BAM configuration failure in BizTalk 2013

HI,
Seems the BizTalk 2013 Installation software has not been tested properly.
I got many errors which I could google and fix it but this one was odd about BAM configuration failed with following error.

ERROR: Encountered error while executing command on SQL Server "".A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 - Could not open a connection to SQL Server)The system cannot find the file specified (Microsoft.BizTalk.Bam.CfgExtHelper.Utility)
[ Error BAMConfigWizExt] 

Solution was to install the latest Cumulative update and try again without Server restart and it worked fine and BAM was configured correctly.
BizTalk Cumulative Update Link


Till now Core Product configuration(SSO,Group,Runtime) was not messed up by Microsoft in all versions (2004 till 2010) I installed/configured. I normally used to install Cumulative update after I am done configuring default BizTalk features or maybe it was a wrong way of doing it  :) .

BAM Add-In Excel Issue : Unspecified Automation Error

"Unspecified Automation Error" when Opening Excel using BAM Addin.

Fixit Available
There is a fixit available for this problem:
Office 2010 w SP1 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2597986
Office 2007 w SP2 or SP3 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2687441
Office 2003 w SP3 or Office 2003 Web Components w SP3 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2687323

Steps to fix the problem manually
The manual fix for this problem is to re-register MSCOMCTL.OCX. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Open an administrative-level command prompt. The command prompt MUST be on the administrative level for this to work. Click START, and type RUN in the run command line. On Windows Vista and Windows 7 you will see CMD.EXE appear in the quick search list. Right click CMD.EXE and left click Run As Administrator. A black command prompt opens. On Windows XP, there is no built-in run-as-admin, but you can use the run as menu option (or runas command line) to execute an admin command from a Limited User Account.

2. If on a 64-bit machine, type the following:
regsvr32.exe /u  C:\Windows\SysWOW64\MSCOMCTL.OCX

Hit ENTER

then type
regsvr32.exe  C:\Windows\SysWOW64\MSCOMCTL.OCX

If on a 32-bit machine, type the following:
regsvr32.exe /u C:\Windows\System32\MSCOMCTL.OCX

Hit ENTER

then type
regsvr32.exe C:\Windows\System32\MSCOMCTL.OCX

Your Excel  BAM Addin should work again after doing this.

FYI,

http://blogs.technet.com/b/the_microsoft_excel_support_team_blog/archive/2012/08/15/quot-unspecified-automation-error-quot-after-applying-ms12-060.aspx

BAM Add-In Excel Issue : Object library invalid or contains references to object definitions that could not be found.

Recently when I opened Excel every time I got a weird Error for BAM Add-In.
Incidently I have not messed up with BAM recently for sure.  After googling a bit I could not find any post related to BAM Add-In issue but many with VBA macros failing after a Cumulative update.
My laptop is set to auto update the system with latest updates as I love to try new features out in Microsoft market and this Cumulative update had messed up the macro settings in Excel.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957924/en-us

The point here is if you get Errors related to BAM Add-In Excel macro while opening Excel just follow these steps
To resolve the problem, delete cached versions of the control type libraries. 
To do this, search the hard disk for “.exd,” and then delete all occurrences. The .exd files are re-created automatically by using the new controls the next time that you use VBA.

After deleting all .exd files(there were only 2 in AppData folder) things were back to normal and BAM Excel Add-In worked fine.

Bm.exe is not a valid Win32 App

Hi,
Recently I had an Issue with BAM Bm.exe. I tried to run it through command prompt got a wierd error sayign its not a Valid Win32 Application. I thought its an issue since I installed BizTalk in 32 bit mode on a 64 Bit Windows 7 machine. On googling found nothing ..seems nobody encountered it ever. Finally I thought google wont help looked at bm.exe and found the file size was 0.
Seems it got corrupted somehow. By replacing it with a new bm.exe solved the problem.

So basics do help when google fails to help you.

BAM Portal Activity Search: "This action cannot be performed because one or more database(s) appears corrupted"

Hi,

I noticed this error when I tried to search on an Activity in the BAM Portal.

I googled and noticed a good description about this issue by Gilles but it did not help me resolve the problem.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/gzunino/archive/2006/07/12/663790.aspx

So I thought of fixing it in the BAM (BAMPrimaryImport)database as it clearly said about duplicate entry. I searched on the ActivityID and found only 1 record in "bam_ActivityName_active" table and I also found 1 record in the "bam_ActivityName_completed" Activity table.
SELECT * FROM [BAMPrimaryImport].dbo.bam_ActivityName_active where ActivityID='{42B99A00-4A43-40D4-8F6F-183851984197}'

So I thought that its not a duplicate issue as the Error says as I saw only 1 entry in each tables.

But I was wrong.

