SAP Co-Innovation Lab

Transcription

1 FastView for SAP: Accelerate Your SAP NetWeaver Applications over WAN 1 FASTVIEW FOR SAP: ACCELERATE YOUR SAP NETWEAVER APPLICATIONS OVER WAN RUNNING SAP APPLICATIONS FASTER AND MORE RELIABLY WITH A RADWARE AND SAP COMBINED SOLUTION July 2012, v1.0 White Paper

2 FastView for SAP: Accelerate Your SAP NetWeaver Applications over WAN 2 Acknowledgements This document is the work of a virtual project team at, whose members included Smadar Ludomirski, Eyal Sinai, Zeev Ravid, Joerg Nalik, Kevin Liu, and Chung-Ho Fan from SAP; Emanuel Blander, Gil Shulman, Guri Geva, and Yaron Azerual from Radware.

3 FastView for SAP: Accelerate Your SAP NetWeaver Applications over WAN 3 Table of Contents Introduction... 4 FastView for SAP: Combined Functionalities of Radware s Alteon and SAP s AccAD Solutions... 5 FastView for SAP solution s building blocks... 5 Benefits of the Combined Solution with Alteon and AccAD... 6 No matter where you are, never miss a beat of your SAP service... 6 Near LAN speed performance to any user, anywhere... 6 Keeping it simple how it works... 7 Performance Validation Tests... 8 COIL Test Results... 8 Performance testing results... 8 Conclusion Customer test and results Performance testing results Customer feedback Summary... 11

4 FastView for SAP: Accelerate Your SAP NetWeaver Applications over WAN 4 Introduction Customers are accelerating and growing their businesses through SAP business applications more than ever. Their core SAP application landscape gets extended through cloud solutions by their IT department, which becomes more agile at serving the business units of a company. All kinds of end users employees, customers, partners are provided with mobile device-based direct access to business applications. In-memory databases enable new, pioneering business applications by accelerating data access and processing. One benefit of the data technology acceleration is that you can provide business analytics not only to your board members but also to your sales representatives, suppliers, and many more that are essential to your business. Mobile Analytics Applications Cloud Data & Technology Figure 1: SAP product strategy The new SAP application landscapes are widely distributed. Applications run in customers on- premise (OP) data centers and in software-as-a-service (SaaS) clouds as on-demand (OD) solutions, which are subscribed to rather than bought and deployed. And some application processing even happens on the mobile devices. The keys to successful business operations is the integration of these distributed applications and the access to applications for end users wherever they are located. In both cases, technical connectivity, facilitated through modern network technology, is of great importance. Good SAP product experience needs reliability, security, and the best possible performance of networks, which need to connect over long distances, often across continents around the globe. Therefore, SAP has collaborated with network technology partners to provide SAP-certified network products and to deliver best-practice guidance to our customers to help them reduce the cost of deploying network technologies for SAP use cases. A lot of the collaboration between SAP and network partners was conducted in the SAP Co-Innovation Lab (COIL, ). Further, for accelerating SAP application traffic over long distance, SAP is providing its accelerated application delivery (AccAD) product, which improves the response times of Web applications such as the SAP NetWeaver Portal component and SAP proprietary network protocols which are used for the SAP GUI client front-end tool. Radware and SAP have now gone a step further and tested their complementary Radware Alteon and SAP AccAD products together in the. This paper provides the results. An integrated Alteon/AccAD product, offering branded FastView for SAP, will be provided by Radware to our customers based on an OEM agreement with SAP.

