ERP is Easy

Hello everyone, 

In this blog, we will go through the step-by-step process of installing the SAP trial system which is an ABAP platform 1909 SP1 version on a docker container.

Once installed, this trial system can be used to develop ABAP programs and you can also execute basis transactions to get some understanding of the SAP system administration.

I am not going to go into the details of the Linux commands or about the docker. If you have not worked on Linux or docker before, then I would suggest you learn the basics before attempting to install this SAP trial system. 

The high-level steps are as follows 

• We will start with launching a Virtual Machine on Amazon AWS. You can launch a VM on any cloud provider and if you have got a powerful laptop or desktop, then you can use that as well.
• Then we will install docker on that Virtual Machine.
• And pull the SAP trial system docker image from the docker hub into the VM.
• Run the docker container which will start the SAP application.
• Then we will see how to connect to the SAP system from your laptop via SAPGUI and Browser.

Now, let’s get into the steps. 

1. Go to your AWS management console and click “launch instance”. This is assuming that you have already got an AWS account or an account in any one of the cloud providers. 
2. I will name this instance “SAP on Docker”. You can name it whatever you want.
3. I am choosing Ubuntu as the operating system as it will be cheaper to run and easy to operate.
4. After choosing the operating system, I am going to choose the instance. I am choosing the one with 16vCPUs and 32GBs of RAM which is the minimum system requirement for this SAP trial system.
5. Then you need to create a key pair which is going to be used to log to the EC2 Virtual Machine remotely from your laptop.
6. I am going to name this “SAP on Docker Linux” and click “Create Key Pair”. It will download the key pair file with a .pem file extension. Save it safely somewhere for now and I will tell you how to use it later.
7. Then in the network settings, you need to open the ports of the server so that you can communicate with the server from the outside world. I need to log in to the virtual machine via the SSH connection. So, I am going to allow access to the SSH port 22 specifically from my laptop’s IP address.
8. I am also going to allow access to all the TCP ports from my laptop as it will be required for SAPGUI. You could also just allow port 3200 for SAPGUI connection if you want to restrict the access to one specific port.
9. Then we need to configure the storage volume. I am going to add 250GBs. That’s the minimum requirement.
10. Then give it a quick check and once you are happy with everything, click the “Launch Instance” button and it will launch the virtual machine.
11. The instance has been created and you can see the public IP, private IP and other details of the instance.
12. You can connect to the instance you just created using different methods. I am going to use my Mac’s Terminal which is an SSH connection.
13. I am just going to copy the command. The command to your specific instance can be found under the “Connect” section, once you have your instance up and running. “ssh -i /path/key-pair-name.pem instance-user-name@instance-public-dns-name”
14. I then open the terminal application on my Mac.
15. And before using the command I need to move the secure key pair from the downloads folder to the .ssh folder.
16. So, I have done that and I am in the .ssh folder now.
17. I am going to change the path of the key pair file location in the command and hit enter.
18. Sometimes, it might complain that the key pair file is not secure. If it does, change the permission of the key pair file to 400 using the command “chmod 400 “file name”. 
19. Then execute the same command.
20. You should be able to connect to your instance.
21. Now we are going to install the Docker but before installing any new software, it’s a good practice to update the package list.
22. You can do that by executing the command “Sudo apt update”
23. Then install the Docker dependencies by using the following command. “sudo apt install -y apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl software-properties-common”
24. Once that is done, we need to add the Docker GPG key. “curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg –dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg”
25. Then setup the stable docker repository. “echo “deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) stable” | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null”
26. And finally install the docker engine. “echo “deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) stable” | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null”
27. Once it is installed, you can verify the installation by checking the docker version using the command, “Sudo docker —version”. And it will provide the docker version details that was just installed.
28. Now let’s go to the SAP trial image page on the docker hub where SAP has provided some information. (https://hub.docker.com/r/sapse/abap-platform-trial)
29. We need to first pull the docker image using a command.
30. To use the latest command, always go to the “Tags” section and use the command from there. “docker pull sapse/abap-platform-trial:1909_SP01”
31. I have copied the command that must be used to pull the image from the docker hub and go back to the terminal to execute it.
