Using KeePass Instead of SAP Logon

Together with Renald Wittwer I am preparing SAP Inside Track 2012 in Hamburg. Instead of the usual InnoJam we decided to create something new, which we called “Solution Jam” (short: SolJam). The idea is to present within 8 minutes innovative solutions / ideas / tools with or on top of SAP technology. I decided to show the participants how I use KeePass instead of SAP Logon.

As soon as I had posted the title, Uli Burner came up with I am very interested in your #sithh soljam topic “keepass instead of sap login” – any information about this available yet? and also Gregor Wulf was interested. Both managed to find out themselves before I could answer – only knowing the title was already a benefit for them.

Since a good story can always be told twice, I decide to write this blog even before I am going to show it to you in May.

1. The Open Source Software KeePass

So how did I came across this? Well, being a busy consultant my SAP Logon is flooded with system entries and I somehow had to remember all these passwords. The most  people I know use either more or less the same password for all the systems or they use something like excel where they keep their passwords protected with a master password.

Both ways of doing it are not very secure. Since I have to remember not only the user an passwords of the SAP systems, but also of a lot of websites and other applications, I was very happy to find this excellent open source software KeePass, a light-weight and easy-to-use password manager.

You can create different databases, each of them protected with a master password. It also allows to create  (sub-) directories and the content is encrypted (see Figure 1 – KeePass – Main Screen).

Figure 1 – KeePass – Main Screen

If you enter an entry you have data fields for e.g. title, user name, password, quality of the password and URL of the application. If you enter the password, it is not shown. You have to repeat it, as if you would logon to a system (see Figure 2). But you can also switch to visible password (if nobody is looking over your shoulder).

Figure 2 – KeePass Entry Screen

2. How to Logon to a SAP System via KeePass

As you can see in the screenshots I have used the URL field to connect to the SAP system. With command “cmd” you can call a program. The program I am calling is SAP Shortcut (sapshcut). It is in the same directory as saplogon. Maybe you have to extend the path, if the program is not found. SAP Shortcut has a lot of parameters, which are all described in sapnote 103019.

What I have entered is the following:

cmd://sapshcut -system=NSP -client=100 -user={USERNAME} -pw={PASSWORD} –maxgui

The parameters have the following meaning:

• system – System name
• client – The client you want to login to
• user – Your username. The “{USERNAME}” is a feature of KeePass to refer to the user name you have entered in the KeePass entry.
• pw – Your password. The “{PASSWORD}” is a feature of KeePass to refer to the password you have entered in the KeePass entry.
• language – The language you want to logon with (I omitted that).
• maxgui – Maximize SAPGUI after login

If you select the entry and click on the link shown in the lower area of  the main screen, you are immediately logged into the selected system.

Watch yourselve: