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ERP Connector
Ruvisha Pillay avatar
Written by Ruvisha Pillay
Updated over 3 weeks ago

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, coordinates 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

Daily, 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 serveris notified of successful receipt

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