Beta ADOBE CONNECT ENTERPRISE ® TECHNICAL OVERVIEW ™
© 2007 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe® Connect™ Enterprise Technical Overview If this guide is distributed with software that includes an end user agreement, this guide, as well as the software described in it, is furnished under license and may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of such license.
iii Contents Architecture .............................................................................. 1 Enterprise Server components ............................................................ 2 Hosted and licensed solutions ............................................................. 5 Enterprise integration ..................................................................... 7 Extensibility and custom integration Connect Edge Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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1 Technical overview Adobe® Connect™ Enterprise Server 6 is a rich web communication system that provides online meetings, training, and presentations that anyone can access through any web browser. Enterprise Server allows nontechnical subject matter experts to easily create communications that include voice, video, and animations, which participants view using Adobe® Flash® Player.
ADOBE CONNECT 6.0 2 Technical Overview Application suite Enterprise Server includes a suite of applications that can be combined to meet your needs. It also includes a webbased interface that lets you manage content, enroll in courses, start meetings, and so on. Enterprise Server has four applications with features for training, events, presentations, and live meetings. You can also extend Enterprise Server and integrate it with other systems through its web services APIs and SDKs.
ADOBE CONNECT 6.0 3 Technical Overview The Connect Enterprise application server is stateless and follows a service-oriented architecture (SOA). Because the application server is stateless, scaling is near-linear. The transactional and application metadata that the application server manages can be stored in either single or multiple replicated SQL databases. Meeting server Enterprise Server includes an embedded instance of Macromedia® Flash® Media Server from Adobe.
ADOBE CONNECT 6.0 4 Technical Overview ` CLIENT APPLICATION Flash Player 1 HTTP:80 2 A HTTPS:443 B C RTMPS:443 3 RTMP:1935 4 3a RTMPT:443 4a Certificate Authority Web browser CONNECT ENTERPRISE Web Services API Web/application server D Flash Media Server SQL database Data flow between a client and Enterprise Server Depending on whether or not communications are encrypted, the connection paths vary.
ADOBE CONNECT 6.0 5 Technical Overview By default, RTMP travels over port 1935 and is used for live interactions in an Acrobat Connect Professional meeting (video, voice, and screen sharing). HTTP traffic travels over port 80, and is used for client login and to transfer content (slides, documents, and so on). An RTMP connection uses port 443 if a connection through port 1935 is not successful, or if the server is configured to use SSL encryption.
ADOBE CONNECT 6.0 6 Technical Overview The following diagram depicts an overview of the Enterprise Hosted infrastructure. Redundancy, failover, security, and global performance are key considerations in the design, delivery, and regular improvements of the hosted service. Enterprise Hosted architecture Licensed solution A licensed solution is available to deploy Enterprise Server in your own corporate network.
ADOBE CONNECT 6.0 7 Technical Overview The Enterprise Server cluster connects to a database solution: either a single SQL database or a SQL cluster for increased transaction performance and reliability. To use SSL, implement your preferred solution across a single or clustered Enterprise Server deployment.
ADOBE CONNECT 6.0 8 Technical Overview • By selecting one or more components from the default list that Enterprise Server provides • By selecting additional components from a list of predefined fields • By creating your own custom components The fields for First Name, Last Name, and E-mail are all required for Enterprise Server—you cannot select, remove, or modify these.
ADOBE CONNECT 6.0 9 Technical Overview Login administration When Enterprise Server imports user information using directory service integration, it does not receive access to the user’s network password. Administrators need a different method to manage user login imported into the Enterprise Server directory from external LDAP servers. One option is to automatically send an e-mail using Enterprise Server with a link to set a password after an account is added to Enterprise Server.
ADOBE CONNECT 6.0 10 Technical Overview Enterprises can integrate Enterprise Server content in their LMS systems. Enterprise Server supports Aviation Industry CBT Committee (AICC) with HTTP AICC Communication Protocol (HACP), versions 2.0 through 3.5, a standard LMS communication protocol. Although Adobe Presenter can generate AICC and SCORM content, the Enterprise Server internal LMS only supports and tracks third-party or custom content that conforms to AICC specifications.
ADOBE CONNECT 6.0 11 Technical Overview the directory namespace, compares this list against a list of Enterprise Server users, and then performs requested updates in the Enterprise Server user repository, such as adding or deleting users and groups in Enterprise Server. This is just one example of how you might build an integration, or extend the Enterprise Server feature set by using the XML web services provided with Enterprise Server.
