Overview of the IBM App Connect components and resources

IBM® App Connect provides App Connect Designer and App Connect Dashboard environments that you can use to author and run integrations with the help of the following resources: flows, integration servers, integration runtimes, configuration objects, trace objects, and switch servers.

Flows

A flow connects applications and APIs, and provides a way to automate tasks or workflows, and boost productivity. For example, you can create an event-driven flow that connects applications like Salesforce, Marketo, and SAP, so that when an event occurs in one application, the other connected applications are updated automatically. Or you can create flows for an API that operates as follows:
  1. Allows requests to be submitted through a mobile or web application
  2. Performs a set of defined actions
  3. Returns a response status to indicate whether the actions were successful, and optionally returns response data

Flows are created in an authoring environment known as App Connect Designer by using a set of connectors that enable you to connect to and interact with IBM and third-party applications and APIs. App Connect Designer provides a set of connectors that are developed by IBM, but also allows you to import custom connectors to increase the number of applications or APIs that you can interact with in your flows. For more information about flows, see Types of flows and Supported components for flows.

You can also use the IBM App Connect Enterprise Toolkit to develop message flows that process your business messages and data. The Toolkit is a development environment that is available with IBM App Connect Enterprise or IBM App Connect Enterprise for Developers. For more information, see Developing integrations in App Connect Toolkit.

Integration servers, integration runtimes, configuration objects, and tracing

An integration server or integration runtime provides an isolated runtime environment for a flow that you developed in App Connect Designer, or an integration that you developed in the IBM App Connect Enterprise Toolkit. You deploy an integration server or integration runtime by using one or more broker archive (BAR) files that package a flow definition in Designer, or the message flows and resources in a Toolkit integration.

When you deploy a BAR file to an integration server or integration runtime, you can define environment-specific settings, or additional secrets or data that should be applied to that integration server or integration runtime. You define these settings or additional content by creating configuration objects.

To aid with problem determination and troubleshooting, you can also enable and manage trace on an integration server or integration runtime. You can run either user or service trace to record additional details that can be analyzed to discover the cause of a problem.

Integration servers and integration runtimes run as always-on deployments that are always running or available in your cluster. Integration runtimes offer the following additional features:

  • Serverless support that enables you to deploy API flows from App Connect Designer into containers that start on demand when requests are received
  • OpenTelemetry tracing of Toolkit flows to make your integration runtime deployments observable

You can create integration servers, integration runtimes, configuration objects, and trace objects in the App Connect Dashboard, the Red Hat® OpenShift® web console or CLI, or the CLI for a Kubernetes environment. For more information, see App Connect Integration Server reference, App Connect Integration Runtime reference, Configuration reference, and Trace reference.

Switch servers

A switch server is a special kind of integration server that routes data. You need a switch server to configure secure connectivity if a flow, integration server, or integration runtime in your cluster needs to interact with your on-premises App Connect Enterprise or IBM Integration Bus system, or with some other private network.

  • A switch server facilitates the use of callable flows, which enable you to share flow processing between an integration solution in your cluster and an integration server in your on-premises system. A switch server is used with a connectivity agent, which contains the certificates that your integration solutions need to communicate securely with the switch server.
  • A switch server also facilitates a connection to an application in a private network through a private network agent in your cluster and a configured on-premises IBM App Connect Enterprise integration server that acts as a switch client.

You can create a switch server by using the Red Hat OpenShift web console or CLI, or the CLI for a Kubernetes environment. For more information, see App Connect Switch Server reference.

App Connect Designer

App Connect Designer serves as an authoring environment for hosting non-production workloads. You can develop flows and optionally share them with other users or across Designer instances by using the built-in export and import functions for flows. If you are using IBM Cloud Pak for Integration, you can also share (or create) flows by using the IBM Automation Foundation assets component (formerly the Asset Repository), which allows flows to be shared as assets, or reused.

Multiple instances of App Connect Designer can be created for individual or team use based on organization requirements.

After you successfully test a flow in your Designer authoring environment, you can export the flow as a BAR file that packages the integration. You can then upload this BAR file to an App Connect Dashboard instance for deployment to an integration server or integration runtime that runs the integration in production systems.

You can create an App Connect Designer instance from the IBM Cloud Pak for Integration UI, the Red Hat OpenShift web console or CLI, or the CLI for a Kubernetes environment. For more information, see App Connect Designer Authoring reference. To learn how to create and manage flows in an App Connect Designer instance, see Creating and managing flows in App Connect Designer.

App Connect Dashboard

App Connect Dashboard provides a runtime environment for hosting production workloads. You can deploy App Connect Designer and IBM App Connect Enterprise Toolkit integrations into this environment to run as integration servers or integration runtimes. You deploy these integrations from BAR files that you upload to the Dashboard instance, or from BAR files that are stored in an external repository such as GitHub. The BAR files that you upload to the Dashboard instance are stored in an internal content server, and you can manage the storage of these BAR files.

From your App Connect Dashboard instance, you can create and manage configuration objects that you want to apply to your integration servers or integration runtimes. You can also set up private network connections if the integration that you are deploying needs to connect to an application in a private network.

An App Connect Dashboard instance has a display mode that lets you deploy and view integration servers only or integration runtimes only.

Only one App Connect Dashboard instance is recommended per namespace.

You can create an App Connect Dashboard instance from the IBM Cloud Pak for Integration UI, the Red Hat OpenShift web console or CLI, or the CLI for a Kubernetes environment. For more information, see App Connect Dashboard reference. To learn how to create configuration objects, deploy Designer or Toolkit integrations to an integration server or integration runtime, and manage tracing in an App Connect Dashboard instance, see Deploying Designer and Toolkit integrations in the App Connect Dashboard.