Connect to SAP S/4 HANA

Owned by Phillip Hanegan
Last updated: Aug 09, 2024
6 min read

When you connect EmpowerID to SAP and configure your SAP Account Store, the first time you run inventory, EmpowerID discovers all of the user accounts in SAP and creates them in the EmpowerID data warehouse. Subsequent inventory runs update any changes occurring since the LastTimeStamp value tracked by the SAP connector.

Procedure

Step 1 – Install the SAP GUI Server

  1. Download and extract the GUI7.3.zip file (or a newer version).

  2. Navigate to the GUI7.3\NW_7.0_Presentation_\PRES1\GUI\WINDOWS\WIN32\ folder and run SetupAll.exe.

  3. In the installer, select SAP GUI for Windows 7.30 (Compilation 1) (or a newer version), and click Next.

  4. Select the target directory where you want to install it and click Next.

  5. When it finishes installing, open SAP Logon from the desktop icon.

  6. In SAP Logon, click to select the Connections folder, then click New in the toolbar to create a new system entry.

     

  7. In the Create New System Entry wizard that appears, on the first page, click Next, then fill in the System Connection Parameters with values like the following on the second page.

    • Description — ECC

    • Application Server — FQDN of your SAP Server, e.g. sap.mySAPserver.com

    • Instance Number — e.g. 77

    • System ID — e.g. EH9

    • SAProuter String — Leave this field empty.

       

  8. Click Finish. The new connection appears in the grid.

     

  9. Open File Explorer as Administrator and in the extracted GUI7.3.zip file, navigate to GUI7.3\NW_7.0_Presentation_\PRES1\GUI\WINDOWS\WIN32\system\

  10. From that folder, copy the SAP .NET connector file, librfc32.dll and paste it into your C:\Windows\System32 folder.

Step 2 – Create a SAP S/4HANA account store in EmpowerID

  1. On the navbar, expand Admin > Applications and Directories and then click Account Stores and Systems.

  2. On the Account Stores page, select the Action tab and then click Create Account Store.

     

  3. Under System Types, search for SAP S/4HANA.

  4. Click SAP S/4HANA to select the type and then click Submit.

     

  5. For SAP Connection Type, select either Application Server or Message Server and click Submit.

     

  6. On the SAP S/4HANA Settings form that appears, fill in the following information:

    • Display Name – Enter a name for your account store.

    • Host – Enter the FQDN of your SAP Server

    • User Name – Enter your SAP System Administrator's user name

    • Password – Enter your SAP System Administrator's password

    • SystemNumber – Enter the system number from your SAP account

    • DefaultLanguage – Enter the two-letter language code

    • Client – Enter the Client ID from your SAP account

    • Is Remote (Requires Cloud Gateway) – This setting appears for account stores with local directories, such as Active Directory, LDAP, SAP, etc. When enabled, this tells EmpowerID to use the Cloud Gateway Connection for that account store. The Cloud Gateway Connection must be installed on an on-premise machine. For installation information, please see Installing the EmpowerID Cloud Gateway Client.

  7. If you selected Is Remote (Requires Cloud Gateway), search for and select one or more cloud gateway servers and then click Submit. You will not see this screen if you did not select Is Remote (Requires Cloud Gateway).

     

EmpowerID creates the account store and its associated resource system. The next step is to configure attribute flow between the account store and EmpowerID.

Step 3 – Configure Attribute Flow

Now that the attribute flow has been set, the next steps include configuring the account store and enabling EmpowerID to inventory it.

Step 4 – Configure account store settings

  1. On the Account Store and Resource System page, click the Account Store tab and then click the Edit link to put the account store in edit mode.


    This opens the edit page for the account store. This page allows you to specify the proxy account EmpowerID is to use to connect to the SAP and how you want EmpowerID to handle the user information it discovers during inventory. Settings that can be edited are described in the table below the image.



Account Store Settings

Account Store Settings

Setting

Description

General Settings

IT Environment Type

Allows you to specify the type of environment in which you are creating the account store.

Account Store Type

Allows you to specify the type of account store you are creating.

Option 1 Specify an Account Proxy

Allows you to change the credentials for the account that EmpowerID uses to connect to and manage the account store.

Option 2 Select a Vaulted Credential as Account Proxy

Allows you to use a credential that you have vaulted in EmpowerID as the account that EmpowerID uses to connect to and manage the account store.

