Background
B2B 11g supports ebXML messaging protocol, where multiple CPAs can be imported via command-line utilities.
This note highlights one aspect of
the best practices for import of CPA, when large numbers of CPAs in
the excess of several hundreds are required to be maintained within
the B2B repository.
Symptoms
The import of CPA usually is a 2-step process, namely creating a soa.zip file using b2bcpaimport utility based on a CPA properties file and then using b2bimport to import
the b2b repository.
The commands are provided below:
ant -f ant-b2b-util.xml b2bcpaimport -Dpropfile="<Path to cpp_cpa.properties>" -Dstandard=true
ant -f ant-b2b-util.xml b2bimport -Dlocalfile=true -Dexportfile="<Path to soa.zip>" -Doverwrite=true
Usually
the first command completes fairly quickly regardless of
the number of CPAs in
the repository. However, as
the number of trading partners within
the repository goes up,
the time to complete
the second command could go up to ~30 secs per operation. So, this could add up to a significant amount, if there is a need to import hundreds of CPA in a production system within a limited downtime, maintenance window.
Remedy
In situations, where there is a large number of entries to be imported, it is best to setup a staging environment and go through
the import operation of each individual CPA in an empty repository. Since, this will be done in an empty repository,
the time taken for completion should be reasonable.
After all
the partner profiles have been imported, a full repository export can be taken to capture
the metadata for all
the entries in one file.
If this single file with all
the partner entries is imported in a loaded repository,
the total time taken for import of all
the CPAs should see a dramatic reduction.
Results
Let us take a look at
the numbers to see
the benefit of this approach. With a pre-loaded repository of ~400 partners,
the individual import time for each entry takes ~30 secs. So, if we had to import another 100 partners,
the individual entries will take ~50 minutes (100 times ~30 secs). On
the other hand, if we prepare
the repository export file of
the same 100 partners from a staging environment earlier,
the import takes about ~5 mins.
The total processing time for
the loading of metadata, specially in a production environment, can thus be shortened by almost a factor of 10.
Summary
The following diagram summarizes
the entire approach and process.
Acknowledgements
The material posted here has been compiled with
the help from B2B Engineering and Product Management teams.
