I have 2 biztalk vmware and a sql server(sits on the Domain Controller not a vmware) on 3 different machines. 1) should I make the sql server a vmware as well? 2) should the sql server be on the Domain Controller or could it be on a different machine? 3) if i am already in production and things are running fine how can i add another sql server and make both sql servers as cluster? or should i have done this before i went to production? 4)I have host instance on both biztalk1 and biztalk2 machine but if i am on biztalk1 i can not see the status of the host instance on biztalk2(cant start or stop it) what can be the cause? although everything is processing fine. Thanks, John
4) As for the Host Instances did you use Domain Accounts for everything? When you log onto the server are you logging onto the domain or the local server? Also it is a best practice to at the very lead have three Hosts: BizTalkServerApplication (the default, for Orchestration), SendHost and ReceiveHost. These will really get a LOT more performance out of BizTalk. If your work load is pretty even you can have an instance of each host on each server and get great redundancy out of them. After you set them up go to all your adapters (Except FTP and MSMQ, which really should have their own host that runs on one server only) and configure them to use the Send and Receive hosts for those respective operations 3) You can cluster the DB, it will require some downtime and reconfiguration. 2) I would not put the SQL Server on the Domain Controller, but that's just my preference. If it's a large domain or forest you could have performance issues. 1) I don't like making database servers VMs period. I'm not a big fan of VMs all together but DB servers and BizTalk Servers I like to have as physical servers. Kind Regards, -Dan Rosanova
