Configuring SAS/ACCESS Interface to SAP R/3 to Use SNC

[TBarker]

Hello SAS Admin Friends,

Do any of you have experience with configuring the SAS/ACCESS Interface to SAP R/3 to work with SNC (specifically: running SAS on UNIX, but ANY experience at all with this would be helpful)?

Our interface was working fine when we did NOT have SNC enabled in the SAP environment, but now we have moved to SNC and are struggling to get it working for SAS. We've been dealing with this since February and really need to get it working, as a) this has taken way too long and b) SNC just went live in our SAP production environment so now our SAS access to the SAP data is hosed.

Here's where we're at with it:

1. All other non-SAP environments have been successfully updated to work with SAP SNC, so we know the SAP configuration is correct.
2. With assistance from SAS Tech Support and a SAS dev, we have recently managed to successfully execute a libname statement and data step against our SNC-enabled SAP/BW QA server, but... only when directly logged onto the server and running the statements from the SAS program editor.
3. When we try to connect with a libname statement via the SAS desktop apps (EG, MC, DIS), we get errors.
4. The first error was basically that SAS couldn't locate the sapnwrfc.ini file, which at the suggestion of SAS Tech Support was resolved by placing a copy of the ini file in the startup path used by the desktop applications (which for some unknown annoying reason is not the same as that used by SAS on the server itself). The need for this duplication does not seem to be documented anywhere.
5. The current error is that now that SAS can locate the copy of the ini file, it still cannot acquire initiating credentials from the cred_v2 file (which we know is a valid and working file, because it works for SAS on the server).
6. The error is still on the SAS side of the interface, as our SAP environment shows no attempts at connection as it should (and as it does when we run the libname statement directly on the SAS server).
7. This is the current credentials error (server details snipped):

   ERROR: RFC_COMMUNICATION_FAILURE

          LOCATION    CPIC (TCP/IP) on local host with Unicode

          ERROR       GSS-API(maj): No credentials were supplied

                      Could't acquire INITIATING credentials for

                      name="<snip>"

          TIME        Wed Aug  5 08:58:54 2020

          RELEASE     753

          COMPONENT   SNC (Secure Network Communication)

          VERSION     6RC          -4MODULE      /bas/753_REL/src/krn/snc/sncxxall.cLINE        1465DETAIL     

          SncPAcquireCredSYSTEM CALL gss_acquire_credCOUNTER     6

If you have worked through this same issue, we'd love to hear from you as to how you resolved it. Thanks in advance!

[SASKiwi]

How do connect to your SAS metadata server from EG / SMC / DIS? Do you specify a user ID / Password or do you use IWA? If you use IWA, then I suggest you try a user ID and see if that helps. Using IWA causes delegation issues with external database connections unless you have Kerberos (or similar) configured correctly.  

[TBarker]

We specify user ID & password.

[TBarker · Accepted solution]

We have decided to discontinue use of this product, as it no longer meets our needs. We did not resolve the error indicated here, so anyone encountering a similar issue in the future should speak with SAS Technical Support to discuss the details of their particular implementation. Thanks.