SAP Core Files is too Large in UNIX & Linux

A core file is written when a work process crashes (UNIX / Linux only). This file can become very large and cause a file system overflow in extreme cases. The dump is written to /usr/sap/SID/<instance>/work. How can you prevent this happening?

Method 1

Prevent a core file being written
• Go to SAP system work directory, remove the core directory. This method will stop system to write the logs into core file and analysis is no longer possible.

# cd /usr/sap/<SID>/<Instance>/work
# rm core
# touch core
# chmod 000 core

Method 2

Create a soft link to another file system
• Go to SAP system work directory, remove the core directory. Create a new core directory and point to other drive (suggested to have a bigger size). This method will write the logs to other drive.

# cd /usr/sap/<SID>/<Instance>/work
# rm core
# ln -s /<new-bigger-size-drive>/core core

Method 3

Send the core to “nowhere”
• Send the core file to /dev/null

# cd /usr/sap/<SID>/<Instance>/work
# rm core
# ln -s /dev/null core