Prerequisites for Using SNC 

·        External security product

¡        The external security product must be installed on each of the AS ABAP instances.

Note the following information from the external security product's installation. You need it for the configuration on the AS ABAP. See the documentation provided by the external security product vendor if necessary.

§         External names of the participants

You need to know the users' IDs as they are known to the external security product, as well as the external names of the application servers and other system components.

■      Paths and file names where the external libraries are located

○     You may also need to perform certain activities to establish a secure environment for your application servers or other system components. These activities depend primarily on the security product you use. Make sure you are aware of such procedures and have accomplished them before proceeding with the profile settings on the application server. For example, you may need to log on to the security product or make certain entries in a local server table. For details, see the documentation provided by the security product vendor.

●     Homogeneous configuration on all application servers

We recommend you configure all of your AS ABAP servers the same way, with the exception of the server-specific SNC name and the platform-specific library name.

In addition, do not create SAP Logon groups that contain both SNC-enabled application servers and non-SNC servers! Although it is possible to run SNC servers with non-SNC servers within a complete SAP system, mixing SNC and non-SNC servers in a single logon group will produce errors in the load-balancing modules.

●     Implementation in phases

It may not be feasible to establish SNC system-wide in a single step and you may want to introduce it into sub-systems in phases. You can successfully implement SNC in phases by modifying the profile parameters accordingly. For example, you can allow non-protected connections parallel to protected connections.

In the topics that follow, we discuss the profile parameters on AS ABAP. These settings provide the framework necessary to operate the AS ABAP using SNC protection. For the individual communication settings, for example, between SAP GUI and the application server, you have to decide what level of protection you need and set the corresponding parameters accordingly. We describe the steps to take for each of the individual communication partners in Configuring the Communication Partners to Use SNC.

We also provide an overview showing the scenario that we use in our examples in the Appendix under Sample SNC Scenario.