Use Secure LDAPS Binding

Specifies whether you are using Secure LDAP to encrypt LDAP data when establishing a directory bind.

Inventoried Directory Server

Allows you to select a connected server as the directory server for the account store.

Is Remote (Cloud Gateway Connection Required)

This setting appears for account stores with local directories, such as Active Directory, LDAP, SAP, etc. When enabled, this tells EmpowerID to use the Cloud Gateway Connection for that account store. The Cloud Gateway Connection must be installed on an on-premise machine. For installation information, please see Installing the EmpowerID Cloud Gateway Client.

Is Visible in IAM Shop

Specifies whether the account store can be used to filter objects relative to the account store, such as groups, to users searching for resources in the IAM Shop.

Authentication and Password Settings

Use for Authentication

Specifies whether user credentials in the external system can be used to authenticate to EmpowerID.

Allow Search for User Name in Authentication

This setting works in conjunction with pass-through authentication to allow users to log in without specifying a domain name. When this is enabled, EmpowerID first checks to see if the user name entered exists within its Identity Warehouse and if so attempts to authenticate as that user. If a matching logon name exists but the login fails, EmpowerID then searches through all Accounts Stores where simple username search is enabled to find the correct user name and password combination. 

Allow Password Sync

Enables or disables the synchronization of password changes to user accounts in the domain based on password changes for the owning person object or another account owned by the person. This setting does not prevent password changes by users running the reset user account password workflows.

Queue Password Changes

Specifies whether EmpowerID sends password changes to the Account Password Reset Inbox for batch processing.

Password Manager Policy for Accounts without Person

Specifies the Password Manager Policy to be used for user accounts not joined to an EmpowerID Person.

Provisioning Settings

Allow Person Provisioning (Joiner Source)

Specifies whether EmpowerID Persons can be provisioned from user accounts in the account store.

Allow Attribute Flow

Specifies whether attribute changes should flow between EmpowerID and the account store.

Allow Provisioning (By RET)

Allows or disallows the Resource Entitlement (RET) Inbox process to auto-provision accounts for this domain for users who receive RET policy-assigned user accounts, but have not yet had them provisioned.

Allow Deprovisioning (By RET)

Allows or disallows the Resource Entitlement Inbox process to auto de-provision accounts for this domain for users who still have RET policy-assigned user accounts, but no longer receive a policy that grants them a user account in the domain. De-provisioning only occurs if the de-provision action on the Resource Entitlement policy is set to De-Provision.

Default User Creation Path

This specifies the default path in which to create user accounts if no location is selected when creating new users in EmpowerID.

Max Accounts per Person

This specifies the maximum number of user accounts from this domain that an EmpowerID Person can have linked to them. This prevents the possibility of a runaway error caused by a wrongly configured Join rule. It is recommended that this value be set to 1 unless users will have more than 1 account and you wish them to be joined to the same person.

Business Role Settings

Allow Business Role and Location Re-Evaluation

Specifies whether Business Role and Location re-evaluation should occur for the account store

Business Role and Location Re-Evaluation Order

Specifies the order of the account store for re-evaluating Business Roles and locations

Inventory Auto Provision OUs as IT System Locations

Specifies whether EmpowerID should automatically provision external OUs as IT System locations

Inventory Auto Provision External Roles as Business Roles

Specifies whether EmpowerID should provision Business roles for external account store roles

Default Person Business Role

Specifies the default EmpowerID Business Role to be assigned to each EmpowerID Person provisioned from the user accounts in the account store.

Default Person Location (leave blank to use account container)

Specifies the default EmpowerID Location to be assigned to each EmpowerID Person provisioned from the user accounts in the account store.

Group Settings

Allow Account Creation on Membership Request

Specifies whether EmpowerID creates user accounts in the account store when an EmpowerID Person without one requests membership within a group belonging to the account store.

Recertify External Group Changes as Detected

Specifies whether detected group changes should trigger recertification.

SetGroup of Groups to Monitor for Real-Time Recertification

Specifies the SetGroup or Query-Based Collection with groups that need to be recertified when changes to the membership of one or more of those groups occurs. The setting must be set to the GUID of the target SetGroup. If the GUID for a specific SetGroup is not set and Recertify External Group Changes as Detected is enabled for the account store, EmpowerID processes all security group memberships for recertification.

