• Oracle Collaboration Suite Infrastructure

• Oracle Collaboration Suite Applications
  

Oracle Collaboration Suite Infrastructure

Oracle Collaboration Suite Infrastructure provides centralized product metadata, security and management services, configuration information, and data repositories for the Applications tier. Oracle Collaboration Suite Infrastructure consists of the following tiers:

1. Oracle Collaboration Suite Database
2. Oracle Internet Directory
3. OracleAS Single Sign-On
   

The underlying components that support Oracle Collaboration Suite and provide centralized product metadata and security services, configuration information, and data repositories for Oracle Collaboration Suite Applications. Oracle Collaboration Suite Infrastructure uses and builds on OracleAS Infrastructure. It includes the Oracle Collaboration Suite Database and Oracle Identity Management.

Oracle Collaboration Suite Database

Oracle Collaboration Suite Database contains schemas for Oracle Application Server components, such as Oracle Internet Directory, OracleAS Single Sign-On, Oracle Wireless, and OracleAS Portal, and for Oracle Collaboration Suite components, such as Oracle Calendar, Oracle Mail, and Oracle Content Services. There can be one or several Oracle Collaboration Suite databases, each of which contains one or more sets of schemas, for Oracle Collaboration Suite and Oracle Application Server.

This means that each database will contain either all the Oracle Application Server schemas or all the Oracle Collaboration Suite schemas. However, not every instance of each database will be used for each component.

For example, if a customer deploys Oracle Mail in database DB1 and Oracle Content Services in database DB2, then each database contains schemas for all Oracle Collaboration Suite components, even though only one schema in each database is actually being used.
The default database included with Oracle Collaboration Suite to hold application data and metadata. The Oracle Collaboration Suite Database is part of the Oracle Collaboration Suite Infrastructure.

Oracle Internet Directory

Oracle Internet Directory is a general-purpose directory service that enables fast retrieval and centralized management of information across distributed network resources. It combines Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) Version 3 with the high performance, scalability, robustness, and availability features of Oracle Database 10g.

Oracle Internet Directory runs as an application on an Oracle Database. It communicates with the database by using Oracle Net Services, which is an operating system-independent Oracle database connectivity solution. The database may or may not be on the same host. Figure 1-1 illustrates this relationship.

Figure 1-1 Oracle Internet Directory Overview

OracleAS Single Sign-On

OracleAS Single Sign-On enables you to use a single user name, password, and optionally, a realm ID, to access all the features of Oracle Collaboration Suite and other Web applications.

Nonadministrative users first gain access to the Single Sign-On server by entering the URL of a partner application such as OracleAS Portal. Entering such a URL invokes the single sign-on login screen. Once you have entered the correct user name and password, you can gain access to other partner applications and to external applications without having to provide your credentials again.

Administrative users can access the administration home page for single sign-on by typing a URL of the form:

http://host:port/pls/orasso

where host is the computer where the Single Sign-On server is located, port is the port number of the server, and orasso is the database access descriptor for the single sign-on schema. If the server is enabled for SSL, https must be substituted for http. If the port number is 80 or 443 (SSL), it may be omitted from the URL. These numbers are the defaults.

Accessing a Partner Application

Figure 1-2 shows what happens when you request the URL of a partner application that is protected by mod_osso. mod_osso is an Oracle module that examines incoming requests and determines whether the resource requested is protected.

When you try to access a partner application:

You are redirected to the Single Sign-On server. The server prompts you to enter your credentials. After verifying these credentials in Oracle Internet Directory, the server passes these credentials on to the partner application.

The application serves the requested content.

Oracle Collaboration Suite Applications

Oracle Collaboration Suite Applications consists of the following components:

1. Oracle Calendar
2. Oracle Content Services
3. Oracle Mail
4. Oracle Mobile Collaboration
5. Oracle Real-Time Collaboration
6. Oracle Voicemail & Fax

Using these integrated application components, you can manage cross-suite business processes. Because Oracle Collaboration Suite is standards-based and not client-dependent, you can access it through any standards-based access method.

Each of the preceding applications is a component of Oracle Collaboration Suite Applications. These applications rely on the services provided by the Infrastructure tier. See also Applications tier.