SAP AG has made it clear in the last year or
so that certain technology solutions and approaches will constitute the
foundation or enabling technology for mySAP components going forward.
In January 2003, SAP AG went so far as to introduce SAP NetWeaver, the
next generation of mySAP technology that underpins SAP’s Enterprise
Services Architecture (ESA), which in turn enables SAP’s customers to
build and deploy Web-services based business solutions. NetWeaver solves
the dilemma of Microsoft .NET versus Java that many companies face
today—it embraces both. In doing so, SAP AG provides both a platform and
a middleware solution that truly facilitates heterogeneous integration.
Check out http://www.sap.com/solutions/netweaver
for more details, and refer specifically to the Planning CD for a link
to SAP’s white paper entitled SAP NetWeaver Platform Interoperability
with IBM WebSphere and Microsoft .NET.
Though the label may have changed recently, the fundamental technology enabling mySAP solutions include
I include Internet Transaction Server (ITS) in
this list, too, at least until ITS is completely replaced by Web
AS-enabled solutions. Each of these is discussed in terms of
installation details and considerations next.
Web Application Server 6.x
The underlying technology layer of nearly all
mySAP solutions, and the technology foundation beyond SAP Basis release
4.6D, is referred to as Web Application Server, or Web AS; everything
prior to Web AS is simply known as “SAP Basis.” Given that Web AS is a
superset of the former SAP Basis, experienced SAP Basis consultants
should be quite comfortable installing and configuring Web AS—the core
application-enabling technology layer is merely broader and extended,
not completely revamped. Note the following:
Most of the mySAP.com components on the
market today were released “on top of” Web AS 6.20. The newest
components are being released for version 6.30.
Web
AS supports Unicode and non-Unicode systems. However, you must specify
the desired version of Web AS when you download it or order the CD
media; they are not interchangeable.
Like
support for Unicode, Web AS is also database-specific. Thus, you must
order the SQL Server version of Web AS, for example, if you want to
install Web AS on a Microsoft SQL Server platform.
The installation process for Web AS is
straightforward after the pre-installation planning and preparation
tasks are completed. If we assume a SQL Server-based installation of a
central system, the high-level installation tasks for Web AS 6.20
include the following steps:
1. | Install the Microsoft SQL Server database server software.
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2. | Run SAPinst to install the Central Instance.
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3. | Answer
all of the installation questions posed by SAPinst during the first few
minutes of the SAP installation. SAP recommends that you obtain the
required information needed to complete an installation before you
actually run SAPinst.
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Installation questions include selecting the
installation type (that is, central instance, dialog instance, or
database server), entering the three-character SID, determining whether
the system should be integrated with Microsoft’s Active Directory, and
designating LDAP/SAP MMC support. Then parameters like the database
server’s host name, port number of the CI (message server),
configuration of the database’s TempDB and Data files, and the password
for the SQL Server login must be provided. The number of parallel
jobs/load processes is requested next (this should be equal to the
number of CPUs in your server). Then you can select whether MNLS (Multi
National Language Support) is desired.
Configuration data for the J2EE engine is
requested next (if you are installing this), including the maximum
memory to be used, J2EE client password, and location of the Java
Development Kit on your host. After this, the actual installation takes
place, ranging in time from an hour to perhaps three or four hours,
depending on the number of processors in your host and the configuration
of your disk subsystem.
The SAP Exchange Infrastructure 2.1
SAP XI enables collaborative business processes,
using XML and a message-based architecture to create an open
standards-based Web-centric solution. From an installation perspective,
five major components can be installed, all of these natively supporting
the SAPDB database (though Oracle is supported on all but the
Integration Builder). And all of these components are based on a Unicode
Web AS installation:
Integration Builder (IB) and the Integration Server
(IS), the former of which is only supported on the central instance of a
system running Unicode Web Application Server 6.20 on top of SAPDB.
SAP XI Add-On, which must be installed on the IB and IS.
MarketSet Adapter, which can only be installed on the IS and further must only be used with SAP SRM solutions greater than version 2.0.
System Landscape Directory (SLD). Note that other databases are supported for this particular component, too.
