Problems with installation - upgrade to Patch 2

[former_member193294]

Hi all,

I have tried to upgrade the MDM server 5.5 Patch 1 to Patch 2 (Ver. 5.5.42.48) but I had some issues which I will mention now.

I performed the upgrade in the following way:

My initial instalaltion was in /opt/MDM/bin (Linux: MDM_HOME) and in parallel I had created 3 execution directories as described in the Installation Guide:

~mdm/mdm/mds

/mdis

/mdss

where I had located the files :

mds,mds-r

mdis,mdis-r

mdss,mdss-r.

So each time I wanted to launch the server I was using 3 sessions and I was running (SUSE Linux):

./mds-r &

./mdis-r &

./mdss-r &

Now, in order to upgrade I backed up the dir /opt/MDM . Then I uploaded the .bz2 files for each server under /opt and I "tar xjvf <file_name> " them.

The untar created the folders:

bin

lib

Lexikons

LangString

and under bin you could find all the mds/mds-r, mdis/mdis-r, mdss/mdss-r files.

I then copied these files under the ~mdm/mdm/mds ../mdis. ../mdss execution folders and I launched the servers.

In the meantime I had installed the relevant new versions of the GUIs MDM Console, Import Manager, Data Manager.

First symptom was that whenever I was opening the console, mounting the server and then connecting and loading the repository I had 100% CPU on my PC due to the console.

The mds-r & process was terminated with message "segmentation fault".

I got this message for 2-3 times and then it stopped. I have 2 repositories , the first one could connect and load it immediately. the second on was stuck and cause 100% CPU for my console.

Import manager Console was launched (with the new version of the GUI) and it was also stuck, was saying that repository(ies) are not loaded although I had loaded at least the 1 of the 2.

At the end I decided to roll back to previous ver. Patch1.

Now everything looks ok apart from the Console which does not work properly due to Patch1 as you have mentioned above.

Your help is needed desperately.

Loukas

[Former Member]

Hi Loukas,

I was able to consult with one of our experts here and he expressed concern about the usage of mds-r & for running the application. We recommend the following steps repairing your situation (requires re-installation of the files):

1) Add $MDM_HOME:bin to PATH in your profile

2) `rm -f ~mdm/mdm/md{i,s,}s/md{i,s,}s{-r,}`

3) Get a more recent 5.5 SP5 Patch02 hotfix, if possible.

4) Install using this procedure (note that step 7 is important):

[root@server /dir 1]# pushd /opt

[root@server /opt 2]# mv MDM MDM.v5.5.41.backup

[root@server /opt 3]# tar jxf ~/mdm-server-5.5.42.83-linux-x8664-gcc.tar.bz2

[root@server /opt 4]# tar jxf ~/mdm-import-server-5.5.42.83-linux-x8664-gcc.tar.bz2

[root@server /opt 5]# tar jxf ~/mdm-syndication-server-5.5.42.83-linux-x8664-gcc.tar.bz2

[root@server /opt 6]# cp -pr ~mdm/mdm ~mdm/mdm.v5.5.41.backup

[root@server /opt 7]# rm -rf ~mdm/mdm/mds/Accelerators

5) Run using this procedure:

[mdm@server ~]$ pushd ~/mdm/mds ; mds ; popd

[mdm@server ~]$ pushd ~/mdm/mdis ; mdis ; popd

[mdm@server ~]$ pushd ~/mdm/mdss ; mdss ; popd

6) Check the status of each server:

[mdm@server ~]$ tail ~/mdm/mds/nohup.out

[mdm@server ~]$ tail ~/mdm/mdis/nohup.out

[mdm@server ~]$ tail ~/mdm/mdss/nohup.out

7) If you get a core dump, we have a script "gettrace" that may help us to diagnose and fix the bug.

😎 We (the MDM core development team in Los Angeles) do skim the board, but when encountering a bad bug like this (SEGV: core dump!), it seems like an appropriate occasion for filing a new support (OSS) message.

Please let us know if you continue to have problems!

Best regards,

Cleopatra

[former_member193294]

Hi Cleopatra,

unfortunately I am not an English native speaker , in order to find the proper words to express my thanks I have just read your suggestion and I am going to try it tomorrow morning when I will go to the office (It is 01:08 local time here in Germany as we speak).

I will also check the log files after the installation and I will forward to you all the logged data in case of a core dump.

Once again: Thanks a million for your assistance and your support.

