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UdoPaltzer
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert
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The SAP NetWeaver Process Integration (SAP NetWeaver PI) offering is one of the main building blocks of SAP’s service-oriented architecture (SOA) technology and a key component of the integration environment provided by the SAP NetWeaver technology platform. SAP NetWeaver PI facilitates the integration of systems within a company and service enablement of legacy applications and enables communication with external business partners. Continuing the success story that began with the release of the SAP NetWeaver Exchange Infrastructure component some years ago, the newest release, SAP enhancement package (EHP) 1 for SAP NetWeaver Process Integration 7.1, is available as of July 31, 2009 in unrestricted shipment. With this enhancement package of SAP NetWeaver PI, we continue to enable the usage of SAP NetWeaver PI as the SOA backbone in customer landscapes and offer enhancements to the already available functionality of SAP NetWeaver PI 7.1. The highlights of this release are:

 

  • Superior SOA design governance with the Enterprise Services Repository and the Services Registry
  • Reduced Total cost of development for service provisioning in the Enterprise Services Repository
  • Higher performance via enabling additional connectivity and routing options in the Advanced Adapter Engine
  • Automated configuration support for A2A- and B2B- scenarios
  • Automated configuration of services in provider and consumer systems

The SAP EHP 1 for SAP NetWeaver Process Integration 7.1 Ramp-Up program was ended with more than 45 shipments to customers and partners and one month earlier than planned on July 31, 2009. During the ramp-up phase five customers in different regions used the software productively, where each installation option (new installation, update to enhancement package, upgrade from earlier releases) has been used by at least one of these customers. Several customers started to use the product already during a beta-shipment phase which was started in December 2008. The smooth start during beta-shipment as well as a tracking of key-customers during ramp-up led to an overall very smooth and successful ramp-up and already 2 reference customers available.

All possible installation options (new installation, update from SAP NetWeaver PI 7.1 and upgrade from earlier releases of PI) are supported, giving customers the opportunity to choose the best way to EHP 1 for SAP NetWeaver PI 7.1 for their needs.  From a logical point of view, SAP NetWeaver PI 7.1 consists of an Enterprise Services Repository and Registry, a services bus, and SOA management. The value proposition of SAP EHP 1 for SAP NetWeaver PI 7.1 according to the three capabilities of SAP NetWeaver PI 7.1 is the following:

Enterprise Services Repository (ESR) and Services Registry (SR)
  • Superior SOA design governance
  • Further access control measures
  • Reduced TCD for service provisioning in the ESR
Service Bus
  • Enhanced flexibility for the integration developer in defining mediation flows
  • Leverage performance enhancements via additional connectivity options
  • Automated configuration support for A2A/B2B
  • Increased interoperability
SOA Management
  • Enhanced support for end to end monitoring for non-technical users of SAP NetWeaver PI
  • Automated configuration of services in the provider and consumer systems
  • Enhanced migration support

In more detail, the key functions and benefits of SAP EHP 1 for SAP NetWeaver PI 7.1 are the following:

