SAP Netweaver Architecture Internals

Here is a concise yet in-depth explanation of SAP Netweaver from an inside-out, hands-on approach without the sales hype and repetition typical of tutorials. Topics are linked to certification exam content and other web pages. Detailed diagrams of the infrastructure are accompanied by sequenced descriptions that make the complexity easy to understand. Cross-reference tables plainly cut through the confusion between Perspectives and Project Types.

Technical Consultant Exam Content Here are links to exam content for the SAP Certified Technology Professional - Platform Technology - SAP NetWeaver 7.0 C_TEP10_04s 3 hr. 40 ques. Conceptualize complex processes into customer prominent solutions. Based on professional application and advanced analysis qualification, customer business requirements can be recognized and transferred into concepts and blueprints of prominent customer solutions in 40% Workload Analysis [ADM315] E2E - Root Cause Analysis Adaptive Computing and other virtualization techniques Sizing and system landscape planning Upgrade Planning and Performing upgrade to SAP ECC 6.0 [ADM326] Planning and executing heterogenuous System Copies [TADM70] Unicode Conversion E2E - Change Management Build solutions by independently researching valid implementation options. Based on profound understanding and deep application skills, project requirements can be transferred into solid customer solutions in 40% High Availability Solution Monitoring (Solution Manager Integration) [SM100] System Optimization for NW Components (XI, BW, Portal, TREX) Java Software Logistics and Solution Manager Integration ("CTS P [ADM225] Data Management (strategies for reducing data volume) Accomplish solutions for defined project tasks. Based on profound knowledge and basic understanding, identified tasks can be performed during system implementation, configuration, and testing in the areas of 20% Know SAP Services (Go Live, Early Watch, etc.) Advanced Monitoring topics [ADM106, ADM107] Data Archiving

Netweaver Versions SAP NetWeaver provides an integration framework like TIBCO. Netweaver was built to operates in a SOA (service Oriented Architecture) framework of self-contained services that communicate with each other and are not dependent on the context (or state) held by other services. Loose coupling makes services adaptive and flexible. According to SAP's Enterprise Services Architecture (ESA) blueprint, services are interoperable, collaborative, and process-centered composite applications with requests from service consumers and responses from service providers. Netweaver 2003 (Interface/J2EE Engine version 6.20) Netweaver 2004 (Interface/J2EE Engine version 6.40) introduced a unified Web Application Server (WAS), web services, enterprise services, XI, BI, and MDM. Netweaver 2004s (Interface/J2EE Engine version 7.0) is about composite apps (xApps) [Release Notes] the foundation for SAP NetWeaver Portal 7.0. SAP NetWeaver 7.1 (Interface/J2EE Engine version 7.1) enables mobile devices and business process modeling (BPM) platform: Composition Environment (CE), Enterprise Services Repository (ESR), and NetWeaver Process Integration (PI). ABAP and Java are called two "personalities" of Application Servers. AS-Java runs the KM application. AS-ABAP is only required for Documentation, Manuals, and Training Material Management.

Mastering Enterprise SOA with SAP NetWeaver and mYSAP ERP (Wiley, Oct. 2006) by Scott Campbell and Varmsi Mohun  Netweaver Admin. Class Outline  Netweaver EP Class Outline

