Red Hat Summit Red Hat SummitSupportConsoleDevelopersStart a trialContact

Configuring RHEL 8 for SAP HANA2 installation

Red Hat Enterprise Linux for SAP Solutions 8

Red Hat Customer Content Services

Abstract

This guide explains how to configure RHEL 8 for SAP Solutions for the installation of a SAP HANA 2 single-host system

Making open source more inclusive
Copy link

Red Hat is committed to replacing problematic language in our code and documentation. We are beginning with these four terms: master, slave, blacklist, and whitelist. Due to the enormity of this endeavor, these changes will be gradually implemented over upcoming releases. For more details on making our language more inclusive, see our CTO Chris Wright’s message.

Providing feedback on Red Hat documentation
Copy link

We appreciate your feedback on our documentation. Let us know how we can improve it.

Submitting feedback through Jira (account required)

  1. Make sure you are logged in to the Jira website.
  2. Provide feedback by clicking on this link.
  3. Enter a descriptive title in the Summary field.
  4. Enter your suggestion for improvement in the Description field. Include links to the relevant parts of the documentation.
  5. If you want to be notified about future updates, please make sure you are assigned as Reporter.
  6. Click Create at the bottom of the dialogue.

Chapter 1. Installing RHEL 8 for SAP Solutions
Copy link

You can install RHEL 8 in interactive mode or you can perform an unattended installation using Kickstart. This document explains how to perform an interactive installation.

For Kickstart installation, use Server as your base environment and take into account the recommendations from SAP HANA Storage Requirements and Performing SAP HANA Sizing. For a test system, you can remove the default /home file system allocation and use a large root (/) file system.

Prerequisites

  • You have downloaded the installation image for the desired and supported RHEL 8 minor release from the Red Hat Customer Portal.

    Important

    SAP HANA is supported only on particular minor releases of RHEL 8 (for example RHEL 8.2). For more information on which minor RHEL 8 releases are supported by SAP, see the SAP note 2235581.

  • You have downloaded the installation media for the desired and supported SAP HANA 2 SPS04 or SPS05 revision from the SAP Software Downloads Portal.

Procedure

  1. Boot your server from the RHEL 8 installation source.

    For more information on how to boot your server from the RHEL 8 image, see Performing a standard RHEL installation.

  2. Select the language and click Continue.
  3. Under LOCALIZATION, select the desired keyboard layout, supported languages, and time and date.
  4. Under SOFTWARE, click Software Selection.

  5. In the Software Selection window, select Server as your Base Environment and click Done.

    Note

    Do not select any additional software.

  6. Under SYSTEM, click Installation Destination.

  7. In the Installation Destination window, select the storage configuration according to your needs and click Done.

    Note

    Take into account the recommendations from SAP HANA Storage Requirements and Performing SAP HANA Sizing. For a test system, you can remove the default /home file system allocation and use a large root (/) file system.

  8. Under SYSTEM, click Network & Host Name, and configure your network connection.
  9. Click Begin Installation.

  10. Configure USER SETTINGS:

    1. To set the root password, click Root Password.
    2. To set user, user name, and password, click User Creation.
  11. Once RHEL is successfully installed, click Reboot.

Chapter 2. Registering your host
Copy link

This section explains how to register your RHEL server to Red Hat Satellite.

Note

Different steps apply if your system is registered to the Red Hat Customer Portal or your Cloud provider.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Download the Katello client rpm package: 

    # wget https://sat.int.example.com/pub/katello-ca-consumer-latest.noarch.rpm
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Replace the URL with the URL provided by your Satellite administrator.

  2. Install the Katello client rpm package: 

    # yum install -y katello-ca-consumer-latest.noarch.rpm
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Replace the package name with the name of the package you downloaded.

  3. Register your system: 

    # subscription-manager register --org="your-organization-name" \
--activationkey="your-activation-key"
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Replace your-organization-name with the string representing the name of the organization and replace your-activation-key with the activation key. Both are provided by your Satellite administrator.

    Note

    If you are using an external Ansible control node to register and subscribe your RHEL server to RHEL for SAP Solutions repositories, you can utilize redhat_sap.sap_rhsm ansible role instead of registering your system manually.

    For more information, see sap_rhsm section on the Ansible Galaxy portal.

Chapter 3. Applying the RHEL release lock
Copy link

SAP supports SAP HANA with certain minor RHEL releases, for example RHEL 8.2. You need to apply a release lock to make sure your RHEL system is set to a certain minor release.

For more information on which minor RHEL 8 releases are supported by SAP, see the SAP note 2235581.

Important

Updating your RHEL system before applying a release lock will result in dependency errors and a possible upgrade to a RHEL 8 minor version that is not supported by SAP HANA. It is advised you run yum installations and updates only after the release lock is applied.

Note that if you used redhat_sap.sap_rhsm ansible role to register and subscribe your RHEL server to RHEL for SAP Solutions repositories you can skip this step and proceed to Installing RHEL System Roles for SAP. For more information, see sap_rhsm section on the Ansible Galaxy portal.

Prerequisites

  • root access

Procedure

  1. Clear the dnf cache: 

    # rm -rf /var/cache/dnf
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

  2. Set the release lock: 

    # subscription-manager release --set=8.x
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Replace 8.x with the supported minor release of RHEL 8 (for example 8.2).

Chapter 4. Enabling required repositories
Copy link

You need to enable certain RHEL repositories to have access to packages required for the SAP HANA installation. For more information on what repositories to enable based on your version of SAP HANA, architecture of your host, and your RHEL minor version, see RHEL for SAP Configurator.

