SAP Personas & Fiori starting blocks

[Former Member]

I have been asked to install SAP Fiori and screen personas on our internal sandbox systems.

I have spent almost a week now reading all material that I could get my hands on, I have been through a lot of blogs, SAP documents and install guides but I still have a lot of unanswered questions and I'm unable to formulate a plan.

Can I install both Fiori & personas on the same server?

Is an embeded approach a viable alternative or should I be looking at a Central Hub Deployment?

If it's a Central Hub Deployment - should I install a new SAP [ERP/SCM?] instance to install the NW Gateway on to?

Do we need to be clear about the apps we're looking to install?

Can we deploy all apps at the same time or is it one app at a time?

How do I download these apps? I can't find them under service.sap.com/swdc.

That's just a few of the questions I have unanswered after spending days reading through the guides, I'm sure there are other members who've been in a similar position to me and I was wondering if I can call upon your expertise on giving me a helping hand with the questions and a few pointers on how to start.

Feel free to link to guides and docs but what I'm essentially looking for is some guidance and hopefully a step-wise approach to meet installation requirements and installation steps.

Many thanks for your time.

[liz_cawley · Accepted solution]

Hi Kevin,

I'm from the RIG team focusing on Fiori so I can hopefully help by answering your questions with a focus on the Fiori side of things.

[?] Can I install both Fiori & personas on the same server?

[A] My guess is yes but I hopefully someone else can chime in and confirm. The two products are complimentary to each other. Fiori was designed for the most commonly used business functions whereas Personas can be used for any transaction in the GUI.

[?] Is an embeded approach a viable alternative or should I be looking at a Central Hub Deployment?

[A] We recommend a central hub deployment but you can successfully implement Fiori apps using the embedded deployment. All of our documentation on help.sap.com/fiori supports a central deployment option so if you run into issues you may have to do some further digging for help. I have personally used Fiori apps with an embedded deployment.

[?] If it's a Central Hub Deployment - should I install a new SAP [ERP/SCM?] instance to install the NW Gateway on to?

[A] You don't have to install a new SAP instance if you don't want to. The frontend server communicates to the backend server via RFC connection so you could configure a connection with your existing instance.

[?] Do we need to be clear about the apps we're looking to install

[A] Initially no but at some point yes. To elaborate, you don't need to know specific apps while setting up the broader landscape. Once your landscape is setup and configured there will be additional configuration steps you need to perfrom on an app by app basis. The help provides really well detailed information to help you with this once you're at that step. In addition, at a high level I would decide if you're going to want to install any analytical/smart business or factsheet apps as these will only work on a HANA DB.

[?] Can we deploy all apps at the same time or is it one app at a time?

[A] Fiori apps are included when you deploy the respective add-ons. I consulted some colleagues who said you could do multiple add-ons at a time but it is suggested that you focus on one at a time...just in case.

[?] How do I download these apps? I can't find them under service.sap.com/swdc.

[A] You're off to a good start! You do download Fiori apps from SAP service marketplace. Installations and Upgrades -> A-Z Index -> Installation and Upgrades -> Find the product you're looking for (ex: Fiori is under 'F', NetWeaver Gateway is under 'N' etc.) You can then choose Installation and find your files to download. As you now know from the question above Fiori files are included with the Add-Ons so if you're looking for specific app names that's probably where the confusion is as you won't find them that way. Personally, I suggest referencing the help for the specific components you need and then searching directly for the name.

Hopefully this helps you out. I'd also like to emphasize the importance of reading everything and following all installation steps very carefully. Likewise be sure to apply all SAP Notes in the order you are told to do so. Being careful can ultimately save you a lot of time troubleshooting. I also recommend (if you haven't already) checking out the RIG developed 'What is SAP Fiori' page on SCN, this page includes a lot of useful infroamtion as well as tips and tricks and lessons learned.   I like to use that page as my landing page for all things Fiori on SCN.

Best,
Liz Thorburn

Rapid Innovation Group (RIG)

[Former Member]

Hi Kevin.

Have you got more answers on this now ? I am curious to learn about some of your questions.

Starting to look into Personas now, and wondering how it plays along with Fiori.

Best Regards

Ingrid