ADOBE CONNECT 6.0 12 Technical Overview Architecture Traditionally, users connect directly to the primary Enterprise Server or cluster, which handles authentication, access control, on-demand and real-time video, audio, and data delivery. The communication, as demonstrated in the following example, results in one thousand individual connections between clients and the server.
ADOBE CONNECT 6.0 13 Technical Overview Lowered demand on the origin Enterprise Server cluster when edge servers are deployed. Connection aggregation occurs on a per meeting basis; in this figure, all users at the edge are attending the same meeting. Data flow Connect Edge Server is designed to allocate and balance access to an Enterprise Server by using the existing bandwidth resources more efficiently.
ADOBE CONNECT 6.0 14 Technical Overview • Transmits and distributes responses to the clients in each zone. The flow of data from the edge network to the origin Enterprise Server cluster Deploying servers in a cluster About clusters Enterprise Server offers true enterprise-class scalability with support for single-server or clustered environments. Organizations that require high availability can choose to deploy Enterprise Server in a cluster.
ADOBE CONNECT 6.0 15 Technical Overview Shared storage Enterprise Server can store content on NAS and SAN devices. Content is any file published to Enterprise Server, such as courses; SWF, PPT, or PDF files; and archived recordings. When you use shared storage, you can configure Enterprise Server to use the server’s disk as a content cache so that all content is copied to the external storage device and pulled to each server’s content folder as needed.
ADOBE CONNECT 6.0 16 Technical Overview • Use a local software firewall. For a clustered Enterprise Server system that shares a public network with other customer servers, you may find that a software firewall is appropriate on each individual server. • Configure SSL. You can use an SSL to secure communications between the Enterprise Server edge servers and the origin Enterprise Server. Web server security Enterprise Server relies on Macromedia JRun from Adobe for its web server functionality.
ADOBE CONNECT 6.0 17 Technical Overview A trusted third party, called a certification authority, verifies the identity of a client and binds a certificate in X.509 format (also called a public key) to that client. When a client connects to Enterprise Server, a proxy negotiates the connection for PKI. If the client has a cookie from a previous session or has a valid certificate, the client is connected to Enterprise Server. Note: Use HTTP header-based authentication to implement PKI.
ADOBE CONNECT 6.0 18 Technical Overview Hosting Acrobat Connect Add-in Adobe Acrobat Connect Add-in is a version of Flash Player that includes enhanced features for Acrobat Connect Professional. When Acrobat Connect Add-in is required, it’s downloaded from an Adobe server in a seamless process that is hidden to the user. However, if your organization doesn’t allow employees to download software from external servers, you can host Acrobat Connect Add-in on your own server.
Bandwidth and Quality Tables for 1-to-1 Collaborative Meeting Scenario (Values are per user or edge server connection, unless otherwise indicated) Connection Speed or Bandwidth Setting (kbps) Action LAN DSL Modem View Slides HTTP delivery; size dependent on content Lead Slides HTTP delivery; size dependent on content Screen Sharing 4003 4003 22 22 10 Slow Images 40 40 40 Fast Images 250 High Quality 250 High Bandwidth 400 VoiP Audio Frame Rate (FPS) Compression1/Color Depth2 Sampl
Bandwidth and Quality Tables for 5-to-5 Collaborative Meeting Scenario (Values are per user or edge server connection, unless otherwise indicated) Connection Speed or Bandwidth Setting (kbps) Action LAN DSL Modem View Slides HTTP delivery; size dependent on content Lead Slides HTTP delivery; size dependent on content Screen Sharing 4003 4003 22 22 10 Slow Images 40 20 3 Fast Images 40 High Quality 40 High Bandwidth 300 VoiP Audio Frame Rate (FPS) Compression1/Color Depth2 Sample R
Bandwidth and Quality Tables for 1-to-N Collaborative Meeting Scenario (Values are per user or edge server connection, unless otherwise indicated) Connection Speed or Bandwidth Setting (kbps) Action LAN DSL Modem View Slides HTTP delivery; size dependent on content Lead Slides HTTP delivery; size dependent on content Screen Sharing 4003 4003 44 22 10 Slow Images 40 40 40 Fast Images 250 High Quality 250 High Bandwidth 400 VoiP Audio Frame Rate (FPS) Compression1/Color Depth2 Sampl
