Personas 3 SP03 – Hide SAP Easy Access label

Posted on October 24, 2016 by Tobias Hofmann

Let the world know ...

After installing SAP Personas 3 SP03 you may not be able to hide the SAP Easy Access. The hide button is deactivated. This can be solved by applying the latest Personas 3 client. Just import SAP Note 2295996.

Symptom

Hide button is deactivated to the SAP Easy Access label.

Solution

After installing Personas 3, you really should run the health check tool and verify if all relevant SAP notes are applied. The tool includes a button to check for SAP notes. Just make sure your ABAP system can connect to SAP Notes and download relevant notes.

Apply SAP Note via SNOTE.

The health tool will show you what to do, next is only to have the right Basis permission and let the system automatically apply the notes. It’s that easy with Personas.

Apply SAP Note manually

In case there is no connection to service market place available, and you cannot download SAP Notes via SNOTE, life is a little bit more complicated.

Download SAP Note

Check the relevant notes for Personas 3 and upload them manually. Download the SAP Note and unzip the contained txt file.

Upload note to SAP system

Transaction SNOTE

In case your system is OK and all other notes are already applied, you’ll see an empty screen. Now upload the SAP Note manually.

Goto > Upload SAP Note

Select extracted txt file.

The note is imported. The screen of SNOTE changes and shows you now the uploaded note.

Implement SAP Note

Select the note and go to SAP Note > Implement SAP Note

You may get an information the an RFC connection to SAP is not possible.

Confirm that you have read the SAP Note (you did, right?). This will start the import process.

Confirm that you know what you are doing.

Give a transport request.

Confirm again that you know what you are doing.

The status of the note is changing to processing.

Set processing status

Double click the note and you can see more information, also the implementation state.

If you are happy with it, set the processing status to completed.

Result

Validate result

As you remember, all of this was motivated by the objective to be able to hide the SAP Easy Access text. To test if it now works, go back to the flavor, select the text and hide it.

Now its possible to select the text and the hide button is active. As expected, hiding the lable is now working.

Let the world know ...

Install Personas 3.0 SP3

Posted on October 20, 2016 by Tobias Hofmann

Let the world know ...

Pre-requisites

Check that Personas 3 add-on and SP01 and SP02 are already installed. SP03 is a support package, therefore SPAM is used to install it.

Update

Transaction: SPAM
Client: 000
User: user with right permissions

Check that SPAM status is green and no queue is defined.

Upload SAR file: Support Package -> Load packages -> From Front End

Decompress.

Check the uploaded package. Select new support package under directory and then display.

The status needs to be yellow (not yet imported) and the perquisite set 01 all must be green and ok.

Select the package and click on Queue to define a new queue.

This SP03 is not protected with a password.

Select No. This brings you back to SPAM main screen. The status is now yellow and next action is given as import queue.

Import queue. Go to: Support Package -> Import queue.

You can now go get a coffee or follow the status messages in the status bar.

At the end of the import, a dialog is shown. It should be a nice “success!!” dialog, I got this:

What happened is that I applied a Personas 3 note that changed some standard objects. The dialog is SAP’s polite reminder to check if I want to keep these changes or discard them and let Personas 3 SP03 overwrite them. I want to not keep them and let Personas 3 use its own repository objects, so I selected continue. At the end you’ll see a short walkthrough what you should do (analyse the stuff, etc), although this isn’t possible in my demo system, as I do not have a SAP Note connection – something needed to run the validation.

Status is now: Confirm queue

You can and want, please send the data back to SAP.

SPAM finished updating Personas 3 to SP02 and the status is green -> all OK.

Check the installed Personas 3 version.

Personas 3 SP03 is installed.

SPAU

When installing Personas, for sure you’ll apply some SAP Notes. When upgrading to a newer service pack, you’ll have to decide if you want to keep the adjustments done by the imported SAP Note or if you want to go back to the original version. As long as the service pack going to be installed contains the changes of the SAP Note, you can revert the changes. To do this:

Transaction SPAU

You see a list of SAP Notes. To get a better understanding, try to run the comparison tool. Be aware that SNOTE must be configured to download notes from SAP for this to work.

Select the option to reset the object. In case SNOTE can download the note from SAP, this should work.

Locked objects

Another part to consider when installing a new service pack is that the objects that are part of a transport request are locked. If so, SPAM will show the following dialog:

Click on the request number to see the locking requests.

First, release the tasks. (A check icon must be behind them)

Then, release the transport request.