SAP XI Connectivity,
which is automatically installed with the Integration Server. Adapters
can be installed on the various business systems to which you will be
connected. To connect systems separated by a firewall or running mixed
operating systems, the adapters must be installed on the business systems.
As indicated earlier, only Unicode versions of
Web AS 6.20 are supported for XI 2.0. Further, SAP only supports a
dedicated instance of Web AS—you can not
share an instance created for BW or APO, for example, with XI. From a
high-level perspective, prior to actually running the SAPinst
installation process, perform the following tasks:
1. | Address
“Installation Planning”; work with the XI project team to understand
the scenarios to be implemented, components to be installed, and
layout/architecture of the system hardware upon which XI will be
installed.
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2. | Next, read through prerequisite documentation and installation guides, including SAP Note 557414 (http://service.sap.com/notes).
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3. | Prepare
for the installation by installing a separate SAP Web AS 6.20 as a
Unicode system running the SAP J2EE Engine (do not use an existing Web
AS running another component).
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4. | Do
not install the SAP Online Documentation CD. You will install an
XI-specific version of this documentation later in the installation
process.
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5. | Update
Web AS up to and including Support Package 11. For the latest Support
Packages and binary patches (executable updates), go to http://service.sap.com/patches, and then navigate to SAP Exchange Infrastructure - SAP Exchange Infrastructure 2.0.
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6. | Set
up user SAPJSF in client 000, if it does not exist already (verify that
it exists by trying to display it, using transaction SU01, for
example). Note that the password for SAPJSF must not exceed eight
characters, either.
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7. | Install the XI add-on. This must be done before you execute the next step and copy client 000.
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8. | Create a specific client for XI.
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9. | Apply the Delivery manager update, as explained in SAP Note 532892.
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10. | Install the Support Packages for Java Libraries.
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11. | Apply
patches to SAPDB and the Java connector as required. The reasons are
specific, and are explained in SAP’s InstGuide for XI 2.0, published
January 21, 2003.
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12. | Configure
the SAP J2EE engine; disable FastRFC by changing the entry in the
“Properties” file from “RFC_Default_Destination= ” to
“RFC_Default_Destination=false”.
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13. | Configure the SAP J2EE engine; specify the amount of RAM to be used by the engine (768MB is the minimum that should be configured, per SAP’s recommendations).
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14. | If
you are installing the MarketSet Adapter, you also need to adapt the
ServiceManager.properties file; set the parameter
“AdditionalLoadTimeout=80”.
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15. | For Windows-based systems only, add the SAP J2EE entries to the Start Menu for all users (as opposed to only being displayed by the installation user).
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16. | After
all changes are made to the SAP J2EE engine, reboot the server (or
simply stop and restart SAP). Note that unless you made password changes
to the Web AS after it was installed, the default user ID for the J2EE
engine is administrator, with no password (blank).
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SAPinst can now be executed. Afterwards, SAP XI
connectivity to non-SAP systems (and any SAP solutions not running on
the Web Application Server platform) must be established. Then, a whole
host of post-installation tasks must be performed, most of which are
more time-consuming than difficult, and can be performed by user DDIC.
Note that the password for DDIC remains unchanged; it’s still 19920706
after all these years.
Enterprise Information Portal 5.0
Called simply Enterprise Portal for short, the
latest release of Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) combines the
benefits of older similar products such as mySAP Workplace 2.11, EIP
4.5, and Enterprise Unification Portal 4.5 into one feature-rich
enterprise portal. Benefits like the following impact installation:
Web browser access to applications, content, and services simplifies the installation from a client-side perspective.
However,
simply preparing for EP 5.0 means installing Microsoft’s IIS and a JDK
on a dedicated Web Server (other Web Server options will be available in
the future).
A
Java Server (SAP J2EE Engine and JRun Server) must be installed and
configured; see SAP Note 526760 and work with SAP and your other
technology partners to determine the best configuration for your
environment. Note that the SAP J2EE engine was formerly named In-Q-My.