32. Always make sure to use the command Sudo before executing these commands as that will provide the admin authorisations.
33. Anyway, now, it will pull the image from the hub. It is about 20 Giga Bytes and after extraction, it will become about 50 Giga Bytes.
34. Now, we need to run the container image.
35. Copy the command that is provided by SAP to run the container and paste it onto the terminal. “docker run –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 sapse/abap-platform-trial:1909 -skip-limits-check”. You can check the details of this command in the docker hub page. 
36. Make sure the command contains “-skip-limits-check” at the end otherwise, it won’t let you run the image.
37. As part of the command, we are allowing a bunch of ports to be allowed between the docker container and the docker host so that we can communicate to the SAP system from outside of the virtual machine.
38. Hit enter.
39. It will run the image and also start the SAP system and the HANA database.
40. It might take a while to start the HANA database as it must extract the data and occupy it in the memory.
41. Then the application server will start.
42. Once all the components are started, you will see the message “All services have been started”. You can stop the image by using the buttons Ctrl-C or the command, docker stop -t 7200 which has got a timeout.
43. Now moving on to the next section, you can connect to this SAP system using two ways. One is through SAPGUI and the other one is through your browser.
44. I have installed SAPGUI for JAVA on my machine as it is a Mac. If you are using Windows, then you can use SAPGUI for Windows.
45. You need to download it from the SAP support portal which will require an S user ID.
46. If you do not have an S user ID to download SAPGUI then you can use your browser to log in. Stick to the blog and I will show you how.
47. I have installed SAPGUI for JAVA and going to the advanced section, then providing the connection details.
48. The public IP address must be preceded by a forward slash H, then trialled by an S and port number 3200 on which the communication will take place. For example, it should look something like this “/H/5.25.135.221/S/3200” (This is applicable if you are using SAPGUI for JAVA on a Mac). 
49. Then save the connection and double-click the entry.
50. Then, you must be able to reach the SAP system.
51. Going back to the docker hub website, SAP has provided the username and password that you can use to log in.
52. The username is DEVELOPER.
53. And the password is something you can find from the docker hub as it might change.
54. The client is 001.
55. Hit enter and you should be able to login to the SAP system.
56. Once logged in, as a first step, you need to apply for a valid license.
57. In the blog, SAP has mentioned using the website called minisap from which you can download the license.
58. Before that, go to the transaction “SLICENSE” in which you need to apply for the license. Then copy the hardware key.
59. And just search, minisap on Google and you will find the website.
60. Go to the website and download the license for the system called A4H as that is what the SAP trial system is called.
61. Provide your details and the hardware key which is unique to each SAP system and then download the license. 
62. Now, go to the SLICENSE transaction, and apply the newly generated license.
63. It is all set, and you can continue to use the SAP system now.
64. Just check if the system is working fine by going through a couple of transactions. I have just used SU01 and DB02.
65. Now let us see how to access the system via browser. To access it via the browser, you need to activate some services from the “SICF” transaction.
66. I am activating a few services like UI5, webdynpro and HTTP services. If you are not sure how to do this, please do a Google search on how to activate SICF services and you should be able to find the steps. 
67. Once it is all activated, go to your browser and use the URL as follows.
68. It should contain the public DNS url of your instance name. Then followed by the port number for HTTP which is 50000, SAP, BC, gui and webgui with a client of 001. (for example, ec2-4-25-136-196.ap-southeast-2.compute.amazonaws.com:50000/sap/bc/gui/sap/its/webgui?sap-client=001)
69. Hit enter and you will see the login page of the SAP system.
70. Once again use the username and password provided by SAP and you can log on to the system.
71. If you want to use any transactions then go to “More” on the top right corner and select “GUI actions and settings” and click “Settings”
72. Select “Show OK code field” and save.
73. Then you will see the field where you can enter the SAP transactions that you want to use.

To summarise,

• We first launched a Linux EC2 instance on Amazon AWS.
• Then connected to that instance via the terminal.
• And installed the pre-requisite software and the docker engine.
• Then pulled the SAP trial system image from the docker hub using the command that was provided by SAP.
• Then we started the image which subsequently started the SAP application along with the HANA database.
• Once started, we saw how to connect to the SAP system via SAPGUI and also via the browser.

Hopefully, this was useful. I have also embedded my YouTube video in this blog where I show you how to do this step-by-step. If easier, you can watch that to learn. 

If you have any questions, please leave a comment on the YouTube video and I will respond. 

If you found this useful, please share it with your friends as it may benefit them as well.