Done.

Let the world know ...

How to install and configure SAP Personas 3

Posted on April 29, 2016 by Tobias Hofmann

Let the world know ...

This blog serves as an overview of my blogs I published on my site on how to install and configure SAP Personas 3.

Installation

Configuration

Let the world know ...

Activation of SAP WebGui

Posted on March 29, 2016 by Tobias Hofmann

Let the world know ...

To be able to benefit from SAP WebGui, you have to execute some initial configuration steps. These steps ensure that the services and the ICF nodes are correctly configured and mime files like JS, CSS, images are available and accessible by WebGui. More information about the necessary ICF configuration steps for WebGui can be found at SAP Help.

The services listed there for WebGui are:

/default_host/sap/public/bc/its/mimes
/default_host/sap/bc/gui/sap/its/

The URL to access SAP WebGui is: http(s)://<server>:<port>/sap/bc/gui/sap/its/webgui

For some reason the above linked SAP Help page is not listing all ICF nodes and steps needed to execute successfully WebGui. Especially when you have to set up a fresh installed NetWeaver system, several additional steps have to be executed to be able to use WebGui. In total, the steps involved in having a working WebGui are:

Base ICF nodes
Icons
Mime
Webgui
Publish services

Pre-requisites

The base ICF nodes must have been activated before.

Activate ICONS

Tx: SICF
Virtual host: DEFAULT_HOST
Service Patch: /sap/public/bc/icons

Filter

Activate

Activate MIMES

Tx: SICF
Virtual host: DEFAULT_HOST
Service Patch: /sap/public/bc/its/mime

Filter

Service

Activate Service

Yes

Activate WebGui

Tx: SICF
Virtual host: DEFAULT_HOST
Service Patch: /sap/bc/gui/sap/its/webgui

Filter

Service

Activate Service webgui

Publish services

The ICF nodes are activated, but that does not mean they are also executable in a fresh installed NetWeaver ABAP system. This is caused by that services are not automatically published to ITS after a system is newly installed. You have to do this manually. See
SAP Note 790727 for more on this. Luckily, SAP delivers a transaction that publishes all ITS services: SIAC_PUBLISH_ALL_INT

Tx: SIAC_PUBLISH_ALL_INTERNAL

Run it, nothing else to than to wait until the report finishes. You will get an overview presented.

Too much information? No worry, the most important part is the summary of number of messages in each category.

411 times no problems reported!

Test service

http://nw75.tobias.de:8000/sap/bc/gui/sap/its/webgui

Let the world know ...

Initial configuration of TMS for a single system

Posted on March 15, 2016 by Tobias Hofmann

Let the world know ...

To do some work with an ABAP system, you need to have TMS configured. In a single system, for demo/learning purposes, you do not have to set up a complete TMS landscape. You only do an initial configuration of TMS. This is an easy task and does not involve configuration steps. You access transaction STMS and let the system do the rest.

Client: 000
User: SAP*
Transaction: STMS or: SO06 -> post installation tasks -> TMS

Transaction SE06

Transaction STMS

Accessing for the first STMS will give you already a dialog confirming the transport domain. From here on, it is just clicking on save and let the system do the rest of the configuration for you.

See SAP Note 761637 what new standard password means. In case the system is new, and no default company address was yet created, you`ll have to do so now.

Result

TMS is configured and ready to be used.

Let the world know ...

Initial Setup of NetWeaver ABAP System – verification

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Tobias Hofmann

Let the world know ...

After running the initial setup task, you might want to know if your system is actually OK. Instead of checking parameters manually, you can also make use of the task wizard. A task list named SAP_BASIS_SYSTEM_CONFIG_CHECK is available that runs a set of tests against your configuration.

Transaction: STC01

Task list: SAP_BASIS_SYSTEM_CONFIG_CHECK

Check the validation tasks you want to execute.

Execute the verification

Result

For each warning or error, you can access the log message to understand why the task failed.

If you want, you can include this task in your daily work routine.

Let the world know ...

Initial Setup of NetWeaver ABAP System

Posted on March 9, 2016 by Tobias Hofmann

Let the world know ...

After installing a SAP NetWeaver ABAP system you have to carry out several initial configuration steps to get working system. You can do these manually or simplify your life and use the “new” configuration wizard that aids you through this. Right after finishing the installation of a NW ABAP system, sapinst shows you a confirmation dialog, which includes a link to an SAP Note: 1923064. This note explains how to execute the initial configuration wizard.