NetWeaver Product Integration

Web Services infrastructure and wizards are part of the SAP Web Application Server and developer tools used for exposing Web Services SAP NetWeaver Enterprise Portal (SAP NW EP) unifies role-based secure access to day-to-day work and information resources (meeting room, discussion forums, shared documents in file cabinet, classifications, e-mail lists, etc.) SAP NetWeaver Portal (SAP Portal) artifacts are built using Portal Content Studio (PCS) to create iViews content on a Portal Catalog hierarchy stored in the Portal Content Directory (PCD) and Portal Development Kit (PDK) for coding Java and .NET C# and VB.NET application logic. SAP Portal runtime running within WAS manages Roles, iViews (the smallest unit of UI-based information) Pages (a set of coherent iViews), and Worksets (a set of pages of related tasks) SAP XI (eXchange Infrastructure) SAP BW - Business Information Warehouse SAP MDM - Master Data Management (data cleansing) Visual Composer (VC) is the modeling tool for creating analytics applications and other UIs based on services ARIS (ArchitectuRe of Information Systems) for NetWeaver is a whole framework for the description of business processes, which include modeling methods, with a corresponding meta-model and a modeling tool provided as a client (for publishing from a local database) or internally within SAP's WebAccess. The ARIS Business Designer creates event-driven business process models (including Orchestrations and Services) stored in the XI Integration Repository. ARIS models applications, systems, functions, events, rules, groups, roles, objects, connectors. (The SAP Process Office licensed this technology from IDS-Scheer) The ARIS Filter for SAP synchronizes ARIS with SAP Solution Manager through SAP Java Connectors (JCO). SAP NetWeaver for workflow include CAF-GP (Composite Application Framework Guided Procedures) and WebFlow to automate tasks and drive process flow using Composite Application Services (CAS) based on Enterprise Services Architecture (ESA). These run packaged composite applications (PCAs) such as SAP Collaborative Cross Applications (xApps) Controlled by UME (?) Permissions. A GP process consists of Actions (somewhat similar to a Java interface for business processes) implemented by Callable Objects, and Blocks. TREX search engine JDO (Java Data Objects) can store Java domain model instances directly in a database. SQLJ enables Java programs to access a database using embedded Structured Query Language (SQL) statements. It is supported by SAP NetWeaver for J2EE development. Remote Function Calls (RFC) (of functions to be executed in a remote system) is the standard SAP interface to communicate with SAP backend systems and non-SAP systems. SAP MI - Mobile Infrastructure SAP NetWeaver user interfaces include: Web Dynpro (following a Model-View-Controller (MVC) paradigm like Java Struts) is used for building UIs based on models and reusable Developments Components (DC) built into the framework HTML Business for Java (HTMLB), ABAP Dynpro and ABAP Business Server Pages (BSP). Note from the 2004s TroubleShooting Guide that its use of SAP GUI 6.40 (SP 8) requires this patch for IE7.

The ultimate goal of any system is to enable excellence in: Relationships (better decisions) Products/Services (information) Operations (Processes) across systems and organization boundaries  SAP Forum: Documentation & Guidelines  ASUG (American SAP User Group)  SAP Netweaver Development Concepts and Architecture These SAP E-Learning Classes include step-by-step Flash demos:  NW001_52 (Technology Sol.Pow. by SAP NW)  NW100_62 (SAP Web AS Overview E-Learning)  NW200_62 (SAP WebAS Server User Config.)  NW300_62 (SAP WebAS Basic System Mainten.)  NW310_62 (SAP WebAS Server System Maint.2)  NW400_62 (SAP WebAS Server Develop. Overv)  NW500_62 (SAP WebAS Database Interaction)  NW600_62 (SAP WebAS Devel. Analysis&Tools)  NW900_62 (SAP WebAS User Authoriz. Admin) Certification of over 1,800 3rd-party software packages as "Powered by NetWeaver" by SAP Integration and Certification Centers (ICCs) conducted by VeriTest/Lionbridge.  Software Solution Partner Catalog  SAP Architecture

Server Machines  One big change is that since Netweaver 04 passwords are now case sensitive. "Business Process Platform" Business Warehouse (BW) / Business Intelligence (BI) functionality is built into the NetWeaver 2004s engine, Format Artifact Netweaver Tool - Integration Scenarios Scenario Editor BPEL Integration Processes Process Editor XSLT Java Mappings Mapping Editor XPath Context Objects Condition Editor WSDL Message Interfaces Data Type Editor SAPNSP_00 service

Netweaver CE (Composition Environment) Repository, Directory, Registry With the SAP NetWeaver CE (Composition Environment) add-on product: To define services, NWDS accesses the ESR (Enterprise Services Repository or ES Repository) which are populated by SAP with a global data type catalogue based on Core Components Technical Specification standards. To consume services (point-to-point), NWDS accesses the Services Registry which contains data imported from the ESR. System Landscape Directory is where software components are maintained. The ESR is accessed through Java WebStart UI client Enterprise Services Builder.

