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These steps can be used to setup a RHEL 8.10 VirtualBox guest that can be used as the base OS for the other blog posts. The host system in my case is Windows 10.

Preparation

Download the RHEL 8.10 iso file from RedHat here to the folder c:\sw. If you dont have an RedHat Account you need to create one.
Add the path of vboxmanage to the Windows Path environment variable. This has to be done only once. For example with Win+r and then enter:

rundll32 sysdm.cpl,EditEnvironmentVariables

Add C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox to the User variable Path.
A directory c:\vms for the virtual machines on the host system should exist:

mkdir c:\vms

Then open a new command prompt to begin the installation.

Install a new RHEL 8.10 VM

Configure the Virtual Machine

In the command prompt set the name of the new virtual machine (for example lin3):

set VHOST=lin3

Then run these steps to perform the unattended installation. You probably need to adjust the parameter –bridgeadapter1 to the name of your primary interface of the Windows host system (ipconfig /all => see Description)

vboxmanage createvm --name %VHOST% --ostype RedHat8_64 --register
vboxmanage modifyvm %VHOST% --clipboard-mode=bidirectional --drag-and-drop=bidirectional
vboxmanage modifyvm %VHOST% --memory=8192 --cpus=4 --vram=128 --graphicscontroller=vmsvga --usb-ehci=on
vboxmanage setextradata %VHOST% GUI/ScaleFactor 2
vboxmanage storagectl %VHOST% --name "IDE" --add ide
vboxmanage createmedium disk --filename c:\vms\%VHOST%\%VHOST%_1.vdi --size 122880 --variant Standard
vboxmanage storagectl %VHOST% --name "SATA" --add sata --bootable on
vboxmanage storageattach %VHOST% --storagectl "SATA" --port 0 --device 0 --type hdd --medium c:\vms\%VHOST%\%VHOST%_1.vdi
vboxmanage modifyvm %VHOST% --nic1 bridged --bridgeadapter1 "Intel(R) Ethernet Connection (2) I219-LM"
rem if you would like to specify a dedicated mac address:
rem vboxmanage modifyvm %VHOST% --mac-address1=080027EAC935 
vboxmanage sharedfolder add %VHOST% --name=sw --hostpath=c:\sw --automount --auto-mount-point=/sw
vboxmanage showvminfo %VHOST%|findstr /C:"NIC 1"

The last command shows the mac address that the VM will use. Add the IP/mac address to your local dns so that the new machine can retrieve the IP address you want to use for the VM. Now start the unattended installation:

Perform the OS installation

vboxmanage unattended install %VHOST% --iso=c:\sw\rhel-8.10-x86_64-dvd.iso --user=user1 --user-password=root --install-additions --additions-iso=c:\sw\VBoxGuestAdditions_7.1.4.iso --locale=en_US --country=DE --time-zone="Europe/Berlin" --hostname=%VHOST%.fritz.box --start-vm=gui

The installation takes about 20 minutes. Now you are able to login to the system with the IP or hostname you specified in the DNS server (username: root password: root). Now perform these steps:

bash -c "
# change password of root and user1:
passwd root && passwd user1
# set the keyboard if needed
localectl set-keymap de
# register the system with RedHat:
subscription-manager register
# install and update packages:
dnf -y update && dnf -y groupinstall 'Server with GUI' && dnf -y install libnsl bc binutils compat-openssl10 elfutils-libelf glibc glibc-devel ksh libaio libXrender libX11 libXau libXi libXtst  libgcc libnsl libstdc++ libxcb libibverbs make smartmontools sysstat libnsl2 net-tools nfs-utils libstdc++-devel libaio-devel iotop kernel-devel-$(uname -r)
# Recompile Guest Addition kernel modules:
/sbin/rcvboxadd quicksetup all
# disable screen lock for user root
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.session idle-delay 0
# disable selinux:
sed -i s/SELINUX=enforcing/SELINUX=disabled/g /etc/selinux/config
systemctl set-default graphical.target
init 6"

Your system is now ready to use! Have fun.

Further info

If there are errors during the installation you can clean up and do a fresh install with:

set VHOST=lin3
vboxmanage controlvm %VHOST% poweroff
vboxmanage unregistervm %VHOST% --delete-all
rmdir /S/Q c:\vms\%VHOST%

Some useful Links:

• vboxmanage Command Reference
• Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console to get an overview of your registered systems

The following steps show how to install a test system of SAP NetWeaver 7.52 SP04 on RHEL 8 (running as a VirtualBox guest). SAP Sybase ASE 16.0.2 is used as the database. SAP GUI will be installed on a client machine running Windows 10 and will be used to access the SAP NetWeaver Application Server. The system will give you an overview of the current SAP ABAP Application server and enable you to develop web applications or explore the SAP client/server architecture in general.

