Background
With so much anticipation after the release of Edge Integration Cell in SAP Integration Suite, I realise that there are many questions that needs to be addressed specifically. Hence giving it a shot to create this Frequently Asked Questions for Edge Integration Cell, hoping that it answers most of the burning questions.
What is Edge Integration Cell?
“Edge Integration Cell” is the new flexible hybrid integration runtime, offered as an optional extension to SAP Integration Suite, enabling customers to manage APIs and run their integration scenarios within customer-managed private landscapes.
What are the key features of Edge Integration Cell?
- Flexible deployment option in customer managed private kubernetes environments (Azure AKS, Amazon EKS, SUSE Rancher)
- Design, configure and monitor integrations and APIs in the cloud but run them within your private landscape
- Configure and manage multiple Edge Integration Cells with an SAP Integration Suite cloud tenant
- Offers a migration path for PI/PO customers, to move to SAP Integration Suite, and still be able to run scenarios within their private landscape
What are the main use cases and when should I use Edge Integration Cell?
- Supports data compliance and governance by processing data locally
- Elevate the transformation journey for SAP PI/PO customers
- Suitable for on-premise to on-premise integrations
- Leverage it for API-led and event-driven integrations in your private landscape
- Business continuity during temporary connectivity loss (part of 2024 roadmap)
- High Availability setup for backup with multiple Edge Integration Cells in different clusters
Which Kubernetes containerised platforms are currently supported and which other containerised platforms support is planned?
As of now, the supported Kubernetes platforms are Microsoft Azure AKS, Amazon EKS and SUSE Rancher. We plan to support RedHat OpenShift as additional K8s platform as part of the roadmap.
How do I install and set it up?
You can find the detailed steps to setup and install Edge Integration Cell in this blog.
Why there is no "Runtime" tab under Settings even though I have the SAP Integration Suite license which is eligible for Edge Integration Cell?
You need to configure entitlements in the SAP BTP cockpit and then you will see this available in your SAP Integration Suite tenant. Please check this blog on setup and installation for more details.
What is the licensing model?
- Every SAP Integration Suite licensed tenant (via standard edition, premium edition, CPEA and PAYG) gets one entitlement of Edge Integration Cell included.
- Additional Edge Integration Cell entitlements can be acquired through a separate add-on SKU.
- Messages flowing through Edge Integration Cell(s) will be metered but only 50% of them are chargeable.
How much does the additional Edge Integration Cell cost?
You can find the pricing details here in the SAP Discovery Center.
Can I buy Edge Integration Cell with SAP Integration Suite Basic Edition?
No, Edge Integration Cell is available only with these SAP Integration Suite licenses (standard edition, premium edition, CPEA and PAYG).
If a message flow from an integration flow deployed on Edge Integration Cell to another integration flow deployed on SAP Integration Suite, will it still be considered as one message or two?
Depends. If the message is flowing through unmodified SAP to SAP standard content in both the runtimes, then the message count will be 0. But if the message is flowing through modified standard content or custom content in both runtimes, then 1.5, since according to the licensing model of Edge Integration Cell only 50% messages are chargeable.
Does it have all the features of Cloud Integration supported?
Not yet. We plan to provide feature parity between Edge Integration Cell and Cloud Integration. You can check the currently supported features and limitations in the runtime scope. Then later in addition, we plan to offer additional on-premise specific features and adapters. You can follow the progress of these feature deliveries via the roadmap explorer.
How do we size Edge Integration Cell?
We have published a sizing guide for Edge Integration Cell as a recommendation.
Is there a way to have both runtime and design time deployed within a private landscape?
No, this is not possible. Edge Integration Cell is a runtime, which can be deployed in your private landscape. It uses the design time and monitoring of SAP Integration Suite in the cloud for designing, deploying and monitoring integrations and APIs but have the flexibility to run them on Edge Integration Cell.
What will be the frequency of updates to Edge Integration Cell and how will it be applied?
Edge Integration Cell will also receive updates at "cloud" speed, that is, every 4 weeks, like we ship updates for SAP Integration Suite. Customers can check the Operate -> Status Information to check the version details.
Or check if there is a the "warning" icon in Edge Lifecycle Management cockpit, which means that the software version is outdated and a newer version is available. Then click on the three dots next to Edge Integration Cell solution to upgrade to the latest version.
Will there be support for older versions of Edge Integration Cell and for how many past versions?
