Getting Started with IBM WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud Integration

Getting Started with IBM WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud Integration

by Lars Besselmann-Hamandouche, Nick Bletzer, Simon Dickerson, Leonardo Rodriguez Leon, Roberto Mascarenhas, Giuliano Diniz de Morais, Rajath Ramesh, Carla Sadtler
Released January 2012
Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
ISBN: None

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Book description

Cloud computing provides companies with many capabilities to meet their business needs but can also mean that a hybrid architecture is created that includes on-premise systems and the cloud. Integration is needed to bridge the gap between the on-premise existing systems and the new cloud applications, platform, and infrastructure.

IBM® WebSphere® Cast Iron® meets the challenge of integrating cloud applications with on-premise systems, cloud applications-to-cloud applications, and on-premise to on-premise applications. It contains a graphical development environment that provides built-in connectivity to many cloud and on-premise applications and reusable solution templates that can be downloaded from a solution repository. The integration solutions that are created can then run on either an on-premise integration appliance or the multi-tenant WebSphere Cast Iron Live cloud service.

This IBM Redbooks® publication is intended for application integrators, integration designers, and administrators evaluating or already using IBM WebSphere Cast Iron. Executives, leaders, and architects who are looking for a way to integrate cloud applications with their on-premise applications are also shown how WebSphere Cast Iron can help to resolve their integration challenges.

The book helps you gain an understanding of Cast Iron and explains how to integrate cloud and on-premise applications quickly and simply. It gives a detailed introduction to the development tool and the administration interfaces and how they are used. It also discusses security, high availability, and re-usability. The book also includes three detailed scenarios covering real-world implementations of a Cast Iron Integration Solution.

