SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP 7.40 SP8 - Developer Edition to Download: A Step by Step Guide for Linux Newbies

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ABAP 7.40 SP8 is avaible as free download - but only on Linux! This should not be an insurmoutable obstacle for all those who in the past used forwenting console tools. Here we are with a step by step guide.

(For hardware and operation system requirements see the introduction page.)

There are different possibilities for using a Linux operation system together with Windows or  Mac OS. And there different Linux OS versions available. This guide is using

• Windows 7 Enterprise, 64-bit 6.1.7691, Service Pack 1 as host OS version
• VMware Workstation 12 Player Version 12.0.0 to run a Linux operating system as guest OS version
• Ubuntu Desktop 14.04.3 LTS, Ubuntu 15.04 and Ubuntu 15.10.

Ubuntu 14.04 is the long term support version coming with several years of security and maintenance updates wheras 15.04 is the latest version but coming only with several months of updates. In 15.04 and 15.10 some steps are more comfortable (e.g. run the libuuid deamon) and if you only want to use it for a preview I recommend to use 15.04. If you plan to use it for a longer period I suggest to follow Ubuntu's recommendation.

Currently Ubuntu offers 15.10 with a new Linux kernel. The ABAP kernel has not yet been validated against the new Linux one. So the ABAP server is not released for it. This means that you will be greeted by a dump each time you log on to the system. I tested some development scenarios and the server is working correctly. Of course my test coverage is by far not suffiencient. But if you can live with this ugly feature warning from a productive usage and eventually some issues, the installation with Ubuntu 15.10 is far more easy.

Preparing the OS

Download and install the VMware player and OS

You can get the VMware player VMware Workstation 12 Player Version 12.0.0 at Try VMware Workstation Player. Deliver a virtual desktop to your employees. | United States. Download it for Windows 64-bit íf you are on Windows and install it. If you are asked for installing VMware Tools, do it. It allows for example resizing the windows. If you want to learn more about VMware Player goto the VMware documentation site at VMware Documentation.

Then you can proceed downloading Ubuntu Desktop 14.04.3, 15.04 or 15.10 at Download Ubuntu Desktop | Download | Ubuntu. This creates an .iso file in the download folder.

Now start the VMware Player.

Select the option to Create a New Virtual Machine. The system prompts you to enter the path to the downloaded Ubuntu version.

Then you can enter your full name and credentials.

The full name is used for display in the tools, on OS level you work always with the user name.

On the next screen you can change the name of the virtual machine which is visible in the VM player.

Now we are asked to specify the disk capacity. We need 100 GB disk size and I recommend to store the virtual disk as a single file.

On the following screen customize the hardware before finishing the wizard.

Set the

• Memory to 4000 MB
• number of processors to 4
• Replication of the physical network connection.

Close this popup and press finish. Ubuntu will be installed. This takes about 5 minutes, time for a short coffee. After the installation the system prompts you to a login screen.

Enter your password from the second screen of the wizard and: Welcome to Linux.

You will see that Ubuntu installs the VM with the hostname ubuntu.You can verify this in opening a terminal window and entering the command

    hostname

In 14.04 you get a terminal by searching for xterm: press the first button in the Launcher. Once you have a terminal, you can lock to the Launcher with the right mouse menu.

In 15.10 you can just open a terminal with the right mouse menu.

Users in Linux

The wizard created a user, in this case the user hillenbrand, with his home directory and authorizations with respect to this directory. He can read and write the files in his home but he is not allowed to write other directories. By default Linux has a superuser root with read and write authorizations in system directories. As default, he has no password and he is locked for remote access.

During the preparation and installation steps you will need super user authorizations. There are different means to change the priviledges:

1. Change the user

    su <username>

This command requires the password of the target user. Unless you change the settings for the superuser root, you cannot use it to log in with root. But you will need it to operate the ABAP server with the SAP system user.

2. Change to root

    sudo -i

This command requires the password of the current user and logs in as superuser root.

3. Exit the login as different user

    exit

This command returns to the user from which you switched.

