ERP Connector
Ruvisha Pillay avatar
Written by Ruvisha Pillay
Updated over a week ago

ERP Connector

Connecting your ERP system to the Netstock cloud servers involves:

  • The ERP server, on your network, runs your ERP system

  • The Comms server, in the cloud, co-ordinates data flow between the ERP server and the App server

  • The App server, in the cloud, runs the Netstock application

Upon installation

When you sign up:

  • Your instance of the App is created on one of our App servers

  • The Comms server is configured to allow secure communication between your ERP server and your new Netstock instance

  • A connector is installed on your ERP server that communicates with the Comms server, to send and receive data

Security considerations:

  • Each Netstock instance is created for a specific customer and is completely separate from other customers – there is no way for one customer to access the data of another

  • A secure 2048-bit public/private key combination is generated on the ERP server:

    • The private key never leaves the ERP server

    • The public key is sent to the Comms server via a web service call and is stored in the customer’s unique instance

  • All communication channels are encrypted with the public key and decrypted with the private key, meaning data cannot be intercepted between:

    • The ERP server and the Comms server

    • The Comms server and the App server

  • The comms server is secured by opening only necessary ports and firewalls, keeping your public key safe

  • The following firewall rules have to be set:

    • Port 80 (TCP) open from your ERP server to our Comms server

    • Port 443 (TCP) open from your ERP server to our Comms server

    • Remember, if you’re working through a WAN, then the same rules have to be set between your LAN, and your WAN, and between your WAN and our Comms server

    • You can also make use of a proxy server

Sending data from the ERP server

On a daily basis, data is extracted from your ERP server and sent to Netstock.

On the ERP server, the connector:

  • Runs the extracts against your ERP, creates standard csv files and compresses them using bzip2

  • Communicates with the Comms server using Secure FTP and your private key to send the compressed data via the encrypted channel, followed by an end of transmission web service call

On the Comms server:

  • The data is sent to the App server using Secure FTP

On the App server:

  • Upon receipt of the data, the files are unzipped and MD5 validation totals in a meta-data file are compared with the MD5 values computed for each file sent

  • Once it is established that the correct data has been received, the data is imported into your instance of the App

Sending data to the ERP server

On a more frequent basis, data such as recommended orders or custom reports are sent back to the ERP.

On the App server:

  • When a file is created, the Comms server is notified via a web service call

On the Comms server:

  • The file is retrieved using Secure FTP and compressed using bzip2

  • The list of files to be sent to the ERP is updated

On the ERP server:

  • The Comms server is polled via a web service call for new files

  • If new files are available, the ERP server retrieves the files using Secure FTP with its private key

  • The files are uncompressed and the Comms server notified of successful receipt

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