Preparing the hosting environment for the Windows Integration Service

Optimizely B2B Commerce is a Microsoft .NET website application requiring the presence of a Windows Integration Service. This document represents both system requirements and recommendations from both a configuration and security standpoint. The B2B Commerce Windows Integration Service is installed on a Windows Server that communicates between the Client's ERP or other back-end systems and the Optimizely Commerce Website.

The Windows Integration Server can be either virtual or physical. A single non-hypervisor physical machine or a single virtual instance shall be referred to as a "Windows Host" for purposes of this document.

The Optimizely Windows Integration Service was designed and implemented such that they operate in a wide variety of environments and do not require specific domain knowledge for the ongoing maintenance. Because the client is responsible for hosting this application themselves or engage a third party to provide hosting services, the ongoing maintenance of the environment is ultimately the responsibility of the client. Though the routines described in this and other documents furnished by Optimizely serve as a baseline, they are no substitute for expertise on server administration and no guarantee that the service will be available and perform optimally.

Server system requirements

Windows Integration Service

  • Windows Server 2008 or later (meeting the minimum system configuration requirements for the operating system)
  • .NET 4.8

Firewall / network / security requirements

The Windows Integration Server must communicate with the Web Server over TCP port 80 and 443 for both HTTP and HTTPS traffic. The Windows Integration Server must also have network access to the necessary network locations of the client's ERP or other backend systems to which the Optimizely Commerce application will integrate.

Mail / SMTP requirements

The B2B Commerce application uses standard SMTP mail for sending confirmations, alerts, and so on, and must have access via TCP Port 25 to an SMTP server. This can be in the form of the SMTP service running on the Web or Database Servers, or use an external mail server. Both authenticated and non-authenticated SMTP is supported, in addition to SSL and non-SSL transmission. The configuration of the mail settings would use both Optimizely Commerce Application Settings (within the Optimizely Commerce Admin Console) and IIS Web Config file settings.

Typical network communication between the Optimizely Commerce website, database, and Windows Integration Server

The following scenarios are illustrative and are typical system interactions. These could be changed depending on the hosting environment and client requirements. These are not intended to be exhaustive network protocol or communications flows but rather illustrative and it is acknowledged that such a simple explanation would be insulting to many networking professionals. The purpose is to illustrate "what" communication is occurring rather than "how" the communication is occurring.

  • Integration Refreshes
    1. Windows Integration Server makes web service call to Web Server (TCP HTTP/HTTPS) - TCP connection initiated
    2. Web Server responds to request (TCP HTTP/HTTPS) - on the existing TCP connection
    3. Web Server communicates with Database Server (TCP 1433) - TCP connection initiated (typically a new connection is made, but depending on the nature of the request an existing connection could be used)
    4. Web Server communicates with Windows Integration Server - on existing TCP connection
    5. Windows Integration Service makes the calls from the integration server to communicates with the client ERP or other back-end system (the TCP / UDP connection used depends on the system to which it is communicating)
    6. ERP or back-end system communicates with the Windows Integration Server - on existing TCP connection
    7. Windows Integration Server communicates with Web Server (depending on the type of integration activity, either the existing or a new TCP connection would be used)