Describing SAP Process Integration Architecture

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

  • Explain SAP Process Integration architecture
  • Navigate to the Enterprise Services Repository (ESR)
  • Navigate to the Integration Builder
  • Configure the Integration Designer in Eclipse

AEX Definition

The AEX provides the connectivity capabilities of the Advanced Adapter Engine (AAE) as well as the design and configuration tools (Enterprise Services Repository (ESR) and the Integration Directory (ID)) to set up scenarios based on the AAE.

AEX as an Alternative to SAP Process Integration (PI)

AEX is a leaner SAP NetWeaver PI installation alternative for the following reasons:

  • It is a fully independent, single-stack solution based on SAP NetWeaver AS Java only:

    • It has its own integration domain.

    • It has its own tools for design, configuration, and operations (ESR, ID, System Landscape Directory (SLD), SAP NetWeaver Administrator (NWA), and Monitoring).

  • It is powered by AAE and cannot be confused with a non-central AAE.

  • It has additional mediation and connectivity features to allow for major scenario shifts to AEX.

  • It is available from SAP NetWeaver PI 7.3.

Because AEX is based on SAP NetWeaver Application Server (SAP NetWeaver AS) Java alone and is fully independent, it is easier to install and maintain, and needs less memory and data storage capacity. Therefore, the AEX is a cost-saving option compared to a full dual usage installation of SAP PI.

Comparing AEX with the Dual-Usage of SAP PI

In AEX, you cannot use integration processes cross component Business Process Management (ccBPM). As a replacement, AEX uses SAP Business Process Management (BPM) in the JAVA stack.

In addition, if you use AEX instead of the dual-usage PI, you can no longer use ABAP mappings.

Using AEX as a lean, low-cost integration middleware provides fundamental-to-advanced messaging capabilities for SAP and non SAP integration. It also provides high performance and robustness.

The AEX makes the use of a larger system unnecessary. In addition, it eliminates the need for a dual-stack SAP PI installation, thus reducing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

Benefits of Using AEX

The following are the benefits of using AEX:

  • TCO with single-stack is reduced.
  • Installation and restarting are faster and less hardware is needed.
  • The speed of resource consumption scenarios is reduced by up to ten times.
  • Monitoring is simplified due to the use of one dedicated toolset and one stack.
  • One database scheme is used.

The main development goal of the AEX is to close the gap between dual stack and the JAVA environment. The adapters for IDoc and HTTP have been redeveloped to run on the AAE.

SAP Process Integration Architecture and Tools

The figure, Architecture of SAP Process Integration AEX, shows the architecture of the AEX.

The main components for design and configuration time are the Enterprise Services Repository (ESR) and the Integration Directory (ID).

Using these tools, an integration expert can design integration content (for example. interfaces and process integration scenarios) and specify the configuration settings for message exchange for a specific system landscape. The design and configuration tools are connected to the System Landscape Directory (SLD), which contains, for example the description of software components and systems.

Based on the configuration settings from the ID, messages are exchanged between the connected business systems at runtime. AEX uses the Advanced Adapter Engine (AAE) as runtime engine.

To process messages, the AAE uses information from the ID. This information is made available to the AAE using a runtime cache.

SAP Process Integration consists of the following components:

  • SLD

    This component contains information about the landscape (technical systems and business systems) and the software catalog (product and software component versions). You can configure an SAP system to register itself in the SLD.

  • ESR

    This component contains design objects such as interfaces, mappings, and process definitions.

  • ID

    This component enables you to configure scenarios for the message exchange.

  • AAE

    This component provides the basis for many adapters used to connect systems to the Integration Server. The AAE can also be used as the runtime environment for message processing.

  • BPE

    This component controls message correlations and determines how messages are processed as part of cross-component Business Process Management (ccBPM). This is only available in dual-usage of SAP Process Integration.

  • IE

    This component is a part of the Integration Server and it processes messages in the ID according to the system configuration. This processing involves determining the receiver and mapping the inbound message to the receiver interface structure. This is only available in the dual-usage of SAP Process Integration.

SAP Process Integration UI Tools to Access the Components

You can use the following tools to access SAP Process Integration components:

  • SAP GUI

    SAP GUI is a client tool to access the ABAP stack of SAP Process Integration in a dual usage installation.

