Announcing the BizTalk Server 2020 Cumulative Update 6
The BizTalk Server product team has released the Cumulative Update 6 for BizTalk Server 2020. The Cumulative Update 6 contains all released functional and security fixes for customer-reported issues for BizTalk Server 2020. Also, CU6 includes support for the following new Microsoft platforms: Microsoft Windows Server 2022 Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Microsoft Windows 11 BizTalk Server 2016 is currently out of support with its end of life in 2027. If you are running BizTalk 2016, or earlier versions of the product, you must upgrade to BizTalk Server 2020 CU6 or strongly consider migrating to Azure Logic Apps. Please fill this survey: https://aka.ms/biztalklogicapps. More Information about the CU6: This cumulative update includes all the product components. However, only those components that are currently installed on the system are updated. This CU6 includes fixes for the following areas: BizTalk Server Adapters Updates WCF-SAP adapter SFTP adapter BizTalk Server Administration Tools and Management APIs Lost changes to SQL Server Agent jobs You can obtain the software from the Microsoft Download Center, at https://aka.ms/BTS2020CU6. For more information about the BizTalk Server 2020 CU6, read the Microsoft Knowledgebase article posted to https://aka.ms/BTS2020CU6KB.Hybrid Logic Apps deployment on Rancher K3s Kubernetes cluster
K3s is a lightweight Kubernetes distribution, certified by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) and originally developed by Rancher. It is optimized for on-premises environments with limited resources, making it ideal for edge computing and lightweight hybrid scenarios. Unlike a full Kubernetes distribution, K3s reduces overhead while maintaining full Kubernetes API compatibility. This makes K3s an ideal choice for hosting Logic Apps Standard near your data sources—such as on-premises SQL Server or local file shares—when you have lightweight workloads. There are 5 steps which are followed to setup the Hybrid Logic Apps including infrastructure which is illustrated in the following diagram. Most of these 5 steps are same as discussed in the Hybrid Logic Apps doc except the K3s Setup part Set up your own infrastructure for Standard logic app workflows - Azure Logic Apps | Microsoft Learn. Step 1: Prepare the K3s Cluster Docker desktop setup - In this case, the host machine is Windows 11 so decided to user Docker with WSL2 to setup the containers. Install the docker desktop using WSL2 Docker Desktop: The #1 Containerization Tool for Developers | Docker and make sure we select WSL2 Install K3s on your infrastructure and create single node cluster using k3d. #Install choco , kubectl and Helm Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://community.chocolatey.org/install.ps1')) powershell choco install kubernetes-cli -y choco install kubernetes-helm -y choco install k3d -y # open in new powershell window powershell k3d cluster create # deleting the default load balancer Traefik as it conflicts with 80 and 443 port - we can configure the load balancer to other ports if needed kubectl delete svc traefik -n kube-system kubectl delete deployment traefik -n kube-system Next two steps are same as given Set up your own infrastructure for Standard logic app workflows - Azure Logic Apps | Microsoft Learn Step 2: Connect the Kubernetes cluster to Azure Arc Step 3: Setup the Azure Container Apps extension and environment You need to skip the core DNS setup required for Azure Local as given in Update CoreDNS Step 4: Conduct the Storage Configuration for SQL and SMB SQL Database (Runtime Store): Hybrid Logic Apps use SQL database for runtime operations and run history. In this scenario I used on-premise SQL server using SQL Authentication. I setup the SQL Server 2022 on the Windows host machine, enabled SQL server authentication and added new SQL admin user. Please follow the link for more details.. The SQL connection string can be validated using following PowerShell script $connectionString = "Server=<server IP address>;Initial Catalog=<databaseName>;Persist Security Info=False;User ID=<sqluser>;Password=<password>;MultipleActiveResultSets=False;Encrypt=True;TrustServerCertificate=True;Connection Timeout=30;" try { $connection = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection $connection.ConnectionString = $connectionString $connection.Open() Write-Host "✅ Connection successful" $connection.Close() } catch { Write-Host "❌ Connection failed: $($_.Exception.Message)" } SMB is used as local file share on Windows host machine; it is advised to use a new user for the Windows SMB share $Username = "k3suser" $Password = ConvertTo-SecureString "<password complex>" -AsPlainText -Force $FullName = "K3s user" $Description = "Created via PowerShell" # Create the user New-LocalUser -Name $Username -Password $Password -FullName $FullName -Description $Description Add-LocalGroupMember -Group "Users" -Member $Username Once the above user is created you can use Windows hosted machine to create Artifacts folder and allow read and write access. Please follow the link for more details Step 5: Create your Logic App (Hybrid) With all prerequisites and infrastructure in place for creating Hybrid Logic Apps, the next step is to build the Logic Apps using the specified connection string and SMB share path. This can be accomplished through the Azure Portal, as outlined below. Now you can create Logic Apps workflows using the designer and execute the Logic Apps workflow.