5 FastView for SAP: Accelerate Your SAP NetWeaver Applications over WAN 5 FastView for SAP: Combined Functionalities of Radware s Alteon and SAP s AccAD Solutions With these solutions at hand, SAP and Radware have partnered together to build FastView for SAP, a combined solution that takes advantage of SAP s distinct end-to-end acceleration technology together with Radware s Alteon, a field-proven, advanced application delivery controller (ADC). The result is an optimized solution that is tailored to distribute SAP application integration and use that minimizes network deployment and operational costs, and that delivers the following advantages: - Performance: Significant response time reduction through SAP s AccAD an end-to-end wide area network (WAN) acceleration and optimization technology tailored for generic and SAP applications. - Reliability: Guaranteed SAP application availability through Alteon s advanced server load balancing and health monitoring functionalities. Load balancing is essential for high availability and scalability of SAP Web applications. In addition, high availability of SAP application connectivity to the Internet through Alteon s smart WAN link load balancing to multiple independently operated Internet service providers is offered. - Security: Secured connection for remote users, ensuring that remote access is available through an AccAD-secure tunnel connection or through an SSL connection should the AccAD tunnel be unavailable. Furthermore, Alteon provides embedded application-level distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack mitigation, providing another layer of protection for the SAP application server. - Lower costs and simplified operations: Fast time to productive use through a centrally administered and configured solution that allows for a simplified deployment, maintenance, and support process that significantly reduces operational complexity. Instead of deploying two separate application delivery and WAN acceleration solutions, the combined Radware and SAP solution reduces the network-related total cost of ownership through an offering that unifies SAP application-centric network functionalities within a single solution, which requires no changes to SAP server infrastructure, leading to simplified operations and reduced risk. FastView for SAP solution s building blocks FastView for SAP, the outcome of Radware and SAP joint design, is composed of two best-of-breed technologies integrated into one solution: Radware s Alteon ADC technology and SAP s AccAD end-to-end WAN optimization technology. The symmetrically deployed solution consists of a high-performing Alteon appliance residing in the data center side, front-ending the SAP servers, and the Alteon Virtual Appliance (VA), a software application delivery controller, residing in branch offices, in close proximity to end users. Data center ADC appliance resides within the data center side and is powered by Radware s Alteon pay-as-you-grow platform a high-performing and scalable ADC platform. It runs both Radware s Alteon ADC service and SAP s AccAD service to provide a one-box solution of application delivery and end-toend acceleration for SAP applications. Branch office ADC virtual appliance resides in remote offices and is packaged as a virtual appliance running both the Alteon VA ADC and the AccAD software. The packaged virtual appliance can be installed on a server as yet another virtual machine. Each branch office unit is connected to the data center side unit through simple provisioning and it builds a secured tunnel providing both traffic encryption and acceleration for SAP traffic passing through it.

6 FastView for SAP: Accelerate Your SAP NetWeaver Applications over WAN 6 Branch Office On Premise Data Center Secured & Accelerated Tunnels Alteon appliance with User SAP Application Servers Alteon Virtual Appliance FastView for SAP with FastView for SAP SAP apllication aware caching Efficient symmetric compression protocol acceleration Figure 2: FastView for SAP solution architecture Commodity offload process Benefits of the Combined Solution with Alteon and AccAD No matter where you are, never miss a beat of your SAP service The FastView for SAP (Alteon+AccAD) data center side appliance acts as a smart, centralized switchboard that ensures that SAP transactions and reports are always serviced by the most available SAP resource. Alteon s built-in health-checks module constantly monitors the availability of the SAP application resources and services, and redirects traffic accordingly, automatically bypassing failures. Moreover, Alteon also provides traffic redirection to globally dispersed data centers through its global server load balancing (GSLB) functionality, ensuring that SAP users never miss a beat, even in cases of complete data center failure. The FastView for SAP solution ensures that service for remote users is always available solely through secure channels. The health of the data-center-to-branch-office secure acceleration tunnel, through which the SAP traffic passes, is constantly monitored, automatically redirecting the traffic to a secured SSL connection if the relevant data-center-to-branch-office tunnel should become unavailable. By functioning as a proxy for all SAP application services, the FastView for SAP solution also prevents remote users from utilizing SAP services through an unprotected HTTP connection. Near LAN speed performance to any user, anywhere FastView for SAP utilizes SAP s own advanced AccAD acceleration technology, specifically optimized for SAP applications. This one-of-a-kind acceleration makes use of SAP application traffic-specific optimization functionalities as well as http/https protocol-generic optimization functionalities. It takes advantage of its intimate and internal familiarity with SAP applications and protocols to enable SAP-specific caching and compression methodologies for various types of SAP application access via different client front-end technologies. The result is near local area network (LAN) speed performance of SAP applications over WAN connections, which delivers a distinctively positive product experience for remote SAP users. On the data center side, the FastView for SAP appliance registers all available branch office side virtual appliances and automatically provisions and maintains an optimized, secured, accelerated tunnel with each remote branch office module. The FastView for SAP data center appliance balances, optimizes, and accelerates the traffic of the SAP applications to the end users who access the SAP services through the AccAD tunnel.

