Automating SAP Logon Password Reset with Power Automate

[Archana0607]

Introduction

In today's fast-paced and ever-evolving corporate landscape, managing user accounts, especially for a large organization with numerous users, clients, and systems, can be a daunting task. The SAP Logon password reset and unlock process, though essential, can become a time-consuming and complex endeavor. This blog post aims to guide you through the process of automating SAP Logon password management using Power Automate, making it more efficient and streamlined.

Prerequisites

Before embarking on the journey of automating the SAP Logon password reset process, it's essential to ensure you have the necessary prerequisites in place:

• Power Automate Desktop App: To create and run automation flows, you'll need the Power Automate Desktop application.
• Web Account for Cloud Login: Access to Power Automate requires a web account for cloud login.
• SAP Logon Configuration: Make sure that your SAP Logon is configured with user scripting enabled by setting sapgui/user_scripting to True. This configuration is vital for automating SAP processes.

The Overall Flow

 The automation process consists of several well-defined steps to unlock and reset SAP Logon passwords. Below is an in-depth breakdown of the entire workflow:

Step 1: Web - Power Automate Flow

To begin the process, you'll need to establish a way to capture user requests for password resetting. In this step:

Create a rule in Outlook to capture password reset request emails in a designated folder. These emails will contain user requests for password resetting.

Extract the necessary details from these emails and store them in an Excel file for further processing.

This step is crucial as it sets the foundation for the entire automation process, ensuring that user requests are collected efficiently.

 

 Step 2: Power Automate Desktop App

With the user requests now stored in an Excel file, the next step involves setting up the Power Automate Desktop application. Here's what you'll do:

Launch an Excel spreadsheet containing the user details retrieved from the web flow.

 Store the values extracted from Excel in declared variables, making them readily accessible for subsequent automation steps.

Step 3: Start SAP Logon

This step marks the entry into the SAP environment. It's essential to initiate the SAP Logon application properly. To achieve this:

Use the "Run Application" action in Power Automate to launch the SAP Logon application.

Configure the SAP Logon session with specific arguments to ensure a seamless connection.

 Step 4: Create Password from Random Text

Now that you're within the SAP Logon environment, it's time to initiate the password reset process. To accomplish this, you'll:

 Step 5: SAP Logon

Record user interactions in SAP Logon using VBScript, capturing the necessary steps for password resetting.

Execute the recorded VBScript within Power Automate, to open the SU01 transaction in SAP GUI.

Step 5: Validation and User Group Checks

In this phase, you perform various validations within SAP Logon. These checks include:

Verifying user group assignments.

Checking for the appropriate roles.

Ensuring the user's validity within the system.

If all these validations pass, the process proceeds to the next step.

Step 6: Change Password

With validations complete, the final piece of the puzzle is to change the user's password. This is executed through VBScript, using a password generated earlier in the process.

Step 7: Delete Row from Excel

As the password reset process is successfully completed, you'll want to maintain accurate records. To do so:

Delete the corresponding row from the Excel file, indicating that the task has been fulfilled for the specific user.

Step 8: Send Email with New Password

The user's journey comes full circle as you notify them of their new password. Here, you'll send an email to the user, providing them with the updated password.

Step 9: Loop and Iterate

In a large organization, you'll likely need to repeat this process for multiple users. To ensure efficient automation:

Enclose the entire process within a loop, enabling the reset of passwords for numerous users in a systematic manner.

Step 10: Close Outlook and SAP Logon

With the tasks completed, it's time to wrap things up. To do so:

Terminate the Outlook and SAP Logon processes to ensure a clean finish to the automation workflow.

Conclusion

Automating the SAP Logon password reset and unlock process with Power Automate can be a game-changer for organizations dealing with a substantial user base and complex requirements. However, it's essential to acknowledge that the automation of SAP processes requires a profound understanding of SAP scripting and diligent testing to ensure security and reliability.

Before deploying such automation in a production environment, rigorous testing and validation are paramount to guarantee that the process functions as anticipated and doesn't compromise security.

In conclusion, the power of automation, when harnessed effectively, can revolutionize the way your organization manages SAP Logon password resets, making the process more efficient, accurate, and secure.