SAP, Europe’s largest software firm, has announced that it is to invest EUR 2.2 million in a new research center to be located in Belfast. Invest Northern Ireland has offered a Start programme package of EUR 1.3 million towards the establishment of the centre, which will focus on carrying out leading-edge research in the emerging field of grid computing. (read more).

SAP seems to sense the potential of grid technology in back office business area. Many major vendors have already jumped to early adopt grid technology. However, there is only solution in data grid. Computational grid or grid computing is very popular in scientific area but never heard in business sector. This is a good start next to SAP NetWeaver platform.

ช่วงปีที่แล้วคำว่า NetWeaver น่าจะเคยผ่านหูผ่านตาใครหลายๆ คนที่ทำงานด้าน ERP หรือคนที่ทำงานในบริษัทที่ใช้ SAP ข่าวคราวล่าสุดในไทยก็คือ รัฐบาลตกลงซื้อระบบของ SAP เพื่อใช้เป็น Back Office ที่เรียกว่า GFMIS หรือ Government Fiscal Management Information System นั่นเอง ความจริงแล้ว NetWeaver เป็นผลิตภัณฑ์ชุดใหม่ของ SAP ที่เป็นพื้นฐานของระบบทั้งหมด รวมไปถึง SAP R/3 และ mySAP

Umair Salam wrote Installing and configuring the preview edition of EP on SDN. The weblog describes step by step from download to start server properly. I will give a brief visual guide based on that article. First of all, you should know what you are doing. You are going to install Sneak Preview SAP NetWeaver 04 SP15 Java Edition. If you want to try SP11, read the guide for SP11 instead. By the way, both version is just 90-day evaluation software for trial, not production run.

I spent about one week to install Sneak Preview SAP NetWeaver 04 on my PC. I encountered a timezone problem during installation and login failure problem after installation. Finally, I found a perfect procedure to avoid all possible problems.

System Environment

1. Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition SP1
2. Physical Memory 1 GB
3. Free Space in C: 50 GB
4. This machine is just a part of workgroup. It is not a member of domain.

Installation Steps

1. Make sure that you have installed main memory at least 512 MB. Otherwise, increase virtual memory to 1 GB

Scott Braker wrote A Look at Grid Computing Part I, and Part II. He works for SAP Labs as a Product Manager for the SAP Web Application Server specializing in Web AS Applications, Web Dynpro, systems and Portal topics. Prior to working working as a Product Manager for SAP Labs, Scott worked as a Senior Applications consultant for SAP EP RIG.

SDN recently released 2 Sneak Preview products.

1. SAP NetWeaver 04 SP15 Full Java Edition
2. SAP NetWeaver 04s Full ABAP Edition (with Web Dynpro for ABAP)

For one interesting to try them out, just simply go to SDN at Download Center or directly link at here.

I wrote an installation guide for SP11 and here; however, I don’t have much time to try SP15 yet. Fortunately, someone wrote a comprehensive installation guide for SP15 already in PDF format.