Table of contents

  1. Notices
    1. Trademarks
  2. Preface
    1. The team who wrote this book
    2. Now you can become a published author, too!
    3. Comments welcome
    4. Stay connected to IBM Redbooks
  3. Chapter 1: Introduction and technical overview
    1. Integrating cloud applications
    2. Example use cases
    3. The WebSphere Cast Iron approach to integrating applications
    4. Architecture overview
      1. On-premise Integration Appliance
      2. Cast Iron Live
    5. Developing integrations
      1. Connectors
      2. Secure communications
      3. Data variables
    6. Activities and configurations
      1. Transforming and mapping data
      2. Defining a starter activity for an orchestration job
      3. Error handling
      4. Testing
      5. Reuse: Template Integration Projects
      6. Deploying projects
      7. Updating projects
    7. Management and monitoring
    8. Availability and scaling
    9. Upgrading to a new release
    10. Cast Iron editions
    11. Express edition
    12. Terminology
  4. Chapter 2: Installing and setting up WebSphere Cast Iron integration
    1. Installing and configuring WebSphere Cast Iron Studio
      1. Installing Studio
      2. Changing the user interface language
      3. Installing module providers
      4. Installing plug-in connectors
    2. Installing and configuring the physical appliance
      1. Installing and starting the appliance
      2. Gathering basic information about the appliance
      3. Setting up the appliance
    3. Configuring the physical appliance for high availability
      1. Prerequisites to set up high availibility
      2. Configuring the appliances for HA
      3. Managing physical appliances in an HA configuration
    4. Installing and configuring the virtual appliance
      1. Installing and starting WebSphere Cast Iron Hypervisor Edition
      2. Gathering basic information about the appliance
      3. Setting up the appliance using DHCP
      4. Setting up the appliance using static network settings
    5. Finalizing the installation using the WMC
      1. Logging in to the WMC
      2. Installing the required SAP module providers
    6. Installing the WebSphere Cast Iron Live Secure Connector
      1. Creating a Secure Connector in Cast Iron Live
      2. Downloading the Secure Connector configuration and the installer files
      3. Installing the Secure Connector on a Windows operating system (1/2)
      4. Installing the Secure Connector on a Windows operating system (2/2)
      5. Starting the Secure Connector and verifying communication
      6. Installing third-party libraries
      7. Installing the Secure Connector on Linux
    7. Upgrading from WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud Integration V6.0 to V6.1
      1. Upgrading WebSphere Cast Iron Studio V6.0
      2. Upgrading the physical appliance
      3. Upgrading the virtual appliance
      4. Upgrading the cloud
  5. Chapter 3: Developing and unit testing with WebSphere Cast Iron Studio
    1. Overview of Cast Iron development
    2. Overview of WebSphere Cast Iron Studio
    3. Projects
      1. Project toolbox tab
      2. Configuration properties
      3. Project directory structure
      4. Versioning projects
      5. Project permissions
      6. Project documentation
    4. Orchestrations
      1. The orchestration editor
      2. What makes a valid orchestration
      3. Orchestration properties
      4. Orchestration documentation
    5. Connectors and endpoints
      1. Connectors
      2. Endpoints
      3. Installing module providers
    6. Activities
      1. Configuring and using an activity
      2. Starter activities
      3. Outbound activities
      4. Transform activities
      5. Logic and utility activities
      6. Local web services calls
      7. Database activities, assets, and the staging database
      8. Using HTTP and web service starter activities with Cast Iron Live
    7. Variables
      1. Creating a variable
      2. Shared variables
      3. Deleting a variable
      4. The JobInfo variable and Job Keys
    8. Functions and lookup tables
      1. Custom functions
      2. Lookup tables
    9. Maps
      1. The mapping editor (1/3)
      2. The mapping editor (2/3)
      3. The mapping editor (3/3)
      4. Using functions in maps
      5. The Map Variables activity and standalone maps
      6. XML stylesheets
    10. Parsing data
      1. Maps and functions
      2. XML parsing
      3. MIME parsing
      4. Flat File Schema parsing
    11. Exception handling
      1. Try activity
      2. Global exception handler
      3. Common Error Handler
    12. Unit testing
      1. Endpoint Test Connection
      2. Test Flat File Schema
      3. Test maps
      4. Test Custom XSLT
      5. XPath Evaluator
      6. Validating orchestrations
      7. Verifying orchestrations
      8. HTTP Post Utility tool
      9. Invoke Service tool
    13. Exporting and publishing
      1. Exporting a project
      2. Publishing a project directly from Studio
  6. Chapter 4: Management and monitoring
    1. Management
      1. Command Line Interface
      2. Web Management Console
      3. Management API
    2. Project configuration life cycle
      1. Project configurations
      2. Starting a configuration
      3. Pausing a configuration
      4. Stopping a configuration
      5. Undeploying a configuration
      6. Changing configuration properties
      7. Disabling orchestrations
      8. Cloning configurations
      9. Deleting configurations
      10. Versioning
      11. Assets
      12. Scheduling downtime
      13. Uploading and downloading a project
      14. Importing and exporting repository configuration
    3. Monitoring and troubleshooting
      1. Logging overview
      2. The system log repository (1/2)
      3. The system log repository (2/2)
      4. Job log (1/2)
      5. Job log (2/2)
      6. Notifications
    4. Network
    5. The staging database
    6. Resource utilization
    7. Commands
    8. Security
    9. Appliance and connector upgrades
      1. Verifying the current version
      2. Upgrading the Integration Appliance
      3. Update connector libraries
  7. Chapter 5: Security
    1. WebSphere Cast Iron users and groups
      1. Viewing and updating your user profile
      2. Creating a new user
      3. Logging in with a new user ID
      4. Changing your password
      5. Creating a new group
      6. Assigning users to groups
      7. Deleting a user
      8. Deleting a group
    2. Granting project configuration permissions
    3. Permissions to publish projects from Studio
    4. Configuring WebSphere Cast Iron to use LDAP authentication