Don`t be too excited about the note. It does nothing more than redirect you to Configuration Guide available on SAP Market Place. There is some documentation about his available on SCN [1] and [2]. The wizard is available with NetWeaver ABAP 7.4/7.5 and is executed via the ABAP task manager. Two transactions are important to know:

STC01: ABAP task manager
STC02: Task list monitor

Task manager contains a list of tasks you have to execute and means that you will save time and won`t miss an important configuration step. The above linked guide shows how to assign the right permissions to a user. To run the wizard, go to the ABAP task manager.

Transaction: STC01

In a base NW 7.5 system, 60 tasks are available. Enough to get you started setting up a system.

For the initial setup for a NW ABAP system, out of the 60 tasks, SAP_BASIS_SETUP_INITIAL_CONFIG needs to be selected.

Task list: SAP_BASIS_SETUP_INITIAL_CONFIG

Select the tasks you want to run.

Note

The PSE file is created and configured by this task too. Default values are pretty weak/compatible. 1024 bits and SHA-1. I think it is a good idea and time to change this to somewhat more secure:

Execute

Appendix

[1] http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/90829a05-f29d-3010-209d-ee50240e7efd?QuickLink=index&overridelayout=true&59661390714528

[2] http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-41405

Let the world know ...

Microsoft NDES – use custom certificate template

Posted on January 20, 2016 by Tobias Hofmann

Let the world know ...

To change the default certificate template NDES is using, it is necessary to change some Windows registry values. Looks like there is no GUI tool from Microsoft for this available. The procedure for changing these values is given by Microsoft [1],[2]. To do so, open the registry editor and navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Cryptography -> MSCEP

Under this node, the registry values can be found. By default, the certificate template used by NDES is IPSECIntermediateOffline.

I`ll now use my AfariaUser certificate I created in an earlier blog (you can find it on my site). To change this and to make use of the new AfariaUser certificate, edit all three entries.

Afterwards, the registry key looks like this:

To make the new templates effective for new requests, restart IIS (or the CA too, or the whole computer).

References

[1] http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/9063.network-device-enrollment-service-ndes-in-active-directory-certificate-services-ad-cs.aspx#Appendix_2_Set_Registry_Keys_to_Default_Values

[2] https://technet.microsoft.com/de-de/library/ff955642(v=ws.10).aspx

Let the world know ...

Microsoft CA – create a new certificate template

Posted on January 18, 2016 by Tobias Hofmann

Let the world know ...

The creation of a certificate template is a basic administration task for a CA admin. To create a new template, open the CA management console and manage the available certificate templates

Next, select a base template and duplicate it. The new template will be based on this template and inherit some if its properties. It is a good idea to take the User template as a basis for certificates requested by Afaria via SCEP.

Select for which CA type this template is going to be generated and later on used. You should go for at least Windows Server 2008.

Now you can fill in the information of your certificate template. This information will be used by the CA to create the final certificate, requested by Afaria. Make sure to include all you need and to configure it accordingly to your requirements.

After clicking OK, the new certificate template is listed in the available templates of your CA. Please be aware that with this, the new certificate template is only available for the CA, it is not added to the list of templates actually used by the CA. You can have several CA`s in your organization and while the administrator add new templates for the whole organization, only selected certificates may be used by certain CAs. You can have a CA that is only issuing user certificates, while another CA only issues device certificates.

To make the template available to your CA, add the template to the list of available templates to issue for your CA.

Select it from the list.

Congratulations. Now your new certificate template is available to your CA and new certificates based on this template can be issued to clients.

Let the world know ...

Afaria 7 troubleshooting

Posted on September 23, 2015 by Tobias Hofmann

Let the world know ...

When you install Afaria 7 or access it the first time, it`s likely that you`ll get into some problems. I`ve collected here some more or less common issues that you may face.

IIS ASP.NET error 500.21

When you access the Afaria web site, you get a IIS error (500.21). The error message suggests that maybe ASP.NET is not installed. The web site worked before and most probably you upgraded your Afaria server.

What you can do is to re-register ASP.NET. For this issue the command aspnet_regiis.

Command: aspnet_regiis.exe -i

Basically this will reinstall ASP.NET. Hopefully this fixes the IIS error.

SQL Server connection error

Another “common” error is that Afaria cannot connect to SQL Server.

The error message indicates that SQL Server is not accepting or listening on the configured port (anymore). To see what is going on, open the SQL Server Configuration Manager