Deployment Best Practices II

Avoid large (over 100 MB) MSI files. Large (over 100 MB) MSI files may not be deployed within the transaction time-out of the COM+ components used by BizTalk Server during application deployment, causing the deployment to fail. You should deploy smaller MSI files or modify the default transaction time-out for the deployment COM+ objects.

· Document your deployment process. Even the most complex deployment scenario can be simplified with documentation. You should document the deployment environment, steps for deploying the solution, and custom configuration settings for hardware and software.

· Configure a binding file for each environment and computer. You can control settings by environment or server by packaging additional binding files in your solution's exported MSI file.

· Customize your MSI file with pre- and post-processing scripts.

· Ensure that only BizTalk administrators have access to the assemblies, binding files, and policy files. These files may contain sensitive business data such as connectivity and configuration information. If you deploy applications through a network share, configure the discretionary access control list (DACL) on the network share so that only BizTalk administrators can view its contents.

· Verify the security settings on virtual directories before exporting an MSI file. Be aware that the security settings on the virtual directory are those in effect when the MSI file is generated. If you are deploying an application with a virtual directory and the virtual directory already exists in the destination environment, the security settings on the existing virtual directory will be in effect.

Source: Microsoft

Deployment Best Practices

You can minimize deployment problems by following these best practices:

· Group related artifacts together in a single application. This simplifies management and provides a logical grouping of similar functionality, making troubleshooting easier.

· Deploy shared artifacts in a separate application. Only one artifact having the same locally unique identifier (consisting of the artifact name and possibly other attributes) can exist in a BizTalk group. By storing shared artifacts like schemas in their own application, you have finer control over dependencies.

· Deploy a shared Web site in a separate application. If you are deploying a Web site that will be shared by more than one solution, deploy it as a separate application. If it were shared and part of another application, its virtual directory would be removed when that application was removed. The Web site would stop working and any applications relying on it would stop working.

· Never deploy an assembly to a production computer from Visual Studio. During deployment, Visual Studio may undeploy, unbind, stop, and unenlist artifacts contained in project assemblies, causing unexpected and undesired consequences in a production environment. Never install Visual Studio on the production computer and never refer to a production database from a computer running Visual Studio.

Source: Microsoft