🚀 General Availability: Enhanced Data Mapper Experience in Logic Apps (Standard)
We’re excited to announce the General Availability (GA) of the redesigned Data Mapper UX in the Azure Logic Apps (Standard) extension for Visual Studio Code. This release marks a major milestone in our journey to modernize and streamline data transformation workflows for integration developer. What's new The new UX, previously available in public preview, is now the default experience in the Logic Apps Standard extension. This GA release reflects direct feedback from our integration developer community. We’ve resolved blockers that we heard from customers and usability issues that impacted performance and stability, including: Opening V1 maps in V2: Seamlessly open and edit existing maps you have already created with latest visual capabilities. Load schemas on Mac: Addressed schema-related crashes on macOS for a smoother experience. Function documentation updates: Improved guidance and examples for built-in collection functions that apply on repeating nodes. Stay connected We would love to hear your feedback. Please use this form link to let us know if there are any missing gaps or scenarios that are not yet coveredAnnouncement: General Availability of Logic Apps Hybrid Deployment Model
We are thrilled to announce the General Availability of the Logic Apps Hybrid Deployment Model, a groundbreaking feature that offers unparalleled flexibility and control to our customers. This innovative deployment model allows you to run Logic Apps workloads on customer-managed infrastructure, providing you with the option to host your integration solutions on-premises, in a private cloud, or even in a third-party public cloud. With the Logic Apps Hybrid Deployment Model, you can tailor your integration solutions to meet your specific needs, whether it's for regulatory compliance, data privacy, or network restrictions. This model ensures that you have the freedom to choose the best environment for your workflows, while still leveraging the powerful capabilities of Azure Logic Apps. The Hybrid Deployment Model supports a semi-connected architecture, offering local processing of workflows, local storage, and local network access. This means that the data processed by the workflows remains in your local SQL Server, and you have the ability to connect to local networks. Additionally, the built-in connectors will execute in your local compute, giving you access to local data sources and higher throughput. Since we launched the public preview, we have received an overwhelmingly positive response from customers across various industries. Many customers, including those looking to migrate from BizTalk Server, have expressed interest in this offering due to its ability to co-locate integration platforms near key lines of business systems, avoiding dependencies on public internet to process transactions. Journey of the Hybrid Deployment Model Feature At the Integrate 2024 event, we announced the early access preview of the Hybrid Deployment model for Logic Apps Standard. This initial phase allowed interested parties to nominate themselves for early access and provided valuable feedback on the model's functionality and benefits. Following the private preview, we launched the public preview, which empowered our customers with additional flexibility and control. This phase allowed customers to build and deploy workflows on customer-managed infrastructure, offering the option to run Logic Apps on-premises, in a private cloud, or in a third-party public cloud. The public preview also introduced the semi-connected architecture, enabling local processing of workflows and access to local data sources. In October 2024, we refreshed the public preview and received an overwhelmingly positive response from customers across various industries. This feedback highlighted the model's ability to meet specific use cases, such as migrating from BizTalk Server and co-locating integration platforms near key lines of business systems. The public preview refresh also emphasized the model's alignment with our promise of providing customers with more options to meet their business needs. We are excited to see how our customers will leverage the Logic Apps Hybrid Deployment Model to meet their business needs and drive innovation. Thank you for your continued support and feedback. New features in the GA release: Open Telemetry support: Open telemetry is a vendor-neutral open-source Observability framework for instrumenting, generating, collecting, and exporting telemetry data. The support for Open Telemetry in Hybrid deployment model ensures the seamless logging in the semi-connected scenarios and provides the ability to choose any observability platform as a telemetry endpoint. More details here. To set up Open Telemetry capability from Azure portal, follow these steps: Open the host.json in the root directory of SMB file share path configured in your logic app. In the host.json file, at the root level, add the following telemetryMode setting with the OpenTelemetry value, for example: { "version": "2.0", "extensionBundle": { "id": "Microsoft.Azure.Functions.ExtensionBundle.Workflows", "version": "[1.