At a certain point in time when installing BizTalk, you will need to install some extra “components”. In the BizTalk installation wizard this is referred to as a prerequisite file.

This file can be downloaded automatically from within the wizard, but most likely you have some good reasons not to do that:

• You’re installing more than 1 BizTalk server and/or environment at the same time
• You do not want to wait for downloads to finish
• Internet access is not available on BizTalk servers
• etc …

There are a bunch of reasons why a seasoned BizTalk professional/administrator needs to have a backup copy of these files available just in case you might ever need them…

Below you can find a list of all BizTalk prerequisite files I have come across and where to find any further localized versions in case you might need them.

BizTalk 2013 beta

I haven’t found the BizTalk 2013 beta prerequisite CAB file links anywhere, but I’m sure this is overkill to this post… it’s better to download them within the wizard.

The beta is just for evaluation purposes anyway, so you would not install this on an actual server + the file is most likely subject to change due to it’s beta status.

BizTalk 2010

The following list is taken from the installation document for BizTalk 2010 found here.

BizTalk 2009

The following list is taken from the installation document for BizTalk 2009 found here.

BizTalk 2006 R2

The following list is taken from the installation document for BizTalk 2006 found here.

I hope this helps someone who needs the quick download!

In more advanced WCF scenarios, the BizTalk standard functionality can be insufficient.  In those cases, WCF extensibility can help us to overcome the limitations of the standard BizTalk WCF adapters.  Typical examples are custom MessageInspectors, ErrorHandlers, Decoders and AuthorizationBehaviors.

Once you have registered the extensibility, you can configure it on the WCF-Custom or WCF-CustomIsolated receive and send ports:

When the WCF send or receive port is executed, your WCF extensibility objects will be injected into the WCF channel stack.

But how can we register these WCF extensions?

BizTalk 2006 R2 and BizTalk 2010

In the previous versions of BizTalk, there was only one way to register WCF extensions: the machine.config.

-   The C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\CONFIG\machine.config is needed for 32-bit processes:

• BizTalk 32-bit host instances
• IIS 32-bit applications
• BizTalk Administration Console

-   The C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727\CONFIG\machine.config is needed for 64-bit processes

• BizTalk 64-bit host instances
• IIS 64-bit applications

BizTalk 2010: The new feature

BizTalk Server 2010 comes with a nice new feature for registering your WCF extensibility assemblies. The new feature allows you to avoid the machine.config and to register them in BizTalk itself. Let’s have a look!

• Browse to the WCF-Custom adapter handlers.

       

 

• Open the receive or send handler.  Choose Properties.

 

       

• Here you can import a web.config / app.config that contains your WCF extensions.

BizTalk 2010: The caveat

Unfortunately, this doesn’t work if your receive port is hosted in IIS.  You can register the WCF extensions on the WCF-CustomIsolated adapter handlers. However, when the WCF-CustomIsolated receive port is called, you get an activation error:

“WebHost failed to process a request.

Sender Information: System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostingEnvironment+HostingManager/45653674

Exception: System.ServiceModel.ServiceActivationException: The service '/ApplicationName/Service.svc' cannot be activated due to an exception during compilation. The exception message is: Unable to create endpoint behavior configuration element from XML configuration.

Check the following:

1. Verify behavior element extensions in machine.config are correctly configured.
2. Restart the application if machine.config was recently updated.
3. Ensure the configuration is valid XML that conforms to the configuration schema.”

Adding the WCF extensions in the corresponding web.config of IIS also doesn’t solve this issue.  The only solution I’ve found is to register them again in the machine.config.  Remember that BizTalk 2010 is .NET 4.0.

- The C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\CONFIG\machine.config is needed for 32-bit processes:

• BizTalk 32-bit host instances
• IIS 32-bit applications
• BizTalk Administration Console

- The C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\CONFIG\machine.config is needed for 64-bit processes

• BizTalk 64-bit host instances
• IIS 64-bit applications

Conclusion

-   Only when using the WCF-Custom adapter in BizTalk 2010, you can register WCF extensions in BizTalk itself.

-   In all other scenarios, you need to register them in the corresponding machine.config.  This has the drawback that this also influences other applications on the server.

Please get in touch if you managed to get this working!