The Java Virtual Machine’s default memory allocation is only 64MB; this
needs to be changed to half of the physical RAM of the server upon
which Enterprise Portal is being installed (and perhaps more if you are
directed by your hardware or SAP technology partner to do so).
Extended
portal platform functionality includes support for LDAP-based systems
management; LDAP support must be installed, however, on a corporate
Directory Server (which may be installed on the portal server machine or
another server).
Unification technology
and predefined Unifiers for database and legacy systems, SAP, and other
applications require installation of Unification components.
Given
EP’s robust knowledge management capabilities, it’s likely that you
will also need to interface your EP implementation with other
repositories of unstructured data including Windows file servers, Web
servers, Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange, Documentum, and so on, on top
of configuring connections to R/3 and other systems.
A number of databases are supported; if SQL Server is selected, ensure that the authentication method is set to Mixed Authentication.
If Oracle is selected, you will need to obtain the SAP document
entitled “How to Install Oracle for Enterprise Portal” from the SAP
Service Marketplace, http://service.sap.com/epinstall. Regardless, a supported database must be completely installed before the Enterprise Portal itself is installed.
Given Enterprise Portal’s roots outside of SAP
AG (EP originated from TopTier Software, which was acquired by SAP in
May 2001), it’s not surprising that the installation documentation for
version 5.0 looks nothing like an InstGuide. The installation document
is very good, however, and is structured similarly to an InstGuide in
that it provides both an introduction and a pre-installation section
prior to jumping into the actual portal installation process. And a
pointer to http://service.sap.com/epinstall
within the installation guide provides access to additional relevant
SAP Notes, how-to guides, and version-specific installation
documentation. In fact, before you get started trying to install EP, SAP
recommends that you read the following documents:
Architecture of the Enterprise Portal, which contains information on the various portal components and their roles
SAP Portal Technical Infrastructure for EP 5.0
Sizing SAP Portals - Enterprise Portal 5.0, useful in determining hardware requirements
Platform Availability Matrix, which documents the products, brands, and versions/editions of software used in an EP installation
Prior to installing EP5.0 SP3, read SAP Note
510074 (newer versions of EP require that you read through different
notes). The actual Enterprise Portal installation is executed through a
setup wizard available through the Enterprise Portal Welcome screen
(which is in turn started by executing start.hta from the root of your EP 5.0 SP3 CD). From the Portal Installation column, click the EP 5.0 SP3
option, and the setup/installation wizard will be launched. Do not try
to install any other components or options until the portal installation
is completed. And if you plan on clustering Enterprise Portal, read
through SAP Note 596221 (which actually covers EP5.0 SP4) first.
From the File Download screen, select the option
entitled Run This Program from Its Current Location, click OK, and then
click Yes. The installation process is refreshingly straightforward.
After the installation, a hotfix must be installed, the SAP J2EE engine
must be adapted, a proxy server must be configured (requiring PROXYCFG.exe from Microsoft’s Web site), the license key must be obtained and applied (refer to http://help.sap.com/portals),
and the portal must then be configured for specific users, roles,
content, and so on. You can also set up Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), to
encrypt traffic between your Enterprise Portal and your Web clients. And
finally, you can configure the portal to allow SAP transactions to be
launched from portal iViews or the toolbar. All in all, EP is one of the
smoothest mySAP products to install today.
By the end of October 2003, general availability
for Enterprise Portal 6.0 is expected, however. This will broaden the
number of solution component alternatives, and therefore impact the
portal installation process significantly. For example, Apache Web
Server 1.3x will be supported alongside IIS. And with regard to LDAP
directories, both Novell eDirectory 8.6.1 and the Sun ONE Directory
Server version 5.0 will be supported. Sun Solaris 8.0 and HP-UX 11i will
join the list of supported operating systems (with AIX joining the
party shortly thereafter), running 64-bit database versions of Oracle
9.2. AIX will also (not surprisingly) eventually support IBM’s DB2/UDB
database. Finally, the Netscape UNIX browser (version 6.2) will be made
available alongside the already supported Internet Explorer and Netscape
offerings on Windows-based clients. With Enterprise Portal 6.0 will
come expanded support for Windows 2000 and .NET, too, including .NET
support for both SQL Server 2000 and Oracle databases, plus the latest
version of IIS bundled with Windows 2003 Server (at one time referred to
as Windows .NET Server).
