2013-09-18: The System ID for the license key request form is now "HDB - SAP HANA Platform edition 64 GB"

2012-12-25: Added common issues and solutions in "When things go wrong" section

Welcome

If you followed the instructions on Developer Center HOWTO - Get and Install a SAP HANA, developer edition License File  to create your own HANA instance on one of our public cloud partners, you will have to re-new your license key every 90 days. If you don't, your HANA DB will stop working and wait for you to install a license key.

This HOWTO document walks you through the necessary steps.

Prerequisites

Your HANA database is up and running and you can connect to it from HANA Studio. The server and studio versions are at least Revision 35.

Step 1 - Find your hardware key

In order to request a license key, you need to know the hardware key of the (virtual) machine running your HANA DB. To find the hardware key...

• Open HANA Studio
• In the Navigator panel, right-click the system connection of your HANA instance and choose Properties from the context menu
• On the popup, choose License
• You will find the Hardware Key in the Request License Key section of the popup. Copy, remember of write down that license key

Step 2 - Request a license key

SAP provides a simple self-service to request license keys for the SAP HANA, developer edition online. Here's what you have to do:

• Point your favorite web browser to http://service.sap.com/sap/bc/bsp/spn/minisap/minisap.htm
• Enter your personal data. If you have several SCN User IDs (e.g. an S-number and a P-number), please enter the one you used to request access to the HANA, developer edition
• Tick the "I agree" box in the License Agreement section. Right now, the actual agreement that is shown is a standard SAP Evaluation License Agreement. This is wrong, your usage of the SAP HANA, developer edition will continue to be governed by the License Agreement you agreed to when requesting access to the instance. We will correct this issue as soon as possible.
• In the System Info section, choose "HDB - SAP HANA Platform edition 64 GB" from the System ID dropdown and paste or enter your hardware key in the Hardware key (HWID) field
• Click the Submit button
• After a few minutes, you will receive an email from SAP License Auditing Services <las@sap.com> with an attached HDB.txt file. Save that file

Step 3 - Install License Key

To complete the license key installation, you must upload your license key file to your HANA instance.

• Open HANA Studio
• In the Navigator panel, right-click the system connection of your HANA instance and choose Properties from the context menu
• On the popup, choose License
• Click the Install License Key button
• Choose the HDB.txt file that you saved in Step 2
• You should see a message "License key has been installed successfully"

When things go wrong

We may be overly optimistic here, but we don't expect too many issues with the license generation and installation. Should you experience any issues, please post a comment to our discussion forum or send us an email to devcenter@sap.com. Some typical sources of trouble:

• You see any error message when trying to install the license key. Make sure
  • you have upgraded your HANA DB and HANA Studio to version 1.00.35 or higher, as advised in the prerequisites
  • double-check the hardware key
• You get the message popup "License key has been installed successfully", but the expiration date of the license does not change
  • click the "Delete License Key" button and then "Install License Key" again
• You see the error message "nameserver failed to process the request exception failed to install a permanent license" when trying to install the license key
  • This can happen with HANA Systems on AWS that were originally installed with Revision 28 -  license file is created with a wrong System Number that doesn't match your installation. If your temporary license has not yet expired, you might consider spinning up a new instance and moving your data via backup/restore. Alternatively, to fix the issue:
  • Check your latest nameserver_imdbhdb.*.trc file, either from the Studio (double-click connection and choose the "Diagnosis Files" tab) or on the server (find it in /usr/sap/HDB/HDB00/imdbhdb/trace). Towards the end of the file, you should find something like:
    [10963]{200009}[0] 2012-11-21 08:14:39.127976 i TraceContext TraceContext.cpp(00534) : UserName=SYSTEM
    [10963]{200009}[0] 2012-11-21 08:14:39.127970 e Licensing    AbstractLicenseManager.cpp(00054) : 52 likey_install_from_memory: This system's system number is "000000000xxxxxxxxx", but there is a license key for system number "000000000yyyyyyyyy" in the license key file.
    [10963]{200009}[0] 2012-11-21 08:14:39.133006 e Licensing    AbstractLicenseManager.cpp(00818) : TRY TO INSTALL AN INVALID LICENSE:
    ----- Begin SAP License -----
    SAPSYSTEM=HDB
    ...
    
  • Copy the value for 000000000xxxxxxxxx and paste it into your HDB.txt license file, overwriting 000000000yyyyyyyyy. Then try to install the license again.

• You never received the email with the license key attached. Make sure
  • you entered a correct email address. The email will NOT be sent to the address stored in your SCN User Profile, but to the email address you enter as part of the license request
  • you have las@sap.com on your Safe Senders list and the email wasn't classified as SPAM

If you think this HOWTO can be improved, please leave us a comment below.

Have fun with SAP HANA!