Before you start

About this tutorial

If you are interested in accessing your application data (SAP, for example), along with other relational and non-relational data source, you can use this tutorial to help you understand how to configure the infrastructure that is needed to bring diverse data together as if it were stored in local relational tables.

WebSphere Federation Server enables real-time integrated access to heterogeneous data across the enterprise and beyond. Relational databases, XML documents, queues, application data, and more can be transparently accessed from a common platform and combined using the power of SQL. WebSphere DataStage, a core component of IBM WebSphere Data Integration Suite, enables you to tightly integrate enterprise information regardless of the sources, targets, and time frames. Whether you're building an enterprise data warehouse to support the information needs of the entire company, building a "real-time" data warehouse, or integrating dozens of source systems to support strategic business systems like CRM, SCM, ERP, BI/analytics, and e-business, IBM WebSphere DataStage helps ensure the success of your enterprise data integration initiatives.

This tutorial shows an alternate methodology for accessing application data sources in WebSphere Federation Server using the WebSphere DataStage product as the connection vehicle to SAP.

The tutorial is supplemental information to the product documentation. It is not intended to replace the product documentation, but rather consolidate the key information to show the steps needed to access the data sources with WebSphere Federation Server. Please make sure you have access to the appropriate product information (or expert) when using this document and setting up the systems.

In this scenario, it is assumed that you have access to an installed WebSphere Federation Server federated system, a WebSphere DataStage server, an RTI server, as well as access to an SAP R/3 system.

The tutorial revolves around the assumption that you are your company's database administrator and that you have been tasked to provide a consistent view of many types of data to help your application developers develop new applications. Access is needed to SAP and other data sources. You will use the data access capabilities of WebSphere DataStage to access SAP data by creating WebSphere DataStage jobs. Once these jobs have been tested and deployed, you will make them available externally as a Web service, using the SOA capabilities of WebSphere DataStage (RTI). Once the Web services have been defined and deployed, you will then use WebSphere Federation Server to create nicknames on those Web services so that they appear to your application developers as local DB2 tables. Once the nicknames have been created, the application developers can reference the SAP data in any SQL query and join it with other WebSphere Federation Server data sources.

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Objectives

Complete the following tasks:

1. Create and configure WebSphere DataStage jobs that uses the SAP PACK to access an SAP system. In this tutorial, you will be using the Customer business object with access to this object by the GetList and GetDetail2 BAPIs.
2. Configure RTI to allow the WebSphere DataStage jobs to be invoked as a Web service from any application and return the data back to the application.
3. Configure WebSphere Federation Server so that it can invoke the RTI Web service to retrieve the SAP data.
4. Test the access to the SAP data from WebSphere Federation Server by running sample queries.

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System requirements

1. WebSphere Federation Server V8.2, FixPack 10 with non-relational wrappers installed and running
2. WebSphere DataStage V7.5x2 with SAP PACK V5.2 installed and running
3. RTI V7.5.1.0 installed and running
4. access to an SAP R/3 system with the IDES sample database installed (for access to Customer business object)

If you are not able to comply with these requirements, you may need to make changes based upon your system configuration or data source you plan to access. For example, if you do not have the SAP IDES sample installed, you will need to choose other SAP objects to configure for WebSphere DataStage, WebSphere Federation Server access.

You must install and configure or have access to:

• An SAP system with the appropriate client software
• DB2 ESE V8.2 FP10 or later
• WebSphere Federation Server V8.2 FP10 or later
• WebSphere DataStage V7.5x2 or later
• WebSphere DataStage SAP PACK V5.2 or later
• RTI V7.5.1.0 or later

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Table of contents

• Before you start
• Configuring WebSphere Data Stage to access SAP
• Configuring RTI to run the WebSphere DataStage jobs as Web services
• Configuring WebSphere Federation Server to access the Web services
• Summary
• Resources
• About the author

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