Managing SAP Connections with LOB SAP Adapter in BizTalk 2006 R2

Recently I was working with a client to connect a BizTalk 2006 R2 process to SAP with the LOB SAP adapter. We first called a BAPI function that returned a list of contract IDs that had been modified since our last successful processing event (usually 24 hours). This list could contain anywhere from 1000 to 10000 contract IDs depending on volume and amount of time since the last processing event. Once we had the collection of contract IDs we iterate over the collection calling a separate BAPI function to retrieve the contract data for each contract ID. We quickly ran into the issue where BizTalk was overwhelming the SAP server with BAPI calls. In order to fix the issue we throttled down the number of connections made by the BizTalk Server.

To do this, we use the WCF-Custom Adapter with SAP bindings. In our Solicit-Response Send Port we select WCF-Custom as our Type and click "Configure". Click on the "Binding" tab and select sapBinding from the Binding Type drop-down. The configuration window will now display. This will look familiar to users of the mySAP adapter. The maxConnectionPerSystem setting is the one we are concerned with. In the specific instance above, we found a "sweet spot" of 25 connections. You will have to work with your SAP administrators to determine what this number will be. Make sure to consider other systems that connect to SAP (it is the SAP connection pool that we are trying to avoid overwhelming). Some trial and error are involved. Make sure to perform some high volume load testing to ensure that SAP is not being overwhelmed.

Microsoft’s Intentions for “Dublin”

Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 release will be adding significant functionality to the development platform. Among these is a large enhancement codenamed "Dublin" that will focus on improving scalability and manageability of Windows based applications and provide a standard host for applications by extending IIS.

“Dublin”, in a nutshell will:
  • Provide standard host for WF and WCF applications
  • Provide pre-built developer services
  • Support message-based correlation and content-based message routing
  • Contain a message forwarding service
  • Offer a compensation service for long-running transactions
  • Enable scale-out of stateful workflow applications
  • Persisting and rehydrating state for high scalability
  • Enhanced management and monitoring functions
  • Tracking store for workflow events
  • Supports “Oslo” modeling platform

You may read those bullet points and say “hey, this sounds like BizTalk”. Well, yes and no. The easiest way to view this is that some BizTalk functionality will be available within the .NET Framework.

“Dublin” will be available for download when released and will eventually be included in future releases of Windows Server. “Dublin” will be fully supported thru current support contracts.

“Dublin” will be the first Microsoft server product to deliver support for the “Oslo” modeling platform. “Dublin” does not require “Oslo” in order to operate but administrators will be able to deploy applications from the “Oslo” repository directly to the “Dublin” application server. “Dublin” provides model-driven “Oslo” applications with a powerful runtime environment, out of the box.

The intention is for “Dublin” based applications to interoperate with BizTalk based services. The integration server and application server workloads are distinct but complementary so they can be deployed separately as needed. The intention is for “Dublin” to be an application platform, BizTalk an integration platform. When they need to work together, they will be able to. Otherwise, requirements will drive which platform to use.

New Features in BizTalk 2009

Details about the upcoming release of BizTalk 2009 are emerging. The new version was initially to be called BizTalk 2006 R3 but the development team felt that it was a significant enough step forward to warrant an change of the product name.

Among the highlights of the new release are:
  • Support for Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008, SQL Server 2008 and also the .NET Framework 3.5
  • Support for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V which is a much higher performance platform for creating virtual machines
  • BizTalk 2009 takes advantage of Windows Server 2008 clustering so you can now deploy BizTalk Server so cluster nodes could reside on separate IP subnets and avoid complicated VLANs
  • BizTalk Server 2009 includes a UDDI 3.0 registry which provides support for registry affiliation, extended discovery services, digital certificates and extensibility for a subscription API
  • New Line of Business Adapters are introduced for Oracle E-Business Suites and SQL Server
  • Additional performance improvements have been made to the existing set of adapters
  • Enhanced Business Activity Monitoring- By expanding the out of the box BAM functionality with SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services, BizTalk Server 2009 provides support for UDM cubes and scalable real-time aggregations which enhances support for Microsoft PerformancePoint Server 2007
  • ESB Guidance 2.0 delivers updated prescriptive guidance for applying ESB usage patterns
  • Enhanced Support for EDI and AS2 Protocols
  • BizTalk Server 2009 updates all message schemas and business rules for compliance with SWIFTReady Financial EAI Gold certification
  • New Mobile RFID Platform and device management
  • New RFID industry standards support for LLRP, TDT, TDS, WS Discovery and partial EPCIS support
  • BizTalk Server 2009 improves recoverable interchange processing of validation failures by providing support for recoverable interchange processing
  • The WCF Adapter has been enhanced to provide support for configurable transactions and the ability to choose the transaction isolation level in the WCF-Custom Send Adapter.

Introductory BizTalk Seminar

RDA is hosting a free ½ day seminar on EAI/BizTalk in the Atlanta and Philadelphia areas. We will be giving an overview of BizTalk features, and providing a summary of several implementations we've deployed.

If your company faces challenges in getting new trading partners integrated into your existing systems – let RDA help you streamline your systems, processes and people.

The target audience for this event is IT management of firms facing this challenge. For information or to register, please check out our website at http://www.rdacorp.com/getting_started/events.html#Enterprise_Application_Integration_/_BizTalk_Seminar_Series