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Integration of SAP central user
administration with Microsoft Active
Directory
Chris Kohlsdorf, Senior System Architect SAP NetWeaver, REALTECH AG Walldorf
André Fischer, Project Manager Collaboration Technology Support Center, SAP AG
Summary
As system landscapes become more and more complex efficient identity management
becomes a key success factor in IT organizations.
Often the same identity information has to be maintained in lots of different IT systems.
This leads to a great administrative overhead for creating, updating and deleting user
data in all involved systems.
Focussing on an entire SAP system landscape the integration of SAP CUA (central user
administration) with Microsoft Active Directory Services can be the first step in
implementing identity management in your IT infrastructure. The benefit is a huge
reduction of administrative efforts and more consistent data across the different
participating systems.
Applies to
ƒ SAP Web Application Server
ƒ Microsoft Active Directory 2000
ƒ Microsoft Active Directory 2003
Keywords
Directory synchronization, identity management, central user administration
Level of difficulty
Technical consultants, Developers
Contact
For feedback or questions you can contact the Collaboration Technology Support Center
at ctsc@sap.com. Please check the .NET interoperability area in the SAP Developer
Network http://www.sdn.sap.com/sdn/developerareas/dotnet.sdn for any updates or
further information. You can contact REALTECH at customer-services@realtech.de.
Collaboration Technology Support Center – Microsoft - Collaboration Brief
June 2005

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Copyright 2004 SAP AG. All rights reserved.
All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or for any purpose without the
express permission of SAP AG. The information contained herein may be changed without prior notice..
Some software products marketed by SAP AG and its distributors contain proprietary software components
of other software vendors.
Microsoft, Windows, Outlook, and PowerPoint are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
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Consortium, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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and implemented by Netscape.
MaxDB is a trademark of MySQL AB, Sweden.
SAP, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, xApps, xApp, SAP NetWeaver, and other SAP products and services
mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in
Germany and in several other countries all over the world. All other product and service names mentioned
are the trademarks of their respective companies. Data contained in this document serves informational
purposes only. National product specifications may vary.
These materials are subject to change without notice. These materials are provided by SAP AG and its
affiliated companies ("SAP Group") for informational purposes only, without representation or warranty of
any kind, and SAP Group shall not be liable for errors or omissions with respect to the materials. The only
warranties for SAP Group products and services are those that are set forth in the express warranty
statements accompanying such products and services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as
constituting an additional warranty.

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Contents
Summary .............................................................................................................1
Applies to ............................................................................................................1
Keywords.............................................................................................................1
Level of difficulty ................................................................................................1
Contact ................................................................................................................1
Contents ..............................................................................................................3
Introduction.........................................................................................................4
Scenario .................................................................................................................................... 4
Technical Basis...................................................................................................5
The SAP LDAP Connector....................................................................................................... 5
LDAP_RFC ................................................................................................................................ 6
SAP CUA ................................................................................................................................... 8
Implementation ...................................................................................................8
Transaction LDAP .................................................................................................................... 8
Mapping............................................................................................................................... 10
Mapping using function modules......................................................................................... 11
Synchronization...................................................................................................................... 12
Extensions to the standard..............................................................................13
Assigning Active Directory Groups to SAP ABAP roles.................................................... 13
Maintain SAP specific attributes in Active Directory.......................................................... 14
Conclusion ........................................................................................................15
Limitations.........................................................................................................15
References ........................................................................................................16

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Introduction
As already mentioned in the short summary above the scenario used for this
collaboration brief deals with two key components: Microsoft Active Directory and SAP
Central User Administration.
Active Directory, being the integrated, distributed directory service included with
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, provides a central
user repository used to centrally maintain user data, thus avoiding the redundant, error-
prone maintenance of user information in several systems. Most organizations already
use Active Directory to organize and manage information about all kinds of their different
resources like users, computers, applications and so on.
While the user management engine (UME) used by SAP Enterprise Portal can use a
central Active Directory as its user persistence store ABAP systems use their own
database as user store. SAP’s central user administration (CUA) can be used to
maintain SAP user master records in one central system and distribute this information
in a consistent way to connected child systems. This provides a single point of
administration of all SAP user data in the entire SAP system landscape in one central
system.
This document describes the benefits of a synchronization of user data between an
LDAP directory (e.g. Microsoft’s Active Directory) and SAP systems. In the outlined
scenario MS Active Directory will become the leading system for storing common user
data. As a result users newly created in the directory will be synchronized and created in
the SAP CUA. For user data that has been updated in the directory this new information
is also synchronized into the SAP system and updated there as well.
The SAP CUA will be used to distribute all the user data that has been “imported” from
the directory to all its connected child systems.
Scenario
The following screenshot provides an overview of the outlined scenario discussed in this
guide:

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ABAP
System
Central User Administration
(CUA)
ABAP
System
ABAP
System
ABAP
System
Child systems of CUA
Distribution of user data
Active Directory
Synchronize
user data
ABAP
System
Central User Administration
(CUA)
ABAP
System
ABAP
System
ABAP
System
Child systems of CUA
Distribution of user data
Active Directory
Synchronize
user data
Figure 1 - Scenario overview
Technical Basis
The SAP LDAP Connector
The following part gives a short introduction to the technological mechanism providing
the synchronization functionality between the directory service and the SAP system –
the so-called SAP LDAP Connector.
The protocol used for communicating with a directory is usually the Lightweight Directory
Access Protocol (LDAP). The SAP LDAP connector allows direct access to directories
within ABAP applications using the LDAP protocol. It provides this functionality in form of
an API for connecting and searching, reading and editing of directory entries. This API
has already been shipped with the basis release 4.6. But this release does not provide
any functionality to synchronize user master data between SAP and the Active Directory.
This functionality was first introduced with basis release 6.x that is used for SAP’s Web
Application Server architecture and is therefore also available for all components based
on SAP’s NetWeaver platform.
The following figure shows the architecture of the LDAP connector:

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Active Directory
LDAP interface with mapping
LDAP Connector
LDAP API
Delta management
Synchronization
Mapping
= shipped with 4.6
= shipped with 6.10
ABAP
ldap_rfc.exe
SAP
Active Directory
LDAP interface with mapping
LDAP Connector
LDAP API
Delta management
Synchronization
Mapping
= shipped with 4.6
= shipped with 6.10
ABAP
ldap_rfc.exe
SAP
Figure 2 - Architecture of SAP LDAP Connector
LDAP_RFC
From technical point of view the LDAP connector is represented by the program
”ldap_rfc” that is running as a registered server program. The communication between
the Active Directory and the executable ldap_rfc is performed using the standardized
access protocol LDAP. The LDAP protocol is normally using the TCP/IP port 389.
There are two possible options how to set up the LDAP Connector:
a) The LDAP connector can run as part of the SAP Application Server. In this case
the executable in the directory usrsap<SID>SYSexerun (Windows) or
/usr/sap/<SID>/sys/exe/run (UNIX) is used.
b) The LDAP connector can run as a standalone program on a dedicated server
with access to the Active Directory.
Option a) is shown in the following figure “LDAP Connector as part of the SAP
application server”:

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Active Directory
SAP Application Server
Work
Process
LDAP
Connector
RFC
LDAP
Active Directory / DC
Active Directory
Work
Process
LDAP
Connector
RFC
LDAP
Figure 3 - Option a) LDAP Connector as part of the SAP application server
If the LDAP connector is running as part of the SAP application server it can be
monitored and managed using the CCMS. The CCMS alert monitor can monitor the load
(percentage of used LDAP- connections) and the status (UP or DOWN) of the LDAP
Connector. CCMS will also start the LDAP connector if it is down.
Since the LDAP connector loads the LDAP library of the operating system at runtime it is
a prerequisite that the operating system is offering such an LDAP library. This
prerequisite is fulfilled by Windows 2000/2003 since Windows 2000/2003 is shipped with
the required DLL.
Option b) can be used as a workaround if no LDAP library for the desired operating
system is available. In such a case there is the option to run the LDAP Connector as a
“standalone program” on a dedicated server as shown in the following figure:
Active Directory
Work
Process
RFC
LDAP
LDAP
Connector
Active Directory
Work
Process
RFC
LDAP
LDAP
Connector
Figure 4 - Option b) LDAP Connector as standalone program on dedicated server
The drawback of using option b) is that the LDAP connector is not part of the SAP
Application Server and can therefore not be monitored and managed using the CCMS.
However, since the LDAP connector can be implemented as a service on the Windows
operation system it can be monitored by common monitoring tools.

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SAP CUA
As mentioned above, SAP systems, which should be connected to the Active Directory
directly, must be based on basis release 6.x of SAP Web Application Server. If the
systems are based on release 4.6 or lower it is possible to implement the SAP Central
User Administration (CUA) on a SAP Web Application Server, which then acts as a kind
of LDAP gateway.
Since also SAP Systems that are based on the Web Application Server can be added as
child systems to the SAP CUA the directory enabled SAP CUA can be used to distribute
data across the whole SAP system landscape while still offering the possibility to
maintain SAP specific data in the central system rather than in the Active Directory.
Implementation
Transaction LDAP
Central point of administration for all settings regarding SAP’s LDAP Connector is
transaction LDAP. Here you can configure the required RFC destinations, set up a new
LDAP connector, create a new logical LDAP server, maintain communication users as
well as maintain the mapping and synchronization details.
Figure 5 - Transaction LDAP
The required steps are in detail:
• Create an RFC Destination to the program “LDAP_RFC”

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• Create a new LDAP Connector that utilizes the RFC destination maintained
before
• Create a new logical LDAP Server. Here you have to maintain the connection
details to the physical directory
• Maintain the communication user that is used by the LDAP connector to bind the
LDAP Directory Server. The binding information (username and password of a
Active Directory user) is stored in the secure storage.