Landscape Hierarchy Here is the hierarchy of a landscape: Solution (such as ECC, MDM, SolMan) are duplicated by Role (Development, Quality Assurance, Production) System (identified by a 3-letter SysID such as "SM4") Instance (identifed by an Instance ID) contains SAP processes: msg_server.EXE (MessageServer) disp+work.EXE (Dispatcher) igswd.EXE (IGS Watchdog) J2EE Processes: J2EE Dispatcher SDM Server J2EE Server

Memory Structures With version 7 SAP integrated ITS into the Web Application Server. Activate ITS with these steps: Start Tx SE80. Select 'Internet Services'. Type in 'System'. In the Object Window right click 'System' -> Publish -> Complete Service. Wait for the message: Object published successfully. Site: Internal Repeat the above for Internet services SHUFFLER and WEBGUI. Start Tx SICF and select 'default Host' and activate the required services. NB. Do not Activate all services, since that will cause performance and security issues. /default_host/sap/bc/gui/sap/its/webgui Use Tx RZ10 to configure these following parameters: icm/server_port_0 = PROT=HTTP,PORT=80$$ icm/host_name_full = .com ms/server_port_0 = PROT=HTTP,PORT=81$$ login/create_sso2_ticket = 2 login/accept_sso2_ticket = 1 Logon to the SDN and search for web GUI.

Load Balancing

SAP JVM SAP Note 723909 �Java VM settings for J2EE 6.40/7.0� describes recommended Java VM settings to avoid out of memory (OutOfMemoryError) or Out of swap space error for standard SAP Java applications (EP, XI, CRM, etc.) running on SAP J2EE 6.40/7.0. J2EE Engine 6.40 SP7 corresponds to NetWeaver'04 SP Stack 04. SAP's ConfigTool Note 710146 Independence from JVM vendors (Sun, IBM, etc.) is a strategic goal of SAP, so the SAP JVM container is developed by SAP rather than Sun, IBM, etc. Therefore, at the cost of not having some optimizations in Sun Java 5/6, SAP is more likely to produce a JVM that has the same bahavior across all OS platforms. SAP Enterprise Portal 6 KM (Knowledge Management) requires JAVA_HOME to be set to /usr/j2sdk1_3_1_06.  J2EE and Java

2004s Virtual Machine Container 2004s introduces a Virtual Machine Container (VMC) that pools and dynamically assigns a Java VM (with a local Java heap) toeach user session. The number of VMs and their properties are specified using SAP transaction SM53 (VMC System Administration). The execution of applications (anwendung) on the Java VM integrated in the ABAP work process is only intended for components developed by SAP. Shared Closures (the transitive shell of Java objects in a common Java class pool available to all VMs) are copied (serialized) into the local heap for update or mapped for read-only access. shared Locks synchronize VM's access to shared objects at the instance level. However, VMs access a and share data and memory with ABAP work processes, which improves speed of communications between Java and ABAP. Java objects can be moved across process boundaries and shared by processes. This enables efficient session failover. An out-of-process VMC RFC driver is used to communicate among different work processes. All RFC types are transferred by means of CPI-C or TCP/IP. They constitute a form of gateway communication. JCo (Java Connector) API via JNI (Jave Native Interface) to RFC calls to ABAP. blog IBM Rational Performance Tester Extension for SAP Solutions  SAP ABAP Performance Tuning Tips & Tricks Introduction among SAP Tutorials at thespot4sap

SAP R/3 Configuration

Here is a condensed analysis of (without the sales hype) how to configure SAP R/3 Netweaver. Included are a comparison of components and explanation of SAP SID, Profiles, PATH, and Server Services.