*, 2.0.0)" }, "telemetryMode": "OpenTelemetry" } When you enable Open Telemetry in the host.json file, your logic app exports telemetry based on the Open Telemetry-supported app settings that you define in the environment. Add below app settings from portal by navigating to Containers-->Environment variables-->edit and deploy. App setting Description OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT The online transaction processing (OTLP) exporter endpoint URL for where to send the telemetry data. OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS (optional) A list of headers to apply to all outgoing data. Commonly used to pass authentication keys or tokens to your observability backend. If your Open Telemetry endpoint requires other Open Telemetry related settings, include these settings in the app settings too. Support for Zip deployment through VSCode: The support for Zip deployment in VSCode deployment has enhanced the deployment experience with more reliability. This feature uses Azure Entra authentication for deployment, hence the VSCode machine doesn’t require to have permissions on the SMB share and the user need not to provide SMB credentials in subsequent deployments. To use Zip deployment, follow below steps: create an app registration. In the VSCode deployment, provide Client ID, Object ID and Client secret values. If there are any concerns with creating App registration, you can continue to use SMB deployment option by choosing "Use SMBDeployment For Hybrid" in the Extensions configuration of VSCode If you would like to use zip deployment in an existing Logic App, you will need to manually add the app settings as indicated here. The Zip deployment APIs can be used in CI/CD pipelines as well for DevOps deployment. We will be publishing another blog with detailed steps on the DevOps process. Support for more regions: We are pleased to announce the expansion of our hybrid deployment support to additional regions, in response to valuable customer feedback. This enhancement aims to better meet the diverse geographic and operational requirements of your businesses. The hybrid deployment is now available in the following regions: Central US, East Asia, East US, North Central US, Southeast Asia, Sweden Central, UK South, West Europe, and West US. Logic Apps Rules Engine Support on Linux containers: In this release, we have added support for Azure Logic Apps Rules Engine to run on Linux containers which enables customers to use the Rules Engine capabilities in Hybrid Logic Apps. Improvements for Effective Scaling and Performance: We have introduced few improvements in the runtime storage and the scaling behaviour aimed at improving the performance and achieving effective scaling. Please refer to the following articles: Scaling mechanism in hybrid deployment model for Azure Logic Apps Standard | Microsoft Community Hub Hybrid deployment model for Logic Apps- Performance Analysis and Optimization recommendations | Microsoft Community Hub Diagnostic tool: To assist with troubleshooting the environment configuration issues, we have created a troubleshooting tool, which will help you review the health of all the components of the hybrid deployment and provide insights. You can find the script in our GitHub repository. Select the troubleshoot.ps1 file and copy it to a folder and run the script using PowerShell. This script should be run where you have access to kubectl. References: Create Standard logic app workflows for hybrid deployment - Azure Logic Apps | Microsoft Learn Set up your own infrastructure for Standard logic app workflows - Azure Logic Apps | Microsoft Learn Set up and view enhanced telemetry for Standard workflows - Azure Logic Apps | Microsoft LearnAnnouncing: Unleash AI Innovation with a Modern Integration Platform and an API-First Strategy
As AI technologies continue to evolve, they offer businesses a unique opportunity to modernize operations, accelerate innovation, and unlock new growth potential. To stay ahead of the curve, organizations need a comprehensive integration and API strategy that seamlessly connects data, applications, and AI across their entire ecosystem. We’re excited to announce the "Unleash AI Innovation with a Modern Integration Platform and an API-First Strategy" event. Over two action-packed days, you'll gain valuable insights from Azure leaders, industry analysts, and enterprise customers about how Azure Integration Services and Azure API Management are driving efficiency, agility, and fueling business growth in the AI-powered era. Why Attend? From security to development, customer success stories to expert analyst insights, this event will highlight why APIs and integration are critical for success now and in the future. Get exclusive industry insights: Gain expert perspectives from IDC’s Shari Lava, Azure product leaders, and Forrester consultant Andrew Nadler on the latest trends shaping enterprise integration and API strategies. Learn from real-world customer stories: Hear firsthand from organizations like DocuSign, Visa, LyondellBasell, Metcash, Khoj, Brisbane City Council, Moneris, Heineken, Transcard, and CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield on how they are transforming operations with Azure Integration Services and Azure API Management. Accelerate your AI and integration strategy: Learn how Azure Logic Apps make AI-driven automation more accessible than ever, and how Azure API Management empowers businesses to securely scale AI-powered APIs. Event Highlights Day 1: Drive Business Growth with a Modern Integration Platform In today’s competitive landscape, businesses must seamlessly connect data, applications, and AI. On Day 1, you'll explore how Azure