Scenario Overview

1. The Microsoft BizTalk LoadGen 2007 tool generates an XML message and sends it to the computer running BizTalk Server with the NetTcp transport.
   
   

   Note
   For more information about the Microsoft BizTalk LoadGen 2007 tool, see Microsoft BizTalk LoadGen 2007 Tool (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=59841)

2. The XML message is received by a BizTalk Server receive location that uses the WCF-NetTcp receive adapter. The BizTalk Server receive location is configured to use the PassThruReceive pipeline, which performs no processing of the message.
   
   
3. The BizTalk Server end point manager (EPM) publishes the message to the BizTalk MessageBox database.
   
   
4. A BizTalk Server send port that uses the WCF-NetTcp send adapter subscribes to messages published by the receive location and retrieves the message from the BizTalk MessageBox. The send port uses the PassThruTransmit pipeline, which performs no processing of the message.
   
   
5. The message is delivered to the back end WCF service by the WCF-NetTcp send adapter.
   
   

1. The Microsoft BizTalk LoadGen 2007 tool generates an XML message and sends it to the computer running BizTalk Server using the NetTcp transport.
   
   
2. The XML message is received by a BizTalk Server receive location that uses the WCF-NetTcp receive adapter. The BizTalk Server receive location is configured to use the PassThruReceive, pipeline which performs no processing of the message.
   
   
3. The message is delivered to a simple Orchestration, which consists only of a receive location and a send port.
   
   
4. A one-way BizTalk Server send port that uses the WCF-NetTcp send adapter subscribes to messages published by the receive location and retrieves the message from the BizTalk MessageBox. The send port uses the PassThruTransmit pipeline, which performs no processing of the message.
   
   
5. The message is delivered to the back end WCF service by the WCF-NetTcp send adapter.
   
   

The hardware configuration used for the lab is illustrated below. To easily accommodate scale out of the processing and database tiers, the following lab hardware was used:

• Six Enterprise class Hewlett Packard DL-380 computers for the BizTalk Server processing tier.
  
  
• Three Enterprise class Hewlett Packard DL-580 computers for the database tier, to provide multi-MessageBox capability.
  
  

A diagram of the hardware used in the lab is provided below:

The following table provides more specific information about the hardware used in the lab.

The following diagram depicts the storage area network (SAN) configuration used for the lab environment.

It is important to determine the maximum attainable throughput of a SAN and compare this value to the expected load against the SAN in production. This will help prevent unanticipated expenditures for SAN-related hardware when moving your application from a test/quality assurance (QA) environment into a production environment. For example, the maximum available throughput for the SAN may be more than sufficient for your application in a sandboxed test environment. However, if other server applications will use the SAN in production, available SAN throughput may be insufficient and could become a bottleneck.

When evaluating performance of your SAN, consider the following:

1. What is the maximum attainable throughput of the SAN? – This is measured using the lowest common denominator, in terms of throughput, of the host bus adapter (HBA) in the server, the Switch-SAN throughput, and the speed of the SAN controller cards.
   
   
2. What other applications will use the SAN in production? – Consider what other applications will make use of the SAN in the production environment. If other database or otherwise I/O intensive applications such as Exchange Server will use the SAN in production, the amount of SAN throughput available for your computer running BizTalk Server will be reduced accordingly.
   
   

For the lab environment, a dedicated SAN was used and each of the three SQL Server computers was connected to the SAN switch with a 4-GB host bus adapter (HBA). 8 GB of throughput was available between the SAN switch and the SAN itself. The SAN has two 350 MB controllers, therefore providing a maximum of 700 MB throughput.

The following LUN configuration was used for each of the three computers running SQL Server in the test environment.