Technical Articles
Installing SAP ABAP Platform 1909, Developer Edition in the Cloud
This Blog entry describes how to install the SAP ABAP Platform 1909, Developer Edition in the Cloud.
Step 1: Obtain an account with a Cloud provider
The authorised providers are listed in the EULA. I choose Amazon Web Services.
Step 2: Create a Server
Choose “Build using virtual servers”, then the following options:
Next we have to choose a hosting Plan (size). I go for 4 vCPUs, 16 GB of RAM, 320 GB SSD, and 6 TB of network traffic per month. I also choose a geographical zone. Ready to create a Server Instance:
Creation is quite quick, and in a few minutes the Instance is up and running:
AWS provides a web-based SSH client to connect to the Server Instance:
From now on, we shall be working in the Command Line Interface of the Server.
Step 3: Install the Docker Engine
This is fairly straightforward and well documented here: https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu/
There are several ways to install the Docker engine. I choose “Install using the repository”, which seems to be the default / easiest method.
Having an account with Docker is likely required at this point – I do not know for certain, as I had created it some time ago. This is something we’ll need to do anyway, then why not do it now.
Step 4: Pull the Docker image of SAP ABAP Platform 1909, Developer Edition
We pull the required image from the Docker Hub:
# docker login # docker pull store/saplabs/abaptrial:1909
The full download takes some 15 minutes, extraction about the same.
Step 5: Open the Ports
In the Networking section of the Lightsail Server admin console, it is necessary to open the Port 3200 (SAP Gui) and 3300 (RFC – Eclipse) by adding a Firewall rule:
Step 6: Run the Docker image
This is the final step. I used the following modified statement:
docker run --sysctl kernel.shmmni=24576 --stop-timeout 3600 -i --name a4h -h vhcala4hci -p 3200:3200 -p 3300:3300 -p 8443:8443 -p 30213:30213 -p 50000:50000 -p 50001:50001 store/saplabs/abaptrial:1909 -skip-limits-check -agree-to-sap-license
The port mapping with -p is necessary.
Result:
As a post-installation step, create a SAP Gui entry. On Windows:
On Linux / Mac OS:
(The blurred-out part is the Cloud Server Public IP as provided by AWS).
And we are good to go:
Thanks for sharing
Thanks Kamil for writing this blog, as it is very useful for me and my colleagues who are looking for our own SAP server to use privately for practice. Just one thing, can you kindly tell how much would it cost, say per month, to go with either option 1 or option 2? Also, do you recommend if multiple users share the same server?
Thanks in advance.
Thank you for your comment, Aditya. It has come to my attention that we are not quite free to choose the cloud provider. ABAP Developer Edition may only be hosted with SAP Authorized Cloud Computing Platform Web Hosting Service Providers listed in the EULA. I am in the process of moving to one of them. I shall update the blog entry when I’m done.
Hello Aditya, I have updated the blog entry, this time using one of the authorised Providers. If you follow the steps, after Step 2 you will get information about the pricing in your region.
Regarding your question whether multiple Users can share the same Server: Technically certainly yes, BUT you'll want to check the License Agreement to see whether this is permitted.
Expect to pay around 80$ for the suggested configuration.
Hello Martin, that is correct. Plus tax, per month.
Microsoft Azure is even more expensive, and I find their offering frustratingly confusing.
There are other Cloud server providers which are easier to use, cheaper and better, in my opinion. They offer:
I had written this Blog entry originally using my favourite provider Scaleway (they offer almost all of the above, except the reduced rate when you turn off the Server). But then I re-read the EULA, and realised that we are limited to the 6 providers listed there. I moved to AWS. The only thing I like about AWS is their web-based SSH console - that is genius.
It's not a long-term solution. You can buy a decent PC with 32 or 64 GB of RAM for the price of running an AWS Lightsail Server for just a few months. Short-term, however, it might make sense. If you want just to try something out, or learn something. You can have an AWS Lightsail with ABAP Platform up and running in under 60-90 minutes, half of that unattended. It will have a fixed IP address, to which you can connect from anywhere (yes, you can set this up at home too).
I have been using this solution for about 2 weeks, and it is OK. Sometimes a little on the slow side, especially with Eclipse. The connection from my home PC breaks up from time to time, but it is rock-solid from a desktop-as-a-service I am running with ubiDesktop.
Appreciate the tutorial! Thanks to this, I got mine running now.
Everything was smooth until the end where I faced a license issue when tried to login with DEVELOPER. The error message was "error in license check logon not possible".
I will make a note how I resolved it for future reference in case others people might end up with the same error like me.
There was apparently a step where you have to request a license via below link, with the right hardware key of yours.
https://go.support.sap.com/minisap/#/minisap
Then place the license file under /opt/sap/ASABAP_license on the container. I followed the below blog.
https://blogs.sap.com/2021/04/22/how-to-install-a-new-license-in-your-sap-abap-platform-developer-edition/
After successful update on the licese, I could finally login.