SAP Web Application Server
Content
SAP
SAP Web Application Server
© 2011 Manish Shankar | [email protected]
SAP Web Application Server
What exactly is the SAP Web Application Server? The SAP Web Application Server is the reliable, open standard-based application server from SAP. It supports both J2EE and ABAP, and serves as the underlying infrastructure for all new and upcoming SAP solutions, like SAP R/3 Enterprise, SAP Portal, SAP Exchange Infrastructure, and all other SAP components. The SAP Web Application Server is not a new product, it is the natural evolution of proven SAP application server technology formerly known as SAP Basis. It provides the platform to develop, execute, and operate Web applications and Web services as well as traditional SAP GUI based applications. The SAP Web Application Server is the application platform of the SAP NetWeaver, which is the basis for the other NetWeaver components. SAP Web Application Server is the underlying technology for all mySAP.com components (such as mySAP Customer Relationship Management, mySAP Business Intelligence, and the forthcoming SAP R/3 Enterprise). It also offers a wide range of services that enable extensive, global e-business solutions, including a development environment, software logistics, security, and connectivity. Building on the scalable and reliable SAP application server, SAP Web Application Server delivers innovative, native Web technologies, a J2EE and ABAP environment for architecting applications, and Web services for business-to-business collaboration. With the SAP Web Application Server, both server-based and client-based Web applications can be implemented. Server applications (e.g. online shops or portals) can be created in the integrated development environment or in an external tool. These applications can contain Web pages as well as static HTML code and dynamic script code. Web application server supports Internet capabilities and runs across various platforms. It should be scalable and reliable which can deliver the needed scalability and performance. The server should support Internet technologies such as HTTP, XML, and J2EE etc. SAP web application server possesses the needed features and is an important component of mySAP. The application can be created from web application builder, which is an object oriented development environment that supports JavaScript and ABAP. The main part of the server can be used to create Business Server Pages. BSP resembles ASP or JSP, and its code contains HTML, which can be compiled on request from the server. The application server serves as the main component for SAP R/3 and other version of ERPs. It integrates e-business strategies to provide robust software.
© 2011 Manish Shankar | [email protected]
Architecture
The architecture contains ICM that is the internet communication manager, which communicates with the server over intranet or internet using HTTP, HTTPS or SMTP, and the communication uses high performance channel called ‘the memory pipe’ to provide improved performance and scalability. The business environment is used to create business content and logic, and ABAP environment is used to run SAP based applications, which includes the deployment of business objects. The connectivity is used for integrating the third party applications and tools. Open connectivity is used to allow technical interoperability, and SOAP or XML based protocols can be used for communication The architecture of SAP Web Application Server can be separated into 5 areas: Presentation layer In the presentation layer, the user interface can be developed with Java Server Pages (JSP), Business Server Pages (BSP), or with Web Dynpro technology. The underlying business layer provides the business content in Java or ABAP. Business layer The business layer consists of a J2EE certified run-time environment that processes the requests passed from the ICM (The Internet Communication Manager) and dynamically generates the responses. The business logic can be written either in ABAP or in Java based on the J2EE standard. Developers can implement business logic and persistence with Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) using the J2EE environment. Developers can also access the business objects of applications running in the ABAP environment to benefit from their business logic and persistence. Integration layer The local integration engine is an integral part of SAP Web AS and allows instant connection to SAP XI. The local integration engine provides messaging services that exchange messages between the components that are connected in SAP XI. Connectivity layer The Internet Communication Manager (ICM) dispatches user interface requests to the presentation layer and provides a single framework for connectivity using various communication protocols. Currently, modules are available for Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), HTTPS (extension of HTTP running under the Secure Socket Layer (SSL)), Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), and Fast Common Gateway Interface (FastCGI).