7 FastView for SAP: Accelerate Your SAP NetWeaver Applications over WAN 7 On the branch office side, close to the end users, the FastView for SAP virtual appliance automatically accelerates SAP application response time through the clients side caching and through additional patented and non-patented algorithms of the AccAD tunnel upon its connection to the datacenter s FastView for SAP appliance. Keeping it simple how it works FastView for SAP is designed for simplified deployment and usage. For every function it provides the following features: 1. On the data center side, Radware s AppShape technology provides semi-automatic, self-configuration of the Alteon ADC appliance for load balancing the specific SAP application server clusters. After providing the link to the central message server of an SAP cluster, all further load balancing and other configurations are done automatically. Figure 3: AppShape s ADC configuration template for SAP applications 2. On the branch office side, the virtual appliance requires only configuration of its IP address and the IP address of the data center unit to which it should connect. Once this configuration is complete, the branch unit initiates a connection to the data center unit (the Alteon appliance with AccAD) and receives from it all the relevant parameters necessary to establish a secured network tunnel that will accelerate the SAP application traffic. 3. SAP service availability is also provided automatically, without requiring any user intervention. If the datacenter-to-branch-office tunnel is unavailable, the FastView for SAP solution will automatically redirect the traffic through a direct HTTPS connection. Should a more serious data center failure occur, Alteon s GSLB functionality will automatically redirect all subsequent SAP traffic to the disaster recovery (DR) data center.

8 FastView for SAP: Accelerate Your SAP NetWeaver Applications over WAN 8 Performance Validation Tests FastView for SAP was thoroughly tested to validate its business value, first at the and then at a customer site on a live SAP application deployment. COIL Test Results The SAP Global Co-Innovation Lab Network, part of the SAP Research organization, is comprised of a set of teams and lab facilities that drive and facilitate innovative projects between SAP and its partners in regions throughout the world. FastView for SAP was jointly tested by Radware and SAP during a proof-of-concept project in the SAP Co- Innovation Lab. An SAP application test landscape in COIL was used to show the effectiveness of the solution in popular SAP scenarios. These include user interface-oriented tests, such as logging in to an application and downloading a large document through a Web interface, as well as application-to-application (A2A) and business-to-business (B2B) message exchange such as service-oriented architecture (SOA) Web service traffic and downloading of a large document through a Web service call. The wide area network conditions were emulated with a Shunra WAN emulator device and end-user traffic was generated with HP s LoadRunner tool. The main test cases were categorized as follows: Application end-user oriented tests: concurrent users logging in to an SAP NetWeaver Portal 2. One user downloading a large document (about 5MB) from the SAP NetWeaver Portal Remote A2A integration via Web-services testing, for instance B2B integration scenarios. Two sets of wide area network conditions, emulating the effects of a long-distance intranet or Internet connection, were used: Typical intercontinental major T3 connection line: bandwidth 45 Mbps, 300 msec round trip latency with 1% packet loss User traffic emulator SHUNRA WAN Emulator Load Runner Alteon Virtual Appliance with FastView for SAP SAP Application Servers Figure 3: AppShape s ADC configuration template for SAP applications Performance testing results Each test validated that the combined solution adhered to basic security requirements and provided excellent functional reliability of the network and the application. Application response times delivered over WAN links were greatly reduced compared to response times when not using a WAN accelerator solution. For all test cases we verified some basic requirements: SAP functionality was not altered or broken with FastView for SAP in the application traffic path. Even with 100,000 repetitions during stress testing we saw no mentionable dropout error rate of application responses delivered to end users. Secure, encrypted communication via the emulated WAN link was used (and is typically required for SAP applications) for all tests.

