SAP HANA license types

There are several license types available for the SAP HANA database. Below is a brief overview of the most common ones:

 

SAP HANA Runtime License: This license allows users to run the SAP HANA database in a production environment. It is available for both on premise and cloud deployments and is typically based on the amount of memory utilized by the database. The runtime license is most likely more purchased database license type. This is also the more restrictive license since customers can only leverage it for SAP applications and the underlying SAP and non-SAP data can only be loaded, exported, and managed via SAP technologies.

 

SAP HANA Full Use License: This license provides full access to all of the SAP HANA features, including data integration, advanced analytics, and development tools. It is typically purchased as an add-on to the SAP HANA Runtime License. The full use license type is less restrictive one. It is because there are less restrictions of SAP HANA Runtime. Organizations can use HANA full use for any combination of SAP, non-SAP, custom, or third-party applications. In addition, no limitations exist on the loading and exporting of SAP and non-SAP data directly in and out of SAP HANA.

 

SAP HANA Platform Edition: This license includes both the SAP HANA Runtime and Full Use licenses, as well as additional tools for data modeling and administration. It is designed for organizations that require a comprehensive data management solution.

 

SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud License: This license provides access to the SAP HANA database via a cloud-based subscription model. It includes both the SAP HANA Runtime and Full Use licenses, as well as cloud-specific features such as automated backups and disaster recovery.

 

SAP HANA Edge Edition: This license is designed for small to medium-sized businesses and includes a subset of the SAP HANA Platform Edition features. It is typically based on the number of users or CPU cores utilized by the database.

 

SAP HANA Express Edition: This license is a free, streamlined version of the SAP HANA database that is intended for non-production use. It includes a limited set of features and is typically used for development, testing, and training purposes. It is a free up to 32GB of use with the ability to purchase more, making it suitable for individuals.

 

The licensing terms and conditions for SAP HANA may vary depending on the specific product and deployment model. SAP clients need to always check with their SAP account manager about appropriate license type for their needs.

 

 

More information:

What type of SAP HANA (License) do you need ?

3247198 - SAP HANA License

SAP software asset management

I touched briefly a topic of licensing of SAP software in my older post here. I just can reiterate that it is a very very very complex topic. To understand it may make significant reduction of IT budgets spent yearly on licenses of SAP software. Needless to say that lack of such an insight may have also negative impact potentially from financial and legal liabilities. Analysis of SAP system usage falls under terms SAP SAM (Software Asset Management) and License Performance Evaluation (LPE).

Over the years, SAP came up with different type of licenses. Those can be e.g. named user license that refers to a direct SAP users as those who have logins and passwords on the SAP systems they work in. Then there is a package license that is tied to some metric like revenue or the number of employees in the company.

Even SAP users within the same SAP system can be recognized differently. So called Contractual User Types can be: named user, developer user, professional user, productivity user, functional user, etc. I encourage you to have a look into table TUTYPA (System measurement: User types with attributes). There are typically around 150 records each holding the user type of the SAP System.

Moreover, there is something called indirect usage, that includes also the use of data stored on SAP by or via a third application (e.g. by C.R.U.D. operations). In addition, the indirect usage needs the SAP license too.

 

How to perform SAP License Management? First step to understand any SAP landscape is to collect data about it.

In the times before Solution Manager (Solman) was introduced by SAP traditional SAP t-codes like STAD (Workload Statistics, Business Transaction Analysis), AL08 (Users Logged On system-wide) and SM04 (Active users on an SAP application server instance), and ST03 (Workload and Performance Statistics), etc were used to analyze input data for license usage. No need to mention that typical SAP shop has many different SAP system deployed. Each of them usually has several instances. It was not that easy to manage all these on all these systems.

After Solution Manager introduction an dedicated job can be run is used to collect the data. The job name is REFRESH_ADMIN_DATA_FROM_SUPPORT. As the Solman is typically connected to each SAP system deployed within an organization running the analysis it from one central spot simplified it a bit.

Finally, there are dedicated SAP tools to gather the usage data. T-codes:

SLAW - License Administration Workbench

USMM – SAP License Administration Workbench (SLIM)

SDCCN - Service Data Control Center

 

More information:

Licensing of SAP software

Solution Manager - License Management Prerequisites

Extending NW Developer Editions (aka miniSAP) license

There are few resources discussing this topic that can be found out there on the internet. However every time I do the license extension I suffer a bit with it. Thus I providing this blog post to remind me how to do it for good 😃

First how to find out when the license of NetWeaver (NW) Developer Editions (aka miniSAP) will expire. Normally when you log into your system you get a below copyright popup which apart of other information (like last system logon date/time) reminds when the license will expire.

 

Another option is to see the same information from menu System -> Status -> under SAP System Data area:

  

Third option to see when the license will expire is t-code SLICENSE itself.

 

In case you haven’t logged into your NW developer edition for some time and you can’t remember the passwords or something like that so you are not able to see either copyright popup that comes after logon or you can’t login to your system at all as you getting the logon error like below just do the following. 

Use user SAP* and login to 001 client with password Down1oad. Nee to mention that password of the user SAP* depends on your particular version of the NW developer edition. Therefore the password I mentioned here may not be valid for all the NW developer edition that exit.

Now with regards how to extend the license. While you are in t-code SLICENSE notice the field Active Hardware Key. Open page https://go.support.sap.com/minisap select corresponding radio button System e.g. in case of  SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP 7.52 SP 4 it is an entry “NPL - SAP NetWeaver 7.x (Sybase ASE)”. Fill up rest of the fields like Salutation, First Name, Last Name, Email Address, Hardware Key – that you can find in the t-code SLICENSE. Afterward just accept the license agreement and hit Generate button. Your web browser will prompt you to save NPL.txt file that contains the license.

Now you need to import the generated NPL.txt file into your NW developer edition system via the t-code SLICENSE. There is in INSTALL button available which will prompt you to browse for the NPL.txt file you just downloaded.

 

One of the issues one may run into I that there will be an error while installing the license file like below “Error when installing permanent license key”:

To fix this first an existing expired license needs to be removed in the t-code SLICENSE. Via menu entry Edit -> Delete License. Afterward import of the license file will be successful. 

Once all finished you can login with regular user like BWDEVELOPER and the extended license will be reflected on the copyright popup...