  • Integration Builder

    The Integration Builder tool provides the Java GUI that you use to work in the ID. The Integration Builder also regulates versioning and lock management on the server.

  • Enterprise Services Builder (ESB)

    The ESB tool provides the Java GUI that you use to work in the ESR.

  • SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio (NWDS) Process Integration Tools (Eclipse-Based)

    You can have the role of a designer or configurator at different stages of taskflow to perform activities on objects involved in process integration. For each role, Process Integration Tools offers dedicated perspectives and interfaces to interact with the objects in the ESR and ID under one platform. The NWDS tool is the Eclipse-based Java development tool of SAP. You can use this tool to view and edit object types in the ESR.

  • Browser

    In your browser, you can access configuration and monitoring, the ID, and the SLD.

SAP Process Orchestration

Process Orchestration

SAP Process Orchestration is a package solution that combines the power of SAP Business Process Management (BPM), SAP Business Rules Management (BRM) and SAP Process Integration (PI) into a single, integrated solution.

Features of SAP Process Orchestration are:

  • Based on single stack Java.

  • Is a Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) standard.

  • Is a graphic configuration that uses integration flows

The solution consists of the following components:

Business Process Management and Business Rules Management

BPM and Business Rules Management allows you to design, execute and monitor business processes and business rules. Both tools are part of the SAP Composition Environment.

Advanced Adapter Engine Extended (AEX)

AEX provides the connectivity capabilities of the Advanced Adapter Engine (AAE) as well as design and configuration tools (Enterprise Service Repository and the Integration Directory) to set up integration scenarios.

The figure illustrates the architecture of SAP Process Orchestration.

Tools for Modelling are:

SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio (NWDS)

SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio is an Eclipse-Based Tool, for modelling Business Process, Business Rules, as well as Integration Flows on the AEX. For this purposes, NWDS offers a couple of perspectives, for example: the Process Development perspective, the Rules Composer perspective, the Process Integration Designer perspective, or the Enterprise Service Repository perspective.

Business Process Management

SAP Business Process Management (BPM) lets your business and IT professionals jointly compose executable processes using standardized notation.

Business Rules Management

SAP Business Rules Management (SAP BRM) enables organizations to automate decisions by using business rules. Business users participate in and control rule definition, while business process experts model, validate, deploy, update, and archive business rules through their lifecycle. As such, IT organizations can work with business users to manage business rules that drive process flow and execution.

Advanced Adapter Engine (AAE)

AEX provides the connectivity capabilities of the Advanced Adapter Engine (AAE) as well as design and configuration tools (ES Repository and the Integration Directory) to set up integration scenarios.

Integration Directory (ID)

This component enables you to configure scenarios for the message exchange.

Enterprise Service Repository (ESR)

This component contains information about the software catalog (product and software component versions) and the landscape (technical systems and business systems).

Integration with Non-Central Advanced Adapter Engines

Message Processing Using the Central AAE

As the standard connectivity option, you can use the Advanced Adapter Engine centrally, that means, installed on the same system ID (SID) where the design and configuration tools are also installed.

In an AEX installation, you also have the option of using an AAE non-centrally. That means you install the AAE separately on a system with a different SID than the central AAE. At runtime, the non-central AAE works independently of the central one.

The design and configuration environment (ES Repository and Integration Directory) resides on the system of the central AAE. Both the central AAE and the non-central AAE register themselves at the same System Landscape Directory (SLD).

With regard to user management, the non-central AAE works completely autonomously because it uses a local User Management Engine.

Installation Options

The figure, Installation and Connectivity Options and Configuration Types, shows the installation options available in SAP Process Integration.

Note

SAP NetWeaver has discontinued dual stack deployments. The dual stack option for SAP Process Integration has been replaced by a dual usage type that behaves like a Process Integration dual stack but stacks the AS ABAP and the AS Java run on separate system IDs.

How to Navigate to the Tools Page of SAP Process Integration

Enterprise Services Repository

The uniqueness of an object in the Enterprise Services Repository is determined by the following elements:

  • The name of the object.
  • The name of the software component.
  • The associated namespace.

In addition to the technical and assigned business systems, the products, and their software components and versions that run on the technical systems are also created in the System Landscape Directory (SLD). The software components are imported into the Enterprise Services Repository. Within the software component version, you create the namespaces in which you then store the interface objects that you use in your business processes.

