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Author's profile photo Gregor Wolf

Update ABAP and HANA License for the ABAP Platform, Developer Edition for Docker

Unfortunately the ABAP Platform, Developer Edition for Docker is currently not available for installation. But for everyone who still uses it I will quickly describe how you can update the ABAP and HANA License. The blog post by Andre Fischer on How to install a new license in your SAP ABAP Platform Developer Edition isn’t helping anymore as the license that you can download from https://developers.sap.com/trials-downloads.html?search=ABAP+Platform expired on 11th August 2022.

For me this resulted in the error message:

JCO_ERROR_SYSTEM_FAILURE: Error DBSQL_SQL_ERROR occured. 
SQL=437 P3=SQL message: only commands for license handling are allowed in current state

Luckily I got help from Marc Bernard in the abapGit Slack. Here are the steps I did:

Most of the information you need is provided during startup of the container. There you will see the following:

---
Retrieving HDB license information
---
HDB Hardware Key : B1002322283
HDB Expiration Date: 2022-09-07 23:59:59
Days to expire : 26
---
Updating HDB license: found the file /opt/sap/HDB_license
Removing the current HANA License
0 rows affected (overall time 18.948 msec; server time 17.791 msec)
0 rows affected (overall time 50.497 msec; server time 49.373 msec)
Installing the license from the file /opt/sap/HDB_license
Welcome to the SAP HANA Database interactive terminal.

Type: \h for help with commands 
\q to quit 
* 437: only commands for license handling are allowed in current state SQLSTATE: HY000
0 rows affected (overall time 427.658 msec; server time 424.146 msec)
---
hdb_license_update: started, pid=1585
asabap_license_update: starting
---
Retrieving AS ABAP license information
---
SAP License Key Administration - Copyright (C) 2003 - 2016 SAP AG
System ID. . . . : A4H
Hardware Key . . : J1851296352 (of this computer)
Installation No. : DEMOSYSTEM
System No. . . . : 000000000800588472
Release. . . . . : 777
Software products: NetWeaver_HDB
---
AS ABAP license can be automatically renewed from the file /opt/sap/ASABAP_license
Hint: new container : docker run ... -v <local file path>:/opt/sap/ASABAP_license
Hint: existing container: docker cp <local file path> <container name>:/opt/sap/ASABAP_license
---

That’s most of the information you need to renew your license. You can get a new license for ABAP and HANA at https://go.support.sap.com/minisap/#/minisap for ABAP choose A4H – SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP 7.4 and above (Linux / SAP HANA) and for HANA use HDB – SAP HANA Platform Edition (64GB).

Before you can use the downloaded license files you need to replace the SYSTEM-NR with the corresponding number that was displayed during startup. Then copy the files as described, stop and start the container.

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      12 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Andrea Borgia
      Andrea Borgia

      Nice to know, guess I was lucky: I usually get licenses from the minisap page and keep the old file around, so the HW key is easier to find 🙂

       

      Author's profile photo Andrea Borgia
      Andrea Borgia

      Of course, the issue has surfaced at the most inconvenient time so I came here looking for info.

      Got the 64GB HDB file described above, got the ABAP license as well just because...

      Edited the system nr in the new HDB file, reading it from my old A4H-Multiple...

      Copied both:

      docker cp HDB.txt a4h:/opt/sap/HDB_license
      docker cp A4H_Multiple.txt a4h:/opt/sap/ASABAP_license

      It still won't start...

      Logs:                                                                                                                                                                    

      saphostexec is already running (pid=57). Stopping...Stopped
      sapinit: stopped, pid=13
      
      Killing deamonized processes
      All processes are gone now
      Finally passing away ...
      Good bye!
      
      You have accepted the SAP Developer Center Software Developer License Agreement
      by passing the parameter -agree-to-sap-license.
      You can read the license text in the file /SAP_COMMUNITY_DEVELOPER_License
      in the image.
      Hint: docker exec -it a4h less /SAP_COMMUNITY_DEVELOPER_License
      
      sapinit: starting
      start hostcontrol using profile /usr/sap/hostctrl/exe/host_profile
      Impromptu CCC initialization by 'rscpCInit'.
        See SAP note 1266393.
      Impromptu CCC initialization by 'rscpCInit'.
        See SAP note 1266393.
      sapinit: started, pid=17
      
