Abstract
This document is a collection of non-technical questions and their respective answers for SAP Cloud Appliance Library (CAL) http://cal.sap.com which can be accessed without any fee by everyone. However, there are questions around the support entitlement for the management console (the website) itself, the possibility to go into production, the content that is provided, how the CAL Subscription works, etc. This is a live document and will be extended with new questions and anwers once they arise. Some general information on CAL and why there is a Subscription fee can be found in this blog: What is this CAL subscription fee about?
If you are looking for the technical FAQ, please navigate to this page: http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-33673
Which support entitlement do I have for the website of http://cal.sap.com?
To use SAP Cloud Appliance Library you simply need to connect your browser to the above mentioned URL. If you access it for the first time you accept the Terms and Conditions. I would advise you to read these Terms before accepting because Section 13 states: SUPPORT: Under this Agreement SAP does not provide any support services for the Services. For a web site that is free of charge that is a common statement.
However, once you purchase the SAP Cloud Appliance Library Subscription the situation changes dramatically. The Subscription comes with an additional support entitlement for the website and it is too much to list it in this paragraph. You can of course review the current Terms and Conditions of the Subscription (without purchasing it) when navigating to the corresponding SAP Store entry where you need to open the Pricing section (after scrolling down a little bit).
Which support entitlement do I have when using a solution in CAL?
The support entitlement for each solution also depends on a license agreement similar to the http://cal.sap.com website. Looking at how the list of Solutions in SAP Cloud Appliance Library is currently structured there are two different types of Solutions: 1) “Free Trials” (Trial & Developer Editions) and 2) the Solutions in the Subscription.
The support for the “Free Trials” is given to you through the license agreement (called Terms) of the corresponding solution. You have to accept these Terms before you can use the Trial / Developer solution. There is a paragraph in the Terms that clearly states what kind of support you can expect. For free of charge Solutions there is usually community support. But in order to make sure please read the Terms carefully.
The Subscription itself first of all provides additional support entitlement for the website; we clarified that in the section above already. However, what about the support for the particular Solutions which are part of the Subscription? CAL operates in a BYOL model where a license check is performed before you can start an instance of a Solution. The support entitlement of the particular Solution itself is tied to the perpetual license you already have purchased (on paper for example). If this license gives you production support on the cloud provider platform you are about to start an instance then you have that covered. You may have to check additional SAP notes in order to find additional hints on the particular configuration if you run in the cloud.
What are the “sizing” options for the CAL Subscription Package?
The metric for the CAL Subscription is “No. of Instances per month”. The minimum Subscription that is purchasable is a 1 instance package for 3 months. The increments for the instances are always 1, the increments for the duration is always 3 months. Both the number of instance and the duration in 3 month increments in configurable in the SAP Store when adding the Subsciption Package to your shopping cart. There are pre-defined packages available (5-pack, 10-pack and 20-pack) what come with a built in discount. They are going to be on the SAP Store around early June this year.
What does "1 instance" mean in the standard CAL Subscription Package?
With your first 1 instance Subscription of SAP CloudAppliance Library you will unlock the entire Library and get access to all theSolutions for which the company of your S-User has purchased a valid product license. Once the library is unlocked the 1 instance Subscriptions entitles you to have 1 running instance of any of the Solutions in the Library. For example you could run and work on a HANA Platform edition from 6-8 in the morning and suspend it when finished. Then at 11 you start an instance of the Fiori system and suspend it around 3pm. In the evening you may want to have a running IDES system which you suspend shortly before midnight. Although you were using three different Solutions you always had only 1 instance active at a time. And this is what you can do with the 1 instance Subscription. Once you have the need to have more instances running simultaneously you need to purchase more Subscriptions.
Other questions?
Feel free to post questions in the comments and I will answer them as soon as possible ;-)