Leveraging J2EE Standards for Porting and Adopting Applications (SAP Library - Administration of SAP NetWeaver IT Scenarios)

Leveraging J2EE Standards for Porting and Adopting Applications

The scenario variant Leveraging J2EE Standards for Porting and Adopting Applications describes the processes, tools and underlying application platform for application development based on the Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) programming model. It also focuses on the options to integrate the J2EE standards-based applications with SAP-proprietary components of SAP NetWeaver, such as the Structure link Enterprise Portal.

This subsection of the SAP NetWeaver Technical Operations Manual (TOM) provides information about the most common tasks to configure and maintain the runtime environment for the J2EE applications that are produced as result of implementing the scenario variant.

For more information and a scenario variant description, see Structure link Leveraging J2EE Standards for Porting and Adopting Applications.

Getting Started

In general, the administration tasks relevant to the Leveraging J2EE Standards for Porting and Adopting Applications scenario variant refer to maintaining the Application Server for Java (AS Java) and the Development Infrastructure (DI) usage types. For more information, see Structure link AS Java and DI.

Technical System Landscape

The architecture of this scenario variant can be examined from two different points of view: the design-time and the runtime view.

The design-time view refers to the tools and infrastructure services that form the development environment. For more information about development environment landscape, see Structure link SAP NetWeaver Development Infrastructure.

The runtime view refers to the runtime services and cluster infrastructure that the AS Java provides for running the J2EE applications you develop with this scenario variant. For more information about the system landscape of AS Java, see Structure link Technical System Landscape.

Tools

The following table provides an overview of the tools that you can use to configure the AS Java to run your J2EE applications:

Tool	For Which Task	Description
Visual Administrator	To configure the AS Java service components that implement the J2EE technologies.	A fully-featured, standalone tool that you can use for runtime administration of AS Java (either local, or remote).
SAP NetWeaver Administrator	To monitor the availability and performance of your J2EE applications across the system landscape.	A Web Dynpro-based tool for runtime administration and monitoring of the whole SAP NetWeaver system landscape. It is especially beneficial when you operate a large system landscape, since it provides a single entry point to all configured systems.
Config Tool	To perform offline configuration of AS Java, for example, setting a server mode in debug mode.	A standalone tool that connects to the database schema of AS Java directly and works with configuration data while the cluster is offline.

Tasks

The following table outlines the most important tasks that you need to perform to configure the runtime environment for your J2EE applications:

Task	Tool	Description
Configure the AS Java for HTTP communication.	Visual Administrator	Most of the client-server communication is performed using the HTTP protocol. Therefore, it is essential that the HTTP protocol-level settings of AS Java (such as ports, read/write buffers, and so on) are appropriately configured. For more information, see HTTP Provider Service.
Configure the Web Container to run servlets and JSPs.	Visual Administrator	To ensure the smooth runtime operation of your J2EE applications, you need to configure the container they run in. In addition, you can view or modify the J2EE Web application’s settings at runtime to easily accommodate the changes in your application scenario. For more information, see Web Container Service.
Configure enterprise beans (EJB) properties.	Visual Administrator	To adjust properties of the deployed enterprise beans at runtime (without having to redeploy them), you use the runtime tools provided by the EJB Container service on AS Java. For more information, see EJB Container.
Configure the JDBC connections for your J2EE applications.	Visual Administrator	To enable standards-based JDBC connectivity on the persistence layer of your applications, you need to deploy the corresponding database drivers and configure the DataSource that you obtained the database connection from. For more information, see JDBC Connector Service.
Manage the JMS resources.	Visual Administrator	To enable messaging for your applications, you need to configure the JMS resources provided by the JMS Provider of the AS Java. For more information, see Message Handling Using JMS.
Configure the Web services-related infrastructure.	Visual Administrator	You can publish your Web service in a UDDI registry or System Landscape Directory (SLD). In addition, you can configure HTTP proxy settings to enable external communication for Web services clients. For more information, see Web Services Container Service.
Configure the resource adapter properties.	Visual Administrator	If you use a custom JCA-based resource adapter to connect to a back-end system, you need to configure the properties of the corresponding connection factory. In addition, if you use an external JMS provider product in your application scenario, you need to register and configure the provider’s resources on AS Java. For more information, see Connector Container Service and JMS Connector Service.
Configure the authentication and authorization schemes used by the J2EE applications.	Visual Administrator	Applications running on AS Java can use JAAS login modules to enforce custom authentication schemes. The corresponding login modules need to be integrated into the security infrastructure of AS Java. For more information, see Authentication on the J2EE Engine. To enable authorization checks for your applications, you need to map the application-defined security roles to existing security roles in the active user store of AS Java. For more information, see User and Authorization Administration.
Configure logging for your applications.	Visual Administrator	If your application generates additional logging information, you need to configure the corresponding details (such as log file name and location) using the common logging infrastructure of AS Java. For more information, see Log Configuration.
View logs and traces on the AS Java.	SAP NetWeaver Administrator	Viewing log messages is essential to achieving a high level of supportability of your applications. Information from logs can be used to identify and analyze problems with runtime operation of your applications. For more information, see Log and Trace Analysis.
Manage deployed applications on AS Java.	SAP NetWeaver Administrator	When operating a large landscape, you need a comprehensive tool that allows you to monitor all deployed applications, to manage their life cycle, or to enlist resources used by a particular application. For more information, see Managing the Deployed Applications.
Runtime monitoring of deployed applications.	SAP NetWeaver Administrator	You can analyze performance, generate statistics, build reports related to the runtime operation of your applications. For more information, see Monitoring.
Set server process to debug mode.	Config Tool	To be able to perform remote debugging of problems with your J2EE application, you need to run the corresponding AS Java server process in debug mode. This allows you to connect a remote debugger tool to the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) that runs the application. For more information, see Configuring Cluster Elements.