Wednesday, November 13, 2013

BizTalk Admin: Powershell script to save suspended messages and terminate suspended instances.

My latest BizTalk administration powershell scripting mission has been to save suspended messages and terminate all suspended service instances. WMI exposes both message instances and service instances and corresponding methods.
Visual Studio Servier Explorer showing WMI BizTalk Classes

The following script is in two steps. First all suspended messages are saved to file and then all suspended service instances are terminated. This script is used as part of a deployment process when the BizTalk cluster is not taking any messages. If the server is actively processing messages, a message could get suspended between the two steps and not get saved but the owning service instance could be terminated.

I have been thinking that one could use the serviceinstanceid to connect directly to the service instance from the message instance and terminate it then thereby avoiding the possibility of deleting a service instance without its corresponding message being saved. However, routing failure reports cannot be saved, (attempting to save them causes an exception) so the routing failure messages and service instances would still need to be cleaned up.
The simplest form of this script looks like this(note that blog software wraps the code):
$nameSpace ="root\MicrosoftBizTalkServer"
$path = "c:\messagedump" 

$filter="(ServiceClass=1 OR ServiceClass=4) AND (ServiceInstanceStatus=4 OR ServiceInstanceStatus=32)"
get-wmiobject MSBTS_MessageInstance -namespace $nameSpace -filter $filter | invoke-wmiMethod -name SaveToFile -arg $path > $null

$filter="(ServiceStatus=4 OR ServiceStatus=32)"
get-wmiobject MSBTS_ServiceInstance -namespace $nameSpace -filter $filter | invoke-wmiMethod -name Terminate > $null
The first filter specifies orchestration or messaging service classes that are suspended(resumable) or suspended(not resumable). All message instance meeting this criteria get returned by the call to get-wmiobject and are piped directly into invoke-wmiMethod. The SaveToFile method exposed by WMI has a path parameter specifying where messages should be written.

Invoke-wmiMethod returns information that is not particularly meaningful in this context so it gets piped out to $null to minimize clutter.

The second filter specifies all resumable and non-resumable service instances and is used to select the service instances. Again the results are piped directly to Invoke-wmiMethod which will invoke the Terminate method. The terminate method has no parameters.

For further reference: here is the MSDN documentatation for the Service Instance Status codes http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee268242(v=bts.10).aspx and for Message Instance Service Class http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/ee253972(v=bts.10).aspx

In the dev and test environments we don't normally want to save the suspended messages so I extended the script to accept parameters for flexibility. I also had some exceptions during development so I added a function to handle each message with a try/catch. The exception information will be printed but does not stop the processing. This would allow for eventually finetuning the catches if I wanted to account for specific errors.

The longer version of the script looks like this(again beware of line wrapping):
# define parameters: $path is where messages will be saved
# $save - a switch to trigger saving of suspended messages
# $purge - a switch to trigger purging suspended service instances

param([string] $path, [switch] $save, [switch] $purge)
$nameSpace ="root\MicrosoftBizTalkServer"
 
function Save-Message ($messageInstance)
{
  try
  {
    $messageInstance.SaveToFile($path) > $null
  }
  catch
  {
    $messageInstance.MessageInstanceId
    $_.Exception.GetType().FullName
    $_.Exception
  }
}
 
If ($save) {
  if (! $path) { $path = ".\messages"; }
  if (! (Test-Path $path)) { mkdir $path }

  $filter="(ServiceClass=1 OR ServiceClass=4) AND (ServiceInstanceStatus=4 OR ServiceInstanceStatus=32)"
   
  get-wmiobject MSBTS_MessageInstance -namespace $nameSpace -filter $filter | %{Save-Message($_)}
}
   
if ($purge) {
  $filter="(ServiceStatus=4 OR ServiceStatus=32)"
  get-wmiobject MSBTS_ServiceInstance -namespace $nameSpace -filter $filter | invoke-wmiMethod -name Terminate > $null
}
The main changes here are that the path becomes a parameter to the script. If the path is not specified then a default path is used. If the path doesn't exist it will be created. I also added a save and a purge switch to allow complete flexibility around saving and terminating.

I also call the SaveToFile method directly on the message object instead of using invoke-wmiMethod. In case you are new to powershell, the % operator used before the call to Save-Message is an alias for for-each.