Interface objects include the inbound and outbound interfaces and details for mapping.

You can use interfaces, such as Remote Function Call (RFC), Intermediate Document (IDoc), eXtensible Markup Language Schema Definition (XSD), or WSDL in the ESR, or you can create them manually in the ESR.

Mapping Interfaces and Defining Mappings

You define outbound and inbound interfaces in the ESR. If the outbound and inbound messages in a scenario do not match, you also define mapping rules for a structure mapping in the ESR. For this purpose, the system provides you a graphical mapping tool or you can create mapping programs in Java, ABAP, or eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT). In addition to the structure mapping, which maps the source and inbound structures to each other, you can also define a value mapping that maps the values of the structure to the required values in the inbound structure, for example, value 001 to value abc in the Material group field.

The ESR allows you to define the relationships between interfaces and business processes in a transparent way. To define these relationships, you create an integration scenario that represents the relationships between interfaces in abstract form (without the assignment of specific systems).

Implementation of a Scenario and Assignment of the Interfaces and Mappings Used

You can create process steps (referred to as actions) for a system with a particular role and assign outbound and inbound interfaces to each of these actions. You can also connect the actions with connecting lines and represent synchronous and asynchronous connections. Select an outbound interface for the sender system action and an inbound interface for the receiver system action for each connection. You can specify a mapping program that maps the outbound interface to the inbound interface.

Hint

Integration scenarios and objects referenced in scenarios, such as interfaces and mapping, are provided as the Enterprise Services Repository or SAP Process Integration content by SAP and its partners. These scenarios and objects can be used as configuration templates. In this way, they simplify the implementation of standard scenarios.

How to Navigate to the Enterprise Services Repository

Integration Directory (ID)

The Enterprise Services Repository (ESR) only stores information related to the development objects of a software component. For these objects, it is not important whether, and on which server, the software component is installed.

To allow business processes to run in a distributed system landscape, you need the configuration objects that you store in the ID.

Configuration Objects in the Integration Directory

In addition to the sender and receiver (as services) and the adapters, the following configuration objects also belong to the configuration in the ID for Advanced Adapter Engine based processing:

  • Inbound processing
  • Receiver
  • Receiver interface
  • Outbound processing

For the Advanced Adapter Engine (AAE) based processing, you need to configure the integrated configuration.

Message Processing

Messages can be processed by the Integration Engine (pipeline processing in dual usage installation), or by the AAE in dual usage or in Advanced Adapter Engine Extended (AEX), depending on the required adapters and functionality.

For processing messages by the Advanced Adapter Engine, you configure how the sender technically links up with SAP Process Integration (PI) (inbound processing) and with the receiver that receives a message (receiver). You then configure which inbound interface receives the message for the receiver (receiver interface) and how the Integration Server can technically link up with the receiver system (outbound processing).

The ID provides an object in which you can bundle all the configuration objects that belong together in the configuration scenario. Configuration scenarios make it easier to use configuration objects.

How to Navigate to the Integration Builder

Integration Designer Perspective in Eclipse

Process integration developers have the opportunity to use two different set of tools: the swing clients (JAVA WebStart based tools) and the tools available in Eclipse as part of a plugin called SAP Process Integration (PI). You can use the SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio as your main tool for maintaining design time objects such as data types, mappings, service interfaces, and so on. The Enterprise Services Repository (ESR) is in the Eclipse perspective, you can model business processes with the Process Composer perspective and configure the routing rules or Integration Flows with the Process Integration Designer perspective.

You can download the new 750 release from: https://support.sap.com/en/my-support/software-downloads.html by navigating to Support Packages & Patches'N'SAP NETWEAVERSAP NETWEAVER 7.5DEVELOPER STUDIO .

Connect SAP NWDS to Your Process Orchestration System

Business Scenario

In this exercise, you will perform the required preparation.

Exercise Information

Note

In this exercise, when the values include ##, replace the character with a two-digit number (01–30).

Exercise Options

You can perform this exercise in two ways:

  1. Live Environment: choose Start Exercise, and from the entry page choose Open PDF Document. Follow the steps described in this pdf in your own system landscape.
  2. Simulation: choose Start Exercise, and from the entry page choose Start Tutorial. Watch the step-by-step instructions within the simulation.

Note

We recommend running the simulation first.

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