secure communications with non-sap

[Former Member]

hi all,

I am relatively new to XI. My question is - how does XI securely connect with non-sap systems? Most of the interfaces here are SAP (file) -> non-sap (file). I know XI can use FTP and certificates, but what if the old legacy systems dont know how to use certificates?

If I use SSH, ie SAP (SSH) -> non-sap (SSH), what benifit will occur by introducing xi in between? ie SAP -> XI (ssh) -> non-sap?

Even for SSH, I need to add the SSH server/client to the non-sap system. Is it possible for secure communications without too much changes to the non-sap systems?

thank you in advance for your help!

chandra

[Former Member]

chandra,

>>without too much changes to the non-sap systems?

seems to be one tricky thing. If your non-sap system expects the communication to be secure , it has to support a minimal required things like running SFTP daemon etc which i dont think would be a big problem for robust and well maintained and well administered servers.

If you have both your ends support SFTP, you can use secure file transmission provided your XI server has the cryptographic toolkit and fulfills all other req.

Regards,

Amol

[Former Member]

Chandra

Point to add is Securing messages would be of not much relevance within the firewall.

Obfuscating the message could be a solution but am not aware of XI having such a feature.

[Former Member]

Also, you can encrypt your payload within XI and then your target system can decrypt it. I guess there are some code samples available on SDN too..

[Former Member]

Amol,

By SFTP, do you mean FTP using SSH or SSL

I thought the cryptographic toolkit was to enable SSL.

Can XI use SSH without having one of SSH servers installed on it?

Please clarify..

THanks

Chandra

[Former Member]

XI has a built in support for FTPS (File Transfer Protocol using SSL/TLS) Check the relevant section of this link.

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/14/80243b4a66ae0ce10000000a11402f/frameset.htm

SFTP is the secure FTP and yes...over SSH.for discussions over SFTP you can refer this thread