Installing and using the BizTalk ESB Exception Notification Service

Introduction

The ESB Management Portal Alert Service is a windows service that notifies users of exceptions published to the ESB Management Portal. The service polls the exception database for new exceptions and evaluates these against exception alerts that users have created in the ESB Management Portal.  The service then notifies any users or groups of users that have subscribed to the alert. The service retrieves notification e-mail addresses and group memberships from Microsoft Active Directory directory service. This service has no dependency on Microsoft BizTalk Server.

Prerequisites

Configure SMTP on IIS 7:

1. Start >> Administrative Tools >> Server Manager
    Go to Features on the left side, select Add Features, and tick SMTP server.
    Choose to install the required Remote Server Admin Tools
2. Run >> services.msc and check that the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) service is running
3. Open Start >> Administrative Tools >> Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager
4. Expand the server node and click on the website
5. Click on the SMTP E-Mail icon
    
6. Configure the properties as in the image below
    

Configure Default Virtual SMTP server on IIS 6.0 Manager:

1. Start >> Administrative Tools >> Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 Manager
2. Expand the (local computer) node, right click on the SMTP virtual server node and choose properties
3. Choose you IP address of your local machine
   

4. Click on the Advanced button next to the IP address and make sure the port 25 is assigned to this IP
   

5. Close the Advanced window and select the Access tab
6. Click on Relay and add your IP to the list
   
7. Click OK twice
8. Make sure the SMTP server is started

Installation

1. Open C:\Projects\Microsoft.Practices.ESB\ESBSource\Source\Samples\Management Portal\ESB.AlertService\ESB.AlertService.sln and build the solution
2. Go to C:\Projects\Microsoft.Practices.ESB\ESBSource\Source\Samples\Management Portal\ESB.AlertService.Install\Release and run setup.exe
3. When prompted, enter your username and password.
    Select an account that is a member of the BizTalk Application Users group with access to both the EsbExceptionDb database and the server hosting the alert service.
    Type the account name in the form: <DomainName>\<UserName>
   
4. Run >> services.msc and make sure that the BizTalk ESB Exception Notification service is running.
    If not, start it.

Configuration

Fault Settings configuration

1. Navigate to the ESB Management Portal http://localhost/ESB.Portal
2. On the menu bar, choose Admin >> Fault Settings
3. Change the Email XSLT File Absolute Path to C:\Program Files\Microsoft BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0\Exception Notification Service\EmailTransformation.xslt
    (for some obscure reason the path currently given is the one from the ESB Guidance 1.0)
4. Make sure to tick the Enable Alert Queue Service, even if you only want to use the email functionality
    This is a workaround to a bug that stalls the CPU to 100% and prevents emails from being sent.
   

Alerts configuration

1. Navigate to the ESB Management Portal http://localhost/ESB.Portal
2. On the menu bar, choose Alerts
3. Click on Create Alert
4. Enter a name for the alert
5. Add conditions for your alert
    The conditions are combined with an AND clause
6. Click Add
7. Save

Subscriptions configuration

1. Click on Add Subscriptions
2. Enter the Custom Email of the recipient for the alert
3. Optionally add Start time, End time and Black-out Period (like the next holidays for example)
4. Click Save 
 

Uninstallation

1. Open Start >> Control Panel >> Programs and Features
2. Uninstall BizTalk ESB Exception Notification Service

 

Tips:
· Always restart the BizTalk ESB Exception Notification process after changing some configuration.
· To remove an alert, you have to remove the associated subscriptions first.
  Only after the subscriptions are removed will a delete cross appear next to the Alert available actions.
· If you’re not using the Alert Queue option, make sure that the polling interval in the Alert Queue Options and the Email Service Polling Interval are the same as the former defines the default…
· You also might want to open C:\Program Files\Microsoft BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0\Exception Notification Service\EmailTransformation.xslt, go to line 104 and correct the typo (“My Subscriptions” instead of “My Subscrriptions”)

 

References:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee236682(BTS.10).aspx

Platform:
Windows Server 2008
IIS 7
BizTalk Server 2009
BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0