Running BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 on Vista

I've completed the installation and configuration of BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 on my 64-bit Vista laptop. Aside from not having UDDI, Vista hasn't presented any problems yet. (Of course Microsoft claims not to have tested ESBT on Vista, so this installation is for development only.)

I ran into three main issues during the install:

1. Microsoft's late-breaking decision not to ship source code for the ESBT core components has led to some choppiness in the documentation. For instance the documentation neglects to mention that you need to unzip ESBSource.zip, and that you need to create a strong name key with sn.exe in the \Key folder. The documentation also tells you to install the management portal before you run the ESBT Configuration Wizard, which is backward. These and other documentation shortcomings are discussed by Saravana Kumar here.

2. I got an error running the ManagementPortal installation script:

The term 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.com'
is not recognized as a cmdlet, function, operable program, or script file. Verify the term and try again.
At C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0\ESBSource\Source\Samples\Management Portal\Install\Scripts\Management_Install.ps1:19 char:3
+ &$ <<<< env:VS\devenv.com "$solutionPath\Samples\Management Portal\ESB.AlertService\ESB.AlertService.sln" /clean $buildType

This is because Management_Install.ps1 assumes that Visual Studio is located in the \Program Files folder, but on 64-bit Vista it's in \Program Files (x86). This may be the case on other 64-bit platforms too.

To fix, change line 12 of Management_Install.ps1 from

$env:VS="${env:ProgramFiles}\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE"

to

$env:VS="${env:ProgramFiles(x86)}\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE"

3. While trying to deploy the BAM definitions in Microsoft.BizTalk.ESB.BAM.Exceptions.xml, I got the BM.exe error, "OLE DB error: OLE DB or ODBC error: Cannot open database "BAMStarSchema" requested by the login. The login failed.; 42000." I found the solution on Henrik Olsson's blog here.

I must say that ESBT 2.0 is far less harrowing to install than was ESB Guidance 1.0, but it can still take up an afternoon the first time.