The issue is that there should not be any pending records in the Active tables if  the Activity is completed ie. if there exist a record in _Completed table for the same ActivityID.

In my case I intiated an Activity(BeginActivity) and Biztalk failed while updating the Actvity(UpdateActivity)and after that I completed the Activity(EndActivity). So there was an Orphan record in the _active table.

So I deleted all the records from _active table and it worked fine.

DELETE FROM [BAMPrimaryImport].dbo.bam_ActivityName_active

So this is what BizTalk means by Duplicate records.

"There should not be a record in the _active table if the activity has a record in the _completed table for the same ActivityID.If it exist then its a duplicate Error."

Error in Eventlog was as follows:
Event Type: Error
Event Source: BAM Portal
Description:
(BAMPortal.PortalApplication) Void LogAllErrors(System.Exception[]): System.Web.HttpUnhandledException: Exception of type 'System.Web.HttpUnhandledException' was thrown. ---> System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException: System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException: There are instances with duplicate ID '{42B99A00-4A43-40D4-8F6F-183851984197}' in activity 'xxx'. The duplicates must be removed from the database to fix this problem.
   at Microsoft.BizTalk.Bam.WebServices.Query.BamQueryService.GetInstanceData(String viewName, String activityName, InstanceQuery query, Int32 timeout)
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.ReadResponse(SoapClientMessage message, WebResponse response, Stream responseStream, Boolean asyncCall)
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.Invoke(String methodName, Object[] parameters)
   at Microsoft.BizTalk.Bam.WebServices.QueryService.BamQueryService.GetInstanceData(String viewName, String activityName, InstanceQuery query, Int32 timeout)
   at Microsoft.BizTalk.Bam.Portal.DataAccess.QueryResultsObjectDataSource.ExecuteQuery(SQLQuery query)
   at Microsoft.BizTalk.Bam.Portal.DataAccess.QueryResultsObjectDataSource.EnsureData(SQLQuery query)
   at Microsoft.BizTalk.Bam.Portal.DataAccess.QueryResultsObjectDataSource.QueryResults(SQLQuery query)
   at BAMPortal.Search_aspx.ExecuteQuery()
   at BAMPortal.Search_aspx.executeQueryButton_Click(Object sender, CommandEventArgs e)
   at System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.OnCommand(CommandEventArgs e)
   at System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.RaisePostBackEvent(String eventArgument)
   at System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.System.Web.UI.IPostBackEventHandler.RaisePostBackEvent(String eventArgument)
   at System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(IPostBackEventHandler sourceControl, String eventArgument)
   at System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(NameValueCollection postData)
   at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint)
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at System.Web.UI.Page.HandleError(Exception e)
   at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint)
   at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequest(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint)
   at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequest()
   at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestWithNoAssert(HttpContext context)
   at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequest(HttpContext context)
   at ASP.pages_search_aspx.ProcessRequest(HttpContext context)
   at System.Web.HttpApplication.CallHandlerExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute()
   at System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously)


Happy Talking Biz. ;)

Biztalk BAM Portal Issues

Hi,
I tried to configure BAM for the first time and failed with error Access Denied 401.2.
Event code: 4007
Event message: URL authorization failed for the request.
Event time: 15.06.2009 10:21:22
Event time (UTC): 15.06.2009 08:21:22
Event ID: db49acbf6d1c42d9b3228e5e8abdf0ce
Event sequence: 2
Event occurrence: 1
Event detail code: 0

Application information:
    Application domain: /LM/W3SVC/1/ROOT/BAM-1-128895276813021664
    Trust level: BAMPortal_Minimal
    Application Virtual Path: /BAM
    Application Path: C:\Program Files\Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009\BAMPortal\

Process information:
    Process ID: 5172
    Process name: w3wp.exe
    Account name: NISHIL\Administrator

Request information:
    Request URL: http://localhost/BAM/Default.aspx
    Request path: /BAM/Default.aspx
    User host address: ::1
    User: NISHIL\Administrator
    Is authenticated: True
I configured BAM using Administrator account as User everywhere ,even on the BAM App pool ,So for sure I knew this error is not about authentication.
What I found is in Biztalk Configuration Tool under BAM portal I had selected windows group "Role Name" ,"Bam Portal Users" as "Administrators" so that the Administrator User can easily access the portal.
But this is not correct.
I reconfigured BAM portal using "Role Name" as "Biztalk Server Administrators" and it worked fine.
Might be the group needs to be one of the Biztalk groups.Hope this post helps somebody.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Solutions found on google which did not work for me were
1).Adding IIS 6 Management tools for backaward compatilibity since I use Windows 2008 and IIS 7 and Biztalk 2009.
2).Changing AuthenticationProviders cscript adsutil.vbs set w3svc/NTAuthenticationProviders "NTLM"