Ewprod Hanging Free -

Configure the SAP Computing Center Management System (CCMS) to alert on:

Linux/Unix systems using malloc or SAP’s extended memory (EM) can suffer fragmentation. The OS reports “free” memory, but there is no contiguous block large enough to satisfy a work process request. SAP’s dispatching logic hangs as it repeatedly fails to allocate a memory segment.

Once diagnosed, execute these tactical fixes: ewprod hanging free

timeout 5 strace -ttt -p 12345

If no output, likely stuck in kernel waiting for I/O or lock.

| Cause | Description | Detection Method | |-------|-------------|------------------| | Deadlock (mutex/semaphore) | Waiting on lock held by itself or another stuck thread | gdb, pstack, /proc/12345/stack | | Zombie child / unreaped process | Parent waiting for child that is defunct | ps -ef \| grep defunct | | Stuck I/O (NFS/disk) | Process in D state – usually NFS server down or disk media error | cat /proc/12345/stack shows rpc_wait_bit_killable | | IPC starvation | Waiting on full pipe, message queue, or shared memory | ipcs -a, lsof -p 12345 | | Database connection hang | select() on socket never returns (DB dead) | netstat -tnp \| grep 12345, ss -tp | | Signal masking | Process ignoring SIGTERM, stuck in signal handler | kill -ABRT 12345 (for core dump) | | Trap in kernel (rare) | Process in T state due to ptrace or debugger | dmesg \| tail, cat /proc/12345/wchan | Configure the SAP Computing Center Management System (CCMS)

Background: A mid-size post-production house ran EWProd for nightly transcoding of 500+ video assets. Every few days, the system would hang on a corrupt MXF file, causing the morning team to find 80% of jobs incomplete.

Solution:

Result: Zero hanging incidents in six months. The keyword "ewprod hanging free" became their internal motto.

On virtualized or overloaded hosts, the OS timer (e.g., jiffies in Linux or clock tick in Windows) can drift. SAP’s watchdogs expect responses within specific time slices. If the timer drifts, SAP assumes processes have timed out and leaves them in a WP_HANG state, even though the OS is “free.” Linux/Unix systems using malloc or SAP’s extended memory