Install and Configure SAP GUI

if you are going to work with any SAP ERP system If it's S4HANA, ECC or if you are employed in a company that already has SAP and you are licensed to use it or if you are a learner trying to use SAP with a practice system In all of these cases, SAP GUI or GUI is the first piece of software you need It's a desktop client that connects your machine to the SAP application server So this chapter walks you through downloading it, installing it, creating a connection and the configuration tweaks that makes day-to-day use more comfortable Let's start with what SAP GUI actually is SAP GUI comes in three flavors SAP GUI for Windows SAP GUI for Windows is the one that you'll encounter most often in enterprise environments It's the most feature-complete and the one SAP actively invests in If you are on a Mac, there is an SAP GUI for macOS Quartz and if you want to connect to SAP using the SAP GUI, you can use that and if you are on Linux or an older Mac, SAP GUI for Java runs on any platform with a JRE For this guide, we'll focus on the Windows version but the connection setup and login steps are identical across three Before we download and install the software, let's talk about the classic three-tier architecture This GUI that I'm talking about, it's in the presentation layer This is what you see and the GUI interacts basically with the application server When you try to log into S4HANA server, ECC server, CRM server, any of these ABAP-based systems you'll be using GUI as a presentation layer Think of this as the browser and this is your server and of course behind the scenes, if you talk about ECC there is different kinds of databases like Oracle DB2 but if you talk about S4HANA, you'll have HANA as the default database always and between ECC and S4HANA, there are quite a number of differences but from a GUI perspective, it's not a lot You won't see a lot of difference between ECC and S4HANA Before we download the software, one of the frequently asked questions that I have is Where do I get access to SAP? Now, there are some options and some options are cheaper and some options are expensive Some options are authorized by SAP, some options are not So we'll explore all of these options and before we go there, neither Udemy nor me nor any of the private instructors are authorized to provide access to SAP software So these are just references that I'm giving you but the first one is the one that comes straight from the horse's mouth It's directly from SAP Just type in SAP server access for practice and click on the first one and you'll have to login. It's a free login I'm already logged in as my regular user and go to subscribe and as a customer and buy now and this is your cost per year and per month, you get a certain number of hours of access On top of that, you get a lot of other resources also So this is straight from SAP So this is one option and another option is if you ignore this SAP's URL there are a lot of other systems that will provide access and you can pick any of them The next thing is How do you get access to the SAP GUI? The software that we are talking about that needs to be installed on your system These access providers will give you that software but if you want to download on your own SAP provides that So all you have to do is search for SAP trial downloads and go to developer trials and downloads and go here type in SAP GUI and you have SAP GUI for Windows Java and since we are looking at SAP GUI for Windows just click on that Read and accept the terms and conditions Submit and start your download and your download has started So while that's downloading Let's talk about a couple of things Let's talk about the network requirements So as the user of the SAP GUI or browser Where do you live? Where does the server live? Where does the database live? and how do you connect to SAP? This box that I am highlighting here is the SAP ECC or S4 HANA system and what you have to observe is it's inside the company network So nobody outside the company can access this system without special permissions or privileges So point being it's not on the public internet This is the general architecture of any SAP system So if you try to connect from home without any preparation for example without logging in to a VPN without being part of the network you will not be able to connect to this system If you are working from home Yes You need to be able to connect to a VPN to actually connect to the system and then use it The moment you use a VPN you are essentially part of the company's network The third option is the remote desktop Some clients allow you to access and interact with SAP only using the remote desktop Most of the time as a learner if you don't have access to SAP in your company if you are just a learner outside of a company This is one way that you will be interacting with the practice system There are machines configured inside your company's network and all you have to do is use remote desktop to log in to that system I will show that to you in some time We have downloaded the SAP GUI Just track it Double click So double click on this icon and it's going to take some time to install your software So probably 5 minutes or less than that Say yes and this is your wizard So click on next Select SAP GUI for Windows 864 bit The rest of the things are not necessary really Click next and choose the default location That's fine Click next and this should be our last step So it just installs it within 1 minute probably and then you are done That's almost 50% done Took 30 seconds maybe Great! That completes the installation SAP installation is complete and you should see this icon on your desktop SAP logon It was not there before So double click on that and you can see that this is the latest release 8.0 and we will see how to configure it in a bit The other alternative is to use remote desktop like I said Most of your training systems that you get are probably going to be in this form So we got to understand this usage also So you don't have to really install the GUI You don't have to connect to the system All of that is pre-configured for you into one remote desktop environment They just give you a Windows virtual machine that already has the SAP GUI installed and configured What you receive is a hostname or IP address username