Professional BizTalk® Server 2006

8.1. Overview

BizTalk Server is, of course, a server-side product. Server-side code executes under the most extreme conditions. The entire software stack contains many moving parts, from the application right down to the software drivers that communicate with your hardware. High loads are also induced on the hardware stack, whether it is your disk subsystem, network interfaces, or CPUs. These conditions push the entire platform to its limit.

The testing of server-side code differs significantly from the testing of client-side applications. Therefore, you need to approach testing with an entirely different mind-set. It is true that Microsoft has spent many man-years of effort developing and executing tests that cover myriad scenarios and the many features that the product offers. Microsoft performs a comprehensive set of automated test passes over every day's build during the development cycle. In fact, this is the case for all products that Microsoft develops. In itself, that is a huge number of tests. This testing helps Microsoft ensure that on a daily basis no regressions are made to the BizTalk code base. The level of flexibility that BizTalk offers means that it is highly likely that your exact scenario has not been tested by Microsoft in terms of the way that your scenario uses the product. Of course, your custom code and orchestrations will not have been tested by Microsoft. It's also worth considering that the chances are extremely unlikely that your configuration has been ...