FAB Prerequisites and deployment Options

This document is intended to provide overall architectural guidance for the deployment of IQX AppBuilder for SAP Fiori (FAB) into a SAP landscape.  The FAB deployment options are aligned to the SAP deployment options for Fiori enablement.

SAP provides a number of deployment options, both On-Premise deployment and Cloud Deployment. The following sections reflect these deployments options and list where the IQX AppBuilder components are deployed.

On Premise Deployment

There are three deployment option for On-Premise deployment as follows:

1. Embedded Deployment with development on Backend Server
2. Central Hub Deployment with development on Back-End Server
3. Hub Deployment with development on the Front-End Server

Note - where a customer has an SAP ERP system 7.0 or 7.01, or it cannot patch the backend server to the required minimum patch level, then option P3 must be selected.

Cloud Deployment

There are a number of deployment options for Cloud as follows:

1. Cloud Embedded Deployment with development on Backend Server and Apps deployed to Cloud
2. Cloud Hub Deployment with development on Backend Server and Apps deployed to Cloud
3. Cloud OData Provisioning Deployment with development on Backend Server, Apps deployed to Cloud and OData Services running on Cloud
4. Cloud Front End Deployment with development on the On-Premise Front-End Server

Note – All cloud options require GW enablement on an On Premise Netweaver Server (either Front End Gateway or Backend ERP).

FAB Deployment Recommendations

IQX recommends that the FAB deployments should follow your Fiori Deployment strategy or current Fiori landscape where this exists.  If you already have a Front End Server, then you would continue to use this.

Please use the following Guide to identify your deployment options.

Some considerations:

• Development on the backend server is preferred. This provides the maximum build advantages.
• Where external access is required or no front end servers exist, then deployment to the SAP Cloud Platform should be considered.
• The SAP recommended architecture is to separate the Gateway and UI components from the backend system and services.

FAB Deployment Considerations - Technical

FAB essentially consists of the following components:

• FAB Designer – workbench to build the Apps
  • Screen designer, flow designer, service designer
  • GW OData Design Time
• FAB GW Service Provider – to read and persist the form
  • GW OData Runtime
  • GW Service Provider Runtime
• FAB UI Runtime Services – generate, execute and control the runtime UI

The FAB Designer must be deployed on a server that is Gateway enabled.  This can be a Back End Server or a Front End Gateway Server.  The Gateway components must meet the minimum specifications.

The minimum Gateway Patch for SAP NetWeaver 7.40 and above is as follows:

For SAP systems running versions of SAP NetWeaver 7.0 and 7.01, the Front End Deployment is the only option.

For SAP systems running versions of SAP NetWeaver 7.02, 7.03, and 7.31, then Gateway Add-ons have to be deployed separately. 

The SAP Note 1942072 - SAP NetWeaver Gateway 2.0 Support Package Stack Definition describes which SP level on 7.40 is equivalent to which SP level of SAP NetWeaver Gateway 2.0 running on a release prior to 7.31 (18.11.2013).

The table below describes the Add-On components that are required.  Note SAP 7.40 standard includes the functional scope of the Add-Ons of IW_BEP, GW_CORE, IW_FND  

SAP Notes

It is highly recommended to implement the following notes relevant to the support package level of the components

1. 2362876 - Gateway performance issue - relevant notes
2. 2370618 - SAP Gateway $filter value not handed over correctly to the backend

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