Set up SAP HANA, express edition on Amazon Web Services (XS Advanced)

There are different methods to connect to your instance depending on the system you are using to connect from.

You can use a standalone SSH client like PuTTY.

Note: There is also a option to use Java SSH Client directly from your browser which uses MindTerm.

However this require the use of NPAPI, which is being deprecated and unsupported by most browsers like Chrome, Microsoft Edge or recent version of Firefox.

Therefore, it is recommended to use a standalone SSH client.

From the EC2 Console, select your EC2 instance:

Copy the IPv4 Public IP or the Public DNS (IPv4) address from the instance information.

Then follow the instruction based on your client platform using the Public DNS host name as highlighted above.

Windows platform:

If you are using a Windows PC, you will need to download and install:

• an SSH client, such as PuTTY
• a key pair converter such as PuTTYgen (one time operation)

Create private key file

This is a one time operation.

Open PuTTYgen.

Use the Load button to import your X.509 certificate .pem file.

Use the Save private key button to save your private key file as .ppk.

Connect:

Start a new PuTTY session.

Enter the IPv4 Public IP or the Public DNS (IPv4) address in the Host Name (or IP address) field.

On the left tree, select Connection > SSH > Auth, select the generated private key .ppk file:

Click on Open.

When prompted, use ec2-user as user.

Check the following guide for further information: Connecting to Your Linux Instance from Windows Using PuTTY

Mac or Linux platform

You can use command ssh from a terminal as follows:

ssh -i /path/my-key-pair.pem ec2-user@public_ip_address

For more details about standalone SSH client option, you can check the Connecting to Your Linux Instance Using SSH guide.

Once you have established an SSH session, use the ec2-user user to log in:

The prompt should become:

ec2-user@hxehost:~>

Change the password for hxeadm using the following command:

sudo passwd hxeadm

As follows:

Switch now to user hxeadm to start configuring your instance:

sudo su - hxeadm

You will be prompted for the master password for your database. If you lose this password, you will lose access to your instance.

Note: The password has to follow these rules

The master password you will specify is used for the <sid>adm and sapadm OS users, the telemetry technical user, and the HANA SYSTEM user.

SAP HANA, express edition requires a very strong password that complies with these rules:

• At least 8 characters
• At least 1 uppercase letter
• At least 1 lowercase letter
• At least 1 number
• Can contain special characters, but not ` (backtick), $ (dollar sign), \ (backslash), ' (single quote), or " (double quotes)
• Cannot contain dictionary words
• Cannot contain simplistic or systematic values, like strings in ascending or descending numerical or alphabetical order

Enter the password you want to set for your administration user.

You will not need a proxy to access the internet, so enter N (no) when prompted.

You will also be asked if you want to wait for XSA configuration to finish.

The recommended option is N (no), so that the installation continues even if you lose connectivity.

The setup script will perform different configurations for the next 10 minutes.

After the core database has been set up, you should see a success message.

This means the XS Advanced applications are now being configured.

Repeat the following command to check if the XS Advanced installation has finished, or wait until you get a success message if you chose to wait until the configuration finishes.

cat /usr/sap/HXE/home/xsa_config_status

You will see status=success once it has finished:

Note: If the status is not successful, you can check the log to see what errors occurred using the command, for example:
cat /var/tmp/hdb_init_config_2017-11-27_19.36.24.log.

You can now check your instance is running properly. From the console log, use the following command as user hxeadm to see which processes your database is running:

HDB info

You should see (at least) the following processes:

• hdbnameserver
• hdbcompileserver
• hdbindexserver
• hdbwebdispatcher

Note: You can run commands HDB start and HDB stop respectively to start and stop your SAP HANA instance

Although the database is running, the XS Advanced applications and services may still be loading. Check the progress by running the following command in the XS Command Line Interface.

Note: You can also execute the CLI locally from your computer. Make sure to download it from the download site using the Download Manager and to map your hosts file as explained in step 9.

xs-admin-login
xs apps | grep webide

When prompted, use the password you provided at the beginning of the installation script.

Repeat the second command until you see STARTED and 1/1 for applications webide.

Make sure you update the hosts file as indicated in the next step before you call Web IDE.

Provide an answer to the question below then click on Validate.

Use the external IP address collected from the Amazon Web Services EC2 console to map it in your computer hosts file. In addition you will also need to give your IP access for ports 51000 - 51500.

Warning: You will need administration permissions on your computer to do this.

• On Windows:

  If your user is not an administrator but has administrator rights, right-click on Notepad and choose Run as Administrator.

  

  If you are an administrator user, proceed to the next point.

  Open the file or navigate with Windows explorer. You need to edit the file called hosts in the directory C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc.

  

• On Mac:

  Open a terminal ( Finder -> Applications -> Terminal) and type

  sudo nano /etc/hosts
  

  

Add the external IP address followed by the name of the host, hxehost like this:

xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx hxehost

Save and close the text editor.

You will also need to add 3 ranges (highlighted to the security group) to be able to be able to access the XSA services (like SAP Web IDE). Open your AWS console and add the highlighted ports to the roles created earlier:

Note: If Notepad asks you to create a new file, it means that you do not have enough permissions to save the file and that you didn’t start your program as Administrator.
Creating a new file will not alter the configuration as intended.

You can now use your browser to call SAP Web IDE for SAP HANA using link https://hxehost:53075.

Log in with user XSA_DEV and the password you provided during the initial setup script.

Note: You may get a message stating that your connection is not private. This is generally expected because you are using a self-signed certificate.

 
You can use address https://hxehost:39030 to see additional links such as the Administration Cockpit.
 
Make sure you use user XSA_ADMIN in different browsers or incognito mode to avoid authorization errors.