SAP Knowledge Base Article - Public

3737618 - Starter Development Tenant Missing in Provisioning Process and Updates to Starter System Termination

Symptom

Applies to: Contracts with start dates on or after March 2, 2026 and contracts signed before March 2, 2026, that have not yet provisioned the Starter system. 

  • Customers and implementation partners may experience missing Starter Development Tenant after calling off the starter system, where only the starter customizing tenant is provisioned, causing confusion for those familiar with the previous delivery model.  
  • Starter customizing tenant is automatically terminated 365 days after the contract start date, irrespective of production system provisioning. 

Environment

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition

Cause

SAP has implemented the following changes to the starter system provisioning process:

Discontinuation of Starter Development Tenant: Effective from March 2, 2026, only the starter customizing tenant will be provisioned. The starter development tenant is no longer part of the standard delivery. 

Contracts starting before the cutoff date:

  • For contracts starting before the cutoff date, no changes occur if both Starter Customizing and Development tenants were already set up.
  • If the Starter system is called off after the cutoff date, only the Customizing tenant is provisioned.  

Contracts starting after the cutoff date:

  • Only the Starter Customizing tenant is provisioned. 

 

Modified Starter Entitlement Lifetime:

The Starter system entitlement is now limited to 365 days from the contract start date, replacing the previous logic of terminating 30 days after production system setup. This change applies to contracts starting after March 2, 2026. 

 

Termination Logic:

  • Termination logic for contracts starting before the cutoff date remains as 30 days after production system provisioning.
  • For contracts starting after the cutoff date, termination is scheduled for contract start date + 365 days.  

Resolution

For Missing Starter Development Tenant (Customers have the following alternatives):

  • Use the Development System: Provision the standard development system and use its development tenant for Fit-to-Standard activities. 
  • Order an Additional Sandbox Tenant: For customers requiring an isolated system, order the "SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition, sandbox tenant" (Material number: 8014491). Note: This option incurs additional costs. 
  • Partners can also order / use the "Cloud test, demo, and development for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, one-system landscape".

 

For Starter System Decommissioning:

Plan your Fit-to-Standard activities within the 365-day entitlement period from your contract start date. Ensure timely call-off of the starter system to maximize the available usage time. Transition to the production or development system before the starter termination date. 

See Also

Keywords

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, GROW with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, GROW with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Starter Development Tenant, Starter Customizing Tenant, Starter System Termination, Starter Decommissioning, System Provisioning, Tenant Lifecycle Management  , KBA , XX-S4C-OPR-SRV , S/4HANA Cloud service requests , How To

Product

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition all versions