      HDB: starting
      
      14.09.2022 11:45:41
      Start
      OK
      
      14.09.2022 11:53:01
      StartWait
      OK
      HDB: started, pid=591
      
      hdb_license_update: starting
      ---
      Retrieving HDB license information
      ---
      HDB Hardware Key   : B1002322283
      HDB Expiration Date: 2022-12-13 23:59:59
      Days to expire     : 90
      ---
      Updating HDB license: found the file /opt/sap/HDB_license
      Removing the current HANA License
      0 rows affected (overall time 604.966 msec; server time 602.575 msec)
      
      0 rows affected (overall time 89.896 msec; server time 87.192 msec)
      
      Installing the license from the file /opt/sap/HDB_license
      
      Welcome to the SAP HANA Database interactive terminal.
                                                 
      Type:  \h for help with commands          
             \q to quit                         
      
      * 437: only commands for license handling are allowed in current state SQLSTATE: HY000
      0 rows affected (overall time 50.602 msec; server time 46.817 msec)
      
      ---
      hdb_license_update: started, pid=1799
      
      asabap_license_update: starting
      ---
      Retrieving AS ABAP license information
      ---
      saplikey: failed to connect to the database.
      asabap_license_update: the start command failed, exit code=2
      
      Application Server: starting
      
      14.09.2022 11:53:03
      Start
      OK
      
      14.09.2022 11:53:15
      StartWait
      OK
      Application Server: started, pid=1988
      
      Worker Processes: starting dependencies
      uuidd: starting
      uuidd: started, pid=2366
      Worker Processes: started dependencies
      Worker Processes: starting
      
      14.09.2022 11:53:15
      Start
      OK
      
      14.09.2022 11:54:27
      StartWait
      FAIL: process disp+work Dispatcher not running
      Worker Processes: the start command failed, exit code=2
      The service Worker Processes has failed to start and initialization is blocked until the problem is resolved
      You can try your luck 10 times until initialization is terminated
      Hint: docker containers can be joined by: docker exec -it <name> bash
      Hint: HDB license must not be expired
      Hint: HDB must be running
      Hint: AS ABAP license must be valid
      Hit Return to continue
      
      

       

      Author's profile photo Marc Bernard
      Marc Bernard

      ABAP and HDB have different system numbers 😉

      Author's profile photo Andrea Borgia
      Andrea Borgia

      edit: removed earlier comment, opened a dedicated question.

      Author's profile photo Sebastiaan Bruyneel
      Sebastiaan Bruyneel

      Great, thanks, just what I needed!

      Author's profile photo Wolfgang Röckelein
      Wolfgang Röckelein

      How do I find out the HDB system-nr when the license is already expired and thus hdb does not start anymore?

      Author's profile photo Andrea Borgia
      Andrea Borgia

      Wolfgang Röckelein checkout this answer to my question above.

      Author's profile photo Wolfgang Röckelein
      Wolfgang Röckelein

      Andrea Borgia thanks, but this is complete recreation of the container. I would prefer to be able to keep the stuff already done in the system.

      Author's profile photo Marc Bernard
      Marc Bernard

      - Start the container

      - open bash in the container

      - cd to the directory that contains previously used license file

      - open the HBD license file

      alternative:

      - cd to the HDB kernel directory

      - use saplikey to display license data

      Author's profile photo Wolfgang Röckelein
      Wolfgang Röckelein

      Hi Marc,

      thanks for the quick reply. Meanwhile I found also another solution, as all "ABAP Platform, Developer Edition for Docker" seem to have the same system numbers. I used one I found in some other discussion and it worked.

      Regards,
      Wolfgang

      Author's profile photo Piotr Tesny
      Piotr Tesny

      Hello Gregor Wolf ,

      Thanks for the blog and the reminder to renew the HDB license as today is the last day of the HDB license validity.

      Having said that, provided A4H is still up and running, there is a way to look up and even renew the HDB license from SAP GUI with the ST04 tcode as follows:

      best regards;Piotr

      Author's profile photo Wises Keshom
      Wises Keshom

      Many thanks to Gregor Wolf and everyone here. I regularly renew the A4H ABAP license (every 3 months) but I haven't re-installed my HBD license since I start running my 1909 ABAP express edition docker image last 18 months ago.

       

      Today, I got this error and I found that this blog helped me a lot to re-new the HBD license.

       

      Happy coding 🙂