BizTalk Benchmark Wizard

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Verifying that your BizTalk Server installation is performing as expected can be challenging. Although the BizTalk Server 2009 Performance Optimization Guide is a very helpful resource, still you cannot evaluate your BizTalk installation at run time other than by using the Performance Analysis of Logs (PAL) tool. And finding out whether you’re getting the expected workload through BizTalk Server is not possible with this tool.

The BizTalk Server 2009 Scale - Out Testing Study, conducted by Ewan Fairweather and others at Microsoft, provides sizing and scaling guidance for BizTalk Server. With the new BizTalk Benchmark Wizard, developed by BizTalk MVP Mikael Håkansson and Ewan Fairweather in relation to the BizTalk Server 2009 Scale-Out Testing Study, you can easily install and test a BizTalk environment– and compare the results to the study. While the test is running, counter information is collected and benchmarked against collected statistics relevant to your BizTalk Server environment.

How it works

  1. After the user has started the application and specified the BizTalk Group, the tool analyzes its configuration, finding all computers running BizTalk server, message boxes, etc.
  2. Next, the user gets to select one of two scenarios: Messaging or Orchestration. Each scenario has a set of tested environments such as
    • "Single server (2*Quad CPU, 4 GB RAM)"
    • "1*BTS (1*Quad CPU. 4 GB RAM) + 1*SQL(1*Quad CPU, 8 GB RAM)".
    • "2*BTS (2*Quad CPU. 8 GB RAM) + 2*SQL(2*Quad CPU, 16 GB RAM)".
  3. The user selects the environment that most resembles his/her own.
  4. The user then starts the Indigo Service, a console application hosting a service that will be called from the BizTalk Send port.
  5. As the user clicks “Run test”, the tool continues to start ports and orchestrations. It will also start the Perfmon collector sets, if the user has chosen to create those.
  6. As the test proceeds, the user can monitor the counter values through the gauges (CPU utilization, Received msgs/sec and Processed msgs/sec). The default test duration is 30 minutes, with a warm-up of 2 minutes.
  7. Finally, the user is presented a result, which is either Succeeded or Failed.

BizTalk Benchmark Wizard: https://bbw.codeplex.com

For more information:

Benchmark your BizTalk Server (Part 1)

How to install:

Benchmark your BizTalk Server (Part 2)

Drill-down:

Benchmark your BizTalk Server (Part 3)