    5. Working with certificates
      1. Managing certificates (1/2)
      2. Managing certificates (2/2)
    6. Securing communication with endpoints
      1. The WebSphere Cast Iron Secure Connector
      2. Authentication mechanisms (1/2)
      3. Authentication mechanisms (2/2)
    7. Monitoring security
    8. Additional security considerations
  8. Chapter 6: Availability and scalability planning
    1. High availability techniques for Integration Appliances
      1. Integration Appliance availability features
      2. Integration Appliance high availability modes
      3. Orchestration design for availability
    2. Scalability techniques for integration appliances
    3. Maintenance and updates
      1. Rolling out updates
      2. Scheduling down time
      3. Minimizing downtime when updating an orchestration
    4. Backup and restore
      1. Using an image or a snapshot and restore for virtual appliances
      2. Exporting or importing the Integration Appliance configuration
      3. Recovering a physical or virtual appliance
      4. Recovering projects from the WMC
  9. Chapter 7: Reusability with Template Integration Projects
    1. Overview of Template Integration Projects
    2. Introduction to the TIP Configuration Editor
      1. Steps panel
      2. Workspace panel
    3. Creating and modifying TIPs (1/2)
    4. Creating and modifying TIPs (2/2)
    5. Uploading TIPs
    6. Searching and downloading TIPs
    7. Verifying the TIP (1/2)
    8. Verifying the TIP (2/2)
    9. Rating and reviewing TIPs
      1. Rating and reviewing in the TIP configuration
      2. Rating and reviewing using Publish Review
  10. Chapter 8: Building custom plugin connectors
    1. Introduction to the CDK
    2. The CDK components
      1. Schema files
      2. XML file
      3. WSDL file
      4. The .par file
    3. Developing a CDK Connector
      1. Using the CDK Wizard to create a connector
      2. Developing a Google Calendar connector using the CDK Wizard (1/2)
      3. Developing a Google Calendar connector using the CDK Wizard (2/2)
    4. Publishing the CDK Connector to a local repository
    5. Testing and debugging the CDK Connector
    6. Sharing the CDK Connector
      1. Exporting a CDK Connector
      2. Importing a CDK Connector
      3. Downloading a CDK Connector
  11. Chapter 9: Common error handlers
    1. The principles of a common error handler
    2. The common error handler Template Integration Project
    3. Altering the common error handler TIP
    4. Using the common error handler TIP
  12. Chapter 10: Scenario: Bidirectional account synchronization
    1. Cast Iron concepts demonstrated in this scenario
    2. Scenario overview
    3. Prerequisites
    4. Overview of the use cases for this scenario
    5. Use case 1: Synchronizing from SAP to Salesforce.com
      1. Downloading the TIP
      2. Using the TIP configuration wizard (1/3)
      3. Using the TIP configuration wizard (2/3)
      4. Using the TIP configuration wizard (3/3)
      5. Customizing the orchestration (1/2)
      6. Customizing the orchestration (2/2)
      7. Reducing the SAP result set
      8. Naming conventions and other definitions
      9. Testing end-to-end
      10. Using the Common Error Handler
      11. Synchronizing dedicated SAP customers to Salesforce.com
      12. Deploying and testing the orchestration on the Integration Appliance
      13. Initial load of thousands of records
    6. Use Case 2: Synchronizing from Salesforce.com to SAP
      1. Building the orchestration
      2. Deploying and testing the orchestration on the Integration Appliance
      3. Enhancing the orchestration to avoid feedback loops
  13. Chapter 11: Scenario: CRM to cloud calendar services
    1. WebSphere Cast Iron concepts demonstrated in this scenario
    2. Scenario overview
      1. Prerequisites
      2. Scenario description
    3. Signing in to Cast Iron Live
    4. Creating a project (1/2)
    5. Creating a project (2/2)
    6. Modifying the orchestration
      1. Add the HTTP Receive Request starter activity to the orchestration
      2. Performing an initial test on the NetSuite activity
      3. Adding a response to the HTTP Receive Request
      4. Adding a response if no events are to be synchronized
      5. Catching errors that occur while searching NetSuite
      6. Error handling
    7. Publishing and deploying the project to the development environment
      1. Changing the job schedule time
      2. Publishing the project
      3. Deploying the project
      4. Testing the project
      5. Connecting to Google
      6. Google Connector
  14. Chapter 12: Scenario: Data enrichment and aggregation
    1. Cast Iron concepts demonstrated in this scenario
    2. Scenario overview
    3. The order file structure
    4. The item structure
    5. The product database structure
    6. The Domino document structure
    7. The scenario orchestration
    8. Preparing the scenario
      1. Preparing the FTP server
      2. Preparing the DB2 database
      3. Preparing the Domino database
    9. Creating entities for the scenario
      1. Creating and testing an FTP endpoint
      2. Creating and testing the DB2 endpoint
      3. Creating and testing the Domino endpoint
      4. Creating the Orders flat file schema
      5. Creating the Items flat file Schema
      6. Creating a custom function
      7. Creating a lookup table
    10. Building the orchestration
      1. Creating job keys
      2. Polling the FTP directory
      3. Creating and renaming orchestration variables
      4. Parsing the input data
      5. Transforming the data with an XML stylesheet
      6. Adding a Lookup activity
      7. Mapping outputs for the Lookup activity
      8. Adding a Merge activity
      9. Adding a For Each activity
      10. Adding the Create Documents activity (1/2)
      11. Adding the Create Documents activity (2/2)
      12. Logging the job keys using the Create Job Keys activity
      13. Testing the orchestration
      14. Adding error handling
  15. Appendix A: Additional material
    1. Locating the Web material
    2. Using the Web material
  16. Related publications
    1. IBM Redbooks
    2. Online resources
    3. Help from IBM
  17. Back cover

Product information

  • Title: Getting Started with IBM WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud Integration
  • Author(s): Lars Besselmann-Hamandouche, Nick Bletzer, Simon Dickerson, Leonardo Rodriguez Leon, Roberto Mascarenhas, Giuliano Diniz de Morais, Rajath Ramesh, Carla Sadtler
  • Release date: January 2012
  • Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
  • ISBN: None