Friday, October 18, 2013

Powershell to create BizTalk applications with references

The latest script to undergo migration to powershell is my application creation script. Our applications have references to each other so this script takes command line parameters for the application name and the references. If the application already exists the references will be added.

As usual for my latest blog entries, this script uses WMI and the BizTalk ExplorerOM. I also have minimized the error handling in order make the code easier to read.

Watch out for line wrapping from the blog software!
# define parameters: $app is application name
# $ref is a comma delimited string of references to create "Common,Schemas"
param([string] $app, [string[]] $ref)
 
 # Get local BizTalk DBName and DB Server from WMI
 $btsSettings = get-wmiobject MSBTS_GroupSetting -namespace 'root\MicrosoftBizTalkServer'
 $dbInstance = $btsSettings.MgmtDbServerName
 $dbName = $btsSettings.MgmtDbName
 
 # Load BizTalk ExplorerOM
 [void] [System.reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.BizTalk.ExplorerOM")
 $BizTalkOM = New-Object Microsoft.BizTalk.ExplorerOM.BtsCatalogExplorer
 $BizTalkOM.ConnectionString = "SERVER=$dbInstance;DATABASE=$dbName;Integrated Security=SSPI"

#check incoming parameter for application name exists
 if (! $app)
{ 'Syntax is: Add_References -app "NewAppName" -ref Common,Schemas'; exit}

#create the application if it doesn't exist already 
if ($BizTalkOM.Applications[$app] -eq $null)
{
   $result =( btstask addapp /application:$app)
   "btstask result:" + $result
   $BizTalkOM.Refresh()
}

#add application references
foreach ($reference in $ref)
{
   "adding reference to " + $reference
   $BizTalkOM.Applications[$app].AddReference($BizTalkOM.Applications[$reference])
}

# Commit changes
$BizTalkOM.SaveChanges()  

I couldn't find a way to add an application without using btstask. Let me know if you know of a way, without using the Powershell Provider.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Powershell to read the assembly comments field.

After migrating our applications from a Windows Server 2003 environment to a Windows Server 2008 environment we have found that the comments field of our assemblies is no longer visible in Windows Explorer.

After spending some time searching the internet for a simple PowerShell command I gave up and started experimenting in the PowerShell GUI.

This is the end result of my experiments:
((get-itemproperty .\serviceContract.dll ).VersionInfo).Comments

To list all of the custom attributes I used the following:
(get-itemproperty .\serviceContract.dll).VersionInfo | format-list

When things are busy it can can feel awkward to have to open up a command or powershell window, copy the name of the dll I want to check from another server, and then run a command. To make it simpler to check the version info I wrapped a batch file around my script and put it on my desktop so I could just drag and drop a .dll onto the batch file. My batch file looks like this:
@echo off
powershell e:\scripts\getVersionInfo.ps1 -dll '%1'
pause
Dropping a file on the batch file causes the comand window to open and run the batch with the file name as the first parameter and close again. I added the 'pause' to prevent the window from closing until I had the time to see the result.

Dragging a file onto the batch file causes the OS to try to start the batch file up with the working directory of the file being dropped. When the file comes from another server this will cause an error message. The version info appears too but it didn't feel like a tool I'd want to share.

To avoid the error message I created a shortcut to my batch file and configured the short cut's working directory property to start up in my script folder. Then I put the batch file and the powershell file into my script directory so I just have the shortcut on my desktop.

This dialog shows how to configure the shortcut.



It is possible to change the size of the font and window that pop up using the font and layout tabs.

To make it easier to spot my shortcut on my desktop, I clicked on the Change Icon button and chose an icon from the selection that appeared.



Now I just drag a file from windows explorer onto the info icon on my desktop and presto I have the comments data from my assembly.

I slightly modified my powershell script to accept the assembly name as a command line parameter when I added the batch script abstraction. My final powershell script looks like this:
param([string]$dll)
$dll + " version:"
((get-itemproperty "$dll").VersionInfo).Comments


The first line defines the command line parameter. The second line will just print out the name of the dll and the last line prints out the value in the comments field.
The final result is a lot simpler than all of the C# code I surfed past while looking for this solution, codewise and maintainablity wise.

