Route Connections

Route Connections Without SAProuter

If a connection is to be set up between an SAP work station and a customer work station, a port has to be opened. The more connections required to external hosts, the more ports (and therefore "holes") have to be opened in the firewall.

The following information is required for connections without SAProuter:

• IP address of the host, or the logical name of the host on which the server process is running. The target host must therefore have a unique IP address.

• Port number or the logical name of the port used by the process. The server process must use an exclusive port number on its host. Also, this port number must be known to the client.

When the NI network interface is used, the host address and port number can be passed as logical names (for example, host saposs, service sapdp00) or address strings (for example, a host IP address in the form www.xxx.yyy.zzz, port 3200).

The following graphic shows a network connection from an SAP system to a customer system operating without SAProuter. This example assumes that both the SAP LAN (local area network) as well as the customer LAN are protected against unwanted access by firewalls.

Route Connections With SAProuter

SAProuter only allows a network to be accessed from fixed points. The number of access points (ports) is therefore reduced, since fewer direct lines are required for connections. Each port is guarded by an SAProuter whose route permission table determines the routes that can be used and the necessary passwords for gaining access.

The concatenation of SAProuter enables two points with identical IP addresses to be connected.

SAProuter cannot only be used to connect one host with a particular service, but also several hosts and services with each other. The route information is provided in the form of a route string. The passwords required for access are also specified in the route string.

The following graphic shows a network connection with SAProuter: