Introduction

The BizTalk ESB Toolkit provides architectural guidance, patterns, and a collection of BizTalk Server and .NET Framework components to simplify the development of an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) on the Microsoft platform and to allow Microsoft customers to extend their own messaging and integration solutions.

BizTalk Server 2013 now comes with ​Microsoft BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.2. Installation of the toolkit has become easier than with earlier version of BizTalk Server, as it is integrated in the setup of BizTalk Server 2013.

The ​Microsoft BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.1 uses BizTalk Server 2010 to support a loosely coupled messaging architecture. BizTalk Server includes a powerful publish/subscribe mechanism for messaging applications that works by creating and filling subscriptions, which provides a highly efficient and scalable platform for service-oriented architecture (SOA) applications.

The ​Microsoft BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.1 extends the functionality of BizTalk Server to provide a range of new capabilities focused on building robust, connected, service-oriented applications that incorporate itinerary-based service invocation for lightweight service composition, dynamic resolution of endpoints and maps, Web service and WS-* integration, fault management and reporting, and integration with third-party SOA governance solutions.

Developers Requirements

In order to develop ESB Solutions, one should be familiar with following:

• BizTalk Server 2013, 2010, 2009
• Microsoft .NET Framework and Visual Studio 2008 or later
• ASP.NET and Web Services development

System Requirements

The following list describes the Windows operating system, applications, and core services and features required by the ​Microsoft BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.1:

• Windows Server 2008 SP2 and Windows Server 2008 R2
• .NET Framework version 4 and .NET Framework 3.5
• Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0 with IIS 6.0 extensions
• SQL Server 2008 R2 or SQL Server 2008 SP1
• BizTalk Server 2010 Enterprise/Developer Edition, including Business Activity Monitoring (BAM)
• Visual Studio 2010
• Microsoft Chart Controls for .NET Framework 4 and .NET Framework 3.5
• Enterprise Library 4.1 (for Portal)

MSDN

• BizTalk Server 2010 ESB Toolkit Architecture Poster
• Getting Started,Microsoft ESB Toolkit
• Microsoft BizTalk Server 2010 - ESB Download
• ESB Toolkit 2.0 - Download
• Introduction of ESB Toolkit
• Installation of Core Toolkit
• Installation of Management Portal
• BizTalk Server 2010 ESB Training Kit
• BizTalk ESB Toolkit: Core Components and Examples
• Service Oriented Solutions
• BizTalk BAM and ESB Implementation with Brian Loesgen (Channel9/Webcast)
• Enterprise Service Bus on the Microsoft Platform (Channel9/Webcast)
• Using Microsoft BizTalk ESB Toolkit and Integration Patterns to Improve Business Agility (Channel9/Webcast)
• Dynamic Messaging with Microsoft BizTalk Enterprise Service Bus(ESB) (Channel9/Webcast)
• Introduction to BizTalk ESB 2.0 Exception Framework (Channel9/Webcast)
• Building a SOA Infrastructure using BizTalk and UDDI (Channel9/Webcast)
• Enterprise Service Bus as An operative environment for Services (Channel9/Webcast)
• BizTalk ESB toolkit 2.0: Itinerary Design Process and Tooling (Webcast)
• BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0: Dynamic Messaging (Webcast)
• ESBT Toolkit How To Video #6: Performance Metrics using Built in BAM (Code/Webcast)
• A MSDN Blog by Peter Kelcey- (Mostly about ESB stuff)
• Installation of ESB Toolkit 2.2 (which comes with BizTalk Server 2013)

MSDN Social

Microsoft BizTalk ESB Toolkit

Blogs

Installation and Configuration

• Installing and configuring the ESB Toolkit 2.2 (BizTalk Server 2013)
• ESB Toolkit 2.1 and real-world best practices
• BizTalk ESB Toolkit Architectural Notes
• Getting up and Running with BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0
• ESB Install guidance
• Installation configuration error compilation
• ESB Toolkit 2.1 mess up Enterprise Library 5.0 big time
• ESB Toolkit 2.1 Installation on BizTalk Server 2010
• BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 Portal Timeouts and (401) Unauthorized Errors
• Fix for BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 Portal Message Viewer Error About BizTalkMsgBoxDb.dbo.ProcessHeartbeats
• ESB Management Portal Installation Error
• Rough Notes for setting up ESB 2.1 Portal on a System with SharePoint 2010 on port 80
• ESB Toolkit Management Portal Installation Notes (From the field)
• ESB Toolkit 2.1 – Installation and Configuration Errors (Compilation) 
• Testing ESB Toolkit Business Rules
• Creating a MessageBox On-Ramp for the ESB Toolkit in BizTalk 2013
• Using the SB-Messaging Adapter & ESB Toolkit to send messages to the Windows Azure Service Bus

Developing Solutions

• ESB Toolkit 2.0: Exception Management (Messaging-Only Scenario)- By Saravana Kumar
• ESB Toolkit 2.0 : Exception Management Hello World- By Saravana Kumar
• ESB Toolkit 2.0 - Configuring Exception Management Portal- By Saarvana Kumar
• ESB 2.0 and 2.0- By Dwight Goins , (collection of solutions)
• WebCasts On BizTalk ESB Toolkit (7 Webcast) ( Covering Webcasts on Solution Design and Development using ESB Toolkit )
• How to call/Consume WCF Service using ESB Toolkit 

Reference Books

• SOA Patterns with BizTalk Server 2009
• Pro BizTalk 2009
• SOA and ESB Architecture with BizTalk
• Applied Architecture Patterns On the Microsoft Platform
• Microsoft BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.1

See Also

Another important place to find a huge amount of BizTalk related articles is the TechNet Wiki itself. The best entry point is BizTalk Server Resources on the TechNet Wiki.