Enhanced Tracking

Microsoft BizTalk Accelerator for RosettaNet (BTARN) provides an enhanced ability to track processes and messages. The native functionality for Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) in BizTalk Server is to track metadata only. BTARN tracks message content—both service content and headers.

The following table shows the full range of data tracking in BTARN. This topic addresses process and message tracking. For more information about non-repudiation data, see RNIF Message Processing.

Tracked information Feature User access
RosettaNet process and message tracking Through BAM (with database tables and views of the data) for metadata and proprietary interfaces for the message body BAM user interface or custom user interface
Errors and events Through the Windows event log Event log
Non-repudiation data Through proprietary interfaces (wire formats of messages are stored) MessageStorageIn and MessageStorageOut tables in the BTARNArchive database, and through the SDK

Process and Message Tracking

BTARN tracks two basic activities: the process activity and the message activity. The process activity tracks message processing in public-process orchestrations. The message activity tracks message processing in send or receive pipelines.

The process activity tracks full message metadata. The message activity tracks process activity metadata and the contents of the message.

Process Activity

Whenever a public-process orchestration (initiator or responder) is instantiated, the public process creates a process-activity record in the BAM tracking database. At various points in the public process, the orchestration saves tracking metadata. The process activity stops when the orchestration stops.

BTARN tracks complete metadata for the process in two instances:

  • When BTARN is a responder and it receives a request action message

  • When BTARN is an initiator and receives a request message from the line-of-business (LOB) application.

    Whenever BTARN sends or receives a message, the public process updates the status of the process activity.

Message Activity

The message activity tracks messages through the send and receive pipelines. Whenever a send or receive pipeline processes a message, the pipeline creates a message activity. The pipeline creates a message-activity record in the BAM tracking database and a message record in the BTARNArchive database.

The message activity saves the content of the message, including both service content and headers. In the receive pipeline, if the MIME decoder succeeds, the activity saves the four parts of the message content as XML in text format in the ContentXml column of the MessageContent table. If the MIME decoder fails, the activity saves the message content in binary format in the ContentBinary column of the MessageContent table.

Use of Tracking Data in Correlation

BTARN tracks the information required to correlate each process to all exchanged messages for a specific PIP (positive or negative signals, and request and response signals). It also tracks the information used to correlate a 0A1 message, if BTARN sends a Notification of Failure for that PIP. The combination of the PIP instance ID, initiator party name, and destination party name determine the messages related to an activity.

Tracking Databases

The process and message activities save tracking metadata in the BAMPrimaryImport SQL Server database. In this database, tables whose names start with the prefix "bam_Process" store process-activity tracking data, and tables whose names start with the prefix "bam_Message" store message-activity tracking data. Each separate process or message activity has a single record corresponding to it in the tables. Information about the two activities, and metadata tracking, is included in metadata tables whose names start with the prefix "bam_Metadata".

You can consume the data in the BAMPrimaryImport tracking database using the following views. These and other views are available in the Microsoft SQL Server node of the BTARN Management Console.

Tracking View Data
bam_Process_AllInstances State of the RosettaNet process defined by the PIP
bam_Message_AllInstances States of all messages
bam_Process_CompletedInstances State of completed processes

The message activity saves the message content in the MessageContent table of the BTARNArchive database. You can examine the content by running a query on the MessageContent table, using the unique identifier for the message. The activity stores the unique identifier in the ContentKey column of the message-activity tracking tables, using the prefix "bam_Message.

Important

The message activity shares the message content in clear text in the MessageContent table of the BTARNArchive database. This occurs in all tracking scenarios, including those in which messages are encrypted or signed. If you are concerned about the accessibility of the message content, you can restrict access to the BTARNArchive database.

BTARN uses the BAM tracking APIs to save tracking data.

Status Codes

The bam_Process_Active and bam_Process_Completed tables in the BAMPrimaryImport database included a Status column that indicates the state of the process. The following table shows the values for each status code.

Status Code Process State
-1000 ActivityNotPresentFatalError
-500 UnexpectedFatalError
-100 Initiated0A1
-99 TerminatedOnError
(Any other termination than terminated by 0A1)
-85 TerminatedBy0A1
-75 TimedOutOnResponseSignal
-50 TimedOutOnResponse
-25 TimedOutOnActionSignal
0 RegisteredActivity
1 ActivityToBeInitiated
10 ReceivedAction or SentAction
25 ReceivedActionSignal or SentActionSignal
35 ReceivedActionSignal2 or SentActionSignal2
(Signal 2 is meant for RNIF v11)
50 ReceivedResponse or SentResponse
75 ReceivedResponseSignal or SentResponseSignal
85 ReceivedResponseSignal2 or SentResponseSignal2
(Signal 2 is meant for RNIF v11)
100 ActivityCompleted

Activity Definition File

The activity definition file defines the fields that you track in BAM, and how you view them. For more information about this file, see Working with the Tracking Activity Definition File.

For more information about BAM, see "Business Activity Monitoring (BAM)" in BizTalk Server Help.

See Also

Working with the Tracking Activity Definition File
What BizTalk Accelerator for RosettaNet Adds to BizTalk Server