Now available: ABAP Platform Trial

[karl_kessler]

Dear SAP customers and partners, dear ABAP developer community,

ABAP  Platform Trial 1909 is available now. ABAP Platform Trial replaces the former Developer Edition 1909. With ABAP Platform Trial 1909 we want to return to you what the ABAP developer community and many SAP customers and partners were missing for a long time: a standalone ABAP trial offering free of charge which you can use for your own educational purposes, for your own configuration and test setups and as a home for your open source projects. Over the last year, we have been in close contact with the SAP Mentors and DSAG (Sebastian Freilinger-Huber and team from AK Development) to better understand their needs and to find a way to offer the trial version again.

Like its predecessor, ABAP Platform Trial is a docker image containing an ABAP application server (ABAP Platform 1909 SP 07) running on top of the SAP HANA 2.0 database and SAP Cloud Connector. You can pull the entire image from docker hub and create a docker container from it, see ABAP Platform Trial on Docker.

ABAP Platform Trial on Docker Hub

ABAP Platform Trial is modeled as an official SAP product and therefore is delivered through a delivery program. A delivery program ensures that the product meets all SAP product and delivery standards. Special thanks to the SAP HANA team who helped us to get started and for their support during the project.

In this fast-paced world with Cloud and AI everywhere version 1909 might sound a bit like an anachronism. However, this version is still in broad use by SAP customers. It was a good starting point for our new delivery approach. We are already working on a subsequent delivery for ABAP Platform Trial 2022 (we leave out version 2020 and 2021). We plan to deliver ABAP Platform Trial for every new ABAP Platform release (version 2023, 2025 and 2027 according to the release strategy for SAP S/4HANA). In addition, we plan to update ABAP Platform Trial subsequently whenever a new SP update for ABAP Platform is released. Please note that the ABAP Platform Trial roadmap like any other SAP roadmap is subject to the usual roadmap disclaimers.

ABAP Platform Trial 1909 is a docker image and very easy to install. You need to get Docker Desktop installed on your Windows laptop or Mac. Then you open a command prompt or Terminal:

docker pull sapse/abap-platform-trial:1909

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

Please make sure you have enough main memory on board (>=32 GB). The documentation readme on docker hub provides additional technical details.

Once the docker container is up and running you can log on with ABAP Development Tools for Eclipse, via SAP GUI or via SAP Fiori Launchpad, see screen shots below. Enjoy your ABAP Platform Trial 1909.

The available scope including the preconfigured scenarios are described in Julie Plummer's ABAP Platform Trial rollout blog.

ABAP Platform Trial is a team effort. Many colleagues have contributed in many ways. I would like to say a big THANK YOU to the core team:

• Ralf Henning who owns, develops and maintains (upgrade, patch) the master image,
  drives the content and test efforts


• Stephan Daub who drives the delivery program end to end


• Jakub Filak who develops the docker image and scripts for publication on docker hub


• Natalia Brik, Roman Anisovich, Irina Petrov and Derna Hetherton for their support
  around non-ABAP technical assembly


• Frank Rotter who validates our delivery tasks


• Sandra Thimme who executes the test plan


• Julie Plummer who writes the rollout information and interacts with the community


• Roland Brethauer and Matthis Langhoff for security validation and export classification


• Bettina Knauss for her CAL support

I would like to thank the SAP Mentors for their continuous engagement. Special thanks go to the following SAP Mentors for testing the image and providing their valuable feedback and input: Gregor Wolf, Wouter Lemaire, Martin Fischer and Paul Hardy.

Last but not least I would like to thank you all for your patience regarding this topic. We will keep you in the loop and should something happen unexpectedly we will brief the SAP Mentors and SAP user groups prior to the publication on external media.

Best regards

Karl

ABAP Platform Trial in Docker Desktop

ADT connected to ABAP Platform Trial

SAP Fiori app on ABAP Platform Trial

[ahmetfigen]

Hello Andrea,

Thank you for the quick response and recommendation. You are right, obviously I missed the boat 🙂 I have been following a tutorial series, and it was a new topic for me. I will figure it out.

