EDI Processing with B2B in hybrid SOA Cloud Cluster integrating On-Premise Endpoints

January 25, 2016 | 9 minute read
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Executive Overview

SOA Cloud Service (SOACS) can be used to support the B2B commerce requirements of many large corporations. This article discusses a common use case of EDI processing with Oracle B2B within SOA Cloud Service in a hybrid cloud architecture. The documents are received and sent from on-premise endpoints using SFTP channels configured using SSH tunnels.

Solution Approach

Overview

The overall solution is described in the diagram shown here.

B2BCloudFlow(1)(1)An XML file with PurchaseOrder content is sent to a SOACS instance running in Oracle Public Cloud (OPC) from an on-premise SFTP server.

The XML file is received by an FTP Adapter in a simple composite for hand-off to B2B. The B2B engine within SOACS then generates the actual EDI file and transmits it over an SFTP delivery channel back to an on-premise endpoint.

In reality, the endpoint can be any endpoint inside or outside the corporate firewall. Communication with an external endpoint is trivial and hence left out of the discussion here. Using the techniques of SSH tunnels, the objective here is to demonstrate the ease by which any on-premises endpoint can be seamlessly integrated into the SOA Cloud Service hybrid solution architecture.

Our environment involves a SOACS domain on OPC with 2 managed servers. Hence, the communication with an on-premise endpoint is configured using SSH tunnels as described in my team-mate, Christian Weeks' blog on SSH tunnel for on-premises connectivity in SOA Cloud clusters[1].

If the SOACS domain contains only a single SOACS node, then a simpler approach can also be used to establish the on-premise connectivity via SSH tunneling, as described in my blog on simple SSH tunnel connectivity for on-premises databases from SOA Cloud instance[2].

The following sections walk through the details of setting up the flow for a PurchaseOrder XML document from an on-premise back-end application, like eBusiness Suite to the 850 X12 EDI generated for transmission to an external trading partner.

Summary of Steps

  • Copy the private key of SOACS instance to the on-premise SFTP server
  • Update the whilelist for SOACS compute nodes to allow traffic flow between the SOACS compute nodes and the on-premise endpoints via the intermediate gateway compute node, referred to as CloudGatewayforOnPremTunnel in rest of this post from here onwards. This topic has also been extensively discussed in Christian's blog[1].
  • Establish an SSH tunnel from the on-premise SFTP Server (OnPremSFTPServer) to the Cloud Gateway Listener host identified within the SOA Cloud Service compute nodes (CloudGatewayforOnPremTunnel). The role of this host to establish the SSH tunnel for a cluster has been extensively discussed in Christian's blog[1]. This SSH tunnel, as described, will specify a local port and a remote port. The local port will be the listening port of SFTP server, (default is 22) and the remote port can be any port that is available within the SOACS instance (e.g. 2522).
  • Update FTP Adapter's outbound connection pool configuration to include the new endpoint and redeploy. Since we have a cluster within the SOA Cloud service, the standard JNDI entries for eis/ftp/HAFtpAdapter should be used.
  • Define a new B2B delivery channel for the OnPremise SFTP server using the redirected ports for SFTP transmission.
  • Develop a simple SOA composite to receive the XML  payload via FTP adapter and hand-off to B2B using B2B Adapter.
  • Deploy the B2B agreement and the SOA composite.
  • Test the entire round-trip flow for generation of an 850 X12 EDI from a PurchaseOrder XML file.

sftpTunnel

Task and Activity Details

The following sections will walk through the details of individual steps. The environment consists of the following key machines:

  • SOACS cluster with 2 managed servers and all the dependent cloud services within OPC.
  • A compute node within SOACS instance is identified to be the gateway listener for the SSH tunnel from on-premise hosts (CloudGatewayforOnPremTunnel)
  • Linux machine inside the corporate firewall, used for hosting the On-Premise SFTP Server (myOnPremSFTPServer)

I. Copy the private key of SOACS instance to the on-premise SFTP server

When a SOACS instance is created, a public key file is uploaded for establishing SSH sessions. The corresponding private key has to be copied to the SFTP server. The private key can then be used to start the SSH tunnel from the database server to the SOACS instance.

Alternatively, a private/public key can be generated in the SFTP server and the public key can be copied into the authorized_keys file of the SOACS instance. In the example here, the private key for the SOACS instance has been copied to the SFTP server. A transcript of a typical session is shown below.

slahiri@slahiri-lnx:~/stage/cloud$ ls -l shubsoa_key*
-rw------- 1 slahiri slahiri 1679 Dec 29 18:05 shubsoa_key
-rw-r--r-- 1 slahiri slahiri 397 Dec 29 18:05 shubsoa_key.pub
slahiri@slahiri-lnx:~/stage/cloud$ scp shubsoa_key myOnPremSFTPServer:/home/slahiri/.ssh
slahiri@myOnPremDBServer's password:
shubsoa_key                                                                                100% 1679        1.6KB/s     00:00
slahiri@slahiri-lnx:~/stage/cloud$

On the on-premise SFTP server, login and confirm that the private key for SOACS instance has been copied in the $HOME/.ssh directory.