Enterprise Services Repository (ESR) and Services Registry (SR)
Superior SOA design governance
  • Service interface generation for WSDL import into the ESR
    The import of externally defined WSDL files into the ESR and the creation of service interface objects is supported via a wizard. The service interface definitions can be modified once they are imported into the ESR. The external services can be directly used for proxy generation. Multiple WSDL files can be imported.
  • Classification support in the ESR
    Classifications, which provide an option to add a semantic meaning, can be directly assigned in the ESR to one service interface or to a group of service interfaces. The ESR also allows to search for services by their classifications.
  • Security profile settings for service interfaces
    Security levels can be directly assigned to the service interfaces in the ESR. The security level value is sent to the provider system during proxy generation and defines the minimum security configuration of the service definition.
  • Where–used list in Services Registry
    The Services Registry allows to search for Service Groups. A Service Group bundles all services that are provided by the same logical service provider. If a service definition is assigned to a Service Group, it indicates that the service is used by a consumer. Service Groups can be published in the Services Registry and enable the configuration of multiple services in one go.
  • Add information to services published in the Services Registry
    The publication wizard of the Services Registry supports to classify the published service, add provider system information and a link to the documentation of the service, and add user name and password if the service requires authentication.
Further access control measures
  • User defined usage profiles in the ESR
    The ESR allows to create customized usage profiles to define sets of object types, software component versions and business modeling filters that are of interest to different user groups. The usage profiles can be assigned to specific users, roles, or groups, and are personalized filters that provide a fine granular control of who can view and edit SOA artifacts; with this a simplified user interface is offered since all the other SOA artifacts are hidden.
  • User defined usage profiles in the Services Registry
    The Services Registry supports an elaborate authorization concept for its users and provides user-specific views on the content of the Services Registry. Security permissions can be defined that assign User Management Engine (UME) roles to classifications. Classified service definitions can be accessed only by the users assigned to the permissions that exist for the classifications of the published service definition in the Services Registry.
  • Cleanup of Services Registry
    In the SAP NetWeaver Administrator tasks can be defined that provide information about invalid URLs and URLs that cannot be reached. The jobs can be either scheduled to run on a periodic basis or triggered as an event when required. Based on the information about the unavailable entities it can be decided to either correct a service endpoint or to remove the service definition from the Services Registry.
Reduced TCD for service provisioning in the ESR
  • Generation of outbound interfaces based on inbound interfaces
    The ESR provides a wizard to automatically create an outbound service interface for a given inbound service interface and assign a link between the service interfaces to indicate that the two interfaces match. The outbound service interface and the inbound service interface can reside in the same or in different software component versions.
Service Bus
Enhanced flexibility for the integration developer in defining mediation flows
  • Content based routing in the Advanced Adapter Engine (AAE)
    The integrated configuration, that determines the routing condition for the local processing on the AAE, supports the configuration of different receivers for different message payload values; i. e. a message, that is processed locally on the AAE, can be sent to different receivers depending on values of the message payload.
  • Receiver split in the AAE
    The integrated configuration supports the configuration of multiple receivers; i. e. a message, that is processed locally on the AAE, can be sent to multiple receivers.
  • Operation-dependent receiver determination
    The receiver determination, that determines the routing condition on the Integration Server, supports the definition of different receivers for different operations of the same outbound service interface.
  • Integration Directory API supports new objects types
    The Integration Directory API, that provides a web services based API to access, edit, and activate objects in the Integration Directory, supports new object types and attributes of the Integration Directory that have been introduced with SAP NetWeaver PI 7.1, such as direct connections.
  • Enhanced search for communication channels
    The Integration Directory allows to search for communication channels with adapter type specific attribute values; e. g. to search for communication channels with adapter type File/FTP who have configured a specific file name.
  • Scenario view in Integration Directory
    The scenario view in the Integration Directory allows to group assigned objects according to configuration scenarios.
  • Enhancements of Adapter Engine Java SE
    Remote configuration: The remote configuration allows to add, start, and change remote adapter instances of the Adapter Engine Java SE; a message containing the configuration information is sent from the central Integration Server to the local Adapter Engine Java SE.