© 2011 Manish Shankar | [email protected]
Persistence layer The persistence layer supports database independence and scalable transaction handling. Business logic can be developed completely independent of the underlying database and operating system. Database independence is also made possible by support for open standards. The database interface ensures optimized data access from within the ABAP environment through Open SQL. SAP propagates the outstanding capabilities of Open SQL for ABAP to Open SQL for Java and offers a variety of standard Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to application programmers, such as SQLJ. Other technologies, such as Java Data Objects (JDO) and container managed persistence (CMP) for EJB, or the direct use of the Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) API, are also supported. J2EE and ABAP in a Common Environment: J2EE and Java are generally accepted as the standard Web programming technologies, and there is no shortage of related expertise. Naturally, companies want to tap into this expertise and use it to build their own e-business applications. SAP Web Application Server has both an ABAP and a J2EE personality, supporting both programming environments in a common, integrated infrastructure. That way, you not only protect the investments that you have already made in ABAP applications and expertise, but you can also channel the latest J2EE proficiency into future applications. For users and applications, the integration is completely transparent, delivering a proven e-business environment with native Java support for easy deployment, straightforward installation and administration, coupled with full life-cycle support for Java-based e-business components. All existing business objects and interfaces can be used with both the J2EE and the ABAP environment, and new applications will be built leveraging both environments. Now, the large base of existing Java developers and J2EE software can be exploited easily. Using this approach gives developers a single infrastructure that leverages the advantages of both environments. This not only simplifies your IT infrastructure, it also slices a considerable chunk off your operating costs. It provides companies with the choice and flexibility to extend their solutions according to their available development skills and technical constraints while supporting all existing SAP applications. The SAP Web Application Server can execute – depending on your chosen installation option – ABAP and/or Java programs. This means you can use the ABAPbased and a Java technology (JSP, etc.) to create Web applications.
© 2011 Manish Shankar | [email protected]
How It Works: The components and their tasks are described below: The Internet Communication Manager (ICM) sets up the connection to the Internet. It can process both server and client Web requests. It supports the protocols HTTP, HTTPS, and SMTP. The SAP Web AS can behave as a Web server or as a Web client. The dispatcher distributes the requests to the work processes. If all the processes are occupied the requests are stored in the dispatcher queue. The ABAP Work Process executes the ABAP code. The SAP Gateway makes the RFC interface between the SAP instances available (within an SAP System and beyond system boundaries). For information on the architecture see Architecture of the SAP Gateway. The message server exchanges messages and balances the load in the SAP System. In the Java component of the SAP Web AS there are the components Java Dispatcher, Server Process and Software Deployment Manager.
© 2011 Manish Shankar | [email protected]
ICM (Internet Communication Manager):
It is an independent process responsible for communications between the Web Application Server and external supporters over intranets or the Internet using standard protocols like HTTP, HTTPS, and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). The communication is carried out using a high-performance, memory-based communication channel named memory pipe. ICM also significantly improves Web site performance and scalability using dynamic and active content caching technology. The ICM guarantees communication between the SAP System (SAP Web Application Server) and the outside world via the protocol HTTP, HTTPS and SMTP. In its role as a server the ICM can process requests from the Internet that arrive as URLs with the server/port combination that the ICM can listen to. The ICM then calls the relevant local handler for the URL in question. ICM is needed if we want our SAP Web AS to communicate with the Internet via HTTP, HTTPS or SMTP, like Web applications do with Business Server Pages. Features: The ICM process uses threads to parallelize the load that comes up. The graphic below shows an overview of the ICM.