[ramaanne]

Hi kressler and other sap community members here

---

Thanks for SAP ABAP AS HANA 1909 DEV docker hub image  after a period of inactive state

I want to know how I can save hanadb persisted may be using Docker volumes either named or bind ,that is even if started container is removed and a new container (a4h) started again ,the sap hana db data must be still accessible not lost ,say for example  I loaded some tables with data using SDI or SLT replication from another sap instance.

can someone provide clues or steps

thanks & regards

rama anne

[galindo]

Hi,

I did it. I tried many folders to mount a volume but what worked for me, at least for now, was attaching it to the root:

-v hana:/hana

First you need to create a volume on docker, in my case I used "hana":

docker volume create <ID>

If you look inside docker container "a4h" you will see the following structure under hana directory:

vhcala4hci:/hana # ls

data  log  shared



vhcala4hci:/hana # du --max-depth=1 -h 

38G     ./data

2.2G    ./log

7.9G    ./shared

48G     .

Not sure if this is the optimal way, but I've killed, started/restarted the container many times and my data was still there.

[ramaanne]

Hi Gulherme

thats great and I will try out your steps and see how it goes (create ztable ,delete container and create a new container )

 

as a side note it seems docker has commit command and also save

it looks like container snapshot backed up as a image file(tar) which can be restored

but i prefer bind mount volume as you have done

thanks & regards

rama anne

[julieplummer20]

Hi Marc,

I'm just reviewing the comments here. Were you able to resolve the missing ports issue?
If not, I always advise users to open a new question in the ABAP Development forum:

ABAP Development: Ask a Question , using the hashtag #ABAP_Trial.

PS: Thanks for the musical feedback!

Best wishes,

Julie Plummer.

[julieplummer20]

Hi Wesson, hi Sadullah,

First: Thanks Sadullah for this response; it is correct: ABAP 7.52 SP04 Dev Edition runs on a VM like Oracle Virtual Box or VMWare.

Also, the 2 products are similar.

As additional information:

1. ABAP Platform Trial 1909 is much newer, with some nice new pre-configured goodies. I've talked about these here:

https://blogs.sap.com/2023/07/31/abap-platform-trial-1909-available-now/

ABAP Platform Trial is based on the foundation layer of ABAP Platform for S/4HANA 1909. My colleague olga.dolinskaja has provided a great slide deck of the highlights of this version:

https://blogs.sap.com/2019/10/17/abap-platform-for-sap-s4hana-1909/

 

2. ABAP Platform Trial 1909 is on Docker, so you don't need to:

• Configure VM (e.g. VMWare)


• Install a Linux system, e.g. openSUSE


• Configure this system (hostname, start uuidd etc)

The only advantage that I can see of ABAP 7.52 SP04, is that dev edition on VMWare requires less memory than Trial on Docker. For my intro to ABAP 7.52 SP04, developer edition, see:

https://blogs.sap.com/2019/07/01/as-abap-752-sp04-developer-edition-to-download/

Best wishes,

Julie Plummer.

[julieplummer20]

Hi Nigel,

Thanks for the nostalgia trip. Can't believe it's 20 years since I first listened to my Israeli colleagues explaining the idea of a "Community" :-).

I can't even believe it's 10 years since we celebrated the 10th anniversary at TechEd Amsterdam.

Best wishes Julie.

[julieplummer20]

Hi Mark,

I apologise for the delay. I may not be able to help, but what HW do you have?

These are the requirements. Please note that "16 GB is *dedicated to Docker*. ie NOT 16 GB on the machine.

I understand that it worked before, but there may be several reasons for that - what else was running etc.

When you reply, could you please NOT reply to this comment, but rather create a question on the ABAP Development forum : ABAP Development: Ask a Question , using the hashtag #ABAP_Trial.

This will mean that more users, including some real experts, will see your question.

Best wishes,

Julie Plummer.

Linux

• 4 CPUs


• 16GB RAM


• 150GB Disk

Windows

• 4 CPUs for Docker Desktop


• 16GB for Docker Desktop


• 170GB disk for Docker Desktop

macOS

• 4 CPUs for Docker Desktop


• 16GB for Docker Desktop


• 170GB disk for Docker Desktop

[julieplummer20]

Hi Fabian,

I see Karl has answered your question below.

I hope this worked out for you.