    Empty file handling: The empty file handling controls how the File/FTP sender adapter of the Adapter Engine Java SE handles empty files: The messages with empty files can be either processed or stopped with the creation of an error message.
    Prevent overwriting files: The File/FTP receiver adapter of the Adapter Engine Java SE allows to control whether files with names that already exist in the target directory are to be overwritten.
Automated A2A/B2B configuration support
  • Configuration based on Process Component Interaction Models
    The model configurator, that creates the relevant configuration objects in the Integration Directory and groups them in a configuration scenario, allows to use one or multiple Process Component Interaction Models from the Enterprise Services Repository as a template for configuration; i. e. the Model Configurator creates the configuration objects in the Integration Directory based on the SOA artifacts saved in the Process Component Interaction Models together with additional assignments.
Leverage performance enhancements via additional connectivity options
  • XI message protocol is supported in the AAE
    The XI message protocol is supported via the SOAP adapter. With this messages that are sent to or received from ABAP proxies, other AAE's or Partner Connectivity Kits can be processed locally on the AAE. The SOAP adapter is enhanced to accept the XI message protocol.
  • End to end IDoc packaging
    The IDoc sender adapter allows optionally to process an IDoc package that reaches the inbound channel of the Integration Server from sender to receiver as IDoc package, i. e. the IDoc package is not split into single messages that might have to be collected again in an integration process.
  • IDoc conversion adapter module
    The IDoc conversion adapter module allows to convert an IDoc Xml message payload to an IDoc flat file format and vice versa. This IDoc conversion adapter module can be used together with a Java based sender and receiver adapter, optionally with local processing on the AAE, in order to connect to systems with IDoc entry points.
Increased interoperability
  • WS-Secure Conversation 1.3
    This standard defines how to establish and maintain a persistent context for a secure session over which multiple web service invocations might be sent without requiring authentication each time. Currently supported is WS-Secure Conversation for SCT over SSL bootstrap.
SOA Management
Enhanced support for end to end monitoring for non-technical users of SAP NetWeaver PI
  • User-defined message search for business criteria
    A new, user-defined message search is available in the message monitoring that allows to search for business relevant information criteria contained in the message payload, such as salesorder number or customer ID, as well as adapter-specific message attributes, such as file name for the File/FTP adapter. This new, user-defined message search does not require TREX. The previously introduced index-based message payload search using TREX is still available as well.
  • Cross domain message status overview
    The SAP NetWeaver Administrator for PI offers a message overview for all domains that are connected to the SAP NetWeaver Administrator for PI. This enables an overview of the message processing at many levels, from the entire system landscape over domains to individual components, such as Integration Engines, Advanced Adapter Engines, Business Process Engines; therefore this is one further step towards monitoring the overal landscape of SAP NetWeaver PI systems.
  • Process Integration monitoring and configuration capabilities available through SAP Solution Manager
    The SAP Solution Manager, which is is the central, IT role-based administration and monitoring infrastructure accross the whole SAP landscape, provides direct access to main configuration and monitoring capabilities of SAP NetWeaver PI, such as SAP NetWeaver Administrator for PI or SOA Manager.
Automated configuration of services in the provider and consumer systems
  • SOA configuration for connectivity of web services and consumers based on SOA Manager
    The configuration for connectivity enables the configuration of groups of web services and web service clients in one go; i. e. multiple web services and web service clients do not have to be configured individually, but can be assigned to a configuration setting. The configuration is based on reusable objects, such as Service Groups; as mentioned above, Service Groups bundle all services that are provided by the same logical service provider.
Enhanced migration support
  • Enhancement in the migration controller for smooth upgrades of Java proxies to SAP NetWeaver PI 7.1
    The migration controller can automatically modify Java proxy based applications of previous SAP NetWeaver PI releases (SAP PI 7.0, SAP XI 3.0) and deploy the modified proxies to the target location of SAP NetWeaver PI 7.1.

More information offered by this enhancement package can be found in the presentation about the key functions and benefits provided by SAP EHP1 for SAP NetWeaver PI 7.1. Please see also SAP note 1247043 (SMP login required) about the limitations that currently exist for SAP EHP 1 for SAP NetWeaver Process Integration 7.1. A detailed description about all new functions can be viewed in the Release Notes of SAP EHP1 for SAP NetWeaver PI 7.1 on the SAP Help Portal -> choose 'Enhancement Package 1' -> click on 'Release Notes for Usage Type PI'. Please visit also the SAP Enhancement Package 1 for<br>SAP NetWeaver Process Integration 7.1 on SDN for further details.

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