Like mentioned above, there will be updates for Edge Integration Cell every 4 weeks. We recommend you to apply these updates as soon as they are available. But customers will have an option to delay the software update of Edge Integration Cell for additional 4 weeks from the time the update is available. So that means, that SAP will support the latest version (n) and one older version (n-1) than the latest version. We also plan to restrict deployment of new content to any older version of Edge Integration Cell beyond n-1 version. This is to ensure that you are on the latest version of the software and are consuming the latest innovations.
How long does the update of Edge Integration Cell solution take?
Depends upon the network connectivity but it is usually quite fast.
How is the responsibilities split between SAP and customer for Edge Integration Cell?
Here you can check out the roles and responsibilities of the customer split across 3 main personas - System Admin, Tenant Admin and Integration / API Developer.
Similar information is presented in a different perspective as the Operating Model for Edge Integration Cell in the documentation.
Will the monitoring data or payload get pulled to the cloud from Edge Integration Cell?
All the message processing and payload data is persisted on the Edge Integration Cell into the external database within the customers private landscape. The monitoring UI in the cloud pulls only the monitoring metadata using the APIs and displays this information to the end-user. But the payload data can move to the cloud only if "trace" log level is switched on in the monitoring.
Is there a plan to support monitoring of Edge Integration Cell in SAP Cloud ALM?
Yes. The plan is to provide remote OData APIs for monitoring and operations of Edge Integration Cell and with this you will be able to integrate it to SAP Cloud ALM or SAP Focussed Run or any other 3rd party monitoring tools.
Are there plans to support access policies at integration flow level for Edge Integration Cell?
Yes, this is planned and part of the roadmap.
Are there plans to support offline mode for Edge Integration Cell?
Yes, we do plan to support offline mode for Edge Integration Cell, to ensure business continuity during temporary connectivity loss (for up to 4 hours).
Will Edge Integration Cell have the features that are currently offered in SAP PI/PO?
SAP Integration Suite is the logical successor of SAP PI/PO. We have the Migration Assessment, Migration Tooling, Regression Test Tools from partners, and now Edge Integration Cell, to support this transformation journey from SAP PI/PO to SAP Integration Suite. Edge Integration Cell plays an important role in this whole journey, as it gives the customers an option to continue running specific scenarios on-prem or within their private landscape. There are also plans to provide on-prem specific adapters like RFC Sender, File, OFTP2, and X400 adapter on Edge Integration Cell.
Is Edge Integration Cell available as part of RISE with SAP?
RISE with SAP comes with SAP BTP/CPEA entitlements which can be used to subscribe to SAP Integration Suite and this gives you entitlement to use Edge Integration Cell. You can install and setup Edge Integration Cell in your private landscape on one of the supported K8s platforms. But Edge Integration Cell is not available as a service hosted and managed by SAP within the RISE context.
How many Edge Integration Cells can be managed by one SAP Integration Suite tenant?
You can assign up to 20 Edge Integration Cells to a Keystore and hence manage the same number of Edge Integration Cells with one SAP Integration Suite tenant.
Which all regions is Edge Integration Cell available? If not available in a particular region, how can we request for it?
You can check for the available and planned regions for Edge Integration Cell in the SAP note. Some regions are available on demand and can be enabled based on customer request.
How to setup High Availability for Edge Integration Cell?
You can check the recommendations on HA setup for Edge Integration Cell in the documentation.
Can I use the internal persistence (PostgreSQL & Redis) of Edge Integration Cell for productive scenarios?
No, the internal persistence of Edge Integration Cell can be used only for test and demo purposes as these built-in services aren't highly available, nor scalable as required for a production environment. For a production environment, you need to use an external PostgreSQL database and a Redis data store outside the Edge Integration Cell deployment.
Can the Cloud Connector which is part of Edge Lifecycle Management be used for other applications other than Edge Integration Cell?
The Cloud Connector as part of Edge Lifecycle Management is inbuilt and cannot be used separately for any other applications. Refer to the technical landscape of Edge Integration Cell for more details.
Can the Kubernetes Cluster be shared with other applications?
It is strongly recommended to use dedicated K8s cluster for Edge Integration Cell and not share it with any other applications which has higher resource requirements.
Can one Kubernetes cluster host multiple Edge Integration Cell deployments?
The Edge Integration Cell deployment uses a fixed K8s namespace (edge-icell). Therefore, multiple deployments in the same cluster is not possible.
Conclusion
Hope this blog helped you get most of your questions answered. If you still have questions, feel free to add them in the comments section and we will respond to them.
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