Falult Tolerant BizTalk Clustering

Kallu

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Feb 15, 2008, 1:17:02 PM2/15/08

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Hi,

I am looking for some best practices for installing BizTalk cluster in a
fault tolerant environment.

Heres the servers

SQL1 and SQL2 are clustered VSQL(Active -Passive)

we need to cluster BizTalk servers BTS1 and BTS2 using a separate
cluster group VBTS ) MSDTC

Can you please let me know whether Master Secter Server and Enterprise
Single signon needs to be clustered in the same bizTalk cluster(VBTS)?

IO have already looked at the Microsoft Technet Documentation

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/biztalk/2006/library/bts06clustering/4daea7c6-7d26-440c-a2a0-fa018a25b2b3.mspx?mfr=true

Any suggestion or best practices

-Regards,

Saravana Kumar

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Feb 18, 2008, 7:36:35 AM2/18/08

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In my experience, you normally cluster the Enterprise SSO on the DB cluster,
as active/passive. Here is a KB article explaining how you can configure SSO
cluster
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/884178

--
Regards,
Saravana Kumar [MVP - BizTalk Server]
http://www.biztalk247.com/v1/
http://www.digitaldeposit.net/blog

"Kallu" <Ka...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
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DNova

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Feb 18, 2008, 2:21:24 PM2/18/08

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Do you need to cluster the two BizTalk servers at all? Unless you're
using MSMQ or some of the other adapters you can get away without
clustering them at all by putting host instances on each server and
making sure each host has a configured instance on each server. I've
found that BizTalk's internal "clustering" capabilities are much
better and provide active-active processing.

You definitely need to provide failover for ESSO, which I beleive can
also be done without a Cluster. You would configure the second
BizTalk server to run ESSO, but to join an existing group. This
should provide redundancy while running as the local ESSO replicates
it's data.

What are your uptime and redundancy requirements for this deployment?

Kind Regards,
-Dan

Kallu

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Feb 19, 2008, 1:12:00 PM2/19/08

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Thanks Sarvana

Kallu

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Feb 19, 2008, 1:27:01 PM2/19/08

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Thanks DNova,

Currently we are not using MSMQ but we might use FTP and MSMQ later

Can you suggest any links for using ENTSSO without a cluster?

We need to use
-Regards,

Kallu

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Feb 19, 2008, 2:15:03 PM2/19/08

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Saravana,

Heres the article from MSDN for clustering ENTSSO, it says we need to
install BizTalk on each node

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa561823.aspx

Do we need to install just ENTSSO(BizTalk) components on DB cluster or can
we have ENTSSO on BizTalk cluster?

-Regards,

DNova

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Feb 19, 2008, 2:16:27 PM2/19/08

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Hello,

Gladly! Please see:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa560674.aspx

About 1/3 of they way through under "Available, but not highly
available" they mention how if the master secret server fails the
other SSO servers will continue to function normally, you just can't
change any configurations. They even suggest having a MOM event fire
when the master secret server in unavailable and manually promoting
another server. This is a great idea in my opinion and I think solves
most availability concerns.

Kind Regards,
-Dan

Saravana Kumar

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Feb 20, 2008, 6:26:53 AM2/20/08

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You just need to install the SSO bits, not required to do a full BizTalk
installation.

--
Regards,
Saravana Kumar [MVP - BizTalk Server]
http://www.biztalk247.com/v1/
http://www.digitaldeposit.net/blog

"Kallu" <Ka...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

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Kallu

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Feb 20, 2008, 6:31:01 PM2/20/08

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Thanks Saravana and DNova for the help

-Regards,

EMenos

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Feb 23, 2008, 11:47:38 AM2/23/08

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Hi Dan,

Can you point me to reading futher reading materials regarding BTS internal
"clustering" capabilities?

Thanks

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DNova

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Feb 25, 2008, 10:58:52 AM2/25/08

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Hello,
A good place to start and sort of see how it can work is here:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa578057.aspx Do remember
that some adapters will require MSCS to function properly in a scaled
build out (like MSMQ); most, however, don't so this is a great place
to start. Outside of that some general rules are: Create separate
Send, Receive, and Processing hosts for your application and make sure
each is running an instance on two separate servers (or more). Bind
your orchestrations to the Processing Host and your adapters to the
send and receive. If I can get my company to approve and release my
white paper on the subject I will post it shortly. Making BizTalk
highly available is easy and cost effective if you do it correctly.

Kind Regards,
-Dan

EMenos

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Feb 28, 2008, 3:02:35 PM2/28/08

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Thanks D.

I want to implement this scenairo (it's a small install 2 BTS and 2 SQL
Boxes clustered).

However the concern is will a failed box require manual intervention. As in
the clustered configuration, the failed box is automatically restarted while
the other passive box becomes active.

Any thoughts on automatically handling failed boxes?

Thanks,

Anthony

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DNova

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Feb 28, 2008, 6:20:12 PM2/28/08

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Well, if you already have MSCS you can certainly use it for the SSO
Service. My only point is that unless you're actually changing
BizTalk's configuration you don't need the Master Secret Server. Even
so, you could probably use a MOM notification / event to fire a script
to promote the other server to be the master secret server... maybe.
-Dan