Integration Services help organizations break down data silos, unlock real-time insights, and optimize operations. Learn how connected data streams enable smarter, faster decision-making, while AI-powered workflows reduce complexity and drive operational efficiency. We’ll also explore how businesses are modernizing legacy systems by migrating from BizTalk and other on-premises integration solutions to Azure Integration Services, providing greater scalability, agility, and business continuity. Day 2: Power AI and Enterprise Innovation with an API-First Strategy On Day 2, you'll dive deep into how APIs are the backbone of modern digital ecosystems. APIs enable businesses to scale faster, enhance developer experiences, and create new revenue streams. Learn how Azure API Management helps you secure, manage, and monetize APIs while accelerating AI adoption. You’ll also discover best practices for securing and governing APIs across distributed environments, ensuring that your AI-powered ecosystem remains secure, scalable, and compliant. Streamed Live Across Multiple Time Zones Join us no matter where you are! We’re streaming live across multiple time zones, so you can participate at a time that works best for you. US/Canada: Reserve your seat today! Day 1: Tuesday, 29 April 2025 | 9:00 AM – 12:30 PM PDT Day 2: Wednesday, 30 April 2025 | 9:00 AM – 12:30 PM PDT Australia/New Zealand: Reserve Your Seat Today! Day 1: Wednesday, 30 April 2025 | 9:00 AM – 12:30 PM AEDT Day 2: Thursday, 1 May 2025 | 9:00 AM – 12:30 PM AEDT Europe: Reserve Your Seat Today! Day 1: Tuesday, 29 April 2025 | 9:00am – 12:30pm BST Day 2: Wednesday, 30 April 2025 | 9:00am – 12:30pm BST Ready to Future-Proof Your Integration and API Strategy? Don’t miss this exclusive opportunity to learn from industry experts, Azure leaders, and top enterprises. Discover how to future-proof your integration and API strategy to drive AI-powered growth and business success.
Using SMB storage with Hybrid Logic Apps
Logic apps standard uses azure storage account to store artifact files such as host.json, connection.js etc,. With Hybrid environment in picture, access of azure storage account always cannot be guarenteed. And in any scenario, we can never assume that access internet will be available so assuming access to azure will be a long shot. To tackle this problem, in hybrid logic apps, we are using the SMB protocol to store artifact files. What is SMB protocol ? The SMB protocol is a network file sharing protocol that allows applications on a computer to read and write to files. SMB also requests services from server programs in a computer network. The SMB protocol can be used on top of its TCP/IP protocol or other network protocols. Using the SMB protocol, an application (or the user of an application) can access files or other resources at a remote server. This protocol allows applications to read, create, and update files on the remote server. SMB can also communicate with any server program that is set up to receive an SMB client request. How does SMB come in picture ? Azure Hybrid Logic Apps are running on top of Azure Arc Clusters using Azure Connected environments, connecting your on-premise kubernetes solution to azure. Azure Connected environments have native support for creating storages using SMB protocol which Hybrid Logic Apps is using to connect to a remote storage solution provided by user to store their Logic Apps workflow related files. Therefore, if user is having a SMB server, one popular option is using Azure Storage account's file share, user will be able to use the file share to store the workflow related files. Quick Start Examples This section will demonstrate creating a SMB storage and using it as part of creating new Hybrid Logic App. For this instance, and ease of tutorial I am using the Azure File Share as the SMB server. It's up to the user to create any SMB server be it locally using Window's network sharing tab to configure a folder as SMB server or use something like this tutorial's azure file share as the SMB server. Step 1: Create a storage account on azure with file sharing capabilities. If you are new to Azure, basically just create a simple storage account without any special option enabled. File Share is available even in the most basic configuration (standard tier) of Azure Storage account. Step 2: Navigate to the azure storage account and you should be able to see the File Share option in the navigation band on the left ribbon under Data Storage section. Step 3: Use the create file share option to create a new file share. Refer the picture. That's pretty much it! The file share should be ready to act as SMB server. How to use this information while creating Hybrid Logic App ? When creating a hybrid logic app, the storage section should look something like this. The file share name would be of format <storageAccountName>.file.core.windows.net after replacing <storageAccountName> with your storage account name without the angular brackets. File Share Path should be the name of file share you created to be used for SMB storage. In our example it would be sampledemofileshare. Username should again be the storage account name. Password should be the access key of your storage account. Et voila! This should be all you need to do to create a working SMB server using Azure File Share. Stay tuned there is another blog coming soon for using Linux or Windows as SMB server and guidelines associated with them.
