71 · BTP Setup & Entitlements

Understand global account → subaccount → CF org → space hierarchy. Assign entitlements and create production spaces.

Episode 71 — BTP Setup & Entitlements

What you'll learn

• How BTP is organised: global account, subaccounts, spaces, and org structure
• What entitlements are and how to assign them for your services
• How to set up a Cloud Foundry subaccount for a production CAP deployment
• How to create and configure spaces with proper quotas
• Common entitlement issues and how to diagnose them

Why this matters

Before you can create an XSUAA instance or an HDI container in a new subaccount you need the right entitlements. Getting entitlement errors at deploy time is a common pain point that blocks teams for hours. Understanding the BTP account hierarchy lets you plan the right structure for dev, test, and production environments and provision services correctly the first time.

BTP account hierarchy

Global Account (your company licence)
  │
  ├─ Subaccount: DEV  (CF org: my-company-dev)
  │     └─ Space: dev
  │
  ├─ Subaccount: TEST (CF org: my-company-test)
  │     └─ Space: test
  │
  └─ Subaccount: PROD (CF org: my-company-prod)
        └─ Space: prod

Global Account: holds the licence and entitlements for the whole company.
Subaccount: has its own CF org, users, and service quota. The unit you bill against.
CF Org: one CF org per subaccount. Contains CF spaces.
CF Space: the deployment target. Applications and service instances live in a space.

Assigning entitlements

Entitlements allow a subaccount to use a specific service plan. Without an entitlement, cf create-service fails with a "service plan not found" error.

Steps in the BTP Cockpit:
1. Navigate to Global Account → Entitlements → Entity Assignments
2. Select your subaccount
3. Click Configure Entitlements → Add Service Plans
4. Search for the service (e.g., hana), select the plan (hdi-shared), set quota
5. Click Save

Required entitlements for a typical CAP app:

Creating a Cloud Foundry subaccount

# Using BTP CLI (btp)
btp login --url https://cli.btp.cloud.sap --subdomain my-company

# Create subaccount
btp create accounts/subaccount \
  --display-name "My CAP Prod" \
  --region eu10 \
  --subdomain my-cap-prod

# Enable CF
btp create accounts/environment-instance \
  --environment cloudfoundry \
  --subaccount <subaccount-id> \
  --service cloudfoundry \
  --plan standard \
  --parameters '{"instance_name":"my-cap-prod"}'

Creating a CF space with quotas

cf login -a https://api.cf.eu10.hana.ondemand.com -o my-company-prod

# Create space
cf create-space production

# Assign a space quota (if your org has quotas defined)
cf set-space-quota production high-memory

# Add developers to the space
cf set-space-role user@example.com my-company-prod production SpaceDeveloper

Setting up the CF CLI target for deployment

cf api https://api.cf.eu10.hana.ondemand.com
cf login
cf target -o my-company-prod -s production

In CI/CD, use a service account (technical user):

cf auth <technical-user-email> <password>
cf target -o my-company-prod -s production

Diagnosing entitlement errors

Error: The service plan 'hdi-shared' for service 'hana' was not found

Checklist:
1. Is the entitlement assigned? (Global Account → Entitlements → check the subaccount)
2. Is there remaining quota? (0 quota = same error as no entitlement)
3. Is the service available in your region? (Check SAP Discovery Center for regional availability)
4. Is the CF space targeted correctly?

Common mistakes

Checkpoint ✓

You understand the BTP account hierarchy (global account → subaccount → CF org → space), can assign entitlements in the cockpit, create a subaccount and CF space with the BTP and CF CLIs, and diagnose service plan not found errors.