Hardware Requirements and Recommendations
To install BizTalk Server or its associated tools successfully, ideally you would begin with a computer. Assuming that you at least have a shell of a computer inside this shell, the following minimum hardware requirements are recommended by Microsoft to support BizTalk Server:
Intel Pentium 300 processor or equivalent
128 megabytes (MB) of RAM
6-gigabyte (GB) hard disk
CD-ROM drive
Network adapter card
VGA or Super VGA monitor/VGA or SVGA display card
Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device
Although software requirements are listed later in this chapter, it is important to recognize that BizTalk Server requires the Windows 2000 operating system. The minimum recommended hardware requirements for Windows 2000 Server operating system are as follows:
133-MHz Intel Pentium or higher processor
256 megabytes (MB) of RAM
VGA or Super VGA monitor/VGA or SVGA display card
Keyboard
Mouse or other pointing device (optional)
CD-ROM or DVD drive
High-density 3.5-inch disk drive
6-gigabyte (GB) hard disk
Because the installation of BizTalk not only requires hardware but software as well, we will also look at the minimum hardware requirements for the supporting software required by BizTalk.
BizTalk Server requires a valid installation of Microsoft SQL Server, Version 7.0 (SP2) or better. At the time of this writing, SQL Server 2000 has been released. The minimum recommended hardware requirements for SQL Server 2000 are as follows:
Intel or compatible Pentium 166 MHz or higher
Memory (RAM) 1 Enterprise Edition: 64 MB minimum, 128 MB or more recommended—highly recommended
Hard disk space 250 MB typical installation
Monitor VGA or higher resolution
800 × 600 or higher resolution required for the SQL Server graphical tools
Pointing device Microsoft mouse or compatible
CD-ROM drive required
In addition to the items just listed, BizTalk Server's Orchestration Designer also requires installation of Microsoft Visio 2000 (SR-1).
BizTalk Server can be deployed on a single standalone server or as a BizTalk Server Group, which consists of multiple BizTalk Servers processing data from a single SQL Server database. The first scenario that follows is based on an installation of BizTalk Server 2002 and SQL Server 2000 on the same machine. This configuration is usually adequate for development machines as well as lightweight sites (fewer than 1000 documents or transactions per day). The second configuration represents a more robust implementation that takes advantage of BizTalk Server's capability to be scaled up and out for large enterprise configurations.
An example recommended configuration for a single-server configuration—that is, a single machine running Windows 2000 Server, BizTalk Server 2002, SQL Server 2000, and Visio—would be as follows:
Two (2) Intel Pentium III™ or compatible processors, 500 MHz or higher
1024 megabytes (MB) of RAM
18.1 gigabyte (GB) SCSI hard drive
Network interface card
SVGA video card/SVGA compatible monitor
Keyboard
Mouse or other pointing device
CD-ROM or DVD drive
High-density 3.5-inch disk drive
Scaling up and scaling out of course requires more expensive hardware. The designs recommended here are based on deployments of BizTalk Server 2002 in the real world. The following list demonstrates a suggested BizTalk Server hardware configuration for a machine running only Windows 2000, Visio, and BizTalk Server:
Intel Pentium III or compatible processor, 500 MHz or higher
512 megabytes (MB) of RAM
18.1 gigabyte (GB) SCSI hard drive, RAID 5
(2) Network interface cards
SVGA video card/SVGA compatible monitor
Keyboard
Mouse or other pointing device
CD-ROM or DVD drive
High-density 3.5-inch disk drive
These configurations are intended to represent basic, realistic minimum configurations to successfully install and use Microsoft BizTalk Server 2002. Additional information on scalability and optimizations is available in the BizTalk Server documentation.