[slahiri@myOnPremSFTPServer ~/.ssh]$ pwd
/home/slahiri/.ssh
[slahiri@myOnPremSFTPServer ~/.ssh]$ ls -l shubsoa_key
-rw-------+ 1 slahiri g900 1679 Jan  9 06:39 shubsoa_key
[slahiri@myOnPremSFTPServer ~/.ssh]$

II. Create whitelist entries to allow communications between different SOACS compute nodes and on-premise SFTP server

The details about creation of a new security application and rule have been discussed extensively in Christian's blog[1]. For the sake of brevity, just the relevant parameters for the definition are shown here. These entries are created from the Compute Node Service Console under Network tab.

Security Application
  • Name: OnPremSFTPServer_sshtunnel_sftp
  • Port Type: tcp
  • Port Range Start: 2522
  • Port Range End: 2522
  • Description: SSH Tunnel for On-Premises SFTP Server
Security Rule
  • Name: OnPremSFTPServer_ssh_sftp
  • Status: Enabled
  • Security Application: OnPremSFTPServer_sshtunnel_sftp (as created in last step)
  • Source: Security Lists - ShubSOACS-jcs/wls/ora-ms (select entry that refers to all the managed servers in the cluster)
  • Destination: ShubSOACS-jcs/lb/ora_otd (select the host designated to be CloudGatewayforOnPremTunnel, which could be either the DB or LBR VM)
  • Description: ssh tunnel for On-Premises SFTP Server

III. Create an SSH Tunnel from On-Premise SFTP Server to the CloudGatewayforOnPremTunnel VM's public IP

Using the private key from Step I, start an SSH session from the on-premise SFTP server host to the CloudGatewayforOnPremTunnel, specifying the local and remote ports. As mentioned earlier, the local port is the standard port for SFTP daemon, e.g. 22. The remote port is any suitable port that is available in the SOACS instance. The syntax of the ssh command used is shown here.

ssh -R :<remote-port>:<host>:<local port> -i <private keyfile> opc@<CloudGatewayforOnPremTunnel VM IP>

The session transcript is shown below.

[slahiri@myOnPremSFTPServer ~/.ssh]$ ssh -v -R :2522:localhost:22 -i ./shubsoa_key opc@CloudGatewayforOnPremTunnel
[opc@CloudGatewayforOnPremTunnel ~]$ netstat -an | grep 2522
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:2522              0.0.0.0:*                   LISTEN
tcp        0      0 ::1:2522                         :::*                            LISTEN
[opc@CloudGatewayforOnPremTunnel ~]$

After establishing the SSH tunnel, the netstat utility can confirm that the remote port 2522 is enabled in listening mode within the Cloud Gateway VM. This remote port, 2522 and localhost along with other on-premises SFTP parameters can now be used to define an endpoint in FTP Adapter's outbound connection pool in Weblogic Adminserver (WLS) console.

IV. Define a new JNDI entry for FTP Adapter that uses the on-premise SFTP server via the SSH  tunnel

From WLS console, under Deployments, update FtpAdapter application by defining parameters for the outbound connection pool JNDI entry for clusters, i.e eis/Ftp/HAFtpAdapter.

The remote port from Step II is used in defining the port within the JNDI entry for FTP Adapter. It should be noted that the host specified will be CloudGatewayforOnPremTunnel instead of the actual on-premise hostname or address of the SFTP server, since the port forwarding with SSH tunnel is now enabled locally within the SOACS instance in Step III.

It should be noted that SOA Cloud instances do not use any shared storage. So, the deployment plan must be copied to the file systems for each node before deployment of the FTP Adapter application.

The process to update the FtpAdapter deployment is fairly straightforward and follows the standard methodology. So, only the primary field values that are used in the JNDI definition are provided below.

  • JNDI under Outbound Connection Pools: eis/Ftp/HAFtpAdapter
  • Host:CloudGatewayforOnPremTunnel
  • Username: <SFTP User>
  • Password: <SFTP User Password>
  • Port:2522
  • UseSftp: true

V. Configure B2B Metadata

Standard B2B configuration will be required to set up the trading partners, document definitions and agreements. The unique configuration pertaining to this test case involves setting up the SFTP delivery channel to send the EDI document to SFTP server residing on premises inside the corporate firewall. Again, the remote port from Step III is used in defining the port for the delivery channel. The screen-shot for channel definition is shown below.

edicloud6After definition of the metadata, the agreement for outbound 850 EDI is deployed for runtime processing.

