This blog post serves as a follow-up to my previous blog post, where I discussed the basics of the SAP Master Data Integration service. If you haven't read the first blog yet, I highly recommend doing so to gain a comprehensive understanding of the topic.
Exploring SAP Master Data Integration: A Journey as an Intern
I hope this blog post provides you with valuable insights into the implementation of the SAP MDI service. Should you have any questions or encounter challenges along the way, feel free to refer back to our previous articles or reach out to our support team for assistance.
Introduction
In this blog post, we will explore the concept of SAP Master Data Integration and how it facilitates the smooth transfer of workforce person data from SAP SuccessFactors to SAP S/4HANA Cloud. This integration scenario enables organizations to create, update, and delete employee records in SAP SuccessFactors and have these changes automatically replicated in SAP S/4HANA Cloud through ongoing replication. The SAP Master Data Integration service acts as the bridge between these two systems, ensuring data consistency and accuracy across the organization.
Visual represenation of the replication flow
In this blog, I will cover the following topics:
- Create a service instance for the client we want to connect to the MDI service. In this blog post the clients we want to connect are SAP Successfactors and SAP S/4HANA Cloud.
- Configuring the providing client (SAP Successfactors)
- Configuring the consuming client (SAP S/4HANA Cloud)
- Execute or schedule the replication
Intial setup of the SAP MDI service instances
For the technical prerequisites, please refer to this
Link
- Navigate to and select Master Data Integration.
- Select Create in the top-right corner.
- A wizard opens, offering you to configure your new instance:
- For Service, select Master Data Integration from the dropdown list.
- For Plan, select sap-integration
- For Runtime Environment, select Cloud Foundry from the drop-down list.
- For Space, select any option from the dropdown list. The chosen space is not relevant for Master Data Integration service. Only the subaccount in which the service instance is created is relevant for determining the tenant the service instance is associated to.
- Choose an Instance name for your service instance, then choose Next.
- It is recommended to pick a name which uniquely identifies the client. For example, the service instance to connect the S/4HANA Cloud tenant FS10, could be named S/4_FS10.
- Confgure instance parameters
- businessSystemId: an identifier for the client
- application: the client you want to connect to the MDI service, in this case Successfactors (sfsf)
- writePermissions: the entity you want to provide write permissions to
JSON parameters for SAP Successfactors (sfsf)
- Navigate to the newly created service instance, it should be visible in Services > Instances
- Create a service key
- Choose a service key name
- Click on create
- Save the following fields (these will later be used to connect our client to the MDI service)
- uaa.clientid
- uaa.clientsecret
- uaa.url
- uri
At this point you have created a service instance for
SAP Successfactors (sfsf), repeat those same steps to create a service instance for
S/4HANA Cloud (
s4).
Refer to this
link for more details about
Connecting Clients
Configuring the providing client (SAP Successfactors Employee Central)
Configure OAuth connection in sfsf SAP Master Data Integration
- Sign in to your Employee Central instance.
- Navigate to Admin Center > Security Center > OAuth Configurations
- Add a new configuration
- OAuth Type: OAuth 2.0
- Grant Type: Client_Credentials
- Client ID: Value from clientid in the service key credentials
- Client Secret: Value from clientsecret in the service key credentials
- Token URL: Value from url in the service key credentials + /oauth/token
Data mapping
To ensure workforce data from
Employee Central can be replicated to
SAP Master Data Integration for consumption by other applications, correct mapping relations at entity and field levels must be established.
Refer to this
link for more information about how data mapping is established between Employee Central and SAP Master Data Integration.
Employee Central Configuration
Before you start replicating workforce data from
Employee Central, perform
necessary configurations to make it ready.
Configuring the Integration Object
You can configure the integration object to customize your workforce integration. The process mainly involves creating an instance of a predefined integration object.
Refer to this
link for the necessary steps.
Configuring a Business Scenario
- Log in to your Employee Central instance and go to the Admin Center page.
- Search for "Business Scenarios" in the global search bar at the top.
- On the Business Scenarios page that appears, locate the scenario "Workforce Replication from EC to SAP Master Data Integration".
- Ensure the scenario is set to active. If it’s already set to “ON”, ignore this step.
- Choose the pen icon on the right to start configuring the settings.
- Options screen
- Fields are user definable
- Filter and Sort screen
- Apply filtering and sorting if your use case needs it
- Destination settings screen
- Enable REST Server Settings
- Connection Name: User-definable
- REST API URL: Value from uri in the service key credentials
- Authentication Type: OAuth
- OAuth Configuration: Select the OAuth configuration you made in previous steps
- Operation URI: Auto completes
- Scheduling screen
- Specify how often the job runs. For example Suspended/Not Scheduled, Once, Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly.
- Apply if needed for your use case
- Review and run screen
- Here you can manually execute the replication by clicking on the Run Now button. If you configured scheduling, click on Set Schedule.