SAP Components Component NW 7.0 (2004s) 2004 J2EE ABAP Sun J2SE SDK 1.4.2_09 (not 1.4.2_10) - Server - SAP NetWeaver 7.0 ABAP Application Server SP12 - Client - Compact SAP Logon 7.10 SAP NetWeaver Development Infrastructure - - SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio (NWDI) 7.0.09 SAP NetWeaver (Enterprise) Portal with PDK Web Dynpro SAP Content Management and Collaboration TREX MaxDB + DatabaseManger and SQL Studio 7.6.00.34 7.6.02.14 SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence (BI) Java SDK SAP Interactive Forms by Adobe (Adobe Document Services) Visual Composer Composite Application Framework (CAI) Yes No SAP NetWeaver Knowledge Management Before starting an instance, test the new instance profiles using the auxiliary program sappfpar on the operating-system level. After instance restart, verify that the instance is running without error. To ensure that the most current version of sappfpar is being used, execute OS command sappfpar ?. SAP's Internet Business Framework is the open architecture that enables arrangement of modularized components into an integrated functional package and provides the collaboration technology for building a solid Web application infrastructure at all levels (presentation, application, data).

SAP Clients and End-User Terminals In the SAP world, a "client" is a legal entity such as a corporation. The default "000" client contains client-independent settings. SAP AG reserves client "066" as part of its EarlyWatch service. However, in the IT networking world, what many other organizations call the machines used by end-users "client PCs", SAP calls "terminals". SAP end-user terminals (usually runing Windows XP OS) are connected to client corporate servers though the public network or internal VPN servers. Terminals make requests to a VIP (Virtual IP) configured on an inbound router into the server farm. [_] Set protocol.ora file parameter tcp.nodelay=yes so that packets are streamed onto the network without delay.

Experts with SAP's "Remote Support" service log onto systems to resolve problems.  The multiclient concept of R/3" on SAPnet

SAP SID, Profiles, PATH, and Server Services Each R/3 installation (SAP system) of a database server and several app servers running the application logic is uniquely identified by a single SID (SAP System Identification), aka SAPSID — a three-character code such as C11, PRD, E56, etc.), The evaluation version of Netweaver ABAP uses SAP SID "NSP". This value is specified in a  DEFAULT.PFL profile file as property = value pair SAPSYSTEMNAME = NSP  SAP profile files are text files with invisible Unix newline at the end of each line. So if you are on a PC, use Wordpad rather than Notepad. Profiles comment lines are preceded by a # (pound) character. Several servers can be be associated with this SAPSID by referencing the DEFAULT.PFL. This is why parameters configuring Buffer synchronization by the "SAP Messaging Service for ABAP" is also specified there: Parameter name Recommended value rdisp/bufrefmode sendoff,exeoff (central system) sendon,exeauto (client/server) rdisp/bufreftime 60 Each server under a SID is identified with a two-digit number, such as "00" which the eval. system installs. The Windows Service "SAPNSP_00" is started by referencing a profile file, such as: ...\sapstartsrv.exe pf=...\NSP_DVEBMGS00_BUBBA1 The "pf=" points to a profile for a specific host name (bubba1) and instance (DVEBMGS00), which contains: SAPSYSTEMNAME = NSP SAPGLOBALHOST = bubba1 SAPSYSTEM = 00 INSTANCE_NAME = DVEBMGS00 This profile properties file configures an SAP Web AS instance is shared by several sister servers associated with a SID (SAP System identifier) because all servers in a SID reference logical directory /sapmnt/SID/profile even though it's physically stored in directory /usr/sap/SID/SYS/profile. Other system-wide files for SAP (including executables and global files) are also stored the same way. Add to the PATH environment variable ";C:\SAP\NSP\SYS\exe\run" so that  program exe's (such as sappfpar.exe) can be executed from any current folder.

Sample Environments An organization usually needs several environments. Here is an example: System name System client Server name Environment SF1 010 sap-dev1 Development - new programs are developed and tested here before they are transported to the QA environment SF2 020 sap-dev2 Prototype SF3 030 sap-int-1 Integration SF4 040 sap-qa-1 QA (QUality Assurance) SF5 050 sap-perf Performance SF6 060 sap-trng Training - used when participating in a training class. SF7 070 sap-prac Practice - has the same functions and transactions as the Production environment, but contains specially created data to support practice exercises for SAP training classes. PS0 090 Stage-1 Staging PS1 091 Production-1 Production PS2 092 Production-2 Production Fail-Over

Configure Applications Transaction SPRO is the main tree for SAP application configurations.