Download the software

Download all files from here under the section SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP Developer Edition 7.52 SP04 You need to create an SAP account to do that. The files should be available on the linux machine under /sw/sap.

Prepare the installation

Unpack the SAP ABAP AS software to /sw/sap/as and add the license

# this step is only needed to install unar since it is not included in RHEL 8 by default
subscription-manager repos --enable codeready-builder-for-rhel-8-$(arch)-rpms
dnf -y install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm
dnf -y install unar
# unpack the software to /sw/sap/as
cd /sw/sap && unar -D -o as TD752SP04part01.rar
# extract license file SYBASE_ASE_TestDrive.lic to /sw/sap/TD752SP04/server/TAR/x86_64/SYBASE_ASE_TestDrive.lic
unar -o - /sw/sap/License.rar License/SYBASE_ASE_TestDrive/SYBASE_ASE_TestDrive.lic > /sw/sap/as/server/TAR/x86_64/SYBASE_ASE_TestDrive.lic

# install required OS packages
dnf -y install uuidd csh
# adjust /etc/hosts and set hostname
echo "11.1.1.172 lin.fritz.box lin" >> /etc/hosts
echo lin > /etc/hostname
init 6

Installation of SAP NetWeaver AS

# this is needed as a workaround to avoid the database being stuck
until [ -f /sybase/NPL/ASE-16_0/install/RUN_NPL ] ; do sleep 0.1 ; done && sed -i 's/NPL.cfg \\/NPL.cfg -T11889 \\/g' /sybase/NPL/ASE-16_0/install/RUN_NPL &
# start the installation
cd /sw/sap/as && ./install.sh

agree to license terms: yes
password (min 8 characters): sapsapsap
The installation takes around 20 minutes.

If the Installation fails with an error you can use the following to clean up and afterwards restart the installation:

pkill -9 -u sapadm
pkill -9 -u npladm
pkill -9 -u sybnpl
userdel -r sapadm 
userdel -r npladm
userdel -r sybnpl
rm -rf /usr/sap/ /sapmnt/ /sybase/ /tmp/sapinst_instdir/
init 6

Installation and Setup of SAP GUI for Windows 7.5

Copy and unzip the SAP Front End installer located in /sw/sap/as/client/SAPGUI4Windows. Start the installation by running 50144807_6\BD_NW_7.0_Presentation_7.50_Comp.2\PRES1\GUI\WINDOWS\Win32\SapGuiSetup.exe Select SAP GUI for Windows 7.50 (Compilation2) and press Next/Next to start the installation

Start SAP Logon and select New Item. Press Next. Configure a New System Entry and press Finish:

Request and Install the license

Get the hardware key of the system by running:

su - npladm -c "/usr/sap/NPL/SYS/exe/run/saplicense -get"

Go to http://www.sap.com/minisap, select NPL - SAP NetWeaver 7.x (Sybase ASE) and request a license key.

Logon to the system with the SAP GUI (Client: 000 User: SAP* Password: Down1oad):

Start transaction slicense (by entering slicense in the text field and pressing Enter). Delete the two existing licenses (right click => Delete License) and add the requested license (right click => Install License, select license file NPL.txt). The demo system is now activated.

Accounts created during the installation

Database Accounts

username	password	description
SAPSR3	master_password	ABAP Schema User
sa	master_password	Superuser
sapsa	master_password	Superuser
sapsso	master_password	Superuser

SAP Accounts (can be used with SAP GUI to logon)

username	client(s)	password	description
DEVELOPER	001	Down1oad	Developer User
BWDEVELOPER	001	Down1oad	Developer User
DDIC	000/001	Down1oad	Data Dictionary User
SAP*	000/001	Down1oad	SAP Administrator

Start and Stop of SAP NetWeaver AS

# stop AS and DB
su - npladm -c stopsap
# start AS and DB
su - npladm -c startsap
# check the status of the AS and the DB
su - npladm -c "startsap check"

Further Information

Further information can be found here:
community.sap.com (using the tag #ABAP_trial)
SAP Trial Downloads
readme file: /sw/sap/as/readme.html