© 2011 Manish Shankar | [email protected]
In addition to the pool of worker threads that process the incoming requests, the following ICM components are implemented as further requests: Thread Control This thread accepts the incoming TCP/IP requests and creates (or wakes) a worker thread from the thread pool to process the request. Then the thread control initializes the connection info data. Worker Threads These threads handle connection requests and responses. A worker thread contains an I/O handler for the network input and output, diverse plugins for the various supported protocols (HTTP, SMTP,…), which are required to be able to decide when the sent packet is finished (depends on the protocol). Watchdog Usually a worker thread waits for a response (regardless of whether it is a client or a server thread). If there is a timeout the watchdog takes on the task of waiting for the response. Then the worker thread can again be used for other requests. If the watchdog receives the response, it informs the thread control component, which then wakes up a worker thread. Signal Handler These thread processes signals that are sent by an operating system or another process (for example, the dispatcher). Connection Info This table contains for each existing network connection details of the status, the memory pipes and the plug-in data. Memory Pipes These memory-based communication objects are used to transfer data between the ICM and the work processes. For each connection there are four pipes: for each request and response one data pipe and an OOB (Out Of Band) pipe. The OOB pipe is used for control data. The ICM contains another cache to enable repeated requests to be quickly responded to. This cache is not shown in the graphic. Processing HTTP Requests: The ICM processes HTTP requests and responses. On the basis of the URL and the port a “local“ handler in the ICM is addressed. Sharing out the requests among different handlers increases performance, because a user context does not have to be created in the work process for each request. The URL prefixes used for the various handlers can be defined in profile parameters. The handlers are called in the order listed below, and they can process the request themselves or forward it to the next handler. © 2011 Manish Shankar | [email protected]
Features of WAS:
Flexible and Robust System: It provides highly flexible and robust web infrastructure which has efficient caching mechanism and database access features. The efficient database features can be used to optimize lock management and it can be used in multi user environment Compatibility: WAS allows compatibility to various internet standards and it can work on many different technologies. It can communicate though HTML and XML, and it can function as client or server depending on the requirements. To run the application it acts as a server and when it is accessing a system it can act as a client. Server Side Scripting: It can adopt server side scripting such as ASP and JSP, and the language used for server side presentation is called BSP. Open Architecture: It uses open system for integration to SAP or non SAP based applications. Security: The web application server allows digital certification, cookies generation for user authentication and ticketing to ensure security. It uses SSL and HTTPS for providing standard security to the system, and it also has X.509 client certificates, which is used to identify users. Independent Platform: The system supports different types of operating system and databases. It supports open technology. It includes communication protocols and standards for storing business objects and processes. Conclusion: With the SAP Web Application Server, SAP brings the benefits of their proven infrastructure - reliability, scalability, software logistics, change management, platform independence, and business knowledge - to the J2EE world. That way, you not only protect the investments that you have already made in ABAP applications and expertise, but you can also channel the latest J2EE proficiency into your applications. SAP Web Application Server supports all the operating systems, and databases supported by SAP, freeing customers from technological constraints and giving them the power to build the infrastructure that best fits existing environment and individual needs.
© 2011 Manish Shankar | [email protected]
SAP Web Application Server
© 2011 Manish Shankar | [email protected]
SAP Web Application Server
What exactly is the SAP Web Application Server? The SAP Web Application Server is the reliable, open standard-based application server from SAP. It supports both J2EE and ABAP, and serves as the underlying infrastructure for all new and upcoming SAP solutions, like SAP R/3 Enterprise, SAP Portal, SAP Exchange Infrastructure, and all other SAP components. The SAP Web Application Server is not a new product, it is the natural evolution of proven SAP application server technology formerly known as SAP Basis. It provides the platform to develop, execute, and operate Web applications and Web services as well as traditional SAP GUI based applications. The SAP Web Application Server is the application platform of the SAP NetWeaver, which is the basis for the other NetWeaver components. SAP Web Application Server is the underlying technology for all mySAP.com components (such as mySAP Customer Relationship Management, mySAP Business Intelligence, and the forthcoming SAP R/3 Enterprise). It also offers a wide range of services that enable extensive, global e-business solutions, including a development environment, software logistics, security, and connectivity. Building on the scalable and reliable SAP application server, SAP Web Application Server delivers innovative, native Web technologies, a J2EE and ABAP environment for architecting applications, and Web services for business-to-business collaboration. With the SAP Web Application Server, both server-based and client-based Web applications can be implemented. Server applications (e.g. online shops or portals) can be created in the integrated development environment or in an external tool. These applications can contain Web pages as well as static HTML code and dynamic script code. Web application server supports Internet capabilities and runs across various platforms. It should be scalable and reliable which can deliver the needed scalability and performance. The server should support Internet technologies such as HTTP, XML, and J2EE etc. SAP web application server possesses the needed features and is an important component of mySAP. The application can be created from web application builder, which is an object oriented development environment that supports JavaScript and ABAP. The main part of the server can be used to create Business Server Pages. BSP resembles ASP or JSP, and its code contains HTML, which can be compiled on request from the server. The application server serves as the main component for SAP R/3 and other version of ERPs. It integrates e-business strategies to provide robust software.
