Business connector server on Virtual Server

Question

Hi,
Currently our 4.6 release Business Connector servers running on Windows NT Operating system. We would like to upgrade them to BC release 4.7 on Windows 2000 operating system on Virtual servers.
Are there any known issues/disadvantages if we install Business connector servers on Virtual Server rather than a Physical server?
These virtual servers will be in the same domain as that of SAP systems. Host names of the upgraded Virtual servers will be same as the current production BC hosts.
Thanks,
Srini

Answer 1

Technical Data
These functions are:
Changed, new, deleted
For Release
   Software Component
·        Component: SAP Business Connector (external)
·        Release: 4.7
Assignment to Application Component
BC-MID-BUS (SAP Business Connector)
Country Setting
Valid for all countries
Use
The following information provides you with an overview of the new features in SAP BC Release 4.7: It also tells you about incompatible changes that you need to know about before performing an upgrade.
SAP BC 4.7 is based on Integration Server 4.6 from webMethods. However, the SAP BC elements in Integration Server 4.6 have been redeveloped (see below for details).
Features
Additional Functions in SAP BC Developer
As well as SAP BC Administrator GUI, you can now use SAP BC Developer to perform typical development tasks.  You do not need administrator authorizations in SAP BC Developer to do this. For example, with SAP BC 4.7 you can use SAP Lookup to generate elements for the Developer.  This enables you to gather information about function modules, structures (tables), BAPIs and IDocs in an SAP system, and then generate outbound maps or records for these objects directly.
SAP BC Developer contains a new menu, SAP, which contains the following functions:
·        Look up a function module and generate an outbound map
·        Look up a structure definition and generate a record.
·        Lookup a business object.
·        Look up an IDoc and creating a Record.
·        Browser for Function Maps.
In addition, the Developer now also supports the following actions:
·        Generate an SAP inbound map if you want an SAP system to run a service in SAP BC.
·        Generate an SAP outbound map to execute a function module in an SAP system.
·        Generate a record based on an SAP ABAP Dictionary structure.
·        Generate a record based on an SAP IDoc.
SAP BC Developer now also supports a proxy bypass list. This means that you no longer need to define whether a connection runs through a proxy; instead, the bypass list performs this task.
New Public Services on SAP BC Server
pub.string:gzip
Compresses the specified input string and generates a check total (optional). For measurements or for statistical purposes, the lengths of the zipped and unzipped strings are provided as output.
·        pub.string:ungzip
Decompresses a specified input string, which was compressed with pub.string:gzip, and verifies the check total (optional).
·        pub.string:numericParse
Analyzes a number in accordance with a given number pattern.
·        pub.math:randomLong
Generates a pseudo random number and sends its string representation in a pipeline variable. You can use this number as a universal identifier with an acceptable level of security, as long as it is used in non-distributed scenarios and for a small number of variables.
·        pub.file:head
Shows the start of a given file.
·        pub.file:tail
Shows the end of a given file.
·        pub.flow:sleep
Puts the current service into sleep mode for the specified period (in seconds).
Restructuring of the WmPartners Package
The WmPartners package in SAP BC Server has been completely restructured and now offers the following enhancements:
·        Improved status information in the messages displayed in the Transaction Store and the Audit Log. This solves a range of problems, such as incorrect status information being displayed by IDocs.
·        Improved search and sort options for transactions in the file system of the Message Store. In the Transactions menu, SAP BC Administrator GUI offers you a new option, Message Store Query Settings, which enables you to select and delete transactions. In Release 4.7, the Message Store can also be displayed on separate pages, which makes it easier to edit large numbers of transactions.
·        Improved search and sort options for Routing Rules. In the Routing Rules menu, SAP BC Administrator GUI offers you a new option, Routing Rule Filter Settings, which enables you to restrict the number of routing rules that are displayed, and to sort the display. The filter accepts all combinations of characters, and the placeholders '*' (string of characters) and  '?' (one character). This makes it easier to sort and search for routing rules, especially if you need to process a large number of communication partners and message types.
·        Forwarding the "Confirm Event" tRFC (triggered by an SAP system) to the next receiver (for the following transports: B2B Service, ALE (R/3 IDoc), and XML (only if another SAP BC is the receiver)) and triggering "Confirm Event" from an external client. Both of these cases can be significant if the final receiver is an SAP system. In this case, "Confirm Event" removes the transaction ID from the ARFCRSTATE table, which can improve system performance significantly when a large number of tRFCs are being processed.
Support for Distributed Statistic Records (DSRs)
SAP BC has supported the generation of DSRs since Release 4.7  DSRs enable you to monitor the performance of each SAP system and its components. In this way, you can check how much system load is produced by each individual component, and how many resources are being used. This enables you to identify "performance leaks" and optimize system performance.
The DSR support integrated in SAP BC also allows you to measure the total retention period of a process in SAP BC. To evaluate the DSRs, you require additional SAP software, including specific versions of the SAP Solution Manager, and the RFC Library. The exact requirements are still being defined.
The details will be published in SAP Note 620418. You can find a link to this SAP Note on the SAP BC download page at http://service.sap.com/sbc-download.
SAP BC Server Core Enhancements
·        Reverse Invoke
The reverse invoke protocol has been enhanced and now allows you to forward more information, such as IP addresses.
If, for example, an application fails because a connection is broken, and other working connections exist, the connection is checked using a ping.
From now on, the internal server can open or reopen a defined number of connections, if necessary.
A document is generated for any exceptions on the internal server.
·        Email Listener
New Features in the Email Listener
¡        Reprocessing of invalid mails for IMAP Server
¡        Processed mails selected as "unread" if they have not been deleted.
You can also specify whether mails with exceptions are deleted or not.
·        Update Manager
The Update Manager manages fixes and patches for the upgrade of an SAP BC Server. Previously , the Update Manager allowed a fix to set other fixes as obsolete, using the updateVoidList field in the update.cnf file of the fix. An obsolete fix is not shown in classpath, but up to now the Update Manager has not been able to give a fix in classpath priority ahead of this other fix. The Update Manager has now been enhanced to support these fix priorities:  The update.cnf file in the fix now contains an updatePrecedeList field.
Incompatible Changes
SAP BC Delivery Without JVM
The Windows Version of SAP BC 4.7 is no longer delivered with a Java Virtual Machine (JVM). The SAP BC 4.7 Installation Guide describes the JVMs that are supported.
See also
For more information, see the documentation on the SAP Business Connector, under
·        http://service.sap.com/connectors (SAP Business Connector  ® SAP Business Connector in Detail  ® Documentation).