In the second of the two parts, I share my experience of installing ES Repository on the Composition Environment (CE) engine. If you haven’t read it yet, I would suggest that you read the Installing ES Repository on CE - Part I of this blog on installing the CE engine.
By now, you probably know that I was half way through my manager’s assignment. I had the engine running and the next step was to install ES Repository on top of it. I was expecting a 130 page configuration document that lists 5 different locations where I had to make changes. And as always, I expected to miss a little detail in page number 43 and was prepared to start all over again.
But three steps – my colleague told me. That is all it takes.
I downloaded the ES Repository installation from SAP Service Marketplace. You can access the installation by navigating through the following path under the SAP Software Distribution Center. SAP NetWeaver > SAP NetWeaver CE 7.1 > ESR for SAP NetWeaver CE 7.1
Or you could go to this link (on SDN) and select Enterprise Services Repository from the list of radio buttons as shown in the diagram below.
What you download is a zip file. When you unzip it, you find the appropriate sapinst.exe based on your operating system (WIN, in my case) and processor (I386, in my case) under the DATA_UNITS folder.
1. Installing the ES Repository
Installation of ESR asked me three questions. And all three of them were passwords (And if you, like me, blissfully agreed to use the same password for all administrative users – the answers to all the three questions are the same). Once the parameters were entered, the first of the 11 installation steps started and the whole installation took less than half an hour.
Note - Please make sure the CE engine is running before you start the installation.
2. Configuring the ES Repository – Step 1
Once the installation was done, I opened the config tool to set the right template. I had to choose between two templates relevant for ES Repository – Production and Development. I chose development since I will be using this ES Repository installation internally. The tool gave me three options to apply the template. I chose the “Use existing custom settings”
(Since this was the first time I was applying the template and since I had made no custom settings, this basically applied the template settings on the engine.) – The official description for the three options is available here.
Since the config tool makes the change directly at the level of the database, you will have to restart your engine once you have applied the template.
Random Technology tip – Why apply the template? The template makes sure that only the required applications and services are started and hence improves the overall performance of your engine. Good news #1.
3. Configuration of ES Repository – Step 2
Good news #2 – With CE comes the new Configuration wizard that takes you through the various steps that you have go through while setting up ES Repository. So, the wizard internally takes care of creating the required users and configuring the default parameters so that we don’t have to do it manually.
The one thing I didn’t do right which you can avoid - In one of the configuration steps of ES Repository, I was asked whether I would require a local or a remote System Landscape Directory (SLD). I chose local SLD. However, one pre-requisite for choosing the local SLD is that a local SLD should already be setup. This is done by running the wizard called “Initial configuration of SLD”. So, it would be a good idea to run this initial configuration first before running the configuration of ES Repository.
Random Technology Tip – What is System Landscape Directory? The System Landscape Directory (SLD) is a one stop location to maintain information about the state of your landscape. In our context, it is important because it has the list of current software component versions. If you already have an SLD that you are using with an existing ES Repository, you can go ahead and use the same. Otherwise, you can setup an SLD locally in the same system (it’s not performance intensive!)
Another important parameter that you enter in this configuration is the password for the ES Repository Admin user (called ESRAdmin). This is the user you will use when you login to the ES Repository for the first time after you have set it up.
The last step in this process imports content from the SLD into the ES Repository. The repository is delivered with some pre-populated content that contain the standardized data types (GDTs) and some sample demo applications for your reference. This, in addition to some basis components are imported from the SLD into the repository in this step. Since it is substantial amount of content, this step may take a while. But patience, as it always does, pays!
Once the configuration is complete, visit the URL – http://:/rep, which has a link to open the Enterprise services repository. Please enter the ESRAdmin user to login and choose the usage profile “Service Definition”, to view only the object types that are relevant in the context of Composition Environment.
Random technology tip – Why usage profiles? Since ES Repository is shipped both with PI and CE, we have defined usage profiles so that you can view only the object types relevant for a specific scenario. This helps in avoiding any unnecessary complexity or confusion.
The ES Repository is pre-populated with some content that you can view to better understand what the different object types are and how these objects are organized within the ES Repository. If I were you, I would start with some of the models and then drill down to the service interfaces, and then to the message types and from there to the data types.
So, here is final score card - 5 minutes of configuring installation options, less than half an hour long installation, 5 minutes for configuration step 1 and around half an hour for the running the wizard that saves you a zillion manual steps. And in around an hour, you have an ES Repository up and running.
As they say, this is just the beginning. And from here on, it is a long road of opportunities!
Note : The official Master guide for Enterprise services repository, which includes the installation guide, is available here
Related links -
CE / ESR download on SDN - http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/50c58b14-da6d-2a10-ca94-a3c093782...
ES Repository and Service Registry on SDN - Enterprise Services Repository&Registry
Repository Modeling and Design - http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/soa-modeling
Part I of the blog (Installing the CE Engine) - Installing ES Repository on CE - Part I
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