For various reasons I needed to install SAP HANA Express edition on a linux machine.

It wasn’t an extremely smooth ride, but in the end, we will make it in this article.

Warning – the post is very incomplete and the contents may be low quality: I started to write and plan to enrich the guide when I have free time.

Prerequisites

• Have either a powerful PC, or some cloud service (in my case Azure) which you can create virtual machines.
  • p.s. if it’s for purely personal purposes, easier to do it on your PC, virtualization is highly recommended (Hyper-v, VMWare Workstation, VirtualBox, or KVM, ..)
• Have SLES installation image. Probably this can be repeated also for ubuntu or other distros.
• A decent internet connection.
• Know some bash commands.
• Patience.

Steps

The first and foremost – install hana trial / Download manager: https://www.sap.com/products/technology-platform/hana/express-trial.html.

That is a jar package (install platform independent version).

Set up your virtual machine using SLES – i used SLES 15.1.

Follow the instructions here

Once installation is complete,

starthdb

you should be able to follow the CLI messages and URL to be able to connect and configure the system.

Remember that it’s empty, so you can use SFLIGHT database (in the resources below) to fill it with sample tables and information.

External Resources

To install HANA XE + XSA I followed a bunch of tutorials and mixed all the knowledge because none of them were sufficient in resolving problems. I don’t have access the SAP notes so community helped a lot. SAP links change frequently so pay attention, links may get broken in time.

SAP Technology blog about installation and sample SFLIGHT database: SAP HANA, express edition and SFLIGHT demo databas… – SAP Community

p.s. this will give you a deeper insight.

Installation on GCP: Server + Applications: SAP HANA, express edition a… – SAP Community

The Learning Journey on SAP Learning page: Installing and Administering SAP HANA

One of the official Manuals: Getting Started: HANAexpress Binary Installer

You can use SAP’s installation training – Install SAP HANA 2.0, express edition on a Preconfigured Virtual Machine (with SAP HANA XS Advanced).

Community post for problem #1 – https://community.sap.com/t5/technology-q-a/hana-express-addition-2-sps2-installation-on-personal-laptop/qaq-p/651535