[rikardote]

SAP Routers

In a WAN (Wide Area Network) environment, SAP routers are used to make connections to remote SAP systems that cannot be reached with a direct TCP connection. Passwords may be used for each SAP router to control access.

In order to make a connection, the front-end computer is responsible for providing the complete route to the destination, possibly including a chain of several SAP routers. Path information is not provided by the routers. (Strictly speaking, an SAP router is actually better described as an application level proxy with password capabilities and strict source routing).

The address for each router is specified by a simple connection string (with the router's host name and port number), optionally followed by '/P/' and the router password. The path from the current location to the destination is described by appending all router addresses together, followed by the address of the destination SAP system. Thus, a connection string with SAP routers generally has the form <router 1><router 2>...<router n><destination>.

Example with two routers (gate.acme.com, port 3299, and gate.sap.com, port 3298), the first using a password (secret), for a connection to the application server iwdf8997.sap.com, port 3200):

/H/gate.acme.com/S/3299/P/secret/H/gate.sap.com/S/3298/H/iwdf8997.sap.com/S/3200

<-------- 1st router ----------><---- 2nd router ----><------ app_server ------>

Connection strings including SAP routers are passed to the GUI's communication layer and resolved step-by-step by the routers on the path. If host names and symbolic service names are used, each router must have access to correct network configuration information to resolve them.