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• Now you can already test the connection to the directory:
Mapping
In transaction LDAPMAP specific SAP data fields can be mapped to the desired
directory attributes.
SAP offers directory specific proposals for the mapping of the directory attributes to the
SAP data fields. After importing the proposal the mapping details can be customized as
desired.
Active Directory users, which should be selected for the synchronization with the SAP
system, are identified by one specific so-called filter attribute. If this attribute is set for an
Active Directory user object the synchronization report RSLDAPSYNC_USER will either
create a SAP user with that SAP username in SAP system (here SAP CUA) if it does not
already exists or it will update the SAP user if the user has been changed in the Active
Directory for example because the phone number of that user has changed.
The following screenshot shows a default mapping:

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Figure 6 - Mapping of SAP data fields to directory attributes
For each attribute there is the option to specify whether the customized mapping is only
valid for import, export or for both ways of synchronization.
Mapping using function modules
If the desired mapping is not a simple 1:1 relationship, function modules can be used to
enable a more complicated mapping procedure. A simple example is the telephone
number. The telephone number of a user is stored in the directory attribute “telephone”
(in MS Active Directory). The extension is normally split by a hyphen ‘-‘. In SAP the
telephone number of a user is stored in two data fields ADDRESS-TEL1_NUMBR and
ADDRESS-TEL1_EXT. Therefore the function module MAP_SPLIT_CHAR can be used.
This module reads the value for the telephone number from the directory attribute
telephone. The extension is split at the position where the system finds a hyphen ‘-‘ in
the string and the two values are stored in the SAP data fields ADDRESS-
TEL1_NUMBR and ADDRESS-TEL1_EXT.

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Figure 7 - Mapping using function modules
Synchronization
The report RSLDAPSYNC_USER selects all the users, which are to be synchronized
with Active Directory. It is to be scheduled regularly. Furthermore the report can be
scheduled as an event triggered job that can be started by the user administrators using
the external SAP program ”sapevt”.
The following screenshot shows report RSLDAPSYNC_USER:

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Figure 8 - Report RSLDAPSYNC_USER
Using transaction LDAPLOG the protocols of the LDAP synchronizations can be
monitored.
Extensions to the standard
Assigning Active Directory Groups to SAP ABAP roles
To provide synchronisation of role assignments the interface BC-LDAP-USR expects the
name of the SAP roles to be stored in a multi-value attribute called SAProles. The
problem with using this setup is how to fill this attribute with the appropriate information.
The SAP user management engine (UME) offers the option to assign portal roles to
groups stored in Active Directory if Active Directory is used as user persistence store.
To achieve a comparable functionality out of the box it must be possible to map SAP
roles to Microsoft Active Directory groups.

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Therefore REALTECH has developed a special report which creates Active Directory
groups from SAP roles. Users in Active Directory can now be assigned to these groups
which correspond to roles in the SAP system. During synchronization a custom function
module retrieves the information about the user’s group membership and assigns the
corresponding SAP role to the user.
Using this mechanism described above it is possible to leverage Active Directory group
memberships for SAP role assignment also for SAP ABAP user management. As a
result Active Directory users and SAP users can be administered at a single location.
The following screenshot shows the exported SAP roles that appear as groups in the
directory:
Figure 9 - Exported SAP roles appear as groups in the AD
Maintain SAP specific attributes in Active Directory
Using Microsoft’s MMC Snap-In “Users and Computers” it is not possible to maintain
attributes others than those delivered as standard attributes by Microsoft. Though it
would be possible to use a low level LDAP editor such as the MMC Snap-In “ADSI Edit”
this is no user-friendly solution since it would be necessary to use a different tool in the
AD for the SAP user administration. Because of this REALTECH has developed a
Property Page extension DLL for the Users and Computers Snap-In that makes it
possible to maintain the attribute sapUsername (which can be imported into the directory
using a schema extension delivered by SAP) in a separate property page SAP of the
Users and Computers Snap-In.
The following screenshot shows the new property page “SAP” in the MMC:

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Figure 10 - Extension of MMC Snap-In Users and Computers
The property page also provides a button for immediate synchronization. The button
triggers a corresponding event in the SAP system, which then starts the report for user
synchronization.
Conclusion
Implementing synchronization between SAP CUA and MS Active Directory provides an
easy way to reduce administrative effort and helps to raise the quality of available user
data across the entire system landscape.
SAP’s LDAP Connector can easily be configured and works seamless with Microsoft
Active Directory as it does with other common directory services available on the market.
Limitations
Please keep in mind that the LDAP Connector is only available on SAP systems based
on Web Application Server.
Sometimes a schema extension to the relevant directory might be necessary. Please be
aware that schema extensions to directories can often not be reverted (e.g. MS Active
Directory).
The Extensions to the standard described in this collaboration brief are only available as
a consulting solution by REALTECH.

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References
ƒ SAP Online Help http://help.sap.com
ƒ http://service.sap.com/security Æ Security in Detail Æ Identity Management Æ
Directory Services
ƒ Success Story EnBW
http://wwwsmart.sap.com/d/0066086_Energie_Baden_Württemberg_AG_S..pdf
ƒ SAP Technical Brief on SAP NetWeaver Platform and Microsoft Active Directory
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/com.sap.km.cm.docs/documents
/a1-8-
4/SAP%20Technical%20Brief%20on%20SAP%20NetWeaver%20Platform%20and%
20Microsoft%20Active%20Directory.pdf

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