9 FastView for SAP: Accelerate Your SAP NetWeaver Applications over WAN 9 For all test scenarios the application response times were greatly reduced due to the AccAD acceleration part of the FastView solution. For comparison, we also include the LAN response times, which an end user sitting next to the application server inside the data center would see. Test 1: Login/Logout Test 2: Download document from knowledge management Test 3: A2A/B2B Web services messages

10 FastView for SAP: Accelerate Your SAP NetWeaver Applications over WAN 10 Test 4: A2A/B2B document download You might notice that the first two DSL test cases show slightly better response times over the WAN than over the LAN. This is due to AccAD s application (in this instance SAP NetWeaver Portal-specific) acceleration algorithms. Conclusion All four test scenarios demonstrate significant performance acceleration and 2 times up to 100 times faster response time thanks to FastView for SAP. The implication of such results for enterprises is an immediate improvement in employee productivity when working on SAP applications from remote offices. Customer test and results As a secondary validation to the combined solution, FastView for SAP was tested at a leading customer SAP landscape. The customer was selected based on its vast global IT distribution and current WAN performance related pain points. To directly address the customer needs, a test case was defined according to the customer usage patterns. The goal was to validate the advantages of the combined solution by examining the performance figures before and after the FastView for SAP solution was deployed on premise. At the customer landscape, one Alteon with FastView for SAP data center site unit was deployed in close proximity to the customer s data center in Israel, and another Alteon Virtual Appliance with FastView for SAP branch office unit was deployed in one of the customer s remote offices in India, via the Internet. Both sites are live business centers relying on various SAP applications for executing their day-to-day business. Based on the predefined test cases, and following SAP s performance testing methodology, the Radware and SAP technical team conducted comparative performance and optimization tests on the customer s SAP NetWeaver Portal system (including KM, WebDynpro, and other custom-developed applications) with predefined widely used customer scenarios. The response time measurement started when the specific transaction requests were initiated and ended after the page with the information requested was received and fully displayed. Alternatively, if the transaction included a file download, the response time was measured from the time the request was initiated to the time the file was completely downloaded. Each performance measurement was conducted three times: 1. Locally in the head office, where the SAP client was connected to the SAP servers through a LAN connection. 2. On an SAP end user client residing in the India remote office, connected through the standard WAN connection. 3. On the remote Indian office end user SAP client connected to the Israel data center through the Alteon VA with FastView for SAP.

11 FastView for SAP: Accelerate Your SAP NetWeaver Applications over WAN 11 Performance testing results In the customer tests, the response time it took to complete accessing different pages, including the customer home page, the Tools & Info page, and the Help Desk portal, were measured. The results were as follows: Response time comparison on access to different SAP application pages These test results clearly demonstrate how the response time of the various Web pages is dramatically improved with the FastView for SAP solution, loading pages over 3 times faster. Customer feedback The tests conducted provide a clear indication of more than 3 times faster response time acceleration that the FastView for SAP solution provides to customers. With that said, it was not only the tests that demonstrated the advantages of the combined solution but also the greater employee productivity achieved with the solution. In addition, the customer described the improved SAP product experience his remote users in India have been enjoying with the FastView for SAP solution. The customer concluded by expressing satisfaction with the ease of solution deployment and configuration within its network. Summary The FastView for SAP solution, a combined development of Radware and SAP, delivers a new level of enduser quality of experience, while utilizing SAP application infrastructure more efficiently. The combined solution tested by the and validated in a live customer SAP application deployment, proved its ability to deliver the following benefits for multisite organizations: Faster response time: 2 times up to 100 times faster response time for remote users through SAP s AccAD best-of-breed technology integrated in the FastView for SAP solution. Reliability: Alteon s application delivery functionalities guarantee that local and remote users will always access the most responsive SAP application server and will never miss a beat, even in case of failure in one of the SAP application servers. Security: Security supported by the network through continuous encryption of the application traffic. Scalability: A scalable, cost-effective solution with Radware s pay-as-you-grow approach meeting business growth demand. Simplicity of deployment and maintenance: The combined solution requires minimal configuration. Once the FastView for SAP solution is set up, it automatically maintains an optimized configuration of the Alteon ADC and of the AccAD tunnels.

12 FastView for SAP: Accelerate Your SAP NetWeaver Applications over WAN 12 For more information on the combined solution please contact: Radware: (866) Or please visit the Radware solution for SAP application page at: SAP AccAD: Radware, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Radware and all other Radware product and service names are registered trademarks of Radware in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks and names are the property of their respective owners. PRD-Alteon-SAP_AccAD_Coil-WP /10-US

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