While installing Solution Manager with MAXDB, installation was completed successfully but SAP failed to startup. In the MMC, the strdb.cmd never terminated and remained yellow. Further investigation showed that the MAXDB data area was full and DB was in some kind of suspended state.
SDN and a few other resources pointed to using dbmcli and db_addvolume as the solution. However when db_addvolume was used we consistently had the error "-104: DBM command impossible at this time"! So MAXDB was not starting up fully but db_addvolume was also failing. Also db_addvolume should be done when db is online. Surprisingly in SAP Notes or in other places that google searched, there were no hints on this problem and how to solve it (hence the motivation for this blog)
Here are the steps that we followed to overcome the deadlock on MAXDB v7.6.x, hope its useful for some NW consultant out there 🙂
c:\sapdb\programs\pgm> dbmcli -u user,pwd -d dbname
dbmcli on ISL> db_offline
dbmcli on ISL> param_getvolsall
OK
LOG_MIRRORED NO
MAXLOGVOLUMES 2
MAXDATAVOLUMES 11
LOG_VOLUME_NAME_001 819200 F C:\sapdb\ISL\saplog\DISKL001
DATA_VOLUME_NAME_0001 665600 F C:\sapdb\ISL\sapdata\DISKD0001
DATA_VOLUME_NAME_0002 665600 F C:\sapdb\ISL\sapdata\DISKD0002
DATA_VOLUME_NAME_0003 665600 F C:\sapdb\ISL\sapdata\DISKD0003
DATA_VOLUME_NAME_0004 665600 F C:\sapdb\ISL\sapdata\DISKD0004
DATA_VOLUME_NAME_0005 665600 F C:\sapdb\ISL\sapdata\DISKD0005
DATA_VOLUME_NAME_0006 665600 F C:\sapdb\ISL\sapdata\DISKD0006
DATA_VOLUME_NAME_0007 665600 F C:\sapdb\ISL\sapdata\DISKD0007
dbmcli on ISL>param_addvolume 8 DATA C:\sapdb\ISL\sapdata\DISKD0008 F 665600
Note: What this command does is only to add an entry to the configuration, volume is not created yet
dbmcli on ISL>db_admin
dbmcli on ISL>util_execute ADD DATA VOLUME 'C:\sapdb\ISL\sapdata\DISKD0008' PAGES 665600 DEVICE 8
Note: This adds the physical volume to the data area
Now you should be able to start the database.
We faced one further difficulty, the util_execute command failed with error "Cannot find the volume ... to add". The workaround that worked for us (iam not sure if it will work for all but worth trying):
c:\sapdb\programs\pgm> dbmcli -u user,pwd -d dbname
dbmcli on ISL> db_online
Now wait for the MAXDB entry status to turn to Started in the Windows -> Administrative Tools -> Services.
The dbmcli window would still be "hanging" with db_online not completing. Press Ctrl + C to abort and relogin to dbmcli and execute the following command.
dbmcli on ISL>db_offline
OK
Now execute the steps described above, they worked and the new volume was added.
Note: db_addvolume is the preferred method to add data area. This method is to be used only if the command fails resulting in a deadlock, typically happens when data area is already full.
A way to avoid this is to turn auto_extend on 70 so that MAXDB auto extends the data volume when it is 70% full.
