SAP Note 16513 - File system is full - what do I do?

Symptom:

The file system with the R/3 file tree is full. Which files can be deleted?

Cause and prerequisites

• Unnecessary files in the file system

• File system as defined is too small
  

Solution

We assume in the following that the system ID is "P22". Then

• the work directory is /usr/sap/P22/DVEBMGSnn/work (Unix, WindowsNT)

• the data directory is /usr/sap/P22/DVEBMGSnn/data (Unix, WindowsNT)

• the global directory is (for all instances) /sapmnt/P22/global (UNIX)
  \\\sapmnt\P22\sys\global (WindowsNT)

1. Files that are definitely no longer required.

• UNIX only:
  The work directory often contains an old core file from previous program terminations. This file may be deleted at any time.
  

2. Old spool and log files.
These are not necessary for R/3 to function and should be deleted regularly (see Note 16083). After they are deleted, their information is, of course, lost.
The files in question are:

• Spool requests nnnSPOOL (nnn = client)

• Job logs nnnJOBLG

• Batch input logs BI
  

The files are in the global directory.
The following reports are available for selective deletion of the files (also see Note 16083):

• RSPO0041

• RSBTCDEL

• RSBDCREO (see Note 18307)
  

Spool requests can be stored in the database, instead. For details see Notes 11070 and 20176.
For problems due to very large lists see Note 7140.

3. Old archiving files:
When old data is archived, files are written to the global directory. The naming convention usually is Rxxmmddn (xx = application, mm = month, dd = day, n = number), for example, RMM12280.
If these data are no longer required for productive operation and (!) if the files are saved on tape, you can delete them from the disk.

4. Old ABAP/4 trace files:

• The trace files ATnnnn are in the data directory. The maximum space available for all files is defined by the parameter abap/atrasizequota (in kbytes, default = 10000 kbyte). You can use Transaction SE30 to delete the files.
  

5. Pagefile and rollfile:
The files PAGFILnn and ROLLFLnn are normally located in the data directory. Do not delete them while the system is online. If the R/3 System is offline (but only then!!!), you can delete the roll and page files. They are automatically created again during the R/3 System startup, and grow as necessary up to the allowed maximum. Therefore, deleting them makes hardly any sense.
Exception: If the file has been enlarged beyond the normal size for some special action (for example, client copy) the required disk space can be retrieved by deleting the file. As mentioned above, this may only be done when the instance is offline.
The maximum size of the roll file is given by: (rdisp/ROLL_MAXFS - rdisp/ROLL_SHM) * 8 kBytesA similar formula appplies to the paging file.
You can move the files to a different file system by defining other values for R/3 parameters DIR_ROLL and DIR_PAGING.

6. Old output requests:
Output requests are stored on the data directory as files SP*. Under normal circumstances they are deleted automatically when the output is completed. See Note 11070 for details.

7. Old Sort and Extract files
Temporary files are created by the Abap commands Sort and Extract. The temporary files for Sort are named S++++++ (on NT .dat is used as extension, on Unix there is normally no extension) for the Extract, E++++++. These files are automatically deleted after these commands have been successfully executed. However, if a termination occurs, it can happen that these files remain. Old files can be deleted. The locations of these files can be set using profile parameter DIR_SORT or DIR_EXTRACT. The exact file names are stored in

the profile parameters FN_SORT or FN_EXTRACT.

8. Emergency measures:

• If you cannot start up the R/3 System at all, an emergency (!) measure is to use operating system means to delete the job logs, and then run RSBTCDEL in "Forced mode" (see Note 6604).

• The trace files are created during a new system startup, and can also be deleted. They are contained in the work directory.

9. Other information

• You should check whether the file 'stat' with the workload statistics (in the data directory) has not been reorganized for some time and has therefore become too large. For more information refer to Note 6833. In urgent cases, this file may be moved elsewhere, too (the system parameter is 'stat/file').

If the trace files (dev_*) in the work directory are very large (normal size: 0.1 to 20 kByte), it is likely that the rdisp/TRACE parameter was changed. The normal value is 1. If the value is set to 2, you should reset it. See also Note 16665.

Additional key words

Files, disk space