If you haven't yet opened up the ABAP Platform Trial, then yes: You can create Z-Reports, other Z-objects etc. I have not looked at IMG in the Trial, but I can't see why that shouldn't work too.

Best wishes,
Julie.

[julieplummer20]

Hi user__name,

Sorry for the delay.

This version of ABAP Platform Trial ships with the version of RAP available with 1909.

This presentation will show you exactly what is available (slide 28 onwards):

https://www.sap.com/documents/2019/10/cefaa4bb-6c7d-0010-87a3-c30de2ffd8ff.html

We are currently working on ABAP Platform Trial 2022, which will naturally offer a more mature version of RAP - which you can see here (slide 30 onwards):

https://www.sap.com/documents/2022/11/ce1e8111-527e-0010-bca6-c68f7e60039b.html

Hope this helps, Julie.

 

 

[julieplummer20]

Hi Ahmet,

Have you looked at this:

https://github.com/abap2xlsx/abap2xlsx ?

I have not tried it myself.

Best wishes,

Julie.

[marcfbe]

Hi Julie, I already had a brief exchange with Jakub.

The documentation should mention that there are other essential ports like for the Tenant DB. It's also important to note that you can't change the ports once the container is started.

30215: SAP HANA Tenant Database (A4H)
50213: SAP Control Start Service (Webservice)
50214: SAP Control Start Service (Webservice SSL)
1128: SAP Host Controller (Webservice)
1129: SAP Host Controller (Webservice SSL)

Maybe it's better to use ranges or alternatively open all ports.

[ahmetfigen]

Hi Julie,

Thank you so much. I will look at it.

Regards,

Ahmet

[szebenyib]

Sorry for the late reply but thanks for the info!

[ferdtulu]

Hi,

does anyone have experience with mac m2 max? if this works with the M2-Apple Chip.

i do not know if that is the problem. Mine doesn't start.

Please, type either Read, Accept, or Refuse: Accept

WARNING: the following system limits are below recommended values:

  (sysctl kernel.shmmni = 4096) < 32768

  (sysctl vm.max_map_count = 262144) < 2147483647

  (sysctl fs.file-max = 524288) < 20000000

  (sysctl fs.aio-max-nr = 1048576) < 18446744073709551615

Hint: consider adding these parameters to your docker run command:

  --sysctl kernel.shmmni=32768

Hint: if you are on Linux, consider running the following system commands:

  sudo sysctl vm.max_map_count=2147483647

  sudo sysctl fs.file-max=20000000

  sudo sysctl fs.aio-max-nr=18446744073709551615

sapinit: starting

start hostcontrol using profile /usr/sap/hostctrl/exe/host_profile

Impromptu CCC initialization by 'rscpCInit'.

  See SAP note 1266393.

Impromptu CCC initialization by 'rscpCInit'.

  See SAP note 1266393.

sapinit: started, pid=14



HDB: starting

[Marian_Zeis]

Had the same problem. You need to use UTM like described here https://blogs.sap.com/2021/12/16/how-to-install-abap-1909-on-mac-m1-apple-silicon/

[robertschulte]

Hello Roland,

your comment caught my attention, as officially the only S/4 IDES is the fully activated appliance which only is licensed by customers having all contained solutions licensed.

So there is a S/4 IDES available to the public?

[RolandKramer]

Hello robertschulte

it depends what you call "available to public".

I have preserved the initial S/4 IDES, fixed several Problems, cleaned out dead connections and users and activated ILM together with IQ.

The result is a HANA backup based on S/4 2020 FPS03 with app 166GB of Data. I have moved the latest Backup from a dismantled Linux Server to my HardDisk which I can share.
Of course, the HANA and S/4 License is your business

best regards Roland

[leonardo_pavia]

I'm just sharing my experience installing ABAP Platform Trial with Docker on Windows with 32GB of RAM. Although the minimal specifications state that 32GB should be enough, if Docker on Windows is using WSL2, Windows itself will take over the control of the assigned memory to the container.

Windows will default only 50% of your total physical RAM to Docker (or any another Linux distro you install with WSL2), meaning only 16GB assigned to the ABAP Trial. I've had several stability problems with this amount of memory. For example, program RS_EPM_DGC_HANA, which is used to populate sample data for EPM data model, will terminate in a dump because of HANA memory problems.

