Biztalk 2016 and SQL Compatibility

Question

We currently have BizTalk 2016 Enterprise Server and SQL Server 2016 environments installed on different Windows Server 2016 Boxes. SQL Server 2016 instance also contains other databases needed for our business.

Per Microsoft BizTalk Server 2016 is compatible with SQL Server 2016 or 2014.

I was wondering if upgrading SQL Server to version 2017 but running BizTalk related databases (BizTalkMgmtDd, BizTalkMsgBoxDb etc.) under 2016 compatibility mode would create any issue for BizTalk. SQL upgrade to 2017 will allow us to take advantage of new feature for other non-Biztalk databases. I know it is ideal to use separate SQL Servers for BizTalk and other databases but that is not an option for now. Thank you and appreciate any insight on this.

Answer 1

One issue is that it is not a supported configuration as per Hardware and Software Requirements for BizTalk Server 2016, which would mean that if you ever do have an issue with the environment, Microsoft may either decline to give support, or not be held to any SLA and only offer best effort.

Answer 2

It has not been tested in BizTalk 2016 so not supported. E g the SSISDB infrastructure (BAM) changed from MSDB in SQL so this may have problems.
BizTalk 2020 supports SQL 2019/2017/2016.
I recommend also to not share SQL instances with other non-BizTalk databases, but instead create multiple SQL instances. You can have many SQL instances on same SQL servers.