If you haven't downloaded and installed the BizTalk Server 2004 Service Pack 1 on a test server (or your production servers if you've already tested it), then you're missing out on an important new feature...

Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004 Log Shipping Feature for SP1

This new (and well hidden) feature changes the Backup BizTalk Server SQL Agent job provided with BizTalk Server 2004. It eliminates the need to manually restore a series of backup sets produced by the original backup job, and vastly reduces downtime in the event of a system failure. I was a little surprised that this new feature wasn't very well documented in the updated help file since it improves the backup and restore capabilities of BTS2004 significantly, even on a single server configuration. Look over the “readme.htm” file from the link above carefully. It's full of hidden gems about this great new feature.