Pro Business Activity Monitoring in BizTalk 2009

Pro Business Activity Monitoring in BizTalk 2009

by Jeff Sanders, Geoff Snowman
Released July 2009
Publisher(s): Apress
ISBN: 9781430219149

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Book description

Business Activity Monitoring, or BAM, provides real-time business intelligence by capturing data as it flows through a business system. By using BAM, you can monitor a business process in real time and generate alerts when the process needs human intervention. Pro Business Activity Monitoring in BizTalk 2009 focuses on Microsoft's BAM tools, which provide a flexible infrastructure that captures data from Windows Communication Foundation, Windows Workflow Foundation, .NET applications, and BizTalk Server.

This book shows why BAM is an important component of any business intelligence strategy because it bridges the gap between business intelligence and business process management.

  • Part One of the book covers the basics of BAM. It teaches you how to install BAM, and then it leads you through a complete but simple project to capture data from a WCF service

  • Part Two of the book describes the BAM tool set. It shows you how to define the data that is captured by BAM, wire up a BizTalk application for BAM, and view BAM data using the BAM Portal

  • Part Three of the book focuses on monitoring applications written in WCF or WF. It also shows you how to use the BAM API

  • Part Four of the book covers advanced topics in BAM. These topics include integrating BAM with Microsoft's BI stack, creating relationships between BAM activities, managing BAM servers, and monitoring BizTalk applications using BAM

    • This book contains numerous exercises to help you learn BAM. Source code for the samples is available from Apress.com.

    For many CIOs, business intelligence is at the top of their priority lists. Learn why with Pro Business Activity Monitoring in BizTalk 2009.

    What you'll learn

  • Show users what your application is doing and how their business

  • Implement a BAM solution without writing any code

  • Monitor applications written in WCF, WF, and BizTalk Server

  • Create an observation model to define the data that BAM will collect from your application

  • Use the BAM API to implement custom BAM solutions

  • Manage a BAM solution

  • Integrate BAM with your BI strategy and Microsoft's BI tools

    • Who this book is for

    This book is for anyone who wants to know what's happening in their organization, right now!

    Developers building WCF, WF, or BizTalk applications will learn how to monitor those applications without writing extra code. Architects will learn how to bridge service-oriented architecture, business process management, and BI. Decision makers will learn how to see what's happening inside business processes. BI specialists will learn how BAM provides real-time capabilities that supplement any BI strategy. Business users and analysts will learn how BAM allows them to understand what's happening in the business every minute of every day.

    About the Apress Pro Series

    The Apress Pro series books are practical, professional tutorials to keep you on and moving up the professional ladder.

    You have gotten the job, now you need to hone your skills in these tough competitive times. The Apress Pro series expands your skills and expertise in exactly the areas you need. Master the content of a Pro book, and you will always be able to get the job done in a professional development project. Written by experts in their field, Pro series books from Apress give you the hard-won solutions to problems you will face in your professional programming career.

    Table of contents

    1. Title Page
    2. Dedication
    3. Dedication
    4. Contents at a Glance
    5. Contents
    6. Foreword
    7. About the Authors
    8. About the Technical Reviewer
    9. Acknowledgments
    10. Introduction
    11. PART 1: Introducing BAM
      1. CHAPTER 1: Welcome to Business Activity Monitoring!
        1. Technology Trends
        2. The Benefits of BAM
        3. BizTalk Server Overview
        4. BAM Overview
        5. Summary
      2. CHAPTER 2: Installing and Configuring BAM
        1. How BAM Software Is Structured
        2. Designing Your BAM Architecture
        3. Optimizing Your BAM Architecture
        4. Creating a BAM Virtual PC for the Exercises in This Book
        5. Summary
      3. CHAPTER 3: Your First BAM Project
        1. Who Participates in a BAM Project? Roles and Responsibilities
        2. The Project: Monitoring a WCF Service
        3. Debugging the Project
        4. Summary
      4. CHAPTER 4: Where BAM Fits in Your Business
        1. BAM in a B2B Business Model
        2. BAM in a B2C Business Model
        3. BAM in a C2C Business Model
        4. BAM and SOA
        5. BAM and ESB
        6. BAM and BPM
        7. BAM and Composite Applications
        8. Summary
    12. PART 2: Working with BAM Tools
      1. CHAPTER 5: The BAM Observation Model
        1. Setting Up a BAM Solution
        2. Capturing Data Using Activities
        3. The Sample Scenario
        4. Orchestration Designer for Business Analysts
        5. Analyzing Data Using Views
        6. The BAM Management Tool
        7. Summary
      2. CHAPTER 6: The Tracking Profile Editor
        1. TPE Overview
        2. Applying a Tracking Profile in Production
        3. Cleaning Up with TP
        4. Summary
      3. CHAPTER 7: Consuming BAM Data and the BAM Portal
        1. The BAM Portal
        2. Using Excel to View BAM Aggregations
        3. The BAM Databases
        4. Enhancing BAM Data with Lookups
        5. Summary
    13. PART 3: Capturing Application Data for BAM
      1. CHAPTER 8: Capturing Data from WCF
        1. Architecture of the Interceptors
        2. WCF and BizTalk: So Happy Together
        3. The Syntax of a WCF Interceptor File
        4. A Walkthrough with Common IC File Examples
        5. Configuring the BAM WCF Interception
        6. Fault Handling WCF Interception
        7. Loading the WCF Interceptor Using the BAM API
        8. BAM Interceptor Performance Counters
        9. Hosting and Security Considerations
        10. Summary
      2. CHAPTER 9: Capturing Data from WF
        1. WF Overview and Concepts
        2. BAM in the BizTalk vs. WF Debate
        3. The WF Interceptor Architecture
        4. Understanding a WF Tracking Profile
        5. How to Monitor a WF Workflow with the WF Interceptor
        6. The Syntax of a WF Interceptor File
        7. Editing the app.config File
        8. BAM and WF at AWO
        9. Summary
      3. CHAPTER 10: The BAM API
        1. The BAM API Objects
        2. Working with MessagingEventStream
        3. The BAM Management API
        4. Summary
    14. PART 4: Advanced Topics in BAM
      1. CHAPTER 11: BAM and Business Intelligence
        1. Business Intelligence Concepts
        2. Integrating BAM and BI
        3. Alternate Integration Scenarios
        4. Summary
      2. CHAPTER 12: Relationship Advice
        1. The Relationship Sample
        2. Summary
      3. CHAPTER 13: Managing BAM
        1. Data Flow in BAM
        2. Enjoy Your BM
        3. Advanced Topics
        4. Summary
      4. CHAPTER 14: Monitoring BizTalk Status Using BAM
        1. Observation Model
        2. Tracking Profile Implementation
        3. Pipeline Component Implementation
        4. BAM Portal
        5. Extending the Monitoring Solution
        6. Summary
      5. CHAPTER 15: Building Better BAM
        1. BAM Best Practices
        2. BAM Architectural Evolution
        3. BAM Branches Out
        4. BAM to the Future
        5. Summary
    15. Index

    Product information

    • Title: Pro Business Activity Monitoring in BizTalk 2009
    • Author(s): Jeff Sanders, Geoff Snowman
    • Release date: July 2009
    • Publisher(s): Apress
    • ISBN: 9781430219149