At this point your workforce data has been replicated from
SAP Successfactors EC to the
SAP Master Data Integration service.
Configuring the consuming client (S/4HANA Cloud)
Prerequisites
Create a communication system to connect to the SAP BTP
If you have already created a communication system for another integration scenario which uses the SAP Master Data Integration service, you do not need to set up a communication system again for the replication of other types of master data. You can use the communication system, which you have already set up.
- Log on to the SAP Fiori launchpad in the SAP S/4HANA Cloud system.
- Under the Communication Management section, select the Communication Systems app.
- Choose New to create a new communication
- System ID: user-definable
- System Name: user-definable
- Host Name: Value from uri in the service key credentials
- Port: 443
- Inbound Only: Do not select
- Business System : MDI
- Authentication Endpoint: Value from uaa.url in the service key credentials + /authorize
- Token Endpoint: Value from uaa.url in the service key credentials + /oauth/token
- Authentication Method: OAuth 2.0
- Client Authentication: Basic
- OAuth 2.0 Client ID: Value from clientid in the service key credentials
- Client Secret: Value from clientsecret in the service key credentials
- Click on Create and save
Create a communication arrangement for communication scenario SAP_COM_0659
- Open the Communication Arrangements app from the SAP Fiori Launchpad.
- Select New. In the New Communication Arrangement window, select the communication scenario SAP_COM_0659 and define the arrangement name. Select Create.
- Name: user-definable
- Communication System: Choose the communication system you made in previous step
- Path: /
- Save the arrangements
Create a communication arrangement for communication scenario SAP_COM_0594
- Open the Communication Arrangements app from the SAP Fiori Launchpad.
- Select New. In the New Communication Arrangement window, select the communication scenario SAP_COM_0594 and define the arrangement name. Select Create.
- Communication System
- Check Inbound Only checkbox
- In the table Users for Inbound Communication, click the "+" icon.
- Create a new user with any name by clicking on New User.
- Enter a password (long enough) if required and create the user.
- Ensure that you copy this password since it is required later while configuring the destinations.
- Save the arrangement.
Setup a destination in BTP
- Go to your SAP BTP Cockpit under Subaccount > Connectivity > Destinations
- Select New Destination
- Provide the following details:
- Name: user-definable
- Type: HTTP
- Description: user-definable
- URL: https://<host>/sap/opu/odata4/sap/mdo_distributionadmin/srvd_a2x/sap/distributionadmin/0001/
- Provide the service URL from the MDO Distribution Administration OData V4 service. Look for MDO: Distribution Administration among the inbound services with application protocol OData V4 that was generated while creating the communication arrangement SAP_COM_0594 and copy the entire URL into this field.
- Proxy Type: Internet
- Authentication: Basic Authentication
- User and Password: As defined for the user assigned to the communication system
- Additional Properties
- MDOProvider: true
- MDOConsumer: true
- MDIInstanceId: The value of this should be the systemId from the service key that you created for the SAP Master Data Integration service instance.
- MDOBusinessSystem: The value of this property should be the destination’s name.
- Save
Creating a Distribution Model in SAP Master Data Orchestration
In this section, we will create a distribution model with whom we will be able to execute the replication from MDI to S/4HANA Cloud.
- Go to Instances and Subscriptions. Navigate to the application SAP Master Data Orchestration, select the Master Data Integration (Orchestration) entry in the Subscriptions section, and click on
- Go to the Manage Distribution Model application in the Master Data Orchestration UI and create a new distribution model
- Fill in these parameters
- Model: user-definable
- Description: user-definable
- Provider: MDI
- Consumer: The name of the MDI service instance for you S/4HANA Cloud client
- Business Object Type: Workforce Person (sap.odm.workforce.WorkforcePerson)
- Version: 3.0.0
- API: MDI_LOG_WORKFORCE_PERSON
- Package size: 1
- Mode: Pull
- Scheduling Information: user-definable
- Object Selection: user-definable
- Data Scope: user-definable
- Key Mapping: user-definable
- Save and activate the distribution model
Once you have completed all the necessary steps, you should be ready to proceed with the replication process. You can do this manually or by scheduling it.
For the
manual replication you should:
- Execute the replication from Successfactors to MDI by clicking Run now in the Business Scenario we configured in this blog post.
- In the Distribution Models, execute your model for workforce replication from MDI to S/4HANA Cloud by clicking on Replicate.
For the
scheduled replication you should:
- Configure the schedule in the Business Scenario in Successfactors and in the Distribution Models in SAP Master Data Orchestration.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to highlight that this blog post was created as part of my internship, with the objective of researching and implementing the SAP Master Data Integration service. This blog represents my personal perspective on the implementation of the service. I appreciate your time in reading this post, and I encourage you to share any questions or suggestions you may have.