This post has been republished via RSS; it originally appeared at: Running SAP Applications on the Microsoft Platform articles.
As an SAP administrator, you surely faced situations where suddenly a valid SAP license becomes invalid for no obvious reason.
For an SAP ABAP system, the system will automatically generate a temporary 28 days license and users will get a popup that the license is expiring in 28 days.
In case of an SAP Java system, the system will shut down after 30 minutes!
Such issues are not pleasant for SAP users or administrators.
They can become even more frequent in an Azure cloud environment, due to the ability to dynamically provision a new computer infrastructure on demand.
To increase the stability of the SAP license mechanism, SAP updated the licensing mechanism with the Azure cloud specific functionality.
In this blog, we’ll explain what is new in the SAP licensing mechanism for Azure and how it is different to the on-premises environment.
Role of an SAP Hardware (HW) Key
Every SAP NetWeaver ABAP or Java system needs a valid SAP license. Customers will generate an SAP license on SAP Service Marketplace, by providing different input values like the SAP product name, SAP SID, DBMS and last but not least, an SAP Hardware (HW) key.
An SAP hardware key is generated on an operating system host where SAP message server process is running.
You can SAP HW key by running command line program:
saplicense -get
For an SAP ABAP-based system, SAP message server is part of:
- SAP ASCS instance (ABAP Central Services)
- SAP DVEBMGS instance (so-called central instance)
As newer SAP installations do not install the DVEBMGS instance anymore, there is a small chance that you will run into this kind of setup.
For SAP Java based systems, the SAP message server is part of:
- SAP SCS instance (Java Central Services)
SAP Hardware Key Input Parameters in an On-Premises Environment
In the physical and virtual environments , the SAP hardware key is using the following input parameters:
On Windows
- Windows Computer SID (Secure ID)
- (local) hostname
On Linux:
- The MAC address of the first valid network card
It is important to mention that any change of HW key input parameters will cause an existing valid SAP license to become invalid.
For example, a valid license will become invalid if you change Windows local host name, or you do a sysprep (which will generate new Windows computer SID) where your SAP ASCS/SCS instance is running.
Similarly, the same will happen on Linux if you exchange the network card, or you change the order of multiple network cards.
SAP Hardware Key Input Parameters in an Azure Cloud
For the SAP systems in Azure, input parameters used for calculation of the hardware key is changed in the following way:
On Windows
- Windows Computer SID
- (local) hostname
- Azure VM Unique ID
On Linux:
- Azure VM Unique ID
On Windows, we got a new input parameter (Azure VM Unique ID), in addition to two existing ones e.g. Windows Computer SID and hostname.
On Linux, the first valid NIC MAC address is replaced with Azure VM Unique ID
This change is introduced in the following SAP kernel versions:
On Windows starting with:
- SAP kernel 7.21 PL #332 or higher
- SAP kernel 7.38 PL #72 or higher
- SAP kernel 7.41 PL #210 or higher
- SAP kernel 7.42 PL #31 or higher
On Linux starting with:
- SAP kernel 7.21 EXT PL #622 or higher
- SAP kernel 7.22 EXT PL #112 or higher
- SAP kernel 7.42 PL #324 or higher
- SAP kernel 7.45 PL #111 or higher
Azure VM Unique ID
Azure VM Unique ID is a 128bits identifier that is encoded and stored in all Azure IaaS VM’ SMBIOS and can be read using platform BIOS commands. It can also be read using Azure PowerShell or Azure CLI.
Check the blog Accessing and Using Azure VM Unique ID.
Every newly created VM will have unique Azure VM ID.
The act of recreating an existing VM means deleting act of recreate of an existing VM, which means you delete the definition of an existing VM (without disk deletion), and create it again using existing disk, will generate a new Azure VM Unique ID.
After VM recreate, everything except the Azure VM Unique ID will stay the same on OS level - hostname, all OS settings, parameters, etc.
Azure Unique VM ID won ’t change in case of:
- VM Reboot
- VM shutdown (either planned or unplanned),
- VM start/stop de-allocate,
- VM service healing or restore
- Redeploy (move VM to another Azure host)
Getting input parameters for SAP HW Key
You can get the details on exact input parameters for SAP HW key calculation, by running saplicense command tool with TRACE=2 option
saplicense –get TRACE=2
A new file dev_slic will be created.
Inside of this file, you will get detailed information of the input parameters as well as generated HW key.
On Windows, you will see:
….. SlicGetHwId: VM Instance ID: 8ac7ebca-0a2a-ee42-b84d-2f54f4d3ecde SlicGetHwId: ID >S-21-1940833746--186857679-1893085103-gor-sap1-8ac7ebca-0a2a-ee42-b84d-2f54f4d3ecde< SlicGetHwId: CUSTOMER KEY: >T1746343904<
You’ll notice that you have 3 input parameters on Windows.
On Linux, you will see:
SlicGetFullHwId: hwid 'AZURE_3B924F79-3F43-5744-AFFD-70A9EDFFBCDC' found SlicGetHwId: ID >AZURE_3B924F79-3F43-5744-AFFD-70A9EDFFBCDC< SlicGetHwId: CUSTOMER KEY: >Y0348768522<
e.g. only one input parameter is used:
You can use also Azure PowerShell to get Azure Unique VM ID
(Get-AzureRmVM -ResourceGroupName <ResourceGroup> -Name <VMName>).VmId
The Azure VM ID from PowerShell looks a bit different from the one we got from dev_slic , for example:
- 8ac7ebca-0a2a-ee42-b84d-2f54f4d3ecde -is the an example from dev_slic file
- caebc78a-2a0a-42ee-b84d-2f54f4d3ecde - is what you get from PowerShell
This is the same Azure VM ID number, only the formatting is different - the first 3 sets are a bit rotated, and the last 2 sets are the same.
In the second part of this blog, we’ll cover some typical Azure scenarios where you can run into invalid SAP licenses. We’ll show you the way how to troubleshoot the SAP licensing issues, and proactively prevent them.
Useful SAP Notes & Blogs
- 2243692 - Linux on Microsoft Azure (IaaS) VM: SAP license issues
- 2035875 - Windows on Microsoft Azure: Adaption of your SAP License
- 2327159 - SAP NetWeaver License Behavior in Virtual and Cloud Environments
- 174911 - Determining the hardware key (customer key)
- 1619879 - licensing of HA/DR/cluster -> invalid license
- https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/accessing-and-using-azure-vm-unique-id/