Group recertification is processed by the Continuous Group Membership Recertification permanent workflow. This workflow must be enabled for recertification to occur.

Default Group Creation Path

Specifies the default OU in which groups should be created if one is not specified.

EmpowerID Group Creation Path

Specifies the OU in which to create EmpowerID Resource Role groups

Directory Clean Up Enabled

Directory Clean Up Enabled

Specifies whether the SubmitAccountTermination permanent workflow should claim the account store for processing account terminations. When enabled, accounts in the account store that meet the qualifications to be marked for deletion are moved into a special OU within the external directory, disabled and finally deleted after going through an automated approval process. This process involves setting a number of system settings in EmpowerID and requires multiple approvals by designated personnel before an account is finally removed from the account store.

Report Only Mode (No Changes)

When enabled, a report of what the Directory Clean Up process would do is written to the log. The process itself is ignored and all accounts are set to Termination Pending,

OU to Move Stale Accounts

Specifies the external directory in which to move accounts marked for termination.

Special Use Settings

RBAC Assign Group Members On First Inventory

Converts each user account in an group to a Access Level assignment for the EmpowerID Person who owns the user account. Enabling this function is not recommended in most cases as it removes the ability to manage groups in the account store. A consequence of this is that if a user account is removed from a native system, EmpowerID puts the account back in the group.

Automatically Join Account to a Person on Inventory (Skip Account Inbox)

Specifies whether EmpowerID should attempt to join user accounts in the account store to an existing EmpowerID Person during the inventory process. When enabled, the Account Inbox is bypassed.

Automatically Create a Person on Inventory (Skip Account Inbox)

Specifies whether EmpowerID should create new EmpowerID Persons from the user accounts discovered in the account store during the inventory process. When enabled, the Account Inbox is bypassed.

Show in Location Tree

Specifies whether the account store shows in the Location Tree within the EmpowerID UI.

Queue Password Changes on Failure

Specifies whether EmpowerID should send password changes to the Account Password Reset Inbox only when the change fails.

Inventory Settings

Inventory Schedule Interval

Specifies the time span that occurs before EmpowerID performs a complete inventory of the account store. The default value is 10 minutes.

Inventory Enabled

Allows EmpowerID to inventory the user information in the account store.

Membership Settings

Membership Schedule Interval

Specifies the time span in minutes that occurs before EmpowerID runs the Group Membership Reconciliation job. The default value is 10 minutes.

Enable Group Membership Reconciliation

Allows EmpowerID to manage the membership of the account store’s groups, adding and removing user to and from groups based on policy-based assignment rules.

Deleted Object Detection Settings

Enabled

Specifies whether EmpowerID inventories the deleted objects container of the external system.

Interval Minutes

Specifies the time span in minutes that occurs before EmpowerID inventories the deleted objects container of the external system.

Threshold Max % of Deleted Objects

Specifies the maximum number of deleted objects

Threshold in Minutes Since Last Successful Inventory

Specifies the acceptable threshold in minutes since the last successful inventory

  1. Edit the account store as needed, and then click Save to save your changes.

Next, EmpowerID will be configured to inventory SAP TCODEs, SAP Authorization Objects, and their field type values as rights in EmpowerID.

Step 5 – Configure EmpowerID for SAP PBAC

The new version of SAP ABAP Connector supports the inventory of SAP TCODEs, SAP Authorization Objects and its field type values as Rights in EmpowerID. These settings include the following, which must be added to the SAP resource system as configuration parameters:

  • SAPInventorySAPPBAC – This is a Boolean that determines whether EmpowerID inventories SAP TCODES AND SAP Authorization data as AzLocalRights. The value must be set to true for EmpowerID to inventory both authorization data and TCODES as local rights.

  • SAPInventorySAPPBACTcodes – This is a Boolean that determines whether EmpowerID inventories ONLY SAP TCODES as AzLocalRights. The value must be set to true for EmpowerID to inventory TCODES as local rights.

  • ListOfInvTables – This parameter specifies the tables to be inventoried based on the values of SAPInventorySAPPBAC and SAPInventorySAPPBACTcodes.