Kind regards,

Loukas

• One MDM consultant from France, whom I met in an SAP ORACLE training in Belgium couple of weeks ago, told me that my case is one of the most rare ones because only few installations of SAP MDM (without Netweaver underneath) on Linux with ORACLE RDBMS have been performed so far. Is this true?

[former_member193294]

Hi Cleopatra,

I have prepared my system to install the latest hotfix patch but unfortunately I found out in the SAP Service Marketplace that there is a discrepancy between the version of the modules you mentioned. In particular:

I have found:

mdm-server-5.5.42.83

mdm-import-server-5.5.42.83

(both with changed date 20.10.07!)

but Syndication server , the latest one is:

MDMSS55005P2HF_4-10004031.ZIP MDM 5.5 SP05 Syndication Server Patch 2 Hotfix 4

I guess I cannot continue because it will not work properly right? Or I can go on and upgrade only MDM server and IMPORT server?

Same for the GUIs:

MDMGC55005P2HF_6-10003297.ZIP MDM 5.5 SP05 GUI Clients Patch 2 Hotfix 6 (Build 5.5.42.75) .

I am looking forward receiving your response.

Kind regards,

Loukas

[Former Member]

Hi Loukas,

The small discrepancy in the versions is ok; just upgrade each component to its last release. Hotfix releases do not necessarily contain all components; they only contain the affected components. As long as the mid-version number is the same (e.g. 5.5.42.xx), they will all work together just fine.

Keep me posted! Thanks!

Cleopatra

[former_member193294]

Hi Cleopatra,

first portion of instructions went fine, backup current version,untaring, removing Accelarators.

Now I am trying to run the services basically by:

[mdm@server ~]$ pushd ~/mdm/mds ; mds ; popd

[mdm@server ~]$ pushd ~/mdm/mdis ; mdis ; popd

[mdm@server ~]$ pushd ~/mdm/mdss ; mdss ; popd

and I get the command not found (for mds 😞

mdm@mucsapt2:~> pushd ~/mdm/mds ; mds ; popd

~/mdm/mds ~

-bash: mds: command not found

~

while I can see under ~/mdm/ mds the mds. By "cat" its content :

mdm@mucsapt2:~/mdm/mds> cat mds

#! /bin/sh

if [ -z $MDM_HOME ]

then

echo "***ERROR: Env variable MDM_HOME is not set"

exit 1

fi

if [ ! -d $/LangStrings ] then echo "***ERROR Missing directory: $/LangStrings"

exit 1

fi

1. The ulimit command will allow dumps to produce core files (no size limit)

#ulimit -c unlimited

mds_bin="mds-r"

eval "nohup $mds_bin &"

Any idea?

Thx,

Loukas

[Former Member]

Hi Loukas,

I am no expert on non-Windows installations; the only thing I know for sure is that you're supposed to use a different user to install the product than to run it (specifically for non-Windws platforms). Are you doing that? If you are, then unfortunately your question will have to wait for my expert here to look at it (and we're on Pacific time, so it will be a few hours). Let me know if you've resolved it on your own before then, otherwise, I'll prod the expert for suggestions.

Thanks!

Cleopatra

[former_member193294]

Well, I am not an expert (administrator) either but I am working on Linux for some years. However I am not very familiar with the specific pushd command which I only know that saves and then changes the current directory. With no arguments, pushd exchanges the top two directories.

I am aware of the different user issue. I did the installation with root and I try to run the mdm command with the "mdm" user.

However I think this has to do with something else. When I first installed the servers I did not know how to launch them (sorry but the SAP MDM documentation for Linux/Oracle is very poor). So I consulted a SAP MDM training instructor in Paris and he told me to launch the servers by running:

~mdm/mdm/mds/mds-r &

~mdm/mdm/mdis/mdis-r &

~mdm/mdm/mdss/mdss-r &

which apparently it is not the proper way. By viewing the content of ~mdm/mdm/mds/mds it says somewhere at the end see the whole content in my last post):

mds_bin="mds-r"

which makes me think that the service is launched only by using this "mds-r".

I would say it is ok to wait few hours. the application could be down for the whole weekend since it is a testing phase of the product.

Unless if there is someone also in the forum who did installed MDM , without Netweaver, on Linux with Oracle RDBMS , which I think there are not too many installation.

Thanks once again,

Loukas

[Former Member]

Hi Loukas,

The pushd command is taking an argument -- "pushd ~mdm/mds" means push the current directory, and change directory to ~mdm/mds. From your last post, it looks like your directory structure is further embedded: ~mdm/mdm/mds/mds -- which is why the attempt to execute the script mds is failing (it exists in ~mdm/mdm/mds, but it's looking for it in ~mdm/mds, which doesn't exist). Is that correct?