Friday, October 4, 2013

Powershell scripts to stop/start BizTalk Applications

We are finally almost finished with a migration project from BizTalk 2006 to BizTalk 2010. Some of my 'tools' need updating. First up is my application start/stop utility since this is the only one that flat out doesn't work.

Out of curiosity I wanted to test different methods of accessing the BizTalk applications. WMI was automatically out because it doesn't expose BizTalk applications. My options were using the BizTalk Explorer OM which is part of the BizTalk installation or the BizTalkFactory Powershell Provider on CodePlex which requires an installation. It is pretty common for production environments to have strict limitations on what third-party code can be installed so the BizTalkFactory route is not always an option.

This first example uses the BizTalk Explorer OM. Beware of line wrapping from the blog software.

# declare -stop -start switch parameters
param([switch] $start, [switch] $stop)
 
 # Get local BizTalk DBName and DB Server from WMI
 $btsSettings = get-wmiobject MSBTS_GroupSetting -namespace 'root\MicrosoftBizTalkServer'
 $dbInstance = $btsSettings.MgmtDbServerName
 $dbName = $btsSettings.MgmtDbName
 
 # Load BizTalk ExplorerOM
 [void] [System.reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.BizTalk.ExplorerOM")
 $BizTalkOM = New-Object Microsoft.BizTalk.ExplorerOM.BtsCatalogExplorer
 $BizTalkOM.ConnectionString = "SERVER=$dbInstance;DATABASE=$dbName;Integrated Security=SSPI"


 if ($stop)
 {
   $BizTalkOM.Applications | where-object{$_.status -eq "started"}  | ForEach-Object{ $_.stop("StopAll")}
   $BizTalkOM.SaveChanges()  
 } 
 if ($start)
 {
   $BizTalkOM.Applications | where-object{$_.status -eq "stopped"}  | ForEach-Object{ $_.start("StartAll")}
   $BizTalkOM.SaveChanges()  
 }
 
The very first line sets up parameters so this script can be called with a -start or -stop switch (or both for a restart).

I prefer to have universal scripts that find their own BizTalk databases without hardcoding server names into scripts since we have multiple enironments. In this case I get the database server and management database information from WMI.

The next step is to load the BizTalk ExplorerOM and connect it to the BizTalk database.

Finally the applications are filtered on their status and then stopped or started using the ForEach-Object. Once all applications have been set to stop or start call SaveChanges to actually commit the start or stop.

The following example demonstrates using the BizTalkFactory PowerShell Provider.
# declare -start -stop switch parameters
param([switch] $start, [switch] $stop)

 # Get local BizTalk DBName and DB Server from WMI
 $btsSettings = get-wmiobject MSBTS_GroupSetting -namespace 'root\MicrosoftBizTalkServer'
 $dbInstance = $btsSettings.MgmtDbServerName
 $dbName = $btsSettings.MgmtDbName
 
 new-psdrive -name Biztalk -psprovider Biztalk -root biztalk:\ -instance $dbInstance -database $dbName

 if ($stop) { get-childitem -path biztalk:\applications\* | where-object {$_.status -eq "started"} | stop-application }
 
 if ($start) { get-childitem -path biztalk:\applications\* | where-object {$_.status -eq "stopped"} | start-application }
This script sets up the BizTalkFactory PowerShell Provider instead of the BizTalkExplorerOM.

The other difference is piping the filtered applications into the BizTalkFactory PowerShell Provider stop and start methods rather than the foreach-object loop.
Both of these scripts are pretty compact so the deciding factor becomes whether the BizTalkFactory PowerShell Provider is even an option in a specific environment.


I have a third version that follows a pattern Tomas Restrepo uses for starting and stopping host instances.

I mainly like this pattern because it allows for checking the status of an application just before starting or stopping it. In the previous examples the where-object returns a collection of applications which may be dependent on each other so some of them may be started already earlier in the loop.

In this example, I also added the functionality for specifying a specific application. Note the change to the parameter definition and the new get-applications function. If no application is specified then all applications will be processed.

