Setting up BizTalk360 On Windows Azure (BizTalk IaaS) in One Click

Published on : Jun 19, 2013

Category : BizTalk Server

BizTalk360

Author

PS: Please check our updated article here http://blogs.biztalk360.com/introducing-biztalk360-azure-easy-installer/ Microsoft has recently announced the Windows Azure offering of BizTalk Server Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas). Windows Azure offers a BizTalk Server 2013 Evaluation version for anyone to try the new IaaS offering. The price for this VM is same as any Windows VM where other BizTalk Server flavours (Standard and Enterprise) cost you much more (at least 10 times more) . This will help the BizTalk customers to quickly test their setup on cloud and how it fits their needs. We wanted to take advantage of Azure BizTalk IaaS offering and wanted make it seamless to evaluate BizTalk360. There are various advantages in using BizTalk360 in the cloud,  like manage and monitor their cloud BizTalk Servers using a simple web interface instead of logging into Azure VM using Remote Desktop Access (RDP). Setting up a BizTalk server 2013 on Azure is as easy as few clicks via the management portal, we wanted to make setting up Biztalk360 even simpler, just One Click (of course if you are happy with BizTalk360’s choices of BizTalk service account and password). We call it BizTalk360 EasyInstaller.  Since BizTalk360 EasyInstaller is targeted for customers who want try out BizTalk Servers on Azure cloud, lot of things around setting up BizTalk360 is taken for granted.

What does it do, for me

When you create Azure VM (BizTalk Server 2013 Evaluation ), it comes with BizTalk and SQL Server installed. However BizTalk would not have been configured. So that’s where the BizTalk360 Easy Installer’s work start. Following are the things it puts in order so that you can enjoy your coffee , while it takes care of the hard stuff.
  1. Creates a service account to configure BizTalk Server. You can change the name and password if you wish.
  2. Configures BizTalk Server 2013 with Basic Configuration.
  3. Creates a service account for BizTalk360 to run.
  4. BizTalk360 UI needs Silverlight to run, so if its not already installed, Silverlight is downloaded and installed.
  5. BizTalk360 needs WCF HTTP Activation feature to be enabled for it to serve its UI. So HTTP Activation feature is enabled.
  6. BizTalk360 reads BizTalk Management databases to gives you comforting experience with BizTalk, so BizTalk360 service user is given read permissions on those databases.
  7. BizTalk360, by default, needs SQL Server to be running in mixed mode authentication, so that’s enabled.
  8. Finally the latest and greatest BizTalk360 msi is downloaded and installed. Then you are ready to rock!

Create BizTalk Server 2013 Evaluation VM

In case its a news, following are the steps you would need to follow to create Azure VM BizTalk Server 2013 Evaluation. Log on to azure management portal and follow the below steps
  1. Click on New at the bottom left corner
  2. Click on Compute button
  3. Click on  Virtual Machine button
  4. Click on Quick Create button
  5. Select BizTalk Server 2013 Evaluation  Image then enter the rest of the detail
  6. Click Create A Virtual Machine
Create BizTalk Server 2013 VM In couple of minutes your BizTalk Server 2013 VM will be ready.

Experience the Magic

Once the VM is provisioned and you logged in, you can run one PowerShell command which will start the BizTalk360 Easy Installer. Click on the PowerShell icon in the taskbar and paste the following command and click enter.        (New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadString(“http://bizta.lk/one-click-install”)|iex PowerShell Command to Download and Install The above command will download and start the BizTalk360 EasyInstaller, in couple of seconds and will display the application as shown in the following picture BizTalk360 Easy Installer Now its time for the magic,  if you are happy with the default service account name and password simply click on “Configure” button (yes, just One-Click) and see the green bars fill up as you sip your coffee.  You may refer the section What does it do, for me while you wait. After couple of minutes you will have BizTalk360 ready to use… with one catch, you need a valid license to enjoy it fully. You can get a trial key from here http://www.biztalk360.com/content/download (only takes couple of minutes). BizTalk360 Easy Installer Successful Please note EasyInstaller currently only tested and approved to be run on non production BizTalk 2013 Evaluation VM on Windows Azure. You should not use this tool for setting up your critical/production BizTalk Server environments.

Behind the scene of Easy Installer

During the launch of BizTalk360 easy installer
  1. Check if BizTalk is already configured , if it is already configured, it will disable Configure BizTalk Server checkbox and Server Account text boxes. You shall change the username and password if you like (But remember it, as you can’t get it back from us).
  2. You shall choose not to configure BizTalk using EasyInstaller in that case you have to configure it by yourself and re run the tool.
  3. Check if Silverlight v5 is installed,  if it is already  installed, it will disable Install Silverlight checkbox. you shall choose not install Silverlight using EasyInstaller, in that case you would need to install Silverlight yourself and re run the tool.
  4. Check if BizTalk360 is installed, if it is already installed it will disable Install BizTalk360 checkbox.
Note: You shall use the EasyInstaller to just Configure BizTalk with basic settings and skip Silverlight and/or BizTalk360 installation, to do that just uncheck the relevant dependencies.