More on the Commerce Server BizTalk Adapters – General How-To’s

by | Mar 10, 2008 | Azure Integration Thoughts | 2 comments

To keep on the Commerce Server Adapter line of blog posts here is another minor pain point I ran into.

I was setting up the Commerce Server Catalog Send Adapter on a multi-server BizTalk Environment. I opened up BizTalk Admin and configured the Send Port.

I went to run the solution and I received the following error:

“Failed to create Catalog Context in ‘Commerce Server Catalog Send Adapter’. Message:”

Turns out that the Send Host for the Catalog Adapter was running on another Server so the registry subkey was missing. Oh, and since this was also a 64-bit Host the keys were written in the wrong place – same as the Orders Adapter.

To fix this, all I had to do was open the Send Port on the other Server and click OK. This created the registry key. Then, I simply had to move it into the correct location.

Here are some general How To’s I’ve put together when working (mostly when configuring) with the Commerce Server Adapters:

1. Always create Send and Receive Ports on the Servers you intend to run them on. (Not sure what happens when you import an MSI – will get to that soon)

2. Do not expect any of the Adapters to work in a BizTalk Group scenario. In fact, disastrous results may occur if ran in Group Scenarios. (Hope to test clustering the service soon).

FACT: Catalog and Orders do not operate in Group Scenario. See the help guide for more info.

3. Expect manual configuration if working with 64-bit hosts.

4. Make sure you read the Commerce Server 2007 help guide including “Performance Considerations for the BizTalk Adapters” and “Concurrency Issues with the BizTalk Adapters” and “Troubleshooting the BizTalk Adapters” sections.

5. Remember how easy it is to set up and work with the Adapters! :). All in all, they provide us a lot of great benefits!

More to come as I continue to work with the Adapters.

2 Comments

  1. Anonymous
    Anonymous on August 1, 2008 at 2:43 am

    I just started in a BizTalk/Commerce Server project and have 2 questions:
    – Did you try clustering the adapters already?
    – Is it possible to still have the adapters in a BizTalk group scenario – however installing each of them on only 1 server in the group while distributing the load for the orchestrations etc.? (or with other words are the troubles with these adapters in a BizTalk group scenario only related to registry entries …)

  2. Stephen W. Thomas
    Stephen W. Thomas on September 14, 2008 at 3:09 pm

    To answer your questions.
    1. No, we%u2019ve not done clustering. We are going with a MOM based / manual fail over.
    2. Yes, this will work. The adapters are the only thing with a problem in a group due to the local registry setting they use.

    Hope this helps.