Running the commands to execute the server as you had indicated an SAP consultant told you to do, with mds-r &, is not correct as the intent of the script is to launch the server for you with the proper environment set up. So, you are correct in saying that their instructions were misleading (in fact, incorrect). Sometimes you have to hear it straight from the horse's mouth, which is why I'm here (I'm the horse's mouth :-).

I'm not sure how much comfort this is to you, but we know of at least a dozen Linux w/Oracle installations out there (in production), so we know it can be done. Also, in SP6 the installer for non-Windows platforms will change, and will be much easier to use (I'm reviewing the installation guide for SP6 as we speak).

Can you see if the problem might be that your installation is too deeply nested?

Thanks!

Cleopatra

[former_member193294]

Hi Cleopatra,

having a closer look at the structure I think we are talking about the same thing. The commands provided by your colleague :

5) Run using this procedure:

[mdm@server ~]$ pushd ~/mdm/mds ; mds ; popd

[mdm@server ~]$ pushd ~/mdm/mdis ; mdis ; popd

[mdm@server ~]$ pushd ~/mdm/mdss ; mdss ; popd

are exactly the same I have run. ~/mdm/mds is the same directory as ~mdm/mdm/mds .

In order to make it more clear I will tell you that I have followed the default structure mentioned in the installation guide of MDM 5.5:

"Quoted:

<i>We strongly recommend to set up an execution folder structure similar to the following example

to run each server process in its dedicated folder:

~mdm/mdm/mds

/mdis

/mdss

This ensures that the runtime files of the different servers are clearly separated.</i>

End of quoted"

So I have run the command(s) in both ways:

<b>mdm@mucsapt2:~/mdm/mds> pushd ~/mdm/mds ; mds ; popd

~/mdm/mds ~/mdm/mds

-bash: mds: command not found

~/mdm/mds

mdm@mucsapt2:~/mdm/mds> pushd ~mdm/mdm/mds ; mds ; popd

~/mdm/mds ~/mdm/mds

-bash: mds: command not found

~/mdm/mds</b>

and as you can see the result is the same: mds command not found.

if I do <b>la ~mdm/mdm/mds</b> I get:

mdm@mucsapt2:~/mdm/mds> la ~mdm/mdm/mds

total 2448

drwxr-xr-x 6 mdm users 328 2007-10-26 14:20 .

drwxrwxr-x 5 mdm users 152 2007-10-29 08:27 ..

drwxr-xr-x 2 mdm users 136 2007-10-16 14:24 Archives

drwxr-xr-x 4 mdm users 112 2007-10-26 13:24 Distributions

drwxr-xr-x 2 mdm users 384 2007-10-25 15:39 Logs

-rwxr-xr-x 1 mdm users 352 2007-10-24 12:35 mds

-rw-rr 1 mdm users 1522 2007-10-24 12:35 mds.ini

-rw-rr 1 mdm users 0 2007-10-24 12:35 mds_ini0.bak

-rw-rr 1 mdm users 72 2007-10-24 12:35 mds_list.ini

-rw------- 1 mdm users 0 2007-10-24 12:35 nohup.out

drwxr-xr-x 2 mdm users 1624 2007-10-24 16:22 Reports

-rw-rr 1 mdm users 2490095 2007-10-24 12:35 sqlnet.log

so the mds command is there. My question would be: Do not I need to copy the mds-r from the /opt/MDM/bin to ~mdm/mdm/mds ?

Best regards,

Loukas

[Former Member]

Hi Loukas,

Well, as it's becoming pretty obvious that I'm just stabbing in the dark here (is MDM_HOME set?) I'm going to ask my local expert to review the thread and I'll post a response with his suggestions later today, hopefully.

Cheers,

Cleopatra

[former_member193294]

Hi Cleopatra,

I fully understand you concern and I am feeling more or less the same.

I hope -in the end- to have a proper working environment. This platform will be used for a 2-3 months Proof of Concept and if it goes well then we will go for the big bang production project of using MDM on NetWeaver and consolidate our CRM (Siebel) data with our SAP one.

So, my home is set correctly:

mdm@mucsapt2:~/mdm/mds> whoami

mdm

mdm@mucsapt2:~/mdm/mds> echo $MDM_HOME

/opt/MDM

Check with your expert and see whether the "mds-r" is necessary for the server to be launched.