and password and you connect to it using the remote desktop connection and once you are inside the GUI is already configured for you You don't have to install it So this is the easy way out but if you don't get access to this you can install it using the method that we have just seen previously So before we configure the GUI let's talk about how to log in using the remote desktop It's really easy If you are on a Mac use the Windows app So this is the Windows app It's basically an app that you can use to connect to a Windows system remotely So once you open that you go here and then create a new connection and the way you do that is click on the plus button Add PC You give the IP address here for example Your access provider either SAP or otherwise will give you access to this IP address or hostname You put that here like 192.168 something I am not giving the IP address here specifically because a learner might be tempted to put that address in and say why am I not able to connect to that address The reason why you will not be able to connect because that's not the right address It's the one provided by your provider that you would have to put in And then for credentials you can just add your credentials here like the username and password Again IP address, username, password All of them will be provided by the provider that you buy access from So I have entered all of that and here is my remote desktop I click on that or double click on that It says continue Alright, so this is our remote desktop I tried to connect to an SAP server through remote desktop from my MacBook and you see I don't need to install SAP login It's already there and the system is configured and all I have to do is select that system click logon and then enter the user ID and password That's it Ok, I entered the user ID and password and I am logged in So this is probably how you would access an S4 HANA system and it's really easy You can do it either from a Mac or from a Windows If you are not given a remote desktop but instead if you are given credentials like IP address So what I have to do is I have to go go to new item connection click on next give a description say S4 HANA and give the IP address here whatever the IP address is instance number, system ID So these three things have to be entered and once you do that click on next and finish and if you are in the same network or if that IP address is open to the world you will be able to connect to it just like how we have connected here using a user ID and password That's the remote desktop way of connecting to SAP Now I have shown you how to connect to a Windows machine using remote desktop from Mac You can do it from Windows also So go to start type in remote desktop connection click on that and then you will be prompted to enter an IP address Again, this is something that your provider will be giving you Enter that and click on connect say yes and you are connected to the same system that I just connected from a Mac My Mac connection got timed out and I am now connecting to the same SAP system remote desktop from a Windows system So there are some tweaks that make a big difference when you log in and use your transactions First is switch to the SAP signature theme So this is something that is already there by default So you go to this button over here Click on options Go to theme settings Make sure it's the SAP signature theme This is there by default But if you want to change, you can very well change it For example, Quartz theme You can change it Apply OK Log out And you see that the theme has changed This is the Quartz theme If you don't like it, you can go back to the signature theme So this is the Quartz theme The UI is slightly different But the functionality does not change irrespective of whether you are a technical consultant or a functional consultant The next thing is when you open SAP GUI So you go to interaction and design Options Go to interaction design Then go to visualization 1 Make sure that these two keys are checked on I will show you what happens if you don't do that Let's say apply OK Say you are learning SAP MM You go to ME21N which is the PO creation transaction If you go there, you will see the standard PO And then standard PO, DFPS, something something It doesn't give you the document type there So each of these drop downs has a specific key It doesn't tell you what key it is Now in contrast, if you go back Go here Go to options Go to visualization 1 And select these two Click apply and then OK Now do the same transaction ME21N Now if you go inside this drop down, you will see the corresponding keys Standard PO is NB And NB2 is something that might have been customized or it might have been provided by SAP The point being, you see the keys So this is one customization in the GUI that you need Now the second customization is If you go to logistics Let's say go to materials management Or let's say sales and distribution Go to sales Go to order And then the transaction is VA01 Now it's not always that you see the transaction So in order to see it, go to extras Settings And If you say display technical name It might not be switched on for you So if I switch it off for example The entire menu collapses And if you go to logistics, sales and distribution Same transaction Order You don't see the corresponding technical name But if you enable this on here Go to extra settings And then display technical name Now Now you should be able to see the transaction So a quick recap We have download So now we know how to download the software from SAP You don't need the S user ID actually P user ID is more than enough Now you know how to download it Where to download it from You know how to install the SAP software You know how to connect to an SAP system Either via the SAP GUI standalone on your system Or via remote desktop And we have seen some small tweaks Like how to change your SAP signature theme How to change the technical settings How to have the keys in your drop down And that should be good enough for you to start working on SAP SAP GUI is your window into every ABAP based SAP system Remember this is not how you connect to other systems Like for example say BTP As of now the majority of SAP's ABAP based systems Like S4HANA, ECC, CRM SAP GUI is the way to connect to it Now you know how to connect to it