webMethods Architecture

By webMethods_KB
 EAI Architecture Concepts
• Introduction
 EAI IT Landscape
 Integration Evolution
• Basic Concepts
 Messaging
 Message Processing
 Message Delivery
 Message Sharing
• Higher Concepts
 BPM
 BAM
 Landscape
•Legacy Systems
Data Sources •Packaged Apps
•Value Chain •Bespoke Apps
•Extranets
Intranets

Internet

•Transactions Networks

Customers
Evolution Of Integration

•Flat files
•Screen Scraping
•API based
Evolution Of Integration

• Loosely coupled
• Message Oriented
• Business Logic Layer
• Intelligent routing
• Transformation
• Transactions
Evolution Of Integration

•Platform Agnostic
•Standards Based
•Distributed
 Basic Concepts Of Architecture
Messaging

•MOM (Message Oriented Middleware) shields the inherent complexities like

OS, Network topology and protocol, programming language from the
applications
•Application Communicate with each other using a series of messages.
•Applications deposits (publish/request) and retrieve (subscribe/response)
the messages from queues (a special message holding area)

Message Processing

•Synchronous Processing
•Asynchronous Processing – enables applications to immediately return to
normal processing after generating request without having to wait for
 Basic Concepts Of Architecture
Message Delivery

• Volatile – fast
– Messages are stored in memory
– Messages are lost if the system shuts down
• Guaranteed – slower
– Messages are stored in a persistent queue
– Messages are guaranteed to reach to its destination regardless of
network reliability, target system’s availability, bandwidth limitations
 Basic Concepts Of Architecture
Message Sharing - Publish and Subscribe

• Sending documents out for potential subscription (do not need to know
who receives them)
• Published documents are routed to the subscribed clients
• When a client publishes a document, a “subscription pointer” to the
document will be placed in the inbound queues of all subscribers
• Each subscriber uses its pointer to extract a copy of the document from
the queue
• There can be multiple subscribers to single published message
 Bus Architecture
• Components
– Bus – Message/Service Bus (Backbone)
– Service Nodes - Enterprise Applications
• CRM
• ERP
• Mainframe/Unix Applications
• B2B Partner Applications
• Bus – Real-time Message Transport
• Adapter - Connectivity to Applications

• Characteristics
– Minimize point-to-point integration
– Complex administration & management
– Better scalability and performance.

• Examples: SeeBeyond, webMethods and Tibco

 BPM
• The Process designer must be an easy-to-use and intuitive tool for
process/business analysts to completely describe a Process.

• Process Simulator enables the process analyst to perform as-if scenarios and to
find out the bottle-necks in the process before deploying the process.

• Process Executor is the Engine which manages the behavior ( persistency, integrity
and flow ) of the Process at run-time.

• Process Facilitator is the work-portal and it provides the interface for human
interaction

• Process Monitor collects data on each process instance and allows the Business
Owners to keep an eye on the Business Processes.

• Process Analyzer enables the business process / function owners to create multi-
dimensional enterprise dash-board.
 BPM
Discover
Analyze
Designer
Improve Simulator

Implement Developer

Monitor Control
Executor

Analyzer

Facilitator
How it works ?
 BAM
“BAM defines the concept of providing real-time access to critical business
performance indicators to improve the speed and effectiveness of
business operations.”

• BAM is largely born-of, and is reshaping, two previously distinct

technology markets:
– Analytics and decision making of Business intelligence market
– Real-time and business process linkage of Enterprise Application
Integration (EAI)
• BAM focuses more on what is happening than on what has happened or
might happen
• BAM sits in-between the historical and analytical focus of BI and the
forward business planning of Corporate Performance Management
webMethods Product Suite
 webMethods Product Suite
• This diagram provides logical view of recommended B2B solution
architecture I.e. there is no co-relation to the physical machines.

• Reverse Proxy Server – Use only for routing inbound documents. No need
to open internal firewall ports to DMZ.
• Send outbound documents directly to Partner location (or DMZ file server
for partners to pick up)
• Reverse Proxy Server – No need for IS clustering as the reverse proxy
servers only route the documents to internal IS. Use pseudo-clustering

• Internal DMZ Facing IS Servers – In IS Cluster with shared Repository

Server Configuration. Hosts Trading Networks packages and connects to a
Trading N/w database.
 webMethods Product Suite
• Trading n/w database – configuration information
- Partner Profile
- TN Document type definitions (representing XML, Flat
file, EDI, SWIFT)
- Processing Rules [Routing]
- Certificates
- runtime information … transaction analysis logs used
for document tracking.
• Integration Server for Enterprise Application – Acts as adapter run-time for
integration with enterprise applications.
As best practice, this IS may be on same machine as enterprise application or on a
separate server close to the application.
The IS performs
- operations on the end-application via adapters
- enables data exchange between the enterprise
application and integration messaging backbone (broker)
- provides transformation of data from application
format to canonical (and vice-versa).
 webMethods Product Suite
• Audit Log database and Trading Networks database will be setup on
Oracle/SQL Server database instance.
• Audit log – used to track execution of the services such as adapter
services, flow services as well as business processes on the integration
servers.

• Messaging Backbone comprises of multiple broker servers in hardware

cluster for high availability.
 Details @ SAG
• To get more detail on triggers, dispatchers,
queues, document stores, storages, document
types , etc … refer SAG documents.