Help in the Software Update Manager

The Software Update Manager provides help for many known errors.

Trouble Ticket

As soon as the Software Update Manager writes an error message to the log file, it also creates a trouble ticket. The trouble ticket mentions the phase in which the error occurred and various system parameters. In addition, an archive is created that contains all the relevant log files.

You can find the SAPup_troubleticket.log and SAPup_troubleticket.zip files in the <update directory>/abap/log directory.

Note that these files are overwritten as soon as a new error occurs.

If you cannot solve the cause of the error yourself, report an incident in SAP Support Portal and attach the SAPup_troubleticket.log and SAPup_troubleticket.zip files.

File dev_SAPup

The Software Update Manager can abort due to internal program errors. An error message appears on the user interface. In some cases, the Software Update Manager creates a stack trace. You can find it in file dev_SAPup either in subdirectory tmp of the abap subdirectory of the update directory or, rarely, directly in the update directory.

If the error persists after repeating a phase, report an incident and include the stack trace. The stack trace speeds up processing of the incident.

If you can continue the update after a restart, report an incident anyway and include the stack trace. This helps SAP fix the tool error for future versions of the Software Update Manager.

Log Files

• ELG Log Files

  Provided that an .ELG file was generated at the end of the phase that terminated, this file provides helpful additional information about the error(s) that occurred during the phase. For more information, see Evaluating the ELG Log Files.

• Detailed Log Files

  In the .ELG file, the heading of each phase step displays the name of a log file that contains more detailed information about the error.

  The detailed log files are stored in subdirectory log of the abap subdirectory of the update directory.

Background Jobs

The reasons for terminated background jobs are either a lack of resources or program errors. The job log records the processing of background jobs. All background job steps executed are listed in the job log with their exit statuses. If a background job is terminated, you can obtain further information about the reasons using the job log. Proceed as follows:

1. Log on to the primary application server instance of the SAP system. During the phases START_SHDI_FIRST and STOP_SHDI_LAST, it may occur that you have to log on to the shadow instance instead. A SUM dialogue informs you about the correct log on.

2. Call transaction SM37 as user DDIC.

3. Enter * as the job name and specify the job conditions (for or after event enter *).

4. Start the job display (F8).

5. Sort the job list so that it is displayed chronologically.

   The job name of the job displayed last is the most recent job and generally the job belonging to the terminated step.

6. To display the job log file, double-click the terminated job.

   For some releases, you need to select the terminated job and choose Job Log to display the job log file.

7. To display the long text for the error or the ABAP short dump if it was an ABAP job that has terminated with a syntax error, double-click the error line in the job log file.

SAP System Log

The system log provides more accurate information about errors. It logs the incorrect system states occurring during operation. All irregularities such as a lack of resources or database errors during operation are collected here. The system log is administered by the SAP system and is available in the file system as a non-readable file. You use transaction SM21 to display the system log.

Since the update is always performed by user DDIC, it is mainly the system log entries for this user that are relevant for error analysis. The Software Update Manager itself does not know about the system log.

Note that no system log exists on the shadow instance.

To analyze the system log, proceed as follows:

1. Call transaction SM21 as user DDIC.

2. Choose Reread system log.

   Make sure that you enter the correct period so that only those entries are displayed which correspond to the time when the terminated phase ran.

3. Look for entries for user DDIC.

4. To display detailed error descriptions, double-click a single line in the system log.

Sometimes errors occur at the lowest system level. These errors are normally stored in the instance logs. During the update, you can find these logs in the current working directory of your SAP instance as follows:

1. Open the current working directory of your primary application server instance:

   <update directory>/abap/system/<SID>/DVEBMGS<shadow instance no.>/work or /<update directory>/abap/system/<SID>/D<shadow instance no.>/work

2. Find out which log files have been written.

   To do this, you can use command ls -ltr.

3. Examine the log files generated last for errors that may be related to the update.

Other Sources of Problems

If no clear errors are found, there may also be a lack of resources in the database or the file system or incorrect profile parameters may have caused the phase to terminate.