Best Practices for installing/running UCES Application

[Former Member]

Hi Experts,

We are in the process of implementing SAP UCES in one of our projects.

I would like to know the SAP best practices on the below questions:

1. We are already having EP hosted over internet. Now as we are planning to install UCES for the external users, I would like to know the best option (SAP recommended) to deploy and run the UCES application. Does SAP recommend to have a separate Web AS for UCES or does SAP recommend to have a separate instance for UCES on the server where the portal is installed? Moreover, I would also like to know the impact (performance of EP considering an increased load due to UCES) if we install & run the UCES application on the same instance on which the portal is installed. I would like to know about the various factors which help to decide whether we should go for a standalone UCES installation w/o EP (separate server) or we should go with the installation on the portal server itself (same instance or a separate instance). Please also consider NWDI instance (to be installed in the landscape for modifying UCES apps) into consideration. Is it really advisable to have all these different apps (EP,NWDI,UCES) installed on the same server as far as the performance is concerned. Hope the question is clear.

2. As we know, we can choose any datasource (ABAP or UME or LDAP) for the user management. Is/Are there any factor/s which help us in deciding which datasource is to be chosen. Is there by any means any factors (for an example license wise) that should be taken care of while choosing the datasource. The reason I am asking this question is because the number of UCES users is going to be huge. So, can it have any impact (in terms of costing) on the user management (especially with the datasource) that we choose.

The answer to above questions will help us in taking the strategic decisions before we implement UCES.

I searched a lot about the best practices for implementing UCES but did not get any relevant document. If we have any document released by SAP on this, please provide me the link.

Any pointer/s regarding the above questions will be highly appreciated.

Regards,

Anurag

[Former Member]

Hello Anurag,

i did a couple of implementations and actually run UCES with an enhancement package, that makes the app state of the art and  i normally recommend to clients. But there are definetnely some basics i can recommend you

I personally prefer the UME Java database as of security reasons. i do not want do have external user records right next to the regular user records.

You definetely should enforce the NWDI - never ever without otherwise you end up in hacks and waste your time with digging around in a black box!

Do you actually use the EP for anything else or just for UCES? If not required by your client, completely skip this EP and do not follow the standard instructions.

Hope that helps and answers your questions,

Andreas

Run UCES in standalone mode and if possible for you, remove the framesets.

You can run UCES and EP on the same machine without issues, so you need to consider if you actually want to have it. If EP is only used company internal, then UCES probably is better located in a seperated DMZ to better isolate it.

[Former Member]

Hello Andreas,

Thanks for the reply.

We are on NW 7 EHP1  at the moment and planning to install UCES 6.04. I think there should not be version compatibility issues.

Forgive my understanding but I did not get your below point

I personally prefer the UME Java database as of security reasons. i do not want do have external user records right next to the regular user records.

Also, I was going through the following forum which talks about the license costs.

http://scn.sap.com/thread/3178770

Can you please throw some light on the significance of the datasource to be used for the user management. We already have ABAP datasource for our EP users in PRD and hence are planning to have the same datasource even for our UCES users. Please suggest which datasource should we go for(ABAP or Java).

NWDI is always on the cards but would like to know if we should have a separate instance for it. Basically, I would like to have your opinion on the location of NWDI installation as all these apps/tools will be consuming the CPU memory and am not sure how much that would impact on the performance of the server.

Coming to the location of UCES installation, yes we already have our EP system(connected to ECC box) in place which is hosted on internet for exposing the HR apps (E-Rec etc). So, we cannot skip EP from our landscape.

So considering the point that we already have EP in our landscape and hosted over internet, I would like to know if we should go for a standalone UCES installation or should we run UCES and EP on the same machine. Do you see any potential server issues if we run both the things on the same machine and what are the imp points that we should take care of while we do the sizing of the WAS and while accessing the server load considering the point that UCES users are going to be huge.

As per my understanding, even if we install UCES in a separate DMZ (isolate UCES from EP), the total load on the WAS JAVA would be same. But probably, this would help in allocating separate memory allocation for UCES app as it would be on a separate DMZ. Is my understanding correct here and does that make a valid point for isolating UCES(separate DMZ) from EP although technically both are running on the same server.

Please suggest.

Regards,

Anurag

[Former Member]

I personally prefer the UME Java database as of security reasons. i do not want do have external user records right next to the regular user records.

