BizTorque.net

BizTalk in the DMZ

Mark Burch — Fri, 22 May 2009 06:09:40 GMT

BizTalk is one of those unusual products that doesn’t quite fit the usual server paradigm. Let me explain.

It uses webservices, but its not IIS.
Its uses SQL Server but its not a typical three tier app.
It does enterprise application integration (deep in the corporate network) but its also a B2B server as well (on the edge of the network).

So when people look to place BizTalk in the network it can be a tricky task.

But I want to give you one axiom to live by. BizTalk doesn’t belong in the DMZ. This is because by the time you’ve opened up all the ports to make BizTalk work, its no longer a DMZ. Its a just a subnet with a firewall.

Here’s why…

Description	Port
LDAP	389
LDAP SSL	636
RPC	135
RPC Internet ports (auto ports or user defined in dcomcnfg)	5000-5199
Global Catalog DCs	3268, 3269
IPSec	500
VPN-L2TP	1701
VPN-PPTP	1723
NAT-T	4500
Kerberos	88
DNS	53
HTTP	80
HTTPS (SSL)	443
SQL	1433-1434
FTP	20-21 + passive mode ports
Telnet	23
SSH	22
SMTP	25
POP3	110
MSMQ	1801, 2101, 2103, 2105, 2107, 3527
WINS	42

My contention here is that by the time you’ve opened up all those ports, its not really a DMZ anymore. Feel free to discuss this in the comments.

Here’s another lesser axiom. Don’t put a firewall between BizTalk and the messagebox unless you really really have to. Why? BizTalk’s use of SQL Server isn’t the typical 3 tier user of its messagebox. Any network latency between the BizTalk hosts and the messagebox is going to hurt you in performance. But more importantly than that, if there is a firewall in the middle it implies BizTalk hasn’t been positioned in the network using the correct paradigm.

I talked about these two axioms in my Tech.Ed presentation last year. You can see the slide deck from that presentation here

The solution that you should fight tooth and nail for is to have BizTalk deep in the corp network in the same subnet as the messagebox and expose all the endpoints via a reverse proxy (such as ISA Server). Don’t let the security guys tell you it has to be in the DMZ because it has webservices (its not the same as IIS) and don’t let them tell you it should be in its own subnet separated from SQL Server (its not a typical 3 tier app).

This is a vast over simplification of course and there are alternatives to be considered, but I do believe this is the principle and paradigm we should be using to place BizTalk in the network.

At this time I’m available as a free lance consultant (remotely if required) if you need help with positioning BizTalk in the network…(or anything else for that matter).

Book Review: SOA Patterns with BizTalk Server 2009

Mark Burch — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:39:07 GMT

One of the privileges of writing a blog is that people send you free stuff. Well that's not really true, that never happens. Except very occasionally when someone wants something in return. Last week the folks at Packt Publishing emailed me and asked if I would review their latest BizTalk book on my blog. And because I’m not the kind of person that knocks back free stuff I said hell yeah.

So the book is called SOA Patterns with BizTalk Server 2009 and its by Richard Seroter.

When I saw this was by Richard my expectations were set high. He’s been around the BizTalk space forever and his blog is one of the more prolific and cogent around so expected it to be good.

I like the way this book is positioned. It is “Targeted at individuals already familiar with BizTalk Server” which suits me fine because I skip over introductory BizTalk materials a page at a time. But then the first two chapters are introductions to BizTalk, the BizTalk Visual Studio IDE and WCF. Which seemed unnecessary to me. But I guess no publisher could allow a book to be published with out *some* introductory material. I was also amused to see Richard invoke the memory of BizTalk Server 2000 to show how far BizTalk has come…which is something I do from time to time and I guess when you’ve been around this stuff so long, you can’t help yourself.

But the bulk of this book is about BizTalk from a SOA perspective – not BizTalk. And this is where the book comes into its own. I particularly enjoyed chapter 7 which showed “Through the use of dynamic ports and direct binding, we can create very loosely-coupled processes that are capable of reuse”. Reuse is something a bit, shall we say, tricky with BizTalk so I learned a lot. Chapter 7, also talks about Complex Event Processing (CEP) with BizTalk which I haven’t seen anywhere else (although I just did a quick google for BizTalk and CEP and it seems there is some late breaking news).

Here is a link (free online) to Chapter 9: New SOA Capabilities in BizTalk Server 2009: WCF SQL Server Adapter

So, in conclusion, I would say, if you’re doing SOA type things with BizTalk go ahead and buy this book. But if you’re after a book that will show the general capabilities of BizTalk, this isn’t it.

And next week on this blog, I will be reviewing the Ferrari 599 GTB after they send me a free demo model to try out…oh wait, that's my Jeremy Clarkson daydream again…

a new phase has begun…

Mark Burch — Thu, 14 May 2009 11:13:23 GMT

I’ve been holding off on writing this post as I wanted to get some things clear first. You probably will have seen the news stories last week about 3500 layoffs Microsoft did around the world? Well sure enough, I got headshotted in that go around. I’m going to miss working at Microsoft on two counts. 1. I’m going to miss all the talented colleagues I got to associate with. Hanging around smart people naturally causes you to be smarter… 2. I’m going to miss techready. Techready is the Microsoft readiness event for FTEs..its like Tech.Ed but even more awesome. Its like disneyland for software nerds and I looked forward to it every year.

