I woke up on Wednesday morning to a thick soup blanket of red.

No buildings, no cliffs, no grass…just Red. (We’d been teleported to Mars I thought)

Pretty amazing stuff, here’s some piccies that capture the moment :)

I thought I’d share a few interesting SAP tales.

I’ve been working on a project lately of integrating with not 1 SAP Server, but 2 and the 2nd one is across the seas accessible via a SAP Router (which is similar to Proxy Servers for the internet). I’ve got to thank Rohit Singh (MS) and his team for some great feedback, as well as Scotty and Kent Weare whom were helping me to nut out where half these settings go.

Specifically I needed BTS to be a ‘remote RFC server’ for the two SAP Servers.

What does a Router string look like I hear you ask - “/H/devapp1/S/3300/H/acmesaprouter.acme/S/3300/H/sapdb01.acme”. Something like that, and the user’s type this into the SAP Client UI to connect…my chances of being able to ‘stick’ this somewhere in the BizTalk world was diminishing.

So I had to get my BizTalk box to talk through the ‘SAP Router’ out with the right credentials to another SAP Server 1200KMs away…”good luck” little adapter I thought. ("good luck” Mick I though too)

Here’s the low down:

1. Use a saprfc.ini file – scarce documentation, but do able.
2. Set a RFC_INI System Environment variable.
3. Turn on Rfc Tracing
4. Get on well with the SAP teams.
5. Get on well with the SAP teams…oh I mentioned that one already.

Here’s how you do it – after you’ve installed and setup the prereqs for the SAP Adapter (don’t forget to add the SAP Adapter property schema to BizTalk)

Starting out:

- I jumped in and used the 'Consume Service Adapter' Wizard to work out connection details and look at the IDOCs schemas.

The problem is - as time goes by, you want to see debugging and other details to tweak as trying to establish a connection. The Receive Location (WCF-Custom, sapBinding) SAP URI get's horribly long.

 

I was happy to put up with this when I got the first connection to the SAP Server1 (local).

 

This *didn't* work for SAP Server2(remote) - trust me, it's a square peg in a round hole.

 

Using SAPRFC.INI :(generally the MS Docs will get you started, but I found they had incomplete settings so I had to go elsewhere - a Siebel->SAP 2001 document served the purpose)

1. Create a System Environment Variable called RFC_INI  and point it to where you want your saprfc.ini file to live.
   e.g. SET RFC_INI=d:\BizTalk_Dev\SAP\saprfc.ini
   (the MS documentation doesn't say *exactly* where to put the saprfc.ini - I tried it in the bts folder, windir...many places)
2. Set the Receive Location to use the saprfc.ini - e.g. sap://client=110;lang=en;@D/SAPSERVER?LISTENERDEST=BTS_INBOUND&RfcTraceSdk=true
3. Using the SAPRFC.INI file

Sample SAPRFC.INI - for local SAP connection

DEST=SAPSERVER
TYPE=A
ASHOST=DEVAPP1
GWHOST=DEVDB1
GWSERV=sapgw00
SYSNR=00
RFC_TRACE=0
ABAP_DEBUG=0
USE_SAPGUI=0

DEST=BTS_INBOUND
TYPE=R
GWHOST=DEVDB1
GWSERV=sapgw00
PROGID=BizTalkDev_Inbound  (<-- this is allocated from SAP)
SYSNR=00
RFC_TRACE=0
ABAP_DEBUG=0
USE_SAPGUI=0

Connecting to a SAP Server via a SAP Router String - sample saprfc.ini
e.g. router string -/H/devapp1/S/3300/H/acmesaprouter.acme/S/3300/H/sapdb01.acme

ListenerURI (BTS Receive Location) = sap://client=110;lang=en;@D/ACMESAP?LISTENERDEST=ACMESAP_INBOUND&RfcTraceSdk=true

DEST=ACMESAP
TYPE=A
ASHOST=/H/devapp1/S/3300/H/acmesaprouter.acme/S/3300/H/sapdb01.acme
GWHOST/H/devapp1/S/3300/H/acmesaprouter.acme/S/3300/H/sapdb01.acme

GWSERV=sapgw00
SYSNR=00
RFC_TRACE=0
ABAP_DEBUG=0

DEST=ACMESAP_INBOUND
TYPE=R
GWSERV=sapgw00
GWHOST=/H/devapp1/S/3300/H/acmesaprouter.acme/S/3300/H/sapdb01.acme
PROGID=BizTalkDev2_Inbound
SYSNR=00
RFC_TRACE=0
ABAP_DEBUG=0

 

 

HTH folks and saves you guys some time - :)

Hi folks, came across a great article that talks about WebServices(WCF Services) and Security.

The most common starting point in improving security, is to use TLS (Transport Layer Security of which SSL is a subset). I once spent 9 months working out digital signatures and passing several documents through out of band of envelopes…long story.

There’s a whole bunch of How-To’s also – very good!

