BizTalk Server 2010 R2 – July 2012 CTP!!

  • Article

Exciting times !! After a gap of two years BizTalk Server is kicking back again, and it’s not just kicking, it’s roaring!! Through this blog, I attempt to put down a list of new features and updates that have been introduced in the CTP. 

There are two broad categories of offerings for BizTalk Server 2010 R2 CTP. They are:

  • Updates to BizTalk Server
  • Support for running BizTalk Server on an Azure VM

 

Availability

The July 2012 CTP of BizTalk Server 2010 R2 is available as a managed Technology Adoption Program (TAP). If you are interested, please let me know and I should be able to connect you with the team driving the TAP engagements. To reach me you can either leave a comment on this post or tweet me at @nitin_msft.

 

Updates to BizTalk Server

  • Enabling connectivity to Azure Service Bus assets – This is the BIG new feature introduced in the CTP. BizTalk Server now boasts of out-of-the-box adapters that enable you to send and receive messages from Azure Service Bus entities like Queues, Topics, and Relays. BizTalk Server now has an SB-Messaging adapter that you could use to send and receive messages from a Service Bus Queue or a Topic. Two more adapters (WCF-BasicHttpRelay and WCF-NetTcpRelay) adapters enable you to send and receive messages using the BasicHttpRelayBinding and the NetTcpRelayBinding respectively. Here are the list of adapters that enable you to do this:
  • Making BizTalk RESTful – A while back I had written a whitepaper on how to send REST messages using BizTalk Server. The article talks about how to use the WCF-Custom adapter to send messages to invoke REST interfaces. With the addition of WCF-WebHttp adapter, it is now as seamless as it could be to send messages to a REST resource. Moreover, you could also use the WCF-WebHttp adapter to receive RESTful messages into BizTalk Server.

You can read more about the adapter at WCF-WebHttp Adapter.

  • Support for the new platform stack – BizTalk Server 2010 R2 supports the latest versions of the platform stack. For the CTP release, the supported versions of the platform stack are:
    • Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Windows Server 2012 RC
    • .NET Framework 4.5
    • Visual Studio 2012 RC
    • SQL Server 2012 and SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1

You can read more about this at Hardware and Software Requirements.

Support for Running BizTalk Server on an Azure VM

This is another key offering in the current CTP for BizTalk Server 2010 R2. Windows Azure now offers the capability to run Windows Azure VMs. You can host these VMs on Windows Azure and install applications like Microsoft SharePoint, SQL Server, etc. With the CTP, you also have an option to setup and configure a Windows Azure VM running BizTalk Server 2010 R2. You can either configure a single-node BizTalk Server setup or a multi-node BizTalk Server setup. For more information, see Configure BizTalk Server 2010 R2 on a Windows Azure VM.