Managing Licenses of SAP HANA Databases

License keys are required to use SAP HANA databases.

The SAP HANA database supports two kinds of license keys: temporary license keys and permanent license keys. While temporary license keys are automatically installed in an SAP HANA database, permanent license keys have to be requested on the SAP Service Marketplace and applied to the individual SAP HANA database.

Temporary License Keys 

A temporary license key, which is valid for 90 days, is automatically installed with a new SAP HANA database. During this period, you should request and apply a permanent license key.

Permanent License Keys 

You can request a permanent license key on the SAP Service Marketplace at https://service.sap.com/support under Keys & Requests. Permanent license keys are valid until the predefined expiration date. Furthermore, they specify the amount of memory licensed to the target SAP HANA database. Before a permanent license key expires, you should request and apply a new permanent license key. If a permanent license key expires, a temporary license key valid for 28 days is automatically installed. During this time, you can request and install a new permanent license key.

There are two types of permanent license key available for the SAP HANA database: unenforced and enforced. If an unenforced license key is installed, the operation of the SAP HANA database is notaffected if its memory consumption exceeds the licensed amount of memory. However, if an enforced license is installed, the system is locked down when the current memory consumption of the SAP HANA database exceeds the licensed amount of memory plus some tolerance. If this happens, either the SAP HANA database needs to be restarted, or a new license key that covers the amount of memory in use needs to be installed. 

The two types of permanent license key differ from each other in the following line in the license key file:

. Unenforced license key: SWPRODUCTNAME=SAP-HANA

. Enforced license key: SWPRODUCTNAME=SAP-HANA-ENF

Note: Although enforced license keys currently only apply to SAP Business One, it is technically possible to install such a license in an SAP HANA instance with a regular, unenforced permanent license. In this case, the unenforced license key has priority. That is, if a valid unenforced license key is found, no memory consumption check is enforced. However, if one license key expires and becomes invalid, the other one, if valid, becomes the valid license key of the instance. If the latter is an enforced license key, then the memory consumption check is enforced.

In the following situations, the system goes into lockdown mode:

. The temporary license key has expired.

. You were using a temporary license key and the hardware key has changed.

. The permanent license key has expired and you did not renew it within 28 days.

. The installed license key is an enforced license key and the current memory consumption exceeds the licensed amount plus the tolerance.

. You deleted all license keys installed in your database.

. The system ID and/or hardware key of your database have changed, for example, after system copy or renaming.

In lockdown mode, no queries are possible. Only a user with the system privilege LICENSE ADMIN can connect to the database and execute license-related queries, such as, obtain previous license data, install a new license key, and delete installed license keys. Note that the database cannot be backed up if it is lockdown mode.