4. Execute commands with superuser priviledges

    sudo <command>

This command requires the password of the current user and executes the command with the authorizations of the user root. I will use it in this blog. I prefer it, because it does not switch the home directory and you can use it when it is necessary. The disadvantage is, that you have to enter the password each time you are using it.

If you want to learn more about users and switching users you can search the web. In Wikipedia for example there is an article about sudo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudo and there are some more considerations about changing users in http://askubuntu.com/questions/57040/what-is-the-difference-between-su-sudo-bash-and sudo-sh.

Configuring the system

Users in a Corporate Network

If you are in a corporate network you have to configure the proxy server otherwise you cannot connect to the system. Users in their own network not using a proxy server can skip this section.

Open the settings menue in the upper right corner and select System Settings.

Select the Network icon.

Select Network proxy and the Method manual. And enter your proxy server.

Press enter so save the setting.

Depending on your corporate network settings you have to manipulate the file /etc/apt/apt.conf. I'm using the editor nano which is quite basic but sufficient for our purposes. Manipulating the file needs root user priviledges. So open a terminal window and enter the command

    sudo nano /etc/apt/apt.conf

In our setting I added the line

    Acquire::http::proxy http://proxy.wdf.sap.corp:8080"

and saved the file and closed it.

It is possible that this is different in your environment. Search for proxy settings with Ubuntu in the internet.

Then these new settings have to be activated with the command

    sudo apt update

So far for the proxy configuration.

Changing the keyboard mapping

If you want to adapt the keyboard mapping to your one, open a terminal window and enter the command

    sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration

This opens a dialogue where you can select your keyboard and language. After having finished the dialogue check your keyboard mapping. It should work now.

Installing some necessary or helpful tools

CSH (Berkeley  Unix C shell) - required

Ubuntu comes with the shell bash. A shell allows you to type in commands into a console. We have already used some bash commands in this tutorial. To install the ABAP server we need a different one: CSH. If you want to learn more about shells you can search the web or goto the Ubuntu Wiki: ChangingShells - Ubuntu Wiki.

    sudo apt-get install csh

installs the required shell. You will not see any difference.

Secure Shess SSH - optional

SSH is a secure network protocol which allows you to connect to your server with WINscp for example. This is quite helpful if you want to navigate the directories with tools you are familiar with. For details about SSH search in the web or go to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Shell.

    sudo apt-get install ssh

installs this tool. We have to configure the service. Open the file /etc/ssh/sshd_config with an editor.

    sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

and enter the following line to be able to connect as root user which is sometimes useful. (But of course you can also login with your own user.)

    PermitRootLogin yes

Save the file and restart the service:

    sudo service ssh restart

Connecting to the server with WINscp - optional

To connect to the server you need its IPadress. You'll get it entering the command

    ifconfig

Above we have allowed for login in with the root user. But you still need a password for the root user. To set a password for the user root enter the command

    sudo passwd root

Now start WINscp and create a new folder. Enter the IP address as hostname and user root. Save the configuration and login. You are asked to enter a password.

On the left hand side you browse the files of your computer (the host) and on the right hand side you see the file system of your Ubuntu one (the guest). You can navigate and copy files from here and there.

Installing Libuuid - required

The ABAP server exposes a function to generate GUIDs. To guarantee the uniqueness of these identifiers you have to install the uuid library.

    sudo apt-get install uuid

installs the library. With Ubuntu 15.04 you can skip the following description and continue with the section Activating and Testing the Liquid. Ubuntu 15.0 installs the service and registers a daemon which is automatically activated after each restart of the system. So that you do not have to care any more for starting the daemon. With Ubuntu 14.04 this is not that simple.

Libuuid in Ubuntu 14.04

Unfortunatly Ubuntu 14.04 does not provide this handy support installing the libuuid. We have to do some manual steps. Let's go.

We need the uuid service, a daemon and a script to start the daemon at each restart of the system automatically.

