Analyzing Problems With External Commands and Prog (SAP Library - Computing Center Management System (BC-CCM))

Analyzing Problems With External Commands and Programs

Purpose

The following R/3 system components play a part in the processing of external programs in a job:

This figure illustrates how the control program is started from a background work process via RFC and how the control program calls the external program itself. It also shows how the control program sends a message back to the application server via RFC.

The following problems can arise when processing external programs in a job:

The external program cannot be started properly

The external program is not able to send its results back to the background processing runtime system

Process Flow

These problems can be analyzed as follows

Check the system requirements:

Check that the target system is set up correctly for running external commands and programs. See Prerequisites for Running External Commands and External Programs.

Check the job log for error messages

Switch on the trace

If the problem has not yet been solved, then you should switch on the trace for the external program. When you are scheduling an external program in the dialog (Transaction SM36 / SM37), you can turn on the SAPXPG trace with for a particular job step with trace option in the job step Control flags. You can also turn on the SAPXPG trace in these additional ways, without modifying the job step definition:

For a particular external command (all job steps that use the command), with the trace option in Transaction SM69

For all external command processing at a particular host system, by setting the environment variable sapxpg_trace in the host system in which an external job is to be started. Format and values:

sapxpg_trace=<trace level> where trace level is 1 , 2 , or 3 . 3 is the most detailed tracing. 0 turns tracing off again.

The trace records are written in the trace files listed above.

All of these options turn on SAPXPG’s tracing, but have no effect on any tracing facility at the operating-system level or in the external program.

If you use the function module JOB_SUBMIT to schedule a job step, then you must make the following parameter setting: EXTPGM_SET_TRACE_ON = ‘X’

This has the effect of creating the following trace files in the home directory of the gateway ID on the host on which the external program is to be executed:

dev_cp Log of the R/3 control program sapxpg

dev_xpg Log of all output from the external program

Check both of these trace files for error messages. You may also find error messages in the gateway trace file dev_rd and in the system log on the host on which the job was started.