Note that if you used redhat_sap.sap_rhsm ansible role to register and subscribe your RHEL server to RHEL for SAP Solutions repositories you can skip this step and proceed to Installing RHEL System Roles for SAP. For more information, see sap_rhsm section on the Ansible Galaxy portal.

Prerequisites

  • root access.

Procedure

  1. Disable all the repositories: 

    # subscription-manager repos --disable="*"
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap
  2. To enable the repositories, refer to Enable the Required Repositories.

Chapter 5. RHEL System Roles for SAP
Copy link

RHEL System Roles for SAP is a set of roles executable by Ansible that can assist you with configuring your local or remote hosts (managed nodes) for the installation of SAP HANA.

5.1. Installing Ansible Engine
Copy link

RHEL subscriptions provide support for RHEL System Roles with Ansible Engine, which is available in the Ansible Engine repository.

Note that if you already have an Ansible Tower or Ansible Engine, you can skip this step and proceed to Installing RHEL System Roles for SAP.

Prerequisites

  • root access

Procedure

  1. Enable the Ansible repository: 

    # subscription-manager repos \
--enable=ansible-2.9-for-rhel-8-$(uname -m)-rpms
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

  2. Install the Ansible Engine: 

    # yum install ansible
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

5.2. Installing RHEL System Roles for SAP
Copy link

RHEL System Roles for SAP include sap_general_preconfigure, sap_netweaver_preconfigure, and sap_hana_preconfigure. These roles can be used to configure the local or remote managed nodes.

Prerequisites

  • root access

  • You have installed Ansible Engine or Ansible Tower

    For more information on how to Install Ansible Engine, see Installing Ansible Engine.

Procedure

  • Install RHEL System Roles for SAP: 

    # yum install rhel-system-roles-sap
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

The RHEL System Roles for SAP provide a quick, easy, and consistent method for performing the configuration of your server according to applicable SAP notes for SAP HANA.

5.3.1. Configuring a local managed node
Copy link

If the Ansible Engine is installed on same host on which you want to install SAP HANA, perform the steps outlined in this procedure to configure your local managed node.

Prerequisites

  • root access

Procedure

  1. Create a file named sap-hana.yml with the following content: 

    ---
- hosts: localhost
  vars:
    ansible_connection: local
    sap_preconfigure_fail_if_reboot_required: no
    sap_hana_preconfigure_fail_if_reboot_required: no
    sap_hana_preconfigure_update: yes
  roles:
    - role: sap_general_preconfigure
    - role: sap_hana_preconfigure
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap
    Important

    The indentation and the use of spaces instead of tabs is essential for YAML files.

  2. Run the sap-hana.yml Ansible playbook: 

    # ansible-playbook sap-hana.yml
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    This configures the local managed node according to the applicable SAP notes for SAP HANA.

  3. Reboot the server.

5.3.2. Configuring a remote managed node
Copy link

If you have a separate Ansible Engine Control Node, you can configure one or more managed nodes in an automated way.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Create or modify the file /etc/ansible/hosts with new host names to be configured: 

    host01
host02
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Replace host01 and host02 with the names of your managed nodes. Each managed node name must be on a separate line.

  2. Create a file named sap-hana.yml with the following content: 

    - hosts: all
  vars:
    sap_preconfigure_fail_if_reboot_required: no
    sap_hana_preconfigure_fail_if_reboot_required: no
    sap_hana_preconfigure_update: yes
  roles:
    - role: sap_general_preconfigure
    - role: sap_hana_preconfigure
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap
    Important

    The indentation and the use of spaces instead of tabs is essential for YAML files.

  3. Run the sap-hana.yml ansible playbook: 

    # ansible-playbook -l host01,host02 sap-hana.yml
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Replace host01 and host02 with the names of your managed nodes.

    This configures the remote host01 and host02 according to the applicable SAP notes for SAP HANA.

  4. Reboot the servers host01 and host02.

Chapter 6. Next steps
Copy link

After configuring your RHEL 8 for SAP Solutions system(s), you can install SAP HANA. For more information on the installation process, see the SAP HANA Server Installation and Update Guide.

Legal Notice
Copy link

Copyright © 2025 Red Hat, Inc.
The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat under a Creative Commons Attribution–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license ("CC-BY-SA"). An explanation of CC-BY-SA is available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. In accordance with CC-BY-SA, if you distribute this document or an adaptation of it, you must provide the URL for the original version.
Red Hat, as the licensor of this document, waives the right to enforce, and agrees not to assert, Section 4d of CC-BY-SA to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law.
Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, the Red Hat logo, JBoss, OpenShift, Fedora, the Infinity logo, and RHCE are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries.
Linux® is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States and other countries.
Java® is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
XFS® is a trademark of Silicon Graphics International Corp. or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries.
MySQL® is a registered trademark of MySQL AB in the United States, the European Union and other countries.
Node.js® is an official trademark of Joyent. Red Hat is not formally related to or endorsed by the official Joyent Node.js open source or commercial project.
The OpenStack® Word Mark and OpenStack logo are either registered trademarks/service marks or trademarks/service marks of the OpenStack Foundation, in the United States and other countries and are used with the OpenStack Foundation's permission. We are not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by the OpenStack Foundation, or the OpenStack community.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Back to top
Red Hat logoGithubredditYoutubeTwitter

Learn

Try, buy, & sell

Communities

About Red Hat Documentation

We help Red Hat users innovate and achieve their goals with our products and services with content they can trust. Explore our recent updates.

Making open source more inclusive

Red Hat is committed to replacing problematic language in our code, documentation, and web properties. For more details, see the Red Hat Blog.

About Red Hat

We deliver hardened solutions that make it easier for enterprises to work across platforms and environments, from the core datacenter to the network edge.

Theme

© 2025 Red Hat