The uuidd daemon has to be owned and run by the root user. The installation uses a different one. We have to change this. The daemon is created in the directory /usr/sbin. So change the directory:

    cd /usr/sbin

    ls -l

The second command lists the content of the actual directory, the parameter -l is to display details. You will get a list where the uuidd daemon is marked. The user is not correct.

To change the user we will use the chown command as follows. If you want to get information about a command enter the command followed by --help. But now we will change the user and user group of the uuidd daemon.

    sudo chown root:root uuidd

Enter again the list command (ls -l), you will see now that the owner and group has been changed and the daemon is not marked any more. Now we create a user and user group uuidd. The user uuidd must be a system user, added to the user group uuidd with the home directory /var/run/uuidd.

    sudo addgroup --system uuidd

    sudo adduser --system --ingroup uuidd --home /var/run/uuidd uuidd

Users and user groups are contained in the files /etc/passwd and /etc/group. You can list the files for users and user groups with the following commands respectively.

    cat /etc/passwd

    cat /etc/group

We to create the script to trigger the daemon when the machine is started. Fortunately we can get it from the internet. I downloaded the version from and renamed it to uuidd. A version is available at util-linux/uuidd.rc.in at master · karelzak/util-linux · GitHub. With WINscp I copied it to the directory /etc/init.d. You need root user priviledges to add files to this directory. After having copied the file, open the properties and add execution rights for all users.

It's still not finished. Unfortunately in my installation the authorizations had not been enough to create files in the uuidd directory. I had to add temporarily more in the script. So open the file with an editor.

    sudo nano /etc/init.d/uuidd

You can also use WINscp to edit the file. Change the variable UUID_DIR to /var/run/uuidd and add the command

    chmod 777 $UUIDD_DIR

after the command to create the temporary directory: mkdir -p $UUIDD_DIR. The authorizations 777 are disputable, but using them, it worked. Save the file.

Finally we are done installing the uuid service and daemon (uuidd).

Activating and Testing Libuuid

The command

    sudo update-rc.d uuid defaults

updates the startup service and registers the uuidd daemon. I restarted the guest operating system. Running the command

    sudo uuidd

should now show the message that the uuidd daemon is already running.

Hostname

The ABAP installation requires a hostname which does not exceed 13 characters. the hostname ubuntu fullfills this requirement. In addition the hostname hast to be addressable. Therefore we have to map the IP address to the hostname. So open the file /etc/hosts with an editor.

    sudo nano /etc/hosts

and mapp the IP address to ubuntu. You get the address with the command ifconfig. Take care to delete or comment the old mapping.

Test the setting with

    ping ubuntu

This should return packages.

We are  done now with the preparations and can start the ABAP installation.

Installing and Configuring SAP NetWaever AS ABAP

Prerequisites

If you installed the optional tools, you can skip this section. If not take care that the libaio service is installed (sudo apt-get install libaio). This service is required for the ASE installation.

ABAP Backend installation

Now we are going to use the downloaded files. There should be 8 .rar files. Open your home directory on Ubuntu and create a folder for these files. Copy the files into this directory. You can use WINscp on Windows or use the sharing service described below.

Open the properties of this folder and share it. You'll get a message that the sharing service is not installed. Press the install button. When it is finished, close the window and restart the session.

Creating the share. you are asked to add the permissions automatically. Confirm it and close the window. You can now access the folder with the explorer of the host system which is quite comfortable to copy and extract the files.

Connect via the IP address to the folder and copy the files. Select the part1 of the .rar files and extract it. This takes some time - time for a break.

You can also unrar the files on OS level. To do this, you have to install the package unrar.

    sudo apt-get install unrar

To unrar the files use the command unrar with the option x so that the full paths are extracted.

    sudo unrar x TD74SPS8_part1.rar

After the extraction, you can delete the .rar files. In our directory we have following folders and files

• client folder containing the Java and Win GUI. You will need it later on to install the frontend on the host
• img folder with some icons
• server folder containing the backend files
• install.sh - the installation script
• readme document
• license agreement - which you should read

To start the installation script we have to switch back to the terminal window. Change to the folder with the installation script install.sh and enter the command

    sudo sh ./install.sh

without any options. You will see a message that the hostname will be ubuntu. Confirm it. It continues with the licence agreement. Read it and agree. Then you are prompted to enter a password which you will need to operate the ABAP server. Ensure that the password exceeds 7 characters, contains capital letters and digits but does not contain special characters. And then it takes about 20 minutes. Time for lunch.

