Choose an SAP HANA Database

There are multiple versions of SAP HANA. The information below is a list of links for the documentation of each version. Note that this tutorial will discuss SAP HANA Cloud and SAP HANA, express edition.

Here are a few benefits of using SAP HANA Cloud:

• Software updates are automatically applied by SAP.

• Hardware is managed by a cloud provider (e.g. AWS, Azure, or GCP).

• Backups are automatic and recovery can be initiated in SAP HANA Cloud Central.

• The memory, compute and storage settings can be changed as your needs change. Note a few operations can be performed using service requests.

• The ability is provided to expand data storage from in-memory, to native storage extensions, to a data lake, while providing a common access layer that enables you to have further control over performance and cost. See also Lower Your Data Management Costs With SAP HANA Cloud.

Here are a few differences between SAP HANA Cloud and an on-premise version:

• Every SAP HANA Cloud instance is one SAP HANA database. An on-premise version can have multiple databases per install, which is known as multi-tenant.

• Connections to an SAP HANA Cloud instance must be secure and require a minimum SAP HANA client version of 2.4.167.

• The administration user for SAP HANA Cloud is named DBADMIN while for an SAP HANA 2.0 database it is SYSTEM. For additional details see Predefined Users, SAP HANA Cloud Administrator DBADMIN, and Predefined Users in HANA 2.0.

Information on the instance size steps for SAP HANA Cloud, SAP HANA databases can be found at Create an SAP HANA Database Instance Using SAP HANA Cloud Central. Service plan, pricing and data center availability can be found at SAP HANA Cloud Service (SAP Discovery Center). Details on limitations can be found at System Limitations. Compatibility information can be found at Compatibility with Other SAP HANA Versions.

1. To complete the tutorials in the mission, an SAP HANA instance is needed. Step 3 and 5 in this tutorial provide two different, free options that can be used to set up an SAP HANA instance. Only one of these steps needs to be completed if you currently do not have access to an SAP HANA instance.

   Continue on with this tutorial once you have created an SAP HANA Cloud trial or free tier instance as shown below.

   

   The instructions on how to setup a free SAP HANA Cloud trial or free tier within the SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), are well covered in a number of other sources listed below.

   • Help Thomas Get Started with SAP HANA

   • Set Up Your SAP HANA Cloud, SAP HANA Database (free tier or trial) and Understand the Basics

   • SAP Learning Journey - Provisioning and Administration with SAP HANA Cloud

   • SAP Discovery Center - SAP HANA Cloud, SAP HANA Database Fundamentals

   For more information on SAP BTP see the following:

   • https://www.sap.com/products/business-technology-platform.html

   • https://developers.sap.com/topics/business-technology-platform.html

   • https://help.sap.com/viewer/product/BTP/Cloud/en-US

   Once the SAP HANA Cloud instance is created, take note of the endpoint (host:port) needed to connect to the database. The endpoint can be obtained via the copy menu item. This will be needed in subsequent tutorials in the mission.

   

   Note that the SAP HANA Cloud, HANA database trial or free tier instances are shut down overnight and will need to be restarted before working with them the next day.

2. Open the SAP HANA database explorer by choosing Actions > Open SAP HANA Database Explorer from SAP HANA Cloud Central.

   

   You will be asked to enter the credentials for the database. Enter DBADMIN and the password that was specified when the instance was created.

   

   Note, the credentials for cockpit database connections can be persisted so they do not need to be entered again by entering them into the SAP HANA cockpit app.

   The SAP HANA database explorer provides the ability to browse catalog objects and execute SQL statements from the SQL console. For more information, see the tutorial group Get Started with the SAP HANA Database Explorer and SAP Help Portal topic SAP HANA Database Explorer.

3. Open a SQL console by clicking the Open SQL Console toolbar item in the top-left of the screen.

   

4. Run the following query to see the name of the database you are currently connected to.

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   SELECT * FROM M_DATABASE;
   

   

5. In the SAP HANA database explorer, the current schema shows DBADMIN. A schema is a container for other database objects such as tables and views.

   

   Another way to see the current schema and the connected user is via SQL as shown below. The DUMMY table is available in every HANA database that has one column and one row. It provides a convenient way to call a function or perform a simple test.

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   SELECT CURRENT_USER, CURRENT_SCHEMA FROM DUMMY;
   

6. To see the list of services, enter the following SQL statement:

   SQL

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   SELECT * FROM M_SERVICES;
   

7. To see information about the database server, enter the following SQL statement:

   SQL

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   SELECT * FROM M_HOST_INFORMATION;
   

Views starting with M_ are examples of monitoring views and contain statistics and status details.

