Hi
I am deploying a BizTalk solution at a client shortly; Their infrastructure architects want SQL Server in a seperate security zone on their network isolated from the other servers.
My question, knowing that BizTalk is very chatty with SQL and relies heavily on it; what would the performance impact be in having the SQL Server(s) in another security zone. How much performance hit would we be encountering for every call to SQL across the firewall?
Thanks
If by security zone you mean a non trusted domain situation it flat out won't work as BizTalk will rely on integrated security. As far as the performance impact, it will really depend on size and frequency of messages. That being said almost all BizTalk performance issues first show themselves as I/O problems at the database (SAN is preferred to traditional disk).
If you are putting the SQL Server behind a firewall, this is not a problem so long as the firewall has sufficient throughput to support the traffic from BizTalk. This is no different than putting the SQL Server on a different network segment than the BizTalk Server. There will be additional latency because of this (every packet will have to be examined). Don't think that you won't feel it. The netowkr folks will have to work with you here to determine of there will be a blanket exemption to SQL from BizTalk or will they inspect every packet.
The bigger question is, can you characterize the type of activity BizTalk will be involved in - lots of small messages, a few big messages, long runnin g transactions, etc. These are more important in qunatifying the impact the decision of where to place SQL may have.