IPM

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Questions

  1. What are the pre-requisites for IPM?

    You can find the pre-requisites for IPM detailed here. Basically you need the below components on the machine running IPM.

    1. Windows 2003 or Windows 2008
    2. IIS 6 or IIS 7
    3. .NET Framework 3.5 (v. 1.0 - 1.5) or .NET Framework 4.0 (v. 2.0)
    4. ASP .NET 4 (v. 2.0)
    5. Sql Server Integration Services
    6. BizTalk Administration Tools
    7. ASP.NET MVC 1.0 (v. 1.0 - 1.5), download here or ASP.NET MVC 3 (v. 2.0), download here

  2. How do I install and configure IPM?

    Detailed description can be found here.

  3. How do I install the license key?

    Details can be found here.

  4. What is the price for IPM?

    The IPM price is based on how many BizTalk applications there are in the BizTalk group IPM is configured to monitor. Detailed prices for the different versions can be found here.

  5. How does IPM affect the performance of a BizTalk installation?

    IPM only reads directly from the BizTalk databases using ADO.NET. It also only reads from the BizTalk Management databases and never reads tables that have directly to do with the sending, receiving and processing of messages. Besides that, IPM uses the BAM infrastructure to intercept and track messages. BAM is built and shipped by Microsoft designed to handle huge amounts of data with a minimal impact on performance.

    Tests have shown that BAM tracking has about 10-15 % negative impact on performance. BAM and Data Tracking is however a feature in IPM that is activated interface by interface, and may be deactivated for performance critical interfaces.

  6. What can I monitor using IPM?

    IPM monitors:

    1. The number of sent and received messages per port
    2. Suspended messages
    3. Receive locations
    4. Send ports
    5. Send port groups
    6. Orchestrations
    7. Host instances

  7. What do you mean by Data Tracking?

    Data Tracking is the feature in IPM that uses BAM to track how many messages are sent and received per port. The BAM definition and profile management is all managed directly by using the IPM GUI.

  8. What version of BizTalk can I monitor using IPM?

    1. BizTalk Server 2006 R2
    2. BizTalk Server 2009
    3. BizTalk Server 2010

  9. Can we use IPM even if we don't have BAM installed?

    Yes. All monitoring features can still be used. Data Tracking will however be disabled until BAM is installed.

  10. Do I have to have adminstrative rights on the machine IPM is installed on?

    No. IPM needs access and privileges to modify files in a number of folders. If the necessary privileges to access and modify files for the user running IPM Web and IPM Subscription service are configured, no administrative rights are needed. The folders that need the mentioned privileges are listed below.

    1. <system drive><installation directory>IPM
    2. <system drive>Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\IPM (for Windows 2003)
    3. <system drive>Program\Data\IPM (for Windows 2008)

  11. On what server should I install IPM?

    IPM is installed on only one server even when monitoring an IPM group using multiple BizTalk servers. IPM can be installed both directly on one of the BizTalk server or on a standalone server. Using a standalone server is the recommended setup.

  12. How can I monitor other artifacts like CPU, disk, network etc?

    IPM is intended to complement your traditional monitoring solutions. To monitor standard infrastructure other tools should be used. IPM is specialized on BizTalk monitoring and reporting.

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