Congratulations! You have connected to SAP HANA Cloud and performed a few queries.

This step only needs to be completed if you currently do not have access to an SAP HANA Instance and did not setup an SAP HANA instance through the SAP HANA Cloud Trial or free tier as explained in step 3.

SAP provides a free streamlined version of SAP HANA that runs on developer laptops called SAP HANA, express edition.

SAP HANA runs on a few versions of Linux. SAP HANA, express edition provides virtual machine images that can be run on Microsoft Windows, macOS and Linux machines as well as binary installs as described at SAP HANA, express edition - Implement. In terms of availability, a choice between either the server or the server + applications can be made. The applications include the SAP HANA cockpit, the SAP HANA database explorer and the SAP HANA Web IDE. Further details can be found in the release notes.

Choose an option and proceed to install SAP HANA, express edition. The server-only install, which requires less memory, is sufficient to complete the tutorials in the mission. Be sure to note the SAP HANA database master password, as it will be needed later for connecting.

At this point, you should have a running instance of SAP HANA, express edition.

This step only needs to be completed if you currently do not have access to an SAP HANA Instance and did not setup an SAP HANA instance through the SAP HANA Cloud Trial or free tier as explained in step 3.

A default installation will contain one system database named SYSTEMDB and one tenant database named HXE.

The system database contains information about the tenant database(s) and is used for overall administration. The default port for the system database is 39013. Later in this tutorial mission, a connection to the tenant database will be made and tables will be created and populated with data. For more information, see SAP HANA Tenant Databases Operations Guide.

The SAP HANA, express edition VM install includes a command line tool (part of the SAP HANA client install) called HDBSQL that can be used to query the database.

The following steps will demonstrate connecting to and examining a SAP HANA, express edition database.

1. Enter the following to connect to the system database:

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   hdbsql -n localhost:39013 -u SYSTEM -p Your_Password
   

   

   Notice that the database being connected to is SYSTEMDB.

   The example above uses localhost since hdbsql is running on the same machine that the database is trying to connect to. The host name, hxehost, is seen in the terminal above.

   If hdbsql is not found and you are logged in with another user, try connecting as the user hxeadm and run the command again.

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   su hxeadm
   

   If the hdbsql command cannot be found, simply read through the following examples. The installation and further examples of running HDBSQL will be covered in subsequent tutorials.

2. Determine the IP address of the machine that is running SAP HANA, express edition. Record the value as it will be needed in later tutorials in the mission. It is important to note the IP address or host name of the machine, as this will be needed in later tutorials.

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   ip addr
   

3. The following are a some examples of interactive options followed by a SQL query, which when run against SYSTEMDB returns information about the databases running on the SAP HANA instance.

   SQL

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   \al on
   \pa off
   \s
   SELECT * FROM SYS_DATABASES.M_SERVICES WHERE SQL_PORT != 0;
   \serverstats
   

   

   The \al or align interactive option when enabled increases the readability of the output.

   The \s command shows status information. It shows that that the SAP System Identification (SID) is HXE, that the connected database is SYSTEMDB, and the currently logged in user is SYSTEM.

   The result of the SELECT against the M_SERVICES table shows that there are two databases, named SYSTEMDB and HXE and that they are accessible on ports 39013 and 39015.

   The ‘\serverstats’ retrieves resource consumption information about the last executed SQL statement which can be helpful when diagnosing SQL statements.

   The instance number can be derived from a port number using the second and third numbers in the port number 39013. In this case, the instance number is 90.

   If the SQL statement returns more than one screen of text, entering a space will show the next screen of results. See also the pager option \pa.

4. Enter one of the below commands to exit from viewing the results of the select statement. Note that commands can be prefixed with a forward slash(\) or a colon(:).

   HDBSQL

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   \q
   :q
   

5. Connect using the instance number and database name as shown below.

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   hdbsql -n localhost -i 90 -d HXE -u SYSTEM -p Your_Password
   

6. Enter the following to display database connection information.

   HDBSQL

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   \s
   

   Notice that this time the database connected to is HXE.

   

   For further information, see Port Assignment in Tenant Databases and Connecting to SAP HANA Databases and Servers.

Congratulations! You now have access to an SAP HANA instance and understand some of the differences between SAP HANA Cloud and SAP HANA, express edition.