When communicating between applications which are running on distributed systems, you have to take the network into consideration. With the pipeline concept, the network consists of the following components:
The message creator step for a pipeline.
The message transfomer step.
The message Broker.
The message consumer step.
Each of the components communicates with its partner using TCP/IP. It is possible, for example, to optimize communication with the network using localhost channel. The following sections explain some network models. The network models differ depending on the location of the webMethods EntireX Broker. Ask the following questions for each network model
Does a Broker already exist? If yes, it is possible to adapt the resources. See the section webMethods EntireX Broker Parameters for more details.
What happens if one node is not reachable or temporarily not available?
Do you have a WAN network connection between two nodes?
Is encryption needed between two nodes?
The following picture shows the technical communication connection.
The communication partners are connected by solid and dashed lines in the image. The solid line defines the technical direction of communication. The dashed line shows the logical data flow.
The RPC Server for your custom application creates a network connection to the EntireX Broker and waits for requests. The network protocol TCP/IP can be used for network connection. On mainframe it is possible to use the SVC communication change to a local EntireX Broker on the same node.
Your custom application creates an RPC call with synchronous communication or an ACI call with asynchronous communication to send IDoc documents to the EntireX Broker. TCP/IP is used or SVC on mainframe for a local Broker.
The Rpc2Rfc kernel creates a TCP/IP connection to the EntireX Broker and waits for requests.
The Rfc2Rpc kernel forwards incoming requests to the EntireX Broker. The TCP/IP connection is created automatically.
The pipeline steps communicate and create TCP/IP sockets to the EntireX Broker with TCP/IP.
The Rpc2Rfc kernel forwards incoming requests to the SAP R/3 application server. The RFC protocol with TCP/IP is used.
The Rfc2Rpc kernel creates a TCP/IP connection to the SAP R/3 application server and waits for requests. An incoming request is forwarded to the EntireX Broker.
Notes:
To optimize communication with the EntireX Broker consider these three models:
| Model | Valuation |
|---|---|
| Broker on SAP R/3 Gateway Node | There is a network connection from your mainframe mission-critical application to an external SAP R/3 Gateway node. IDoc documents will be sent over the network. |
| Broker on Application Node | On mainframe it is possible to use local communication via SVC. |
| Broker on all Nodes | It is possible to use the best EntireX Broker depending on whether communication is asynchronous or synchronous. |