That's only my personal preference as i like to keep things seperated and i had more control about the users using the UME interface.

Can you please throw some light on the significance of the datasource to be used for the user management. We already have ABAP datasource for our EP users in PRD and hence are planning to have the same datasource even for our UCES users. Please suggest which datasource should we go for(ABAP or Java).

If you use EP already with ABAP-Backend as user management and the same users should also get access to UCES, then go for the ABAP.

We are on NW 7 EHP1  at the moment and planning to install UCES 6.04. I think there should not be version compatibility issues.

If you us 7.0x, why not useing UCES 6.05? I personally would recommend you, to straightaway install 7.3x and use UCES 6.35!

NWDI is always on the cards but would like to know if we should have a separate instance for it. Basically, I would like to have your opinion on the location of NWDI installation as all these apps/tools will be consuming the CPU memory and am not sure how much that would impact on the performance of the server.

Definetely a seperated machine and use straightaway NW 7.3x as basis independent of using 7.0x as runtime environment or not. You can do 7.0x based developments also with 7.3x NWDI installations.

Coming to the location of UCES installation, yes we already have our EP system(connected to ECC box) in place which is hosted on internet for exposing the HR apps (E-Rec etc). So, we cannot skip EP from our landscape.

You do not have to skip it, but you also do not have to use it for UCES. It depends on how you like to integrated it - i always recommend the seamless integration between the webpage and uces. Customers should not see the difference, that they just switch from the regular webpage to the e-services app. If you use EP for HR, then i assume no external user is accessing the EP and hence probably not helpful to integrated UCES into the EP.

Do you see any potential server issues if we run both the things on the same machine and what are the imp points that we should take care of while we do the sizing of the WAS and while accessing the server load considering the point that UCES users are going to be huge.

Depends on the work load you cause in addition - technically absolutely possible. But after some time you reach also the physical limits of the machine, so a proper sizing is required. You also have to think about, if you want to increase the availability and hence seperated the system. If UCES is consuming too much CPU, then the EP (hence other processes) are effect. I cannot help you with the decision further .

the total load on the WAS JAVA would be same

Why? If i tell you, it should run on a seperated machine, why you still think it is running on the same WAS java? No, if you do it into a isolated DMZ, then everything is completely independent.

Hope that helps

[Former Member]

Hi Andreas,

We are already using SAP EP with ABAP - Backend as user management in our current landscape but the users of UCES are going to be different. from the EP users which are using HR portal content and SRM portal content. So, still we can't decide the datasource based on this.

We already have SAP NW 7.01 up & running in PRD and as of now we not have any plans for the system upgrade but if we plan to upgrade our NW java stack we can go for a higher version of UCES. Need to check the newer functionality of UCES introduced by SAP in 6.05 or 6.35(in case of NW 7.3x) as compared to 6.04 and also need to check the PAM for the version compatibility. Thanks for this suggestion.

As you've suggested a separate machine for NWDI installation, can we get it installed on the same machine with UCES. Also, as we plan to use NWDI for customizing ESS apps,  I hope this wont affect the decision of installing it along with UCES.

If you use EP for HR, then i assume no external user is accessing the EP and hence probably not helpful to integrated UCES into the EP.

As far as the above point is concerned, I would like to tell you that we have some apps like E-Rec etc that would be available over internet for the external users through SAP EP only. This is as per the functional requirement. Please let me know if you would like to reckon something else here.

Would consult our BASIS team for the proper server sizing if we plan to get both EP as well as UCES on the same server.

Regarding the last point that you cleared, I got your point regarding the different server load(reduced) if we have an isolated DMZ for UCES.

Hope I am clear in my statements here.

Regards,

Anurag

[Former Member]

Hi Anurag,

these questions are actually not really issues and for working out a system landscape design, i normally get paid for So when it comes about decisions, that's something you have to do.

As you've suggested a separate machine for NWDI installation, can we get it installed on the same machine with UCES. Also, as we plan to use NWDI for customizing ESS apps,  I hope this wont affect the decision of installing it along with UCES.

You can install it, but i would recommend to install it on it's own machine. That's what i normally would do with any version control system.

[Former Member]

Hi Andreas,

Thanks for all the replies.

We would work it out on the landscape. I agree with you that these are not real landscape issues and I just wanted to know the SAP recommendations on these questions.

Regards,

Anurag