© 2011 Manish Shankar | [email protected]
Architecture
The architecture contains ICM that is the internet communication manager, which communicates with the server over intranet or internet using HTTP, HTTPS or SMTP, and the communication uses high performance channel called ‘the memory pipe’ to provide improved performance and scalability. The business environment is used to create business content and logic, and ABAP environment is used to run SAP based applications, which includes the deployment of business objects. The connectivity is used for integrating the third party applications and tools. Open connectivity is used to allow technical interoperability, and SOAP or XML based protocols can be used for communication The architecture of SAP Web Application Server can be separated into 5 areas: Presentation layer In the presentation layer, the user interface can be developed with Java Server Pages (JSP), Business Server Pages (BSP), or with Web Dynpro technology. The underlying business layer provides the business content in Java or ABAP. Business layer The business layer consists of a J2EE certified run-time environment that processes the requests passed from the ICM (The Internet Communication Manager) and dynamically generates the responses. The business logic can be written either in ABAP or in Java based on the J2EE standard. Developers can implement business logic and persistence with Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) using the J2EE environment. Developers can also access the business objects of applications running in the ABAP environment to benefit from their business logic and persistence. Integration layer The local integration engine is an integral part of SAP Web AS and allows instant connection to SAP XI. The local integration engine provides messaging services that exchange messages between the components that are connected in SAP XI. Connectivity layer The Internet Communication Manager (ICM) dispatches user interface requests to the presentation layer and provides a single framework for connectivity using various communication protocols. Currently, modules are available for Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), HTTPS (extension of HTTP running under the Secure Socket Layer (SSL)), Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), and Fast Common Gateway Interface (FastCGI).
© 2011 Manish Shankar | [email protected]
Persistence layer The persistence layer supports database independence and scalable transaction handling. Business logic can be developed completely independent of the underlying database and operating system. Database independence is also made possible by support for open standards. The database interface ensures optimized data access from within the ABAP environment through Open SQL. SAP propagates the outstanding capabilities of Open SQL for ABAP to Open SQL for Java and offers a variety of standard Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to application programmers, such as SQLJ. Other technologies, such as Java Data Objects (JDO) and container managed persistence (CMP) for EJB, or the direct use of the Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) API, are also supported. J2EE and ABAP in a Common Environment: J2EE and Java are generally accepted as the standard Web programming technologies, and there is no shortage of related expertise. Naturally, companies want to tap into this expertise and use it to build their own e-business applications. SAP Web Application Server has both an ABAP and a J2EE personality, supporting both programming environments in a common, integrated infrastructure. That way, you not only protect the investments that you have already made in ABAP applications and expertise, but you can also channel the latest J2EE proficiency into future applications. For users and applications, the integration is completely transparent, delivering a proven e-business environment with native Java support for easy deployment, straightforward installation and administration, coupled with full life-cycle support for Java-based e-business components. All existing business objects and interfaces can be used with both the J2EE and the ABAP environment, and new applications will be built leveraging both environments. Now, the large base of existing Java developers and J2EE software can be exploited easily. Using this approach gives developers a single infrastructure that leverages the advantages of both environments. This not only simplifies your IT infrastructure, it also slices a considerable chunk off your operating costs. It provides companies with the choice and flexibility to extend their solutions according to their available development skills and technical constraints while supporting all existing SAP applications. The SAP Web Application Server can execute – depending on your chosen installation option – ABAP and/or Java programs. This means you can use the ABAPbased and a Java technology (JSP, etc.) to create Web applications.
© 2011 Manish Shankar | [email protected]
How It Works: The components and their tasks are described below: The Internet Communication Manager (ICM) sets up the connection to the Internet. It can process both server and client Web requests. It supports the protocols HTTP, HTTPS, and SMTP. The SAP Web AS can behave as a Web server or as a Web client. The dispatcher distributes the requests to the work processes. If all the processes are occupied the requests are stored in the dispatcher queue. The ABAP Work Process executes the ABAP code. The SAP Gateway makes the RFC interface between the SAP instances available (within an SAP System and beyond system boundaries). For information on the architecture see Architecture of the SAP Gateway. The message server exchanges messages and balances the load in the SAP System. In the Java component of the SAP Web AS there are the components Java Dispatcher, Server Process and Software Deployment Manager.