# declare -stop -start switch parameters
param([switch] $start, [switch] $stop, [string] $app)
 
 function start-application($application)
 {
    # If the application is stopped, start it.
    if ( $application.status -eq "Stopped")
    {
      "Starting application " + $application.name
      $application.Start("StartAll")
    }
 }

 function stop-application($application)
 {
    # If the application is started, stop it.
    if ( $application.status -eq "Started")
    {
      "Stopping application " + $application.name
      $application.Stop("StopAll")
    }
 }

 function get-applications()
 {
    #if there is an application specified in the command line parameter, return just that application
    if ($app)
      { return $BizTalkOM.Applications[$app] }
    else
      { return $BizTalkOM.Applications }
 }

 # Get local BizTalk DBName and DB Server from WMI
 $btsSettings = get-wmiobject MSBTS_GroupSetting -namespace 'root\MicrosoftBizTalkServer'
 $dbInstance = $btsSettings.MgmtDbServerName
 $dbName = $btsSettings.MgmtDbName
 
 # Load BizTalk ExplorerOM
 [void] [System.reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.BizTalk.ExplorerOM")
 $BizTalkOM = New-Object Microsoft.BizTalk.ExplorerOM.BtsCatalogExplorer
 $BizTalkOM.ConnectionString = "SERVER=$dbInstance;DATABASE=$dbName;Integrated Security=SSPI"

 # if no commandline parameters are supplied do a stop and a start
 if ( !($stop) -and !($start) )
 {
    $stop = $true
    $start = $true
 } 

 if ($stop) 
{
   get-applications | %{stop-application($_)}
   
   # Commit changes
   $BizTalkOM.SaveChanges()  
  }

 
 if ($start)
 {
   get-applications | %{start-application($_)}

   # Commit changes
   $BizTalkOM.SaveChanges()  
 }
Just like the other scripts I use stop and start switch parameters and WMI to find out what BizTalk database to use. The stop and start functions give the opportunity to do a little more with each application object. I could have crammed them into one liners but they would not have been as easy to read. Since PowerShell is not very wide-spread where I work readability is important. The drawback is it makes the script look more complicated.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Exporting BizTalk Applications with BizTalkFactory PowerShell Provider

I've been reading "Powershell in a month of Lunches" and wanted to have something to apply the lessons to. Since I do a lot of BizTalk deployments, a BizTalk oriented script was a natural choice.

A lot of the scripts out there look like they come from folks who are used to scripting from the BizTalk / btstask perspective rather than really using the power of powershell and the BizTalkFactory PowerShell Provider.

First of all I have the following in my powershell profile so the powershell provider automatically loads every time I run powershell:

$InitializeDefaultBTSDrive = $false
Add-PSSnapin BiztalkFactory.Powershell.Extensions
Function Biztalk: { Set-Location Biztalk: }
Function Biztalk:\ { Set-Location Biztalk:\ }
The script itself is designed to export all applications on a server, including any binding file resources but not the default bindings or the webs, into an msi package. The default bindings are exported separately. It is useful to be able to see what the current bindings are as they may have been modified after installation.

My servers have environment variables that specify the BizTalk server and BizTalk database so these should be replaced as appropriate for your environment.

NOTE: The first line gets wrapped by the blog software!

new-psdrive -name Biztalk -psprovider Biztalk -root biztalk:\ -instance $env:BT_SERVER -database $env:BT_DATABASE

$apps = get-childitem -path biztalk:\applications\*

foreach($app in $apps)
{

  if ($app.isSystem -eq $false)
  {

    $appName = $app.Name

    $spec = Get-ApplicationResourceSpec $app

    foreach ($resource in $spec.ResourceSpec.Resources.Resource)
    {
      if ( ($resource.Type -eq "System.BizTalk:WebDirectory")
         -or  ($resource.Type -eq "System.BizTalk:BizTalkBinding"
         -and $resource.luid -eq "Application/$appName"))
      {
        $spec.ResourceSpec.Resources.RemoveChild($resource)
      }
    }

  export-application $app ".\$appName.msi" $spec
  export-bindings $app ".\$appName.xml"

  }
}
The script goes through all applications and retrieves the resource specification for each one. Web resources and default bindings are removed from the specification before the export-application call. Any bindings added as resources will remain in the resource spec.

The if statement selecting the resource.types may need to be on one line but was wrapped here for readability.

This was a very satisfying little project that I hope you can find a good use for!