OS/DB migrations
Every SAP Basis consultant must know these 10 technology trends
SAP Basis, which means system administration and platform basis of SAP systems - quasi the operating level behind the SAP applications in the company. NEXUS / ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS is now focusing more strongly on this business area and is strengthening its service portfolio in the basic operation of SAP Basis services (Application Management Services / ongoing support) with optional extensions and project services of SAP Basis operation, for example, in the course of migrations.
A secure SAP system does not only include a good role concept. It is also necessary to check whether a user should (still) have a specific role. Regular verification of role assignment is called recertification. In this blog post, I'd like to introduce you to the need for recertifications and our own tool, EasyReCert. The need for recertification - scenarios: Example 1: The "apprentice problem" Imagine the following scenario: A new employee (e.g. apprenticeship or trainee) will go through various departments as part of his or her training and will work on various projects. Of course, an SAP User will be made available to your employee right at the beginning, which is equipped with appropriate roles. As each project and department passes, the employee repeatedly needs new permissions to meet the requirements. After the employee has successfully completed his or her induction and is now in a permanent position, he or she still has permissions that are not necessary to perform his or her duties. This violates the principle of "last privilede" and represents a potential security risk for your company. Example 2: The change of department The change of department is one scenario that probably occurs in every company. If a change of department does not automatically involve a complete reallocation of roles and the employee simply takes his old permissions with him, critical combinations of permissions can occur very quickly. For example, an employee who has permissions in accounts payable and accounts receivable violates the SoD ("Segregation of Duties") principle and poses a potential security risk to your company. Recertification as part of a revision: The two examples above show that a regular review of role allocation identifies potential security risks for your business and can be addressed.
Roles
SAP Basis is the cornerstone of your SAP system and failures can lead to significant and annoying problems. For assistance in building and expanding SAP Basis, SAP Basis consultants can help. Certified SAP consultants enable tailored solutions for any business landscape.
This access method depends solely on the rights assigned to the user. System users: Users of this user group are comparable to SAP*. They act as administrator in the system. Therefore, they should be deactivated / set to inactive as soon as possible, as soon as the system operation is ensured. You should still be aware of the SAP ERP environment to address this security risk. In a HANA system, there are privileges instead of permissions. The difference is first of all in terms of terminology. Nevertheless, the permissions are assigned differently (directly / indirectly) via the assignment of roles. These are thus accumulations of privileges. As in older SAP systems, system users must be disabled and certain roles that already exist must be restricted. Compared to an SAP ERP system, small apps are allowed instead of large applications. In this case, attention should be paid to an individual authorisation. It should be a matter of course for users to have implemented secure password rules. Settings Securing the system also means securing the underlying infrastructure. Everything from the network to the host's operating system must be secured. When looking at the system landscape, it is striking that the new technology brings many connections that need to be secured. The SAP Gateway, which is responsible for the connection between backend and frontend, is also a security risk and must be considered. All security settings of existing and future components must be validated to HANA compatibility. Secure communication of connections is obtained when you restrict access where possible. Encryption of the data of a HANA system is disabled by default. Be sure to encrypt sensitive data anyway. Especially data that is archived. If an attack is made on your system, you should be able to run forensic analysis, so you should enable the audit log. Moreover, few users should have access to it.
For administrators, a useful product - "Shortcut for SAP Systems" - is available in the SAP basis area.
SAP Basis is the foundation of any SAP system. You can find a lot of useful information about it on this page: www.sap-corner.de.
Transporting transport orders from one system line to another or importing third-party transport orders into the SAP system is also an occasional task for an SAP basis administrator.
In the last few years, I have been asked time and again what SAP Basis is and what we SAP Basis administrators do in our daily work.