The system should return with the message: Installation of NPL successful.

Frontend Installation

The installation comes with SAPGUI for Java and Windows in the Client folder. You can use the Java GUI on the guest or host system. The Win GUI can only be used on Windows host system. Execute the appropriate .exe file either on the guest or host system. This guide uses the Win GUI on the host system.

After the wizard has finished, you can open the SAPLOGON and create a user specified system with the following attributes.

    Application server: your IP address (to find out use the command ifconfig, see above)

    Instance Number: 00

    System ID: NPL

Finish the wizard. And connect to the system via double click.

You can logon with the user developer in client 001. His password is abCd1234. If you are greeted by a short dump, there is something wrong with the uuidd daemon and the guids created in your system may not be unique. Even with this dump you can start exploring the system. But it is not yet ready for developing.

Install the Eclipse development tools on your host. You will find the description and links at SAP Development Tools for Eclipse.

Post Installation Steps

Hostnames

You will certainly use browser applictions (WebDynpro or SAPUI5 applications) with your host browser. Therefore you have to configure the hostnames and map them. SAPUI5 requires full qualified domain names. We have to maintain this in the ABAP profile parameter. You can use the transaction rz10 but as console tool expert, change the profile directly in the file system - it is easier.

You find the profile directory in /usr/sap/NPL/SYS/profile. List the entries. You will find the file NPL_DVEBMGS00_ubuntu. Open it with an editor: nano or if you are still connected with WINscp you can search and edit the file from there. Add the following parameter

    icm/host_name_full = $(SAPLOCALHOST).dummy.nodomain

To activate the new profile setting you have to restart the server. For this have look into the section Operating the ABAP server. After the restart the server can use full qualified host names. But wait, there are more parameters to be changed.

As we want to use the host browser we have to map the names in /etc/hosts of our host computer. Open the file hosts in Windows/System32/drivers/etc and add the mapping of the hostnames to your IP address. Remember the host name is ubuntu and full qulified name ubunut.dummy.nodomain. Edit the file with notepad. You need administration authorizations.

If you want you can restart and explore the feature gallary in the main menu.

Correct the sizing

The system default settings for the memory size are not appropriate for this installation. So change the profile NPL_DVEBMGS00_ubuntu again with WINscp if you like and change the parameter PHYS_MEMSIZE

    PHYS_MEMSIZE = 30%

Save the file and restart the system. The system should now work properly.

Install the developer license

To use the server for developing you need a minisap license. It is a temporary license free of charge, valid for 90 days and it can be extended on demand. So lauch transaction slicense.

You see the hardware key which you will need later on and you can also see that the system comes with a restricted temporay license.

Now open the link SAP Sneak Preview License Key Request. Enter your name and email address. Select NPL- SAP NetWeaver 7.x (Sybase ASE) and enter your hardware key. Read and accept the license agreement and submit the form. You will receive an email with the key file attached.

After having received the email with the license key, store the key and go back to the transaction slicense. Select your entry and press the Install button. You will be asked for the path to the key enter it and continue. That's it. The license is now changed to type Demosystem.

You can start creating your own development objects.

Operating the ABAP server

Basically you will need two commands for starting and stopping the server in a controlled way. Open a terminal window. You have to execute these commands with the user npladm created by the installation with the password you entered during the ABAP server installation. So change the user.

    su npladm

Remember the su command requires the password of the target user, the npladm user. This is the password you entered during the installation of the ABAP server.

To start or stop the server, enter either startsap or stopsap.

    startsap

    stopsap

Find some more installation options, created users and folders and operation hints at SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP 7.40 SP8 - Developer Edition to Download: Consise Installation Instruction. Explore the SCN ABAP space to get some ideas on our AS ABAP. Enjoy!