ECC user licenses issue for using Webdynpro ABAP in portal

[former_member1191927]

Hi all,

If we want to use Webydnpro ABAP in our external facing portal which is being used by more than 20000 users, how do we manage the ECC licenses for all these users? It will be really expensive to have that many number of licenses in ECC (one for every portal user). Is there any other work around for this?

Any info on this will be beneficial.

Thanks,

Hari

[SergioFerrari · Accepted solution]

I encountered projects requirements like this some times and I can only suggest to you to involve a good SAP Sales Representative as soon as possible. Try to explain very well the Business Scenarios including the alternatives you're evaluating.

He/she will find out a good proposal for you but normally it takes some time because the licencing model is a bit complex.

Sergio

[former_member1191927 · Accepted solution]

So, does that mean we don't have any alternative in portal or ECC and have to bargain with SAP only to reduce the price for the licenses?

[SergioFerrari · Accepted solution]

Hi Hari, about the alternative: yes you can define the so called "Anonymous Service" setting a technical user in the Web Dynpro node of transaction /nSICF.

Any users will call the web dynpro application will run under the technical user.

You can also set the portal application as public letting everybody in internet running the web dynpro application within SAP ECC.

"there is always an alternative" BUT in my experience, in SAP ECC it's important or I would say mandatory to log every action recording the nominal user that executed it. This especially true when any updating may be performed by users. If you are just exposing reporting it may be enough to use the technical user.

You should pay much attention to the terms of the contract that normally requires "Nominal Users" but it also provide a lot of different user types (professional, occasional,...).

Let's see also what other members of the community can add about this topic.

Sergio

[thomas_jung · Accepted solution]

Although technically possible, setting such an Anonymous Service might not be covered by your license agreement. I think the best advice is what has already been given - talk to your account executive. The terms of individual license contracts differ considerably, so it is very difficult to say what options might be availability to you.

[Former Member]

I am not sure why you want to use WebDynpro for External Portal . As Webdynpro is resource intensive , I never saw client asking for this type of requirement. Are developing any prototype ?

In my experience ABAP webdynpro is more is used more for business packages and internal portals not for external portals. If you want to use this AWD for EEP Please see below link from SAP Help for pre-requisites

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04s/helpdata/en/96/bdab419451db34e10000000a1550b0/content.htm

Last Step in above Link, this mentions that ABAP Webdynpro needs logon.

As other people mentioned there might be a good way of doing if you contact your SAP account executive to find out if there are any different types of licenses. But you end up in taking other extra licences which not acceptable solution for clients.

If you want to use WebDynpro for external Portal ( which is not at all suggested for external ) at any cost , better to go with Web Dynpro for Java which will not need any extra licences on R3.

[SergioFerrari]

About the licences I suggest to read the document "Licensing SAP Products: A Guide for Buyers" that I can find at this link [http://www.sap.com/solutions/business-suite/erp/corporate_services/brochures/index.epx|http://www.sap.com/solutions/business-suite/erp/corporate_services/brochures/index.epx] .

At page 24 there is an important sentence that states: "Named user licenses are required for all users of non-

SA P software who indirectly access SA P software." and that on my opinion means that even if you develop with Web Dynpro Java you have to pay for SAP ECC named users. Probably in both cases (WDA or WDJ) you'll need a number of Named User Licenses of type "SAP Limited Professional User" .

Sergio

[ChrisPaine]

> better to go with Web Dynpro for Java which will not need any extra licences on R3.

I'm really not sure that is the case, And I'd echo the above - speak to your SAP Sales Rep ASAP.

Even if you don't use Web Dynpro as your development framework - and use something else - if it is communicating directly to your SAP system (via service calls etc) then you still may have the same issues about user access. Unless your process is completely offline of the SAP system expect to need to organise licenses agreements of some kind.