Installation Details for ITS 6.20
ITS
is SAP’s original and still quite popular method of making older (or
not yet Web AS-enabled) SAP solutions available over the Web, accessible
through the use of a standard Web browser. In a nutshell, Internet
Transaction Server maps screen elements in SAP transactions to HTML, and
dynamically generates HTML versions of SAPGUI screens. As of version
6.20, ITS is installed via SAPinst, the
System Landscape Implementation Manager discussed previously. Thus, it
is quite different to install than older releases of ITS. As a reminder,
don’t forget to load a Java Runtime Environment on each ITS server to
be installed; a Java Development Kit is not included with your SAP
distribution CDs, however.
Before performing an ITS installation, see SAP
Note 526835 491781 for the latest updates to the ITS 6.20 installation
process. An overview of the installation process follows:
Confirm that ITS installation
requirements match your ITS sizing. Preparations include installing the
OS, setting up the file system, creating the proper ITS administrator
accounts, verifying the correct version of Apache HTTP Server (if
performing the installation on Linux or Solaris, which was finally
introduced with version 6.20) or other Web Servers, and so on.
If
multiple servers are to be configured (for dual-host systems), ensure
that you have good network connectivity—test for this by issuing the ping command from each host.
Address ITS security. For example, productive ITS implementations should always
include separate WGate and AGate servers separated by a firewall.
Further, ITS files and passwords need to be protected from unauthorized
user access; this is accomplished by following specific dialogs in the
installation process. Finally, you need to determine whether global or
specific service-related user accounts are appropriate—the latter
approach is recommended for production systems.
Determine
the type of installation to perform. Four options are common, including
the installation of a single host (SH), dual-host AGate instance (AI),
dual-host WGate instance (WI), and an ITS Administration Instance (ADM).
Determine
the type of Internet Application Components (IACs) needed. A tool
called the Package Manager allows you to apply incremental IACs to an
existing ITS instance. You will need to enter the names of the specific
IACs. The system package is loaded by default.
Install
the AGate first. Information you need to know beforehand includes the
URL of your home page (which is where end users are “left” after they
exit ITS), SAP system name, client number, SAP User ID, and password
(for the user ID in the specific client to be used). Then the SAP
message server name, its port number,
and login group information are required. An SAP system number and
SAProuter string may also be required. For Windows 2000 systems, the
name and password of user ITSadm and the names of groups
ITSAdministrators and ITSUsers must also be supplied. And finally, you
will be asked to define the memory configuration of the system, where
Configuration for Productive Environments requires a system configured
with 512MB of RAM and the Minimize Memory Usage option only requires
128MB of RAM.
Install the WGate. This
requires the name or IP address of the AGate host, and the number of
ports on the AGate (obtained by viewing the services file on the
AGate)—select a number greater than 1 if you expect more than 400
concurrent ITS users, or if more than 2GB of physical RAM is installed
in the AGate. When the installation is complete, the system should be
rebooted.
After the core ITS installation,
post-install tasks like loading IAC packages are performed. IACs beyond
the default system package include the WebGUI (needed if you are
installing the SAP GUI for HTML), Flowdbg (for debugging ITS
applications on development systems), its_adm (installed by default in
ADM installations), and Watchdog, an optional IAC specific to Windows
2000 and IIS. Watchdog allows you to monitor all of your ITS instances
running on the local host via a dual DCOM interface. It also lets you
register these ITS instances in LDAP directory-accessible tools such as
the SAP MMC; support for the Lightweight Directory Access protocol has
been available since ITS version 4.6C. Most importantly from an HA
perspective, though, Watchdog supports the Windows Load Balancing
Service (WLBS). With WLBS, high availability for the WGate component of
an ITS implementation can be achieved. Combined with support for
multiple Agates (achieved first in ITS 4.6D), an end-to-end high
availability solution for ITS is made possible.