Ciao,

Loukas

[Former Member]

Hi Loukas,

After consulting with one of my local Linux experts, we have determined that the problem is most likely that the directory in which the "mds" script file and the mds-r executable file are located are not part of the user's path. This is fine, but then you would have to explicitly use the full path when trying to execute the script.

The ~/mdm/mds directory should contain neither the "mds" script file nor the mds-r executable -- this directory should always contain only the files and directories created at runtime (e.g. Archives, Logs, mds.ini file, etc.) and should never contain the executable itself or the script used to launch the executable.

The installation directory, /opt/MDM/, should contain bin and the other directories you mentioned, with sub-directories and what-not. Whereever the "mds" script file and the mds-r executable are located within this directory structure (I don't know for sure, but it's either bin or bin/mds), that directory should either be part of the mdm user's path, or the entire path should be specified when trying to execute the "mds" script file.

E.g.: pushd ~/mdm/mds ; /opt/MDM/bin/mds ; popd

or

pushd ~/mdm/mds ; /opt/MDM/bin/mds/mds ; popd

(depending on the directory structure of /opt/MDM and where the files are located - I can't try these commands myself, so hopefully you can fix them as needed)

I hope this helps to explain what the current problem is, and maybe helps to get you further along. Keep me posted!

Thanks,

Cleopatra

[former_member193294]

Hi Cleopatra,

it is obvious that we had overlooked the fact that the directory where the mds/mds-r are located, was not part of the $PATH variable.

I have executed the commands as you suggested and the output was on all 3 servers:

Here the example of mds server:

mdm@mucsapt2:~> pushd ~/mdm/mds ; /opt/MDM/bin/mds ; popd

~/mdm/mdss ~

Sending info to nohup.out ...

~

So , it is apparent that the command is searching and using the mds script under /opt/MDM/bin.

I do not understand though how come the mds,mdis,mdss scripts have been copied under ~/mdm/md,, and I guess they are not used at all.

Again I have the feeling that the documentation of MDM instguide should be a bit more detailed in regard to the UNIX,LINUX installations.

In addition, I have installed the new GUIs and everything has been working fine for me. The functional team from our DEV site is also currently testing the repositories and the import/data manager with the new version. If there will be any issue I will post it immediately.

By the way, could you give me some strings, error messages etc which I should search for in the log files in order to evaluate a case of core dump (smt like this:(SEGV: core dump?)

Kind regards,

Loukas

[Former Member]

Hi Loukas,

Glad to hear the installation issues have been resolved.

As for the search terms for the error log, there aren't really any specific strings to look for. If you have a core dump, please file an OSS message and attach the log files for the server as well as any other pertinent files/info (sometimes the repository archive is needed, for example). But let's just hope that doesn't happen, right?

Cheers,

Cleopatra

[Former Member]

Hi Loukas,

You could try using the latest MDM version - for the server, this is Patch2 Hotfix5 (5.5.42.75), for the GUI clients, it's Hotfix6 (5.5.42.65 or .75). I don't know whether that works, but it might be worth a try.

If you try the new versions, please keep us informed on whether it helped you!

Best regards,

Dennis

[former_member193294]

Hi Dennis,

I will give it a try. However, do you see any issue with my installation? Is it properly installed according to my note above?

Thanks,

Loukas

[Former Member]

Hi Loukas,

The only potential issue I currently see is that the new version probably has problems with the old repositories in the database.

Is it possible (and feasible) for you to delete all MDM-related DB tables and re-create the repositories with the new MDM version?

Best regards,

Dennis

[Former Member]

Loukas,

Please disregard Dennis' suggestion. This should absolutely not be a first step in resolving the installation issues. There should be no problem at all upgrading repositories from previous versions to SP5 Patch 2. I will try to get some help for you today, at least some ideas of things to try that do not involve deleting all of your data!

Best regards,

Cleopatra

[Former Member]

Hi Cleopatra,

You're right, there should be a better way to get to the root of the problem. Unfortunately, the available information on debugging is pretty scarce so far (I know that it will improve with SP06).

An option would be to look into the server logs. Maybe there, something unusual can be witnessed.

If there are other options available (that do not involve SAP support - not that I don't appreciate support, but I'm feeling a little helpless when I have to rely on it too often), please let me know! I'm very willing to learn something new.

Btw.:

My "feasible" part implicitly assumes that no important data is stored within the repositories. In addition, archiving the repository before the upgrade should be common, so no data will be lost. Loukas most likely did it prior to the upgrade to Patch2.

Your "There should be no problem at all" is no contrast to my "potential" - I also don't think that this is the problem. But it takes only very few time to be sure!

Best regards,

Dennis