© 2011 Manish Shankar | [email protected]
ICM (Internet Communication Manager):
It is an independent process responsible for communications between the Web Application Server and external supporters over intranets or the Internet using standard protocols like HTTP, HTTPS, and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). The communication is carried out using a high-performance, memory-based communication channel named memory pipe. ICM also significantly improves Web site performance and scalability using dynamic and active content caching technology. The ICM guarantees communication between the SAP System (SAP Web Application Server) and the outside world via the protocol HTTP, HTTPS and SMTP. In its role as a server the ICM can process requests from the Internet that arrive as URLs with the server/port combination that the ICM can listen to. The ICM then calls the relevant local handler for the URL in question. ICM is needed if we want our SAP Web AS to communicate with the Internet via HTTP, HTTPS or SMTP, like Web applications do with Business Server Pages. Features: The ICM process uses threads to parallelize the load that comes up. The graphic below shows an overview of the ICM.
© 2011 Manish Shankar | [email protected]
In addition to the pool of worker threads that process the incoming requests, the following ICM components are implemented as further requests: Thread Control This thread accepts the incoming TCP/IP requests and creates (or wakes) a worker thread from the thread pool to process the request. Then the thread control initializes the connection info data. Worker Threads These threads handle connection requests and responses. A worker thread contains an I/O handler for the network input and output, diverse plugins for the various supported protocols (HTTP, SMTP,…), which are required to be able to decide when the sent packet is finished (depends on the protocol). Watchdog Usually a worker thread waits for a response (regardless of whether it is a client or a server thread). If there is a timeout the watchdog takes on the task of waiting for the response. Then the worker thread can again be used for other requests. If the watchdog receives the response, it informs the thread control component, which then wakes up a worker thread. Signal Handler These thread processes signals that are sent by an operating system or another process (for example, the dispatcher). Connection Info This table contains for each existing network connection details of the status, the memory pipes and the plug-in data. Memory Pipes These memory-based communication objects are used to transfer data between the ICM and the work processes. For each connection there are four pipes: for each request and response one data pipe and an OOB (Out Of Band) pipe. The OOB pipe is used for control data. The ICM contains another cache to enable repeated requests to be quickly responded to. This cache is not shown in the graphic. Processing HTTP Requests: The ICM processes HTTP requests and responses. On the basis of the URL and the port a “local“ handler in the ICM is addressed. Sharing out the requests among different handlers increases performance, because a user context does not have to be created in the work process for each request. The URL prefixes used for the various handlers can be defined in profile parameters. The handlers are called in the order listed below, and they can process the request themselves or forward it to the next handler. © 2011 Manish Shankar | [email protected]
Features of WAS:
Flexible and Robust System: It provides highly flexible and robust web infrastructure which has efficient caching mechanism and database access features. The efficient database features can be used to optimize lock management and it can be used in multi user environment Compatibility: WAS allows compatibility to various internet standards and it can work on many different technologies. It can communicate though HTML and XML, and it can function as client or server depending on the requirements. To run the application it acts as a server and when it is accessing a system it can act as a client. Server Side Scripting: It can adopt server side scripting such as ASP and JSP, and the language used for server side presentation is called BSP. Open Architecture: It uses open system for integration to SAP or non SAP based applications. Security: The web application server allows digital certification, cookies generation for user authentication and ticketing to ensure security. It uses SSL and HTTPS for providing standard security to the system, and it also has X.509 client certificates, which is used to identify users. Independent Platform: The system supports different types of operating system and databases. It supports open technology. It includes communication protocols and standards for storing business objects and processes. Conclusion: With the SAP Web Application Server, SAP brings the benefits of their proven infrastructure - reliability, scalability, software logistics, change management, platform independence, and business knowledge - to the J2EE world. That way, you not only protect the investments that you have already made in ABAP applications and expertise, but you can also channel the latest J2EE proficiency into your applications. SAP Web Application Server supports all the operating systems, and databases supported by SAP, freeing customers from technological constraints and giving them the power to build the infrastructure that best fits existing environment and individual needs.
© 2011 Manish Shankar | [email protected]
