Installing the Direct Link add-on
Note
The following procedure must be completed by your SAP Basis Administrator.
Use the SAP Front End to install the appropriate Direct Link add-on for your SAP system.
The Direct Link add-ons are packaged as .SAR files, which are bundled with the Direct Link installation package.
Locate the .SAR files
When you extract the Direct Link installation files, the SAR folder with the .SAR files is extracted to the same directory as the Direct Link setup.exe file.
The default directory location is:
C:\Program Files (x86)\DirectLinkV802, or C:\Program Files\DirectLinkV802.
Compatible SAP Basis release
Caution
Before installing or upgrading the Direct Link add-on, make sure the SAP system is using an appropriate SAP Basis release.
The Direct Link 8 installation package contains two versions of the Direct Link add-on – 8 and 7.5. The compatible SAP Basis release depends on which version of the Direct Link add-on is installed on the SAP system:
| Direct Link add-on version | Compatible SAP Basis release |
|---|---|
| 8 | 750 or higher |
| 7.5 |
731 to 740 |
Compatible SAP SPAM/SAINT version
For installing Direct Link add-on 8 on SAP S/4HANA systems, the required version of SAP SPAM/SAINT is 0064 or higher.
SAP SPAM is the Support Package Manager. SAP SAINT is the Add-On Installation Tool.
Perform an installation or an upgrade of the Direct Link add-on
- On the SAP system, use the SAINT transaction to access the Add-On Installation Tool.
- Use the Add-On
Installation Tool to install the Direct Link Add-on
Installation Package, or the upgrade.
To confirm which .SAR file you should use for the installation or upgrade, see The purpose of each .SAR file.
The purpose of each .SAR file
The Direct Link 8 installation package contains four .SAR files. Depending on your organization's SAP usage, you may use only one of the .SAR files, or you may use more than one:
- Use Direct Link to connect to a single SAP system choose the appropriate .SAR file
- Use Direct Link to connect to two or more SAP systems choose the appropriate SAR file for each SAP system
The Direct Link 8 client can connect to an SAP system on which you have used any of the .SAR files listed below to install or upgrade to Direct Link add-on 8 or 7.5.
| .SAR file name | Purpose |
|---|---|
| DL802_AOI_S4HANA.SAR | On an S/4HANA system that has no previous installation of Direct Link:
|
| DL802_AOX_S4HANA.SAR | On an SAP system that is being upgraded to S/4HANA:
|
| DL75_AOI.SAR | On a pre-S/4 SAP system that has no previous installation of Direct Link:
|
| DL75_AOU.SAR | On a pre-S/4 SAP system that is being upgraded to use the SAP NetWeaver RFC Library:
|