 

Please follow the steps below to successfully inventory SAP PBAC without any issues:

  1. Select the Resource System tab on the Account Store and Resource System page and expand the Configuration Parameters at the bottom of the page.

  2. Click the Add Parameter button.

  3. Enter the following information in the Parameter form fields and click Save when completed.

    • Name – SAPInventorySAPPBAC

    • Value – True or False, depending on inventory preferences

  4. Click the Add New Parameter button again, then enter the following information in the Parameter form fields and click Save when completed.

    • Name – SAPInventorySAPPBACTcodes

    • Value – True or False, depending on inventory preferences.

  5. Search for the ListOfInvTables parameter.

  6. If SAPInventorySAPPBAC is set to true, do the following:

    1. Click the Edit button for the parameter and add the following tables to the Value field:

      AGR_DEFINE,AGR_TEXTS,AGR_AGRS,AGR_1016,AGR_1251,USR10,USR11,UST10C,UST10S,UST12,TSTC,TSTCT,ADR6,ADRP,USR02,USR21,ADR2,ADR3,ADCP, USREFUS,UST04,AGR_USERS,USRACL,USCOMPANY,USR01,USR06,AUTHX,DD04T,TADIR,TDEVC,TOBJ,USOBT,USOBT_C,USOBX,USOBX_C,AGR_125

    2. Save the changes.

  7. If SAPInventorySAPPBACTcodes is set to true, do the following:

    1. Click the Edit button for the parameter and add the following tables to the Value field:

      AGR_DEFINE,AGR_TEXTS,AGR_AGRS,AGR_1016,AGR_1251,USR10,USR11,UST10C,UST10S,UST12,TSTC,TSTCT,ADR6,ADRP,USR02,USR21,ADR2,ADR3,ADCP, USREFUS,UST04,AGR_USERS,USRACL,USCOMPANY,USR01,USR06,TADIR,TDEVC,AGR_1252

    2. Save the changes.

In addition to the above steps, for the initial load of the system please do the following:

  1. Disable Triggers on SAP_TABLE_TSTC and SAP_TABLE_TOBJ

  2. Run inventory to only retrieve the SAP raw tables and account and group membership inventory. For this set SAPInventoryStopAfterStage to 4

  3. Run the following EmpowerID Stored Procedures (sprocs) manually as these sprocs are called on triggers of the table

    • exec SAP_RefreshAzLocalRightsAndRSM @ResourceSystemID,@ResourceSystemGUID

    • exec SAP_SyncRSMAndTcodes @ResourceSystemID,@ResourceSystemGUID

    • exec SAP_SyncAzAssigneeLocalRightScope @ResourceSystemID,@ResourceSystemGUID

    • exec SAP_RefreshAzObjects @ResourceSystemID

    • exec SAP_SyncAzObjectFieldType @ResourceSystemID,@ResourceSystemGUID

    • exec SAP_SyncAzAssigneeLocalRightScopeForAuthObjects @ResourceSystemID,@ResourceSystemGUID

    • exec SAP_SyncAzGlobalRightRelatedRight @ResourceSystemID

    • exec SAP_SyncAzAssigneeRightAzGlobalRightFieldType @ResourceSystemID

  4. Enable the triggers only SAP_TABLE_TSTC if SAPInventorySAPPBACTcodes is set to true

  5. Enable the triggers SAP_TABLE_TSTC and SAP_TABLE_TOBJ TSTC if SAPInventorySAPPBAC is set to true

Step 6 – Enable the Account Inbox Permanent Workflow

  1. On the navbar, expand Infrastructure Admin > EmpowerID Server and Settings and select Permanent Workflows.

  2. On the Permanent Workflows page, click the Display Name link for Account Inbox.

  3. On the Permanent Workflow Details page that appears, click the pencil icon to put the workflow in edit mode.

  4. Check Enabled.

  5. Click Save to save your changes.

Step 7 – Enable Inventory on the account store

  1. On the navbar, expand Administration > Applications and Directories and select Account Stores and Systems.

  2. Search for the account store you created and click the Account Store link for it.

  3. On the Account Store and Resource System page for the link, click the Account Store tab and then click the Edit link to put the account store in edit mode.

     

  4. On edit page, select the Inventory tab and then check Inventory Enabled.

     

  5. Save your changes.

     

Step 8 – Monitor Inventory

See Also

SAP S/4 Hanna Connector