With over 26000 downloads since August 1, I think this is a much needed area.
Well done guys – big congrats for your efforts.

Enjoy -

http://wcfsecurityguide.codeplex.com/

---- snip ----

patterns & practices Improving Web Services Security - Now Released

Welcome to the patterns & practices Improving Web Services Security: Scenarios and Implementation Guidance for WCF project site! This guide shows you how to make the most of WCF (Windows Communication Foundation). With end-to-end application scenarios, it shows you how to design and implement authentication and authorization in WCF. Learn how to improve the security of your WCF services through prescriptive guidance including guidelines, Q&A, practices at a glance, and step-by-step how tos. It's a collaborative effort between patterns & practices, WCF team members, and industry experts. This guide is related to our WCF Security Guidance Project.

Parts

Part I, "Security Fundamentals for Web Services"
Part II, "Fundamentals of WCF Security"
Part III, "Intranet Application Scenarios"
Part IV, "Internet Application Scenarios"

Forewords

• Foreword By Nicholas Allen
• Foreword By Rockford Lhotka

Chapters

• Introduction
• Solutions at a Glance
• Fast Track - A Guide for Getting Started

Part I, Security Fundamentals for Web Services

• Ch 01 - Security Fundamentals for Web Services
• Ch 02 - Threats and Countermeasures for Web Services
• Ch 03 - Security Design Guidelines for Web Services

Part II, Fundamentals of WCF Security

• Ch 04 - WCF Security Fundamentals
• Ch 05 - Authentication, Authorization and Identities in WCF
• Ch 06 - Impersonation and Delegation in WCF
• Ch 07 - Message and Transport Security in WCF
• Ch 08 - WCF Bindings Fundamentals

Part III - Intranet Application Scenarios

• Ch 09 - Intranet – Web to Remote WCF Using Transport Security (Original Caller, TCP)
• Ch 10 - Intranet – Web to Remote WCF Using Transport Security (Trusted Subsystem,HTTP)
• Ch 11 - Intranet – Web to Remote WCF Using Transport Security (Trusted Subsystem TCP)
• Ch 12 - Intranet – Windows Forms to Remote WCF Using Transport Security (Original Caller, TCP)

Part IV - Internet Application Scenarios

• Ch 13 - Internet – WCF and ASMX Client to Remote WCF Using Transport Security (Trusted Subsystem, HTTP)
• Ch 14 - Internet – Web to Remote WCF Using Transport Security (Trusted Subsystem, TCP)
• Ch 15 - Internet – Windows Forms Client to Remote WCF Using Message Security (Original Caller, HTTP)

Checklist

• WCF Security Checklist

Like me you may have received this lately – it was all working before (and especially on the developers machine .

It turns out the VS2008 loves to update a registry key post installation, any sort of new VS.NET version, e.g. VS.NET Test tools etc, will overwrite this key.

BTS specific information is wiped away…..fortunately we set the registry key back as follows:

http://blogs.msdn.com/biztalkcrt/archive/2009/08/21/visual-studio-2008-fails-to-create-open-biztalk-projects.aspx
(x86 and x64 scenarios)

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\Projects\{FAE04EC0-301F-11d3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}]

"PossibleProjectExtensions"="csproj"   - Original VS install reg value. "PossibleProjectExtensions"="csproj;btproj" - Post Biztalk installation reg value

Hi guys, thought I’d let you know about the rfid operations guide Microsoft recently released.

Covers things like HA, RFID Mobile and best practices… yours truly was one of the authors so I’m happy to take any feedback you’ve got.

Enjoy – here’s a snippet of what to expect.

Welcome to the first edition of the Microsoft® BizTalk® Server RFID Operations Guide. We created this guide to be a valuable resource for anyone involved in the implementation and administration of a BizTalk Server RFID solution.

To download a copy of this guide in .chm or .docx form, go to http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=158724.

  Which Versions of BizTalk Server RFID Does the Guide Cover?

This guide is primarily for the BizTalk Server RFID product that is released as part of Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009. Even though most of the guidance applies to BizTalk Server RFID that was released as part of BizTalk Server 2006 R2, the guide uses the new platform changes wherever applicable.

  What’s in It?

This document applies to the operational readiness phase in the solution life cycle management of the project. The operational readiness phase precedes deployment to production. It consists of a set of tasks for ensuring a stable operating environment. It is targeted toward system administrators responsible for BizTalk Server RFID (server computers and RFID devices), DBAs responsible for the SQL servers used by BizTalk Server RFID, and developers involved with maintaining the infrastructure and solution. This document assumes that the BizTalk Server RFID solution has already been validated in a Pilot stage and is prepared for deployment to production.

