) SQL Server Service Broker.
3) RabbitMQ.
The first is deprecated and the second requires a heavyweight SQL Server installation, and the third is popular but I dont have direct experience of it. Are there any other candidate technologies that I should consider ? (hopefully Microsoft just for tidy-ness, but I'd consider others).
Have you looked at Service Bus for Windows Server? It does still require a SQL DB, but you can use SQL Express 2008 R2 and higher.
I created a BizTalk VM on Azure (Trial version). I can get to the console but I cannot connect it to an existing group. Where is the BizTalk database? Do I need to create that also. Do I need to create a BizTalk Service? I am new to BizTalk and definitely BizTalk on Azure so forgive me.
The BizTalk trial edition image has BizTalk and SQL installed but it does not have a group pre-configured.
To use it you will first need to run the BizTalk Configuration Tool and create a group on the local SQL Server before you can see it in the BizTalk Administration Console.
The configuration tool will create all the necessary databases on the local SQL Server (or any other SQL Server you will point it at) and create the BizTalk Windows Services as needed.
It's worth noting that non-trial editions of BizTalk server do not include a local SQL Server as these are targeting the recommended architecture for a BizTalk farm whereby the SQL Servers are dedicated and separate from any BizTalk servers
This is highlighted in the announcement of the availability of these images
Yes, you need to configure a number of elements. Steps include
> Create the Domain User Accounts and Groups [standard and enterprise]
> Create a SQL Server virtual machine [standard and enterprise]
> Configure using BizTalk Configuration [evaluation, standard and enterprise]
I have a quick question on microsofts reporting service. I know SSRS 2012 is their desktop version and they also have Azure reporting services, but what I would like to know is it possible to host the SSRS 2012 on the cloud and use this directly. I am picking up contradicting advice on the web with regards this, I am worried about using Azure because they limit you to using the Azure database.
What I'm looking to do, is to have a reporting service hosted on the cloud but without any restriction on data sources.
thanks
mark
I'm an MSDN subscriber beginning a personal project that will involve WPF, Web Services, and SQL Server. I'm planning on using my MSDN benefits to host the Web Services on Azure and the database on SQL Azure.
I was going to run TFS on my own dev machine, but then heard about Microsoft's Team Foundation Service cloud offering. Also, it appears that I could run my own instance of TFS on Azure. At this point I'm thinking that Team Foundation Service is the best option because:
I'd prefer to have TFS in the cloud over my main dev machine so that I can access it anywhere and not have to worry about having to back it up.
I'd rather not have to worry about setting up and administrating TFS on Azure if I'm not getting anything extra out of it.
I'm not exactly sure if setting up and using TFS on Azure will be free (or continue to be free) with my MSDN Subscription.
Has anyone experienced any major drawbacks to using Team Foundation Service, like a major loss of flexibility or functionality?
I've been using TFS Services since it has been in preview for my personal work - and I haven't had any limitations in terms of source control/build services. The service is fairly comparable to the full TFS server; but doesn't include the more advanced features such as test automation.
The pricing page also states that service will continue to remain free for MSDN subscribers: https://tfs.visualstudio.com/en-us/pricing/information/
Before TFSPreview existed, I asked some people in the know at MS about running TFS in Azure and I was told that there are some non-trivial problems with running TFS on a virtual machine on Azure. I believe this is why MS are offering TFS as a service rather than as a template for a virtual machine. As such, if you want to use TFS and you want it to be in the cloud, I'd definitely use the TFS Preview.