Using the ESB Guidance - Installation Process and Checklists
Many people are eager to get their hands on the new Microsoft ESB Guidance for BizTalk and to start exploring all of the great stuff it contains. However, we’re seeing that a lot of people are struggling with the installation process. Therefore, I thought I’d put together some documentation on the process I followed and I also figured that it would be useful to create some simple checklists that outline all of the tasks, actions and software you need to complete.
Based on my experiences (and backed up by my college Jim Bowyer’s experiences) most of your time will be spent installing the prerequisites that the ESB guidance requires. The guidance does include some fairly comprehensive help files that do outline all of the service packs, hot fixes etc that you need, however I’ve found that most people rush through this section a bit and miss one of two of the required components or required tasks. I myself spent several hours trying to debug the sample applications only to realize that I had missed one key hot fix and one key step in the configuration process. My strongest recommendation is to really take your time when setting up your environment and make sure you’ve got everything install and configured properly before you try and install the ESB guidance. A little care taken at early will save you massive amount of time later when you’re trying to debug malfunctioning components and sample applications.
After running through this process a couple of times, I’d estimate that I could do a complete installation in a little less than ½ a day. It took me almost two days the first time I did this due to fact that I rushed through the process and missing a couple of steps. The ½ day estimate is also based on the fact that I have a base Virtual PC image that I can start from. Without this image (I.e. if you’re building a machine from the O/S up), you’ll obviously need more time (perhaps even up to 2 days). Finally, please note documentation is not my day job; these are merely supplementary notes to help folks get started with the ESB Guidance. I hope you find this valuable and I welcome your feedback.
I've attached a PDF document containing the process overview and checklists.
Update: For those of you that are reading this through an RSS feed or from a syndicated blog site, you might not be able to see the attachment. Here's a link you can use to download the file. https://www.peterkelcey.com/downloads/ESBInstallProcess_V1.pdf
Cheers and keep on BizTalking..