Key portions of this guide are new; however, a considerable portion consists of documentation taken from BizTalk Server RFID Help, white papers, Knowledge Base articles, and other sources. It has been reviewed and evaluated by experts from the community of BizTalk Server IT professionals and members of the product development team, whom we gratefully acknowledge at the end of this topic. We believe that the information presented here will help BizTalk Server RFID users solve—and above all, avoid—many of the common problems that can occur while deploying and maintaining a BizTalk Server RFID installation.

  Interesting! Where Do I Start?

We organized the guide according to the functional aspects of planning, deploying, and managing a BizTalk Server RFID installation. You can therefore read it according to these functional aspects. If you are performing the following tasks, you can start with the related sections:

• Evaluating operational readiness. If you are focused on assessing and evaluating the operational readiness of a BizTalk Server RFID deployment, then start by reading the Operations Checklists section.
• Becoming operationally ready. To ensure that your BizTalk Server RFID infrastructure and applications become operationally ready, refer to the Planning the Environment for BizTalk Server RFID section.
• Managing the operational environment. Most of the topics in this operations guide assist you in managing and maintaining an operational BizTalk Server RFID environment. You will find best practices, key concepts, and procedures for maintaining an operational environment in Managing BizTalk Server RFID and Monitoring BizTalk Server RFID.

Author: Rama Ramani (Microsoft)

Editor: Mary Browning (Microsoft)

Contributors

• Mark Simms (Microsoft)
• Rohan Makhija (Microsoft)
• Ravi Vankamamidi (S3Edge)
• Clint Tennill (Xterprise)
• Damir Dobric, Andreas Erben (daenet)
• Mick Badran (Breeze, BizTalk Server MVP)

Reviewers

• Petr Kratochvil (Microsoft)
• Ewan Fairweather (Microsoft)
• Quoc Bui (Microsoft)
• Douglas Trimble (The Boeing Company)
• Robert Auston (Vail Resorts Management Company)
• Luke Rennells (Bank of America N.A.)

Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009 RFID Operations Guide

At Teched this year I thought I’d catch up on a couple of exams…always lots to do (still didn’t do all of them) but I discovered a little tool on the MCP site – logo builder.
(I’m sure it’s been there for years :)

Notice the different colours – don’t know how that happened, but maybe I’ll plaster them up next to my ‘learn to swim’ and ‘tread water for 2mins’ certs.

Have a great weekend all – and hopefully see you sometime soon.

Mick.

Last night we had an exam cram, where keen and interested delegates bunkered down and got their neurons firing.

I went through this exam with them giving them tips and sharing my general SharePoint knowledge around this.

Today – the good news was that I passed three delegates whom took the exam *today* and all passed!!! Well done guys!

Here’s the ppt deck that I used – enjoy and well done all!

We’re in the thick of TechEd 2009 here in Australia on the Gold Coast (tough place to have a conference ;) Sun, sand and a beach that stretches for miles 1 block away)

Big thanks to those of you that attended my session – great turn out and all my demos worked like a charm…that doesn’t happen every day :)

Here’s the powerpoints and demo files:

PowerPoints  -

Great to see some public information surfacing around SharePoint 2010 and development.

To get started (if you’re not already) here’s the SDK with a CHM file and PDF/XPS on “how to customise the ribbon”.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=94AFE886-3B20-4BC9-9A0D-ACD8CD232C24&displaylang=en

Doing a little digging in the CHM file, you can see (below) all the different Content categories with some special areas to note:

1. There appears to be a Visio Server – I guess like InfoPath + Excel Services as they currently stand in 2007.
2. AJAX + JSON seem to make an appearance at the foundational core – yay! less page reloads.
3. WCF Services used (*.SVC) as expected and simplified. Also it appears that BDC systems are accessible via a SharePoint custom WCF Binding, making it possible to work on BDC based data from various applications within SharePoint. SharePoint might become the hub ‘repository’ for this sort of information.

Bear in mind *alot* of this information is ‘subject’ to change.

Certainly going fwd it should be very exciting to see what actually ships and whether some of the immediate constraints are dealt with.

Looks like we’re up for another Ribbon experience in this Version of SharePoint from within the Browser.

Folks I recently came across this site on codeplex - http://btsazureadapters.codeplex.com

Where a hard working Danny(not sure of further details) has created a send and receive adapter for the cloud.

The adapter surface and publish the required information into the cloud so for e.g. your endpoints show up publically in the .NET Servicebus domain – we can do this through the apis, but it’s nice to have them all wrapped up.

There’s even some great piccys as well (just over look the ‘Microsoft Confidential’ at the bottom :-| - I did ping him over this.)

The adapters are WCF based adapters, meaning they will run in or outside of BizTalk using the .NET LOB Adapter SDK Framework.

As a Plan B to this – you can always use a Custom WCF Adapter with the basicHttpRelayBinding or netTcpRelayBinding to punch through to the cloud.

I reckon this will be a very exciting area going forward…keep your eyes peeled.

Go and grab the bits and start playing… :)

A handy couple of articles that have been updated for Biztalk 2009, full article attached at the bottom.

Enjoy