VI. Verification of SFTP connectivity

After the deployment of the FTP Adapter. another quick check of netstat for port 2522 may show additional entries indicating an established session corresponding to the newly created FTP Adapter. The connections are established and disconnected based on the polling interval of the FTP Adapter. Another alternative to verify the SFTP connectivity will be to manually launch an SFTP session from the command-line as shown here.

[opc@shubsoacs-jcs-wls-1 ~]$ sftp -oPort=2522 slahiri@CloudGatewayforOnPremTunnel
Connecting to CloudGatewayforOnPremTunnel...
The authenticity of host '[cloudgatewayforonpremtunnel]:2522 ([10.196.240.130]:2522)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is 93:c3:5c:8f:61:c6:60:ac:12:31:06:13:58:00:50:eb.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added '[cloudgatewayforonpremtunnel]:2522' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
slahiri@cloudgatewayforonpremtunnel's password:
sftp> quit
[opc@shubsoacs-jcs-wls-1 ~]$

While this SFTP session is connected, a quick netstat check on the CloudGatewayforOnPremTunnel host will confirm the established session for port 2522 from the SOACS compute node.

[opc@CloudGatewayforOnPremTunnel ~]$ netstat -an | grep 2522
tcp        0       0 0.0.0.0:2522                       0.0.0.0:*                               LISTEN
tcp        0      0 10.196.240.130:2522         10.196.246.186:14059        ESTABLISHED
tcp        0       0 :::2522                                 :::*                                       LISTEN
[opc@CloudGatewayforOnPremTunnel ~]$

VII. Use the newly created JNDI to develop a SOA composite containing FTP Adapter and B2B Adapter to hand-off the XML payload from SFTP Server to B2B engine

The simple SOA composite diagram built in JDeveloper for this test case is shown below.

The JNDI entry created in step IV (eis/ftp/HAFtpAdapter) is used in the FTP Adapter Wizard session within JDeveloper to set up a receiving endpoint from the on-premises SFTP server. A simple BPEL process is included to transfer the input XML payload to B2B. The B2B Adapter then hands-off the XML payload to the B2B engine for generation of the X12 EDI in native format.

edicloud4

Deploy the composite via EM console to complete the design-time activities. We are now ready for testing.

VIII. Test the end-to-end EDI processing flow

After deployment, the entire flow can be tested by copying a PurchaseOrder XML file in the polling directory for incoming files within the on-premise SFTP server. An excerpt from the sample XML file used as input file to trigger the process, is shown below.

[slahiri@myOnPremSFTPServer cloud]$ more po_850.xml
<Transaction-850 xmlns="http://www.edifecs.com/xdata/200" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" XDataVersion="1.0" Standard="X12" Version="V4010" CreatedDate="2007-04-10T17:16:24" CreatedBy="ECXEngine_837">
     <Segment-ST>
           <Element-143>850</Element-143>
           <Element-329>16950001</Element-329>
      </Segment-ST>
      <Segment-BEG>
           <Element-353>00</Element-353>
           <Element-92>SA</Element-92>
           <Element-324>815455</Element-324>
           <Element-328 xsi:nil="true"/>
           <Element-373>20041216</Element-373>
        </Segment-BEG>
--More--(7%)

The FTP Adapter of the SOA composite from SOACS instance will pick up the XML file via the SSH tunnel and process it in Oracle Public Cloud within Oracle B2B engine to generate the EDI. The EDI file will then be transmitted back to the on-premise SFTP server via the same SSH tunnel.

Results from the completed composite instance should be visible in the Enterprise Manager, as shown below.

edicloud2

Content of the EDI file along with the SFTP URL used to transmit the file can be seen in the B2B console, under Wire Message Reports section.

edicloud1

Summary

The test case described here is a quick way to demonstrate the concept that SOA Cloud Service can be very easily used in a hybrid architecture for modelling common B2B use cases, that require access to on-premise endpoints. The EDI generation process and all the business layer orchestration can be done in Oracle Public Cloud (OPC) with SOA Suite. Most importantly, integration with on-premise server endpoints can be enabled as needed via SSH tunnels to provide a hybrid cloud solution.

Acknowledgements

SOACS Product Management and Engineering teams have been actively involved in the development of this solution for many months. It would not have been possible to deliver such a solution to the customers without their valuable contribution.

References

  1. 1. Setting up SSH tunnels for cloud to on-premise with SOA Cloud Service clusters - Christian Weeks, A-Team
  2. 2. SOA Cloud Service – Quick and Simple Setup of an SSH Tunnel for On-Premises Database Connectivity - Shub Lahiri, A-Team

Shub Lahiri


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