Managing the infrastructure of BizTalk/SQL Servers is a vital task to BizTalk/System Administrators. Manually monitoring the infrastructure of BizTalk Environment is a cumbersome task. BizTalk360 is the operational, monitoring and analytics tool which is used to manage the health of BizTalk and SQL Servers in an efficient way. Many customers approach the BizTalk360 Support Team to provide the Hardware Requirements of BizTalk360.
In our Documentation portal, we have provided the BizTalk360 installation document with hardware requirements for a BizTalk360 instance which contains one BizTalk Group. We provided the prerequisites with both software and hardware requirements, considering the BizTalk360 is set up in a stand-alone server.
We also have BizTalk360 Installation guide to set up BizTalk360. This article is focused on the hardware requirements of Windows Server to install the BizTalk360 application.
In most organizations, BizTalk Groups are set up in at least 3 environments (Production, Staging, QA/Dev). Considering these configurations of BizTalk Groups, we are suggesting the BizTalk360 application servers hardware requirements with BizTalk360 Gold tier. Having the Gold tier, and not Platinum, means that you will not have the ability to use the BizTalk360 Analytics features, but this will also save you from needing additional resources which come along with the Platinum features. However, with the mentioned hardware requirements, we kept the possibility open for upgrading to the Platinum tier, without the need for additional hardware requirements.
Goal: Create a separate instance of BizTalk360 Application Servers for twos version of BizTalk Server environments (BizTalk Server 2016 & 2013 R2).
We have written down the requirements for the BizTalk360 Application servers for BizTalk Server 2013 R2 environments, as well as BizTalk Server 2016 environments. Each of these BizTalk360 Application servers will be used to operate and monitor 3 different BizTalk environments. The specifications for these servers have also been written with that requirement in mind.
You will also find the requirements for the SQL server, which will host 2 SQL Server instances. Each SQL instance will host a BizTalk360 database, which will connect to either the BizTalk360 application server for monitoring the BizTalk Server 2016 environments or the one for monitoring the BizTalk Server 2013 R2 environments.
The system requirements to install BizTalk360 are considered to configure 3 BizTalk Groups in per BizTalk360 installation.
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Resource |
Requirements |
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Computer and Processor |
A computer with an Intel Pentium-compatible CPU that is 1 GHz or higher quad processors. The 64-bit versions of BizTalk Server require a 64-bit operating system running on an x64 based system. |
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Memory |
16 GB or higher |
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Hard Disk |
Minimum 20 GB of available hard-disk space for a complete installation including the operating system and all prerequisite software. The hard disk must be NTFS formatted. |
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Resource |
Requirements |
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Computer and Processor |
A computer with an Intel Pentium-compatible CPU that is 1 GHz or higher quad processors. The 64-bit versions of BizTalk Server require a 64-bit operating system running on an x64 based system. |
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Memory |
16 GB or higher |
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Hard Disk (Database) |
Minimum 200 GB of available hard-disk space for a complete installation including the operating system and all prerequisite software. The hard disk must be NTFS formatted. |
In complex BizTalk environments, multiple BizTalk Servers and SQL Servers are configured. Based on these BizTalk Group configurations, we arrived at the BizTalk360 Application Server and BizTalk360 Database Server Configuration.
WMI Queries are used to collect the Event Log Sources from BizTalk and SQL Servers
Querying against the BizTalk databases like Message Box and Tracking Database
PerfMon is used to collect System Resources and Performance Metrics analytics data
Message Content (Archived Messages)
User Profile Images
Processed Email Content
Custom Widget Scripts
BizTalk360 collects Event Log Sources and Performance Metrics from BizTalk and SQL Server and stores that data into the BizTalk360 database. It also collects Tracking Data to determine the Message Patterns and Transmission Failure Rates.
The BizTalk360 Administrator makes sure the Data Purging Jobs are in healthy status to manage the growth of BizTalk360 database.
Many customers are configuring the BizTalk360 Monitoring Service and Analytics Service in high availability with Windows server cluster setup. In this case, you need two BizTalk360 Application servers, with the configuration mentioned in the above table.
Note: Customers can install all three components in high availability configuration
Users can manage the BizTalk360 Monitoring and Analytics services in the Settings -> BizTalk360 Health. Read this article to know more about BizTalk360 High Availability status.
Some customers use different instances of BizTalk360 for the same version of a BizTalk Group in QA, Staging and Production environments. In this scenario, three different Windows servers are required for BizTalk360 Application configuration. Similarly, three SQL Servers are required to configure the BizTalk360 databases. If they want to set up high availability of BizTalk360 in production, then one BizTalk360 Application Server and one SQL Server are added to the list.
Once all the setup and configurations are in place, it is a quick and seamless task to install/upgrade BizTalk360. The customer suggestion and feedback are always heard and addressed, which helps us to improve the product and provide better service.
