Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) is a powerful feature, but it can be intimidating because it relies on several different tools working in harmony. To successfully implement BAM, you need to master the “Four Pillars” of the BAM toolkit:
- Design-Time: The BAM Excel Add-in
- Deployment: BM.exe (The BAM Management Utility)
- Implementation: Tracking Profile Editor (TPE)
- Consumption: The BAM Portal
📝 One-Minute Brief
Implementing BAM in BizTalk Server requires a specific set of tools for different stages of the lifecycle. Key tools include the BAM Excel Add-in for defining activities and views, the BM.exe command-line utility for deploying definitions, the Tracking Profile Editor (TPE) for mapping BizTalk artifacts to activities without code, and the BAM Portal for end-user data visualization. Understanding when and how to use these tools is fundamental to building a successful monitoring strategy.
BAM Portal
The BAM portal provides real-time, end-to-end visibility into a business process. It is a Web-based feature that consists of a collection of ASP.NET pages. You can customize BAM to enhance the performance and experience for your users. It is installed as part of the BizTalk Server installation process and configured under the BAM Portal tab.
It can be installed on the same server as BizTalk or on a separate server that runs IIS dedicated to BAM and BAM tools (recommended), as long as that server is joined to the same BizTalk Server group.
BM.EXE
BAM Management utility or “bm.exe” provides for end-to-end management and deployment of BAM
Related article:
BAM Add-in for Excel (Microsoft Office Excel)
Provides for the creation of observation models to be deployed to the BAM infrastructure, and the capabilities to consume BAM data within Excel via a data connection (known as “Live Workbooks”)
Tracking Profile Editor (TPE)
Is a graphical user interface to help developers create new tracking profiles or modify existing tracking profiles that map a specific view of internal business processes, as well as associated data, to an orchestration.
It is installed as part of the BizTalk Server installation process and configured under the BAM Portal tab.
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (not required)
The SharePoint “Look-alike” Myth: If you have ever used the BAM Portal, you’ll notice the navigation tabs and color schemes look identical to a classic SharePoint site. This was a design choice by Microsoft to provide a familiar experience for business users. Under the hood, however, it is a standard ASP.NET application that runs on Internet Information Services (IIS). You can deploy it on a clean server without any SharePoint components installed.
Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services
Reporting Services may be integrated with BAM and the BAM Primary Import database to build reports against the data stored with BAM.
Other tools
- Orchestration Designer for Business Analysts: may also be used to define BAM activities and business processes.
- Visual Studio: Serves the means to create interceptor configuration (IC) files.
- MS PerformancePoint Server: used to host dashboards and scorecards.
