donderdag 29 maart 2012

Backup BizTalk: Don't make ordinary Full backups

Off course you make backups of your BizTalk databases! You have set the Recovery Model from the databases to Full and every single day your Maintenance Plans or (actually) the SQL Server Agent jobs make Full and Log backups. So in case you need to restore your BizTalk databases, you are safe...
Well, I've got some news for you... You're not so safe...

If you make BizTalk Backups like described above, you could be in deep trouble in case you need to restore. When it comes to making backups from your BizTalk databases, Microsoft supports only one way....

Read this very nice written blog on how to backup Biztalk Databases the right way: Backup BizTalk: Don't make ordinary Full backups

dinsdag 13 maart 2012

Task Scheduler failed to start: Error Value: 2147943645

We have a script scheduled using the Task Scheduler. Now we realised however that the script hadn't run for a while.

when analyzing the scheduled task, we couldn't find any issue... the task was currently running.
However, when we reveiwed the history of the task we noticed there was an error each time it tried to run the task.
The error just said : 'Task Scheduler failed to start "YourScript" task for user "yourUser". Additional Data: Error Value: 2147943645.'



The error message doesn't say much useful. But what does it mean?
Turned out the solution was quite simple: it just means you are trying to run a job with the “Run only wheb user is loffed on” flag set.



This also explains why the job was running succesfully when we checked the task, since we were logged in as the configured user. A real simple solution for a meaningless error message.

dinsdag 6 maart 2012

BizTalk Server 2010 Exam : How to prepare?

I'm planning to take the BizTalk Server 2010 Exam (Exam 70-595) this year.

A nice overview on how to prepare for the exam can be found here, by Steef-Jan Wiggers.

Also Saravana Kumar has a nice blog post on how he prepared for the Biztalk exam. You can find the blog post here.

Another option to prepare for the exam is to use the upcoming book '(MCTS): Microsoft BizTalk Server 2010 (70-595) Certification Guide'.
The book will be released in May 2012, it can however be pre-orderd already here.
UPDATE: Unfortunately, Packt has told me that the release of the book is postponed to the second week of June.



I 'll be using these to prepare for the exam later this year.

donderdag 1 maart 2012

Cumulative update package 4 for BizTalk Server 2010

As of yesterday, BizTalk 2010 has a fourth cumulative update available already!
This CU includes 8 product updates based on customer escalations.

Download & info: Cumulative update package 4 for BizTalk Server 2010