But you’re wondering what comes next…at this stage my plan is to keep doing what I’ve been doing the last few years…that is, helping my clients with their BizTalk systems. I’m going to continue to leverage my successful consulting track record and provide thought leadership, BizTalk know how, and development skills to my clients. I will be more specific about this over the next little while as things unfold.

If you’re a client I’ve worked with previously and you’re interested in having a chat, lets talk. Contact details at the bottom. What ever you paid for time before, I can assure you I’m now much cheaper.

If you’re a recruiter and have something interesting for me give me a call.

Contacting Mark Burch.

Phone +61 438 259060

Hit the contact button on my blog.

email me at…I’m not going to just type my email address because I’m already over run with spam so this is a small IQ test: My email address is: myfirstname AT myfirstname mylastname DOT net

Connect to me on Linkedin

Mark Burch — Wed, 06 May 2009 13:28:15 GMT

Hi everyone,

I’m building up my professional network. So I’ve signed up to Linkedin. I’m still getting settled in over there but I wanted to give a call out to all my blog readers to say ‘connect me’. Is that what you say on linkedin? I usually say “friend me” but that's on facebook and I don’t want to be acting all newbie on a professional site.

My profile is at http://www.linkedin.com/in/biztorque

Looking forward to connecting with you.

Mark

RFID for IT & Data Center Asset Management (By HP, Microsoft, Motorola) by Frost & Sullivan, this Friday, 27th Feb 2009

Mark Burch — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:26:44 GMT

There is a interesting webinar happening this Friday in our TIMEZONE that you may be interested in.

It starts at 3:30pm on Friday 27th Feb Australian Eastern Standard Time aka Sydney Melb Bris time.

All the info is here http://www.stonenarcher.com/MOTO_MOBILITY/Webinar/Invitation.htm

Mark Burch is now a Microsoft Certified Trainer

Mark Burch — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 05:45:05 GMT

Have you ever stopped to wonder, "What exactly is Mark good for?" No? Ok well if you ever did do that, now you have an answer...TRAINING!

I've been delivering BizTalk training for Microsoft Services for almost 4 years now, and since I get good reviews for it I decided to get certified. I'm now a Microsoft Certified Trainer.

The main course that I deliver is:

Microsoft Premier BizTalk Server 2006 Architecture & Administration Workshop

"This 3 day workshop for architects and administrators will include an overview of Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 along with presentations and hands-on labs covering how to design, build, and operate a robust, scaleable and secure BizTalk Server 2006 environment. No prior Microsoft BizTalk Server experience is required but would be helpful as this will be a fast paced course."

I have also from time to time delivered the Microsoft Premier BizTalk Server 2006 Development Workshop.

So who wants to organise my celebratory ticker tape parade???

Blog suckiness of late

Mark Burch — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 02:10:34 GMT

Just incase there is anyone out there who actually reads my blog I just wanted to apologize for the extreme instability and severe lack of uptime on this blog lately. I think I have all the technical issues sorted now and this blog will now be returned to its 5 9s uptime. That is 99.999% up, except for when its down. Here at Biztorque.net we're totally committed to fudging our SLA metrics to make them show what we want them to say. Hence forth, this blog will be up 99.999% of the time, except for when its not.

You know its bad when the google index for Biztorque.net has this "Application Error! Details. No error message available."

So that's a mea culpa from me...I think things are resolved now.

BizTalk 2009 Prerequisite cab file links

Mark Burch — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 23:24:40 GMT

UPDATE: APRIL 2009. I HAVE BEEN ADVISED THAT THESE LINKS ARE FOR THE BETA PREREQS ONLY AND DON’T WORK FOR RTM OF BTS09. I WILL UPDATE THIS POST WITH THE RTM LINKS SHORTLY.

Here are the links to all the versions of the btsredist cab files.

CAB Files (32-Bit Editions)

The following table provides the locations of the localized CAB files for BizTalk Server 2009 running on 32-bit Windows.

Language

Link

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81430

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81431

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81432

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81433

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81434

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81435

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81436

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81437

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81438

CAB Files (64-Bit Editions)

The following table provides the locations of the localized CAB files for BizTalk Server 2009 running on 64-bit editions of Windows.

Language

Link

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81421

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81422

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81423

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81424

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81425

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81426

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81427

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81428

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81429

A CERN Large Hadron Collider and Another World

Mark Burch — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 05:35:32 GMT

Anyone remember playing a computer game from the early 90's called Another World? I played it on my Amiga 500 back in the day. I was also waxing nostalgic a couple of months ago and was watching the run through of it on youtube here. Good times. But anyway, the premise of that really awesome platform adventure game is that a professor turns on a supercollider experiment and it all goes horribly wrong and he gets transported to an alien planet and has to find his way home. I couldn't help making the connection with all the media hoopla about the CERN LHC being switched on.

With the propensity for life to imitate art, I have some advice for the physics geek's at CERN. 1. Get fit, because you're going to do a lot of running away from alien monsters. 2. Take some clean underwear to work because its a long way home from Another World.

BTW, Fade to Black and Flashback, were even better (semi sequels) than Another World.

ps. I don't actually think anything bad will happen when the LHC is turned on. Why do people lose their heads when stuff like this goes down??

New BizTalk Server Roadmap released!

Mark Burch — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:12:51 GMT

http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk/en/us/roadmap.aspx

One noteworthy change: BizTalk Server 2006 R3 renamed to BizTalk Server 2009.