As previously detailed, I have completed a single server installation of BizTalk Server 2009 standard on my development laptop; a MacBook Pro Core2Duo running at 2.16Ghz with 2Gb of RAM.  Following this I also posted on my use of the BizTalk Server Best Practices Anaylser and how to configure the BizTalk SQL Server Jobs.  All of which means that I should have some confidence that I have a decent working BizTalk Server 2009 environment,

Next I thought that it would be a good idea to try and get some idea of how this setup performs by carrying out some baseline tests that can then be replicated on the test and live servers. The aim of this would be to allow confident predictions to be made of how any solutions developed on a single "server" installation may be expected to perform when deployed to these multi-server BizTalk Server 2009 standard installations.

The BizTalk Benchmark Wizard would seem to be the perfect tool for the job.

The BizTalk Benchmark Wizard is a ultility that can be used to gain some validation of a BizTalk installation, giving a level of guidance on whether it is performing as might be expected.

This utility should be used after BizTalk Server has been installed and before any solutions are deployed to the environment.  This will ensure that you are getting consistent and clean results from the BizTalk Benchmark Wizard.

The BizTalk Benchmark Wizard applies load to the BizTalk Server environment under a choice of specific scenarios. During these scenarios performance counter information is collected and assessed against statistics that are appropriate to the BizTalk Server environment:

"The executed scenarios may or may not be relative to any realistic scenario, and is only intended for testing. The BizTalk Benchmark Wizard has been developed in relation to the BizTalk Server 2009 Scale Out Testing Study. More information about the study can be found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee377068(BTS.10).aspx"

After downloading and installing the wizard you will need set up the Hosts, Instances and Adapter handlers.  This is done by running a script file using the “cscript” detailed below.  To do this you will need to open a command prompt window and navigate to the script folder; assuming the default installation location this would be C:\Program Files\Blogical\BizTalk Benchmark Wizard\Artefacts\BizTalk.

In this folder you should find an InstallHosts.vbs file which can be executed using the following parameters:

• NTGroupName - The name of the Windows NT group.
• UserName – The name of the user account running the service instances.
• Password – The password of the user account running the service instances.
• Receive Host – The name of the server where you want to run the receive host instance. 
• Send Host - The name of the server where you want to run the sen host instance.
• Processing Host - The name of the server where you want to run the process host instance.

By default the script is set up for 64 bit hosts, so if you are running in 32 bit environment make sure that you change the following line in the script before continuing:

from:   objHS.IsHost32BitOnly = False
to:    objHS.IsHost32BitOnly = True

If you have a single box installation, your script command might look like this:

cscript InstallHosts.vbs "BizTalk Application Users" “\MyUser” “MyPassword” “BtsServer1” “BtsServer1” “BtsServer1”

If you have a multi server installation, your script command might look like this:

cscript InstallHosts.vbs "MyDomain\BizTalk Application Users" “MyDomain\MyUser” “MyPassword” “BtsServer1” “BtsServer2” “BtsServer2”

Running this script will create:

• Three hosts (BBW_RxHost, BBW_TxHost and BBW_PxHost)
• Three host instances
• One send and one receive adapter handler for the WCF NetTcp adapter.

You will then need to import the BizTalk MSI via the BizTalk Administration Console.  Open the BizTalk Administration Console, point to the “Applications” node and import the BizTalk Benchmark Wizard.msi found in the same folder as the script above.

This will create a “BizTalk Benchmark Wizard” application along with all ports and orchestrations needed.

To finish the installation you will need to run the BizTalk Benchmark Wizard.msi on all BizTalk servers to add the assemblies to the Global Assembly Cache (GAC).

Next I will look at running the BizTalk Benchmark Wizard.