I came across a good explanation on YouTube of how memory is assigned by WSL2 subsystem and how to change the default configuration to fit your needs.

Quick solution, create a new file (if it does not exist) C:\Users\<UserName>\.wslconfig with a couple of lines like this: (swap section is not mandatory)

[wsl2]

memory=26GB

swap=8GB

https://youtu.be/h-jNlXN6qhI?si=Pcd0em2tmAohOhTi

[leonardo_pavia]

Hi Ralf, do we have to do some FQDN config in RZ10 also? Thanks.

[GabrielL]

Can someone post the HDB Info? Installation number, System Number, ect?

I can't connect with database to check and on the docker run is showing only the Hardware Key...

 

Can we apply an lifetime license for HDB?

[robertschulte]

Hello roland.kramer

 

i agree - how i wrote it was a bit misleading.

I meant it exactly how you wrote it and how it was in the past when having an ERP license: we got a HANA and a S/4 license, but have not licensed any further SAP products (so that the fully activated appliance is not an option). But if the IDES you "saved" is covered by the two mentioned licenses, we are fine.

I would appreciate if you could share that IDES - question is what would be the best option. I could provide you space on OneDrive - would that be okay?

I assume i then just could do a system copy based on restoring that backup?

Best regards

Robert

[RolandKramer]

Hello Robert

as this source is treated like a normal S/4 Installation, I cannot take away the burden of having a correct S/4 license for it. This you have to get yourself via the SAP license application.

yes oneDrive is fine, but don't share the url here and send a personal message to y email address

best regards Roland

[robertschulte]

Hello Roland,

thank you a lot!

I will send you a private message with the link.

Best regards,

Robert

[m_kubis]

With the new Docker Desktop Version 4.25.1 the HDB will start up und everthing is running on Apple Silicon! They updated Rosetta.

[robertschulte]

Did the standard entrypoint of the container work now? Or did you also start it manually?

[m_kubis]

I used the standard run command from above.

In took a few minutes to start the HDB und finished with the the success message.

[robertschulte]

Thanks! I just also updated to docker 4.25.1 and can confirm it works. With 4.25.0 i had to start it manually but then it also worked.

[baraklejuriste60]

Thanks for sharing. I was unable to install correctly; facing errore after HDB: starting; I think something related to RAM; I have 24gb of RAM, 8CPUs and 400gb disk space but seems not to be enough. WSL IS using almost 11gb of RAM, leaving less that 16gb required by Docker Desktop. anyone having the same issue? Before upgrading my RAMs I want to make sure it is indeed the problem.

Note: I have also created the .wslconfig file as suggested but nothing. thanks

[WRoeckelein]

Hi karl.kessler ,

any updates on a 2022 or 2023 version?

Regards,

Wolfgang

[syedijlalayub]

Hi Moubarak Lawani, I had a similar issue where execution was stuck on HDB: starting. I had a feeling this could be because of resources issue so I used this link to allocate more resources to the docker desktop. Specifically in C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Docker\settings.json;

"cpus": 4, // 4 cores
"memoryMiB": 49152, //48 GB of ram

and then restarted docker and started the image and it worked.

I'm using a vm for this image and i have a total of 50gb 8 cores allocated to the vm.

Hope this helps!

[Peter_M]

" Over the last year, we have been in close contact with the SAP Mentors and DSAG (Sebastian Freilinger-Huber and team from AK Development) to better understand their needs and to find a way to offer the trial version again"

Please can the following need be recorded?  - That the next updated version enables clean core (embedded steampunk) techniques to be practised.

[m_kubis]

Yesterday 1909_SP01 was released.

[Arnaud_D]

Hello, 

I got this error when I'm trying to pull the image with the command

docker pull sapse/abap-platform-trial:1909

Error response from daemon: manifest for sapse/abap-platform-trial:1909 not found: manifest unknown: manifest unknown

I'm logged before on my DockerHub account with the command docker login.

[ralf_henning]

Hello Arnaud

if you wan't to pull the image, navigate to tab tags and copy the pull command from here.

docker pull sapse/abap-platform-trial:1909_SP01

[DenisGaland]

Hello,

I wanted to install again the image and I have this error when trying to pull the image:

Arngrim  D:\  11:45  docker pull sapse/abap-platform-trial
Using default tag: latest
Error response from daemon: manifest for sapse/abap-platform-trial:latest not found: manifest unknown: manifest unknown
Arngrim  D:\  11:46  docker pull sapse/abap-platform-trial:1909
Error response from daemon: manifest for sapse/abap-platform-trial:1909 not found: manifest unknown: manifest unknown

Could you check what is wrong with the image?

Thanks & regards

[Arnaud_D]

Hi Denis, you have to use the good tag : docker pull sapse/abap-platform-trial:1909_SP01.

To SAP Team, it will be simple to use the tag latest to avoid this king of miss understanding.

Regards,

[pokrakam]

So we've been teased with the idea that updates will be more frequent, and 2022 was under construction last summer. Is this still forthcoming? Or 2023? 

I see that 1909 SP01 was recently made available. But the version I downloaded when this blog was published is SP07, so is this a typo?

Another really nice to have is somewhere to download SAPGUI (Windows and Java) for those of us without a mighty S-User (default S-users such as I'm usually given have no download privileges).

[pokrakam]

By the way, for what it's worth I'm running this on a NAS and it works very well.

[mfrommherz]

SAP GUI Download should be available for everyone using this link:

https://developers.sap.com/trials-downloads.html?search=sap+gui

Thanks for providing the image. It is 7.54, by the way, and lacks some CDS functionality, such as define entity. That starts with 7.55. Hopefully, in the future, someone will have the time and resources to provide an updated image.

[ralf_henning]

Hi pokrakam!

2022 is almost finished, due to unforeseen technical reasons, give us a few more weeks.

SP01 is not a typo. SP07 is the support package of the ABAP Platform 1909.  Because the trial is been covered by an own (new) development program, it starts with it's own versioning. SP0... SP1

You might get SAPGui here

https://developers.sap.com/trials-downloads.html?search=ABAP+Platform+1909+Developer+Edition+on+SAP+...

[pokrakam]

Hi @ralf_henning , 

Thanks for clarifying SP01, and excellent news on 2022, I'll wait for that. 

Re. SAP GUI, I should have been more specific: Where can we get a recent SAP GUI. The developer download is 7.8, we are up to 8.0 SP4 I think (I'm running 8.00 and it's as buggy as can be expected from a .00 version)

[ralf_henning]

The plan is to support you with the recent SAPGui at developers.sap.com/trials-downloads, as soon as 2022 trial is available on docker (maybe a few days later)

[GabrielL]

Why the sapstartsrv shows yellow on HANA Studio? 
I already checked everything related to this. Also, the SAP note 1639568. 

I already exposed the ports 50213 and 50214.

Everything else is working as expected...

Or this is a normal behavior @ralf_henning ?

All these ports are exposed outside docker and OS

[MarcC]

The new image name seems to be  sapse/abap-platform-trial:1909_SP01 - there is no sapse/abap-platform-trial:1909 tag on Docker Hub any more

[Arnaud_D]

Hi Kathlyn, personnaly, I'm using the trial plateform for training purposes. Currently following the ABAP Backend developer.

[Andre_Fischer]

Hi Kathlyn,

you can do anything with it what can be done with a SAP S/4HANA 1909 systems platform. 

So it contains the first version of the ABAP RESTful programming model where this is however in its early stages. But we are working on a 2022 version.

So you can work with CDS views and use the modern ABAP programming style that is still evolving.

Think of it as a standalone (but more modern) SAP NetWeaver ABAP As.

Kind regards,

Andre

[phidoe]

Edit 2024/04/21:
Here it is: 
https://community.sap.com/t5/technology-blogs-by-sap/abap-cloud-developer-trial-2022-available-now/b...

Big thank you to the Trial Team!

=================================

Hi,

is there any update on the timeline for version 2022?

BR,

Philipp

[kyo_choi2]

Hi,

I've tried the pull command but it's displaying following message, please check.  Thank you.

My command: docker pull sapse/abap-platform-trial:2022

Error Message: Error response from daemon: manifest for sapse/abap-platform-trial:1909 not found: manifest unknown:

[Jorge_Cervantes]

Hi @kyo_choi2 

Try: docker pull sapse/abap-cloud-developer-trial:ABAPTRIAL_2022