Installing BizTalk Server 2004

This is an old post from my pre-Microsoft blog from https://www.sessionstate.com.

Installing BizTalk Server 2004 is no light matter. While not overly complicated, it does require several pre-requisites and knowledge of the order of installation. Additionally, it is necessary to install some components in order to get some of the supporting tools to work as well, like the Health Activity Tool (HAT). The following is a list of requirements to install the product on a client or a server

Install SQL Server 2000 SP3A, including Analysis Services SP3A

Install the MSXML SDK

Install the SOAP SDK

Install SQL XML 3.0

Install MDAC 2.8

Install Office XP Web Components

Install BizTalk Server 2004

The installer will complain that you don't have the development tools installed if you are doing a server only installation. The way I chose to develop is to have a virtual machine with a server installation of BizTalk (no VS.NET IDE). I then have my development machine set up with the .NET IDE and BizTalk Server Administration components and developer components. This allows me to simulate a more realistic environment without the "everything works fine on my machine" phenomenon (trust me, most of the orchestrations will work beautifully on your machine if everything is on one box, but not so in reality). Following this approach will allow you to practice developing, packaging and deploying BTS assemblies. Also, be sure to have a bevy of domain accounts available to run your SQL Server under, as well as all the accounts for the services that BizTalk installs. For development, most of them can run as the same account. I believe there is an instance where the installer will complain if it is unsafe. Happy installing!