Upgrade BizTalk Server 2013 to 2016

Question

Can we perform an in-place upgrade of Biztalk 2013 R2 to 2016 by following below steps : (without touching the current server) 

1. Install BizTalk 2013 and restore the configurations and DB backup.
2. Upgrade to Biztalk 2016 in place? I am not sure whether step 1 is feasible without losing configurations and critical parameters.

Answer 1

1. Yes, you can tell it to join an existing BizTalk Group, and point it to the restored databases. However you would still need to install all the MSIs on that server to GAC all the application DLLs. You would also have to add back any configurations that aren't default from the BizTalk install. The other option it to restore a backup of the BizTalk server in an isolated bubble environment.
2. Usually Microsoft only supports doing an in-place upgrade going up one version, I'm not sure if they would count BizTalk 2013 R2 as a different version, and that it would be going up two version.

However, I would recommend against doing an in-place upgrade, as it is riskier that just building a new clean BizTalk server, and migrating the applications across one by one.

Also, why BizTalk 2016? Mainstream support ended Jan 11, 2022 and extended support ends Jan 11, 2027. You should be going